Christmas is coming and we have to say good bye for a while to some of the shows we love. The good thing (or bad?) is most of the shows I watched leave with a pretty explosive cliffhanger this year. Some made me literally drop my jaw in the end, and some just simply broke my heart. Seriously, they’ve really given me a hard time to move on. So, I’m hoping by writing this down, it will help me coping with all the feelings they left me.
Both new series and returning
series have done a great job to wrap their story before this year end, in my
opinion. The tension was keep climbing towards the midseason finale (or season
finale for cable’s series) and then bombed the audience with things they had
never see coming. Well done.
Once Upon a Time, midseason 3 finale
Episode title:
Going Home
Air dates:
December 15
Elements of surprise:
Peter Pan: dead. Rumplestiltskin:
dead (or so we thought). Storybrooke vanished and the fairy tales’ gang forced
to go back to their fairy land. Meanwhile, Emma and Henry have to stay in the
human world. AND, had their memory about their Enchanted Forest family erased.
Why it works:
First half of Once Upon a Time has been kind of drag
to me. The writers put a way too long plots revolving around Neverland with a
pretty boring storyline. Even the major villain on the first half of this
season, Peter Pan had an unclear motive and it seems to be completely forgotten
on the end of midseason. It’s like the whole story in Neverland was totally
waste of time and had no relevance to the way the story wrapped up towards the end.
BUT, luckily Peter Pan’s role was
finally took place when he decided to make Storybrooke as the New Neverland and
cast a spell of which Regina aka Evil Queen had used to created Storybrooke in
the first place. The long boring hours I had to endure during the first 10
episodes, finally paid up on the last 15 minutes of the midseason finale. After
Rumplestiltskin made a not-so-surprising decision to end Pan’s life along with
his, Regina dropped the bomb to Storybrooke’s residents (and to the audience as
well) that they have to leave the town and return to the fairy land to undo Pan’s
cursed.
Long story short, the fairy tales’
gang and Emma-Henry had to say good bye for good. And that wasn’t even the
worst part, because right after the latter set foot outside Storybrooke, their
memory about the fictional town and its residents would get erased. So much for
happy ending, huh?
On midseason finale, so many
things turned into an unexpected direction in the series. And that was just the
perfect way to end something that we thought was a predictable, long storyline
in the beginning.
In the end of the episode we got
to see Hook knocked on Emma’s door a year later and tell her that her family is
in danger. The question is, how could he get back into the human world when the
connection between the two worlds was seemed to be broken? Kudos to Adam
Horowitz and Edward Kitsis for making such a cliffhanger to make the waiting
until the series return on March feels unbearable for the fans.
The Walking Dead, midseason 4
finale
Episode Title: Too Far Gone
Air Dates: December 1
Elements of surprise:
The Governor finally ambushed the
prison with his new army and a TANK. Governor: dead. Hershel: dead. Meghan:
dead. Judith: presumed dead. Basically, a lot of people dead from both sides
during the process, not to mention the wounded ones. The prison destroyed. The prison
team shattered and ran to different directions with no food and limited ammunition.
Why it works:
It’s about time we get to see the
impending battle between Governor and Rick’s gang. The damage was predictable, yet
the execution on the midseason finale was done amazingly with shocking elements
here and there to spice things up. We knew there must be a lot of casualties to
end the first half of this season, but still we didn’t know which characters we’d
have to say good bye to. And that was the thing I love the most from The Walking Dead. Nobody save.
When I learn that the writers
finally decide to seal Hershel’s fate on the show, I felt intrigue. On one
side, I didn’t want him to die, because he was the moral compass on the group
(but then, I remembered what happened to Dale on season 2, so I guess that wasn’t
the best argument to save Hershel’s life anyway). But at the same time, I felt
relieved that it wasn’t Glenn or Michonne or (God forbid) Daryl.
Anyway, it wasn’t the decision to
kill Hershel that surprised me. It was the way he died. After being kidnapped
by the Governor, Hershel and Michonne then became hostage. During the
negotiation, Governor flipped out, took Michonne’s katana, and slayed Hershel’s
head with one swing. But no, he didn’t die yet (what a tough son of a bitch). Half
decapitated, he still managed to drag his own body, but that was when the
Governor decided to finish what he has started. He then hit Hershel with katana’s
handle couples of time and finally cut his head off. Phew.
Then everything turned into a
total chaos. Everyone’s shooting (for Michonne’s case, slaying), screaming, and
running at the same time, zombies start to coming in, and it’s hard to keep up
who’s with who or who’s shooting who at the time. That was edge-of-your-seat
moment which left the viewer with more of questions than answers in the end. Hell
of the way to close the first half of a season with such an explosive episode.
Homeland, season 3 finale
Episode Title: The Star
Air dates: December 15
Elements of surprise:
BRODY IS DEAD. Yep. That’s it.
Why it works:
While I was rooting for Brody right
after he worked for the CIA, I can’t help but agree to the way the writers wrapped
this season. Yes, it was heart-breaking, but it was the only way the show could
end the season with the most realistic and classy exit.
It’s hard to think of a scenario
in which Brody would survive after he killed the most dangerous and most
powerful man in Iran. The stake was too high for the CIA to execute the
extraction plan and get him back to US soil. Even if he was successfully got
out from Iran, his fate in US was still unclear. Some people still believe he
was the person responsible for Langley’s bombing anyway.
No matter how I see it, Brody was
a dead man. It was so sad tough, seeing his character keeps getting tortured,
mistreat, and used by everyone in both sides for three seasons. He was so
damaged, and honestly I was still hoping his character could get a happy
ending. But that was just too good to be true, right?
So when the writers decided to
kill Brody, I could understand the dilemma. They have to choose between what
the fans want to see and what they need to see. They could easily picked the
first one and made a save decision to maintain the high rating the show’s
already gotten by keeping Brody alive. But no, they picked the latter because that
was the right thing to do to keep the show real and sharp. Even if that means
they had to be ready for the consequences that some viewers will leave the show
on the next season. This, of course, assuming that Brody’s death would stick
and he wouldn’t revive in any ridiculous ways in the future.
Witches of East End, season 1
finale
Episode Title: Oh, What a World!
Air Dates: December 15
Elements of surprise:
Athena is dead. Ingrid opened the
portal to Asgard. Freya called off her wedding with Dash and realized that
Killian might be her true love. Dash and Killian got their power back after
Athena died.
Why it works:
Witches of East End has surprised me in so many ways during its
first season. When I saw the pilot, I didn’t expect to get hooked by this one,
but I did. And then the story got better. Not only we got to see the magic, we
could watch the love story evolving between the characters as well.
The main premise in the first
season was how the Beauchamp family tried to defeat a person who was trying to
destroy them. On the season finale, we got to see Joanna and Wendy finally
confronted their deadly nemesis, Athena. The battle between the three was
highly anticipated during the season, yet the execution was a bit disappointing,
because it was almost too easy for the sisters to kill Athena.
We also learned that Dash and
Killian initially have powers all this time and with their mother out of the
picture, they finally got their power back. Dash, in my opinion, has the
potential to be the next villain on season 2, seeing how furious and hurt he
was when Freya called off their wedding. Interesting.
The most surprising development
on season finale was done by Ingrid, whom under the threat by Mike, forced to
open the door to Asgard, their original world. By the end of the episode, we
got a glimpse of someone or something stepped out from the door. Could that be
Frederick, the son Joanna left behind? Or could it be their enemy who made them
left Asgard in the first place? Either way, the season finale has done a pretty
good job, hooking the viewer until the series return next year.
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