“There are no happy endings.
Endings are the saddest part,
So just give me a happy middle
And a very happy start.”
-Shel Silverstein
Endings are the saddest part,
So just give me a happy middle
And a very happy start.”
-Shel Silverstein
Please note: as a season finale, this article contains MASSIVE SPOILERS. You have been warned.
“Omega Station” was hardly a happy ending, but season two also lacked a happy start and middle. This finale left me very conflicted, because there were both great moments and terrible moments.
My main hope going into the finale is that everything would finally be cleared up, and the conspiracy that was the focus of the whole season would be fully revealed. However, I was rather disappointed. It turns out Caspere was killed over the 1992 diamond robbery, which he helped perpetrate. This robbery (conducted by corrupt police officials) was a very interesting part of the story, but was also not really connected to the conspiracy of the high speed rail system. Sure, there was some tangential connection between the corrupt cops who perpetrated the robbery and their investments in the rail system, but the story really failed to come cleanly together, which was really frustrating.
On the other hand, I found the treatment of the deaths in this finale very satisfying. I had a nagging feeling from the beginning that Velcoro would not make it out of the series alive, and my suspicions were confirmed by the finale. It was very poetic that Velcoro’s love for his son led to his demise. As the camera panned out on his still body at the base of a redwood tree, I felt genuinely moved. Velcoro was hardly a good person, but he died honorably, for the people he loved. Semyon’s hallucinogenic walk through the desert, slowly bleeding out from a chest move was also moving as Frank- even in the end- tries to escape an inevitable fate.
In many ways, the finale was a rough hand. The messy conspiracy had been building for many episodes, so it would’ve been nearly impossible to cleanly and neatly explain everything in one episode. In that sense, I felt like the finale did the best that it could have with the cards that had been dealt. After finishing, I felt rather sad, since in many ways little was accomplished. The most powerful corrupt officials, such as AG Geldof and Tony Chessani escaped justice. The only hope for true justice lies with Bezzerides and Jordan Semyon in Venezuela. The season tries to end on a hopeful note, with both women surviving the bloodbath, but there is a deep sense of melancholy permeating the last few scenes. Despite a messy season, the finale managed to be very moving and emotional, and managed to at least give this rocky season a respectable end.
Grade: B+
My main hope going into the finale is that everything would finally be cleared up, and the conspiracy that was the focus of the whole season would be fully revealed. However, I was rather disappointed. It turns out Caspere was killed over the 1992 diamond robbery, which he helped perpetrate. This robbery (conducted by corrupt police officials) was a very interesting part of the story, but was also not really connected to the conspiracy of the high speed rail system. Sure, there was some tangential connection between the corrupt cops who perpetrated the robbery and their investments in the rail system, but the story really failed to come cleanly together, which was really frustrating.
On the other hand, I found the treatment of the deaths in this finale very satisfying. I had a nagging feeling from the beginning that Velcoro would not make it out of the series alive, and my suspicions were confirmed by the finale. It was very poetic that Velcoro’s love for his son led to his demise. As the camera panned out on his still body at the base of a redwood tree, I felt genuinely moved. Velcoro was hardly a good person, but he died honorably, for the people he loved. Semyon’s hallucinogenic walk through the desert, slowly bleeding out from a chest move was also moving as Frank- even in the end- tries to escape an inevitable fate.
In many ways, the finale was a rough hand. The messy conspiracy had been building for many episodes, so it would’ve been nearly impossible to cleanly and neatly explain everything in one episode. In that sense, I felt like the finale did the best that it could have with the cards that had been dealt. After finishing, I felt rather sad, since in many ways little was accomplished. The most powerful corrupt officials, such as AG Geldof and Tony Chessani escaped justice. The only hope for true justice lies with Bezzerides and Jordan Semyon in Venezuela. The season tries to end on a hopeful note, with both women surviving the bloodbath, but there is a deep sense of melancholy permeating the last few scenes. Despite a messy season, the finale managed to be very moving and emotional, and managed to at least give this rocky season a respectable end.
Grade: B+
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