Final Space Review: The Leaving

  

"I've left a lot of places called home. Trust me, you get over it."

--

One of the hardest things to pen about a review, for me, is the opening. I have to condense all of my general thoughts about the episode I just watched with tact, nuance, and a certain level of reflection of what preceded it. I have to look smart enough to make the reader think that they'll be in good hands across the paragraphs that follow. But that doesn't mean that I'm any less susceptible to the anxiety of your average Final Space fan when something happens that just rips your heart out and leaves you at a loss for words. When "The Leaving" ended, all I was simply left wondering, nervously, was how the hell will Final Space finish off this season in anywhere close to a comfortable spot?

That underestimation of the amount of risk Final Space allows itself to take with its story-telling is something that enables its more emotionally-scathing moments to cut so deeply. From where the episode ended (which I'll work up to in a moment), there's no time for healing; almost the entire crew sits on the precipice of death while simultaneously having to deal with one of the greatest dangers they will ever face. And to think that we got there with an episode that started out, most cruelly, like everything was going to be alright. (You're a tricky, mean little episode title, aren'tcha?)

Final Space Review: The Dead Speak

 

"Did anyone tape that? Because I could play that over and over and over and over and over."

--

As we enter the final three episodes of the season, there's a daunting revelation about the current state of Final Space as a show. It's not just that the show's future remains uncertain, like many of its animated contemporaries; as Olan made clear, these last three episodes were the victim of budget limitations and intense rewrites culminating in a final stretch that slowly works its way towards an entirely different finale. It's a level of transparency that puts me in an interesting position as a reviewer: do I assess the show differently knowing the sort of circumstances that have heavily factored into what it became, or do I treat the show as if we don't have a pulse on the inner turmoil? Fortunately, that's a question to ponder more intently as we near the finale, and doubly fortunately, "The Dead Speak" delivers in the face of that adversity.

I had a lot of issues with last week's episode. For as much as it surged the show forward, it felt like an overall muddled effort, too tense to allow itself to breathe or most of its moments to land. "The Dead Speak" feels like a nice step back from that mania, swapping out the breakneck pacing of its predecessor for a more foreboding atmosphere. It starts from as startling of a place as Final Space can—the Lord Commander murders and decapitates Bolo in cold blood within the first minute and a half—but the show's quick to assess everything that's happening and to reel it back enough that the dread can simmer. This isn't an episode that'll keep going in and out of conflict by the skin of its teeth again.

Final Space Review: Until the Sky Falls

"Salvation comes in the blink of an eye."

--

As I've spent the last week sitting back and contemplating how to approach this episode, I've found myself increasingly unsure what my stance on it is. "Until the Sky Falls" is the long-delayed punch knocking our cast of characters back as hard as it can, and it ends with the party in the worst position they have ever been in this season... but even in doing so, it doesn't feel like an awe-inspiring distillation of the power of Final Space's story-telling dramatics. Instead, if it's not an actively frustrating episode, it's one that feels strangely out-of-step, not with the season's ambitions so much as the pace that it's been maintaining and thriving off of over this past stretch of episodes.

Perhaps it's important for me to single out what I think the greatest successes of Season 3 has been. Whereas Season 1 was intensely serialized, gelling together outside of its most pivotal moments and feeling perhaps too straight-shooting, Season 2 was more episodic, telling contained stories with a greater narrative diversity, to varying degrees of success and failure. Both seasons were remarkable, but flawed, and yet the greatest strength of Final Space persisted as its ability to burrow so deep into your soul with its dramatics: the betrayal, the sacrifice, the loss, the reconciliation. Season 3 continues to hold true to those most powerful of traits, all while weaving together the first two season's greatest qualities, predominantly through thoughtful, probing character work. Its episodes have all fed into the season's dark atmosphere, but they've also fearlessly dug into its cast, unafraid to make shocking revelations and bear witness to the gritty aftermath. 

Final Space Review: Hyper-Transdimensional Bridge Rising

"And now, I'm going home."

--

With the heavy and involved one-two punch of "Chamber of Doubt" and "Forgiveness," it's nice for Final Space to grant us something more on the fun side. I feel like a lot of Final Space fans can be wary of the series' lighter fare, but I think it's important to recognize the intentionality, balancing the show's moments of intensity with more light-hearted material, and even then, the definition of "light-hearted" for Final Space is one etched in thoughtful character development and personal sacrifice. Silly, silly show!

Interestingly, "Hyper-Transdimensional Bridge Rising" decides to spend most of its runtime pushing attention away from the main cast—who are probably at their tightest that they can be emotionally—and more towards an unexpected place. With Gary and co. meeting up with Kevin van Newton in London in hopes of leaving Final Space, they discover that his revamped bridge needs to be connected from the other side to work properly, and desperate times call for desperate members: Clarence.

Final Space Review: Forgiveness

 

"We can't change the past,
but we can write a new future."

--

Off the heels of one of the most intense episodes of Final Space ever, I had a lot of curiosity for where the show could possibly go from here. Would it delve into an even deeper chamber of darkness, or would it turn its attention towards mending conflict in light of the new status quo? As it turns out, "Forgiveness" delicately does both, digging through darkness to find the good underneath, into the souls of the show's most pained crew members and tying them together closer than ever before.

It's important that, after a moment of emotional destruction, Final Space is able to document, in equal parts, the act of emotional healing. It's a rare sentiment to see the show really dig its heels into, but that makes it all the more impactful for this episode to reel in its circumstances and focus on its characters and their innermost struggles. (The only tasty plot detail really pushing "Forgiveness" forward is a call from Kevin van Newton telling everyone to head to Earth as soon as they can, in hopes of escaping Final Space.) Similarly, it's an episode scant on the show's usual, occasonally-distracting comedic material, a decision that plays greatly to the episode's benefit; we get a nice smattering of well-deserved K.V.N. slams, but there's nothing to pull you out of the moment all of the characters involved are going through. Emotions are raw.

Final Space Review: The Chamber of Doubt

"Us against the world, just like old times."

--

(NOTE: Major spoiler alert for this review! Do not read this unless you've seen the episode or are okay with it being ruined for you!)

If there's one thing I've learned from the past two and a half seasons of watching this show, it's this: never let Final Space lull you into a false sense of security, ever. Only a week after finding its cast sweetly rejoined, "The Chamber of Doubt" shakes Final Space up with the greatest fracture our crew has ever felt, and while I have repeatedly announced that Season 3 has arrived, I waive off all of this false alarms because this... this is that time. We've hit our first true low, and we're yet to see how much the crew will scramble to climb out, or alternatively, how much further they'll fall.

Picking up immediately from last week's episode, "The Chamber of Doubt" opens with Quinn in the midst of a personal crisis; as she ponders her implant, she wonders if she's become Nightfall and if that means she no longer exists, an interesting breakthrough that coincides nicely with Ash's sudden, Invictus-fueled transformation. Indeed, skepticism is abound on the ship in general. Ash, in light of the news that he'll kill her brother, is wary of Gary, and Gary himself is wary of Ash's new powers.

Final Space Review: Change is Gonna Come

  

"Gary, time is not mine to give. Time belongs to none of us."

--

I think it's sort of funny what constitutes in Final Space as a "breather episode"; for however much "Change is Gonna Come" might be a step back from the previous two hard-hitters, it's far from a walk in the park. Nevertheless, it's been labeled that by Olan, and I feel like that also speaks interestingly to his methodology with Final Space in general—always move forward, but take the time, occasionally, to reel things back in and heal up. There's certainly a lot of action that occurs within this latest half-hour, and crucial action at that, but for all of its intensity, "Change is Gonna Come" is also an episode that finds everyone, after the proceedings, in a good and comfortable place, though not without a catch.

The focus of the episode, unsurprisingly, is Quinn, the show's most immediate priority. After she goes comatose from her extensive Final Space poisoning, the crew seeks out rare selenium to absorb it and stabilize her condition. (Fascinatingly, the transplant is also reminiscent of Nightfall's, a brilliant full circle moment.) That journey, as the crew takes a swift detour to a comet possessing the only ounce of selenium in all of Final Space, becomes the episode's main framing mechanism, and while there is a lot at stake—this is literally a life or death situation—the fact that the plot's as self-contained as it is provides that assurance that business will be mercifully finished.