Final Space Review: ...And Into the Fire

"My danger glands are rock-hard, baby."

--

Final Space has returned! After its long, between-season hiatus, and persevering through a world very different from where we were in 2019, it's back, and its reception has been... rather mixed, to say the least. I get it. Expectations are high, Final Space is a show with very eager fans, and being given this long for anticipation to build encourages a certain unhealthiness. So before I really delve into the episode, I want to dissect that a little bit.

I don't want to spend a significant portion of this review discussing toxic fanbase mentalities, nor do I want to posit this as a sort of defense. I enjoyed "...And Into the Fire" independent of the polarizing response that it's gotten, even though I have some criticisms to make. But I do think there are some things that are important to address within that. There's a back and forth about the sort of entitled opinions a lot of people have been expressing about the show and while I, obviously, have no fears of being honest about the quality I perceive in a piece of content, there's been a seriously unpleasant vibe of lacking faith in what Final Space's game plan is. A lot of "critics" online have clung to Olan's word that the episode deliberately aims to not set anything too drastic up as some sort of admittance that he created an episode of intentionally weaker quality, and that Final Space decided to make bad episodes before getting to good ones.

That's not the case at all, of course. A strong show has ebbs and flows in energy, finds a rhythm between the quiet and the intense, and most of all, it necessitates the patience and enthusiasm of its audience to unravel its story. And this is the first episode, for goodness sake! If Final Space wants to start a bit slowly and immerse us in a more lightweight way, why shouldn't we let it? Truth be told, not only do I think that the idea that "...And Into the Fire" accomplishes little is an understatement, but I think that it accomplishes the most that any other season premiere from the span of the show has been able to accomplish. 

The main goal of "...And Into the Fire" is to bring the audience to terms with our new playing field, and the new sort of stakes that the season will have; it's about the introduction of a concept and a new atmosphere. Final Space has always been an ominous location within the mythos of the show, just out of reach, and it's fair game that the show would dedicate itself to showing us what it's like: dark, unnerving, and tainted by perpetual threat, whether that means Titans, Invictus' legion of undead Garys, or Invictus herself. Whereas "Chapter One" and "The Toro Regatta" had to more firmly establish the show's cast of characters, this episode is about what the characters that we're not acquainted with will have to face.

We pick up, immediately, where "The Sixth Key" left us: Gary and the crew of the Crimson Light have entered Final Space with the help of Bolo and reunited with Quinn. It's a double-edged victory that "...And Into the Fire" happily strikes down as quickly as it can with the reminder that their reunion also means that Invictus is a greater threat than ever before, and that even if the crew is all back together, they're trapped in a cruel universe that wants them dead, and they don't know how to escape. Before the show's opening theme even plays, we've already suffered a significant loss: the Crimson Light is destroyed, and A.V.A. perishes with it. It's not the most devastating, and it's a very strategic move on Final Space's part to lop off its least dynamic character of the bunch, but it sets an intimidating precedent: anything could happen. The only goal in sight, then, is to survive.

While a lot of people could easily argue that the episode is excessively light in spite of that, I honestly found it to be rich in exciting new developments, if framed around a looser, more action-driven plot. While you could easily reduce the narrative to "Gary and the team squad try to get their way out of a landslide," it's an episode far less about specific events and more about ideas. Most fascinatingly, and most certainly a concept that Season 3 will explore to terrifying effect, being in Final Space slowly poisons you until you go insane. While we see Quinn suffering the affliction early on, Final Space is smart to spell out what's actually happening through a chance encounter by the episode's B-team with a giant robot who dug himself into a hole to die alone, and without having to see those around him that he loved suffer an identical fate. 

"...And Into the Fire" is chock full of those smaller sorts of moments, and they create opportunities for deft story-telling and drama. While this is a show that gets a lot of mileage out of silly, operatic gestures (see: Gary and Avocato communicating with each other through the power of their clasp-bound, spiritual connection), it can pack just as much of a punch in being grim and bare. Perhaps most startlingly, when the robot asks to be put out of its misery, Ash is the one who obliges.

I would also be remiss not to mention the episode's most intriguing plot, and most likely the start of an important thread throughout the rest of the season: Mooncake and Bolo's alliance. Bolo has always been rather hard to decipher, and "...And Into the Fire" finally answers some of the questions floating around him... while creating a lot more. While Season 2 flirted towards the end with ideas that Bolo might have ulterior motives, his actions across this episode warrant greater questioning, finding him seemingly more intent to settle his score on the accursed Titans with Mooncake than to protect Gary and his crew. While he may have saved them from Invictus at the start of the episode, he also bluffs to Mooncake about Gary's death to enlist his support. 

For all that goodness, though, the episode does have issues. I think the most persistent issue across the episode is the same one that Season 2 struggled with: Final Space has a massive cast that it can't properly distribute across single episodes. It's not that there are characters that feel redundant within the overarching plot of the show, but they can become redundant based on what they're allotted within each 22-minute timeframe, effectively taking turns jumping to the front or receding to the back. For the most part, "...And Into the Fire" tries to give everyone at least some utility, but their potency waxes and wanes. Sheryl, for instance, starts off strong with her piloting expertise, light-folding the Crimson Light directly through the skull of a Titan, but once the team squad gets split up, she silently follows the Cato team around with nary a line of dialogue. 

I don't necessarily think it's a strict case of the episode's priorities being incorrect. Final Space is an intricate puzzle, carefully-choreographed across every single episode and fully aware of how every significant piece of its narrative will come together. Unfortunately, that also means that in episodes where a character isn't pushed to the forefront, they get left, more than less, on stand-by, or if they're lucky, they'll get to hold down a fluffy sub-plot.

In the case of this episode, too, that also leaves the resolution feeling a bit incomplete. While Gary and Quinn's side of the story creates intrigue in everything it opens up, ending with them standing before Earth alongside H.U.E. and K.V.N., every other member of the episode's cast is left trapped and without closure. I'm sure next episode will explain that decision away, but it leaves the episode feeling a touch too loose without adding thoughtful, dramatic value. Perhaps if the episode funneled less time into its most expendable aspect—Tribore's harrowing, unpleasant birthing sequence, and the spawn of a new character that risks pushing the show's cast even further off-balance—we could've found that final piece of the puzzle to make things soar.

But with all of that being said, "...And Into the Fire" really works for me. Its flaws don't make it feel rusty or fatigued; against all odds, it just feels like the show's revitalized. There's an incredibly palpable eagerness from Final Space to to step up its game, and while that excitement caused the plot to hiccup here and there, that spirit gets the episode over wonderfully. It'll be interesting to see how the season progresses as it becomes more clear what the show plans to do with itself, but for an episode that sets the palette, I don't think I could be much more excited about what's to come.

FINAL GRADE: A-.

For my last Final Space review of "The Sixth Key," CLICK HERE.

Additionally, you can access every Final Space review I have ever written HERE.

For updates every time I post a new review, follow me on Twitter @Matt_a_la_mode.