Summary: James and Alyssa decide to take Leslie's boat and run away. They talk to Leslie who attempts to record a confession from Alyssa of the murder but James discovers his ploy and stabs him. Eunice arrives and tries to convince both to plead guilty for manslaughter but Leslie doesn't help. Eunice tells them that they won't be together if they do it, prompting James and Alyssa to escape. The police squad arrives and James knocks out Alyssa so she will be spared and he is shot.
The Good: It was nice to see discussion on the tough things that James and Alyssa have gone through. I was glad that Alyssa was feeling the effects of her father being a disappointment because it made the drama from last episode feel a little more real and powerful. Additionally, I was glad that James' mom got more of a mention to highlight just how much her suicide affected who he was as a character. The sequence inside Leslie's home was superb and really tense. It was gripping because we were hoping that Leslie wouldn't succeed in calling the cops and we didn't want Alyssa to fall for his trap again. Things escalated quite quickly too with Eunice arriving at the scene and adding on to the tension as we wonder if James and Alyssa will actually choose to go for peaceful jail time. Naturally the deciding factor was them not being able to see each other if they did, and I was willing to buy that as the reason they chose the riskier reason to attempt escape. I liked the ending too. It felt rather poetic to end the series with a James monologue, with him acknowledging everything he discovered on his trip with Alyssa before ultimately dying. Or at least I'm assuming he died. I think the slightly ambiguous ending was for sure the best choice here since actually seeing James die would be a pretty depressing way to end the show. Instead ending with James' monologue was a much smarter move. The Bad: There were too many unresolved threads though. Eunice and Terri were utterly pointless in the end and added nothing to the story. I question hat the point of their conflict even was, and what their point in the story even was. James and Alyssa didn't listen to Eunice anyways so she may as well have just been some character we have never seen before and it would have had the same effect. It was also really unfulfilling to get no resolution with either of the kids' parents who never appeared again though they were presented as important early on. The Unknown: Is James dead? I would assume so. All other questions really don't matter since the show is over. Best Moment: The tense mobile home scene was a lot of fun to watch. Character of the Episode: James. Conclusion: This was a solid finale to the show, but it was hurt by a lack of satisfying resolution to a lot of the secondary storylines. Regarding the show as a whole, I thought it was really good for an 8 episode show. However, it clocks in at under 3 hours in length and it did have some fillerish moments, which makes me just question why it wasn't a movie. Even the cliffhangers at the end of each episode felt mostly tacked on and I honestly feel the show would be much better watched as just a single story. I watched each episode one at a time, and I'm pretty sure it hurt my overall enjoyment of the show. The quality was fine though and it's a nice watch for such a short amount of time. Score: 63
2 Comments
Great website! I like the layout. You are very thorough covering episodes as well. Love it!
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Aaron
3/20/2018 05:26:58 am
Thanks for the feedback!
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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