"We're going to have a lot of fun."So... what now? Well, it's hard to say. And I've spent the past five days milling over how to go about addressing Chapter Ten, and it's not any easier than it was before. There's a lot to discuss here, so let's take a quick moment to get those feels worked out. Take your time. Deep breaths. Ready? Good. Let's go.
First of all, and before we tackle the meat of anything else, Chapter Ten is a spectacle of animation. Final Space has consistently proven itself to lovingly understand the craft, but the cinematography on display here is unparalleled and a perfect demonstration of how strong of an effect it can have on the atmosphere of the show: there's tension, there's drama, there's anguish. Everything about Final Space goes hand-in-hand with no component more important than the other.
And just as the animation is a culmination of the show, so too is the narrative. Final Space understands, perhaps ironically, finality; it's something the show has taken advantage of time and time again, and Chapter 10 is the most ruthless episode yet. (At least until the ending, which we'll get to.) On paper, it's an episode that slowly goes through our heroes, but in practice, it's an intense study of character relations, of increasingly helplessness, and of loss, both glorified (Quinn) and unglorified (Little Cato, who Gary accidentally knocks into space after ramming him with the Galaxy 1 on-course for the Lord Commander's ship).What hurts the most is that there's a sense that Gary and his crew will succeed, and through that optimism, Final Space is able to deliver a crueler blow. Even when Gary has been faced with the impossible on previous occasions, he's somehow pulled through, even in the face of HUE's naysaying approximations, and further, every character goes all out against the Lord Commander and finds a distinct purpose in the proceedings: Little Cato endangers himself to ensure the delivery of the antimatter bomb, Quinn goes off on her own accord to seal the breach (oh, and she and Gary finally share a kiss), Tribore calls upon the resistance for extra back-up, and so on. Every scenario demonstrates the role that they've played in the show and serves as the culmination of everything they've done.
But sometimes a situation simply isn't saveable, and as that fact becomes more and more clear, Chapter Ten becomes all the more tragic for everyone involved, all while Gary sits near-defenseless, watching the world around him get destroyed. The structuring, too, because I like being a buzzkill who calculates feels based on the mechanisms through which they're executed, is brilliant. First, Tribore is sacrificed in a particularly badass fashion, and his loss is significant albeit one that is understandable, as it motivates the team even more; it gets your hopes up. KVN's death follows, and unsurprisingly, it's just played off for laughs as usual because, even in a serious moment, Gary never seeing KVN again is probably one of the better things to happen to him, but it also marks the shift. Perhaps ironically, KVN's proven himself to be a master of deus ex machina, but he's not coming back from this one, and neither is anyone else. (Until... yeah. We're getting there.) And thus Mooncake gets captured.Little Cato's death is the first one that legitimately burns. Just like in the case of his father, there's nothing ceremonious about it, and he doesn't even get a consolation one-liner; his death is unwarranted and largely unacknowledged save for by us as an audience, and it's an especially potent image, especially to be immediately followed by the image of Gary, faceplanted, giving a thumbs up after crashing the ship. Your dramatic irony is cold, Final Space.
Quinn's death, thus, is the final blow for Gary, admitting that there's no chance of surviving the mission and sacrificing her life to close the breach. And it's the strongest moment of the episode, if not the season (sorry, Avocato), and it's the ultimate breaking point through which Gary's optimism, his key feature, is defeated.Tucked between those two deaths is Gary's confrontation with the Lord Commander, and it's a crucial moment for the show—sometimes, the good guys don't win. In the Final Space metaverse, even happy stories are still stories that mean nothing in the face of the cruelty of reality, and Gary's cliched attempt to help put some sense back into the Lord Commander by calling him Jack (his real name) and generally being apologetic is just that: a cliche that doesn't work. (The same goes for arguing he wasn't chosen and that he inherited his position by mistake which... Gary, that would never work.)
Now let's talk about the ending. Gary ultimately dies in space out of an oxygen shortage, and in the afterlife, he's approached by his father, John Goodspeed, who presents him with one final ultimatum: either he stays where he is with his father and a wide assortment of imported beer, or a perilous journey full of death and heartbreak. The decision is obvious, but it's still an emotional moment; even when confronted with the chance to reunite with his father for the rest of eternity, he's no more family than Quinn, or Little Cato, or Mooncake, or everyone who isn't KVN; it's a fact that he acknowledges at the start of the episode, and it's the one that determines how it ends.But I think the most interesting aspect of the ending is that, as much as I want to call foul and protest to the idea of a universal reset... I don't really think it's a cop-out. While I may personally prefer that seasons of a show find ways to work as complete units without as much spillover, Final Space manages to make it work because Gary isn't any less off the hook. Nothing is legitimately spared, and there's no truly happy thoughts to cling to as we await Season 2 so much as the potential to fix past wrongs.
Does Gary have a chance to save everyone who gets mercilessly killed across the series? Certainly. But in spite of his knowledge of how events could play out, he's no less infallible as a character, and if Season 2 does what I assume it will, reconstructing the past series of events with an added intel, there's still no guarantee that everything will be peachy. What Final Space offered was a distinct story arc full of heartbreak, a distinct branch of a more complex system of chances and decisions; now Gary will have to diverge from that fate and see what new, daunting challenges await.For as cruel as the show has proven itself to be, this is the one chance for redemption. The only thing that could stop it is TBS... let's get on that, Conan.
Notes and Quotes:-"Shield integrity is at 79% and dropping." "That's like a... that's like a B-! We're still good!" "Now at 63%." "Oh, crap! That's, like, a D at best!"
-"Agreed. We must do everything possible to destroy that dickload."
-The image of Gary giving a thumbs-up is still the funniest thing in the entire show to me. I'm cynical.
-That string of compiled flashbacks to Gary floating through space was particularly affecting and a nice way to go full circle.
EPISODE REVIEW GUIDE:
Chapter One and Two (B-/B)
Chapter Three (A-)
Chapter Four (A-)
Chapter Five (B)
Chapter Six (A+)
Chapter Seven (A)
Chapter Eight (A+)
Chapter Nine (A)
Chapter Ten (A+)
Ranking (from best to worst): 10, 8, 6, 7, 9, 3, 4, 5, 2, 1.
SEASON GRADE: A- (85.75)*
*score calculated based on grade averages
It's been an honor covering the show, and thank you, Olan, for giving me the outstanding opportunity that you did; you're the most legitimately amazing and kind content creator out there, and you're a trailblazer for the next wave of television. Here's to another season of one of the freshest, most promising shows on television.
I'll see all of you on the other side. (And I'll try to hang around the Discord more often.)
we share same top three favorite episode
ReplyDeleteThey're great episodes!
Delete