Well, I was wondering how they'd deal with the last two kinjes without killing off Zed and Talon. Knowing that the series was ending soon made me think it was conceivable that they'd actually kill Zed; but as soon as Zed passed the kinj off to one of the others, I realized almost instantly that it meant Nedra would probably be killed, since she was the only one of the three who wasn't a main-title regular. Although they did fake me out with Munt for just a moment. So it turns out that even burning a Master to ash won't prevent their resurrection. Indeed, it'll just condemn more civilians to getting their life force sucked up to fuel the resurrection. So Talon's mission is pretty futile. Although I presume she'll somehow learn the full story from Aster and realize he's on their side.
Well, I was right. I liked the bit where Talon wrestled with whether to wake Aster because she was gunshy after making the wrong call with Yevalla, and Luna telling her that it went wrong because she went against her gut that time. There's a lot of wrestling with complex moral issues in this one, with Janzo and Wren debating the morals vs. the risks of reviving the Kavi, 313 wrestling with his own moral choices, and Wren convincing Zed that Blackblood rituals still have meaning despite the truth about the "gods." I like how this season has gotten into thoughtful questions like that. It's become a smarter show than I recall it being in the first year or two, and it's a shame there are only two episodes left. On the other hand, the way Garrett was convinced to spare 313 and the Kavi was a bit too pat and easy, though I guess it's in character for a warrior like Garrett that it's a battle that convinces him when words did not. And I have to wonder about the distances involved if Zed was able to drag Munt all the way back to the Outpost within such a short amount of time. And how come Warlita was the first one to notify Garrett that Zed and Munt were back? Shouldn't the gate guards have done that? It's painfully evident that the show's guest star budget is wearing thin at this point. Hopefully they're saving their money for a big finale.
Talon giving up her a kinj is a big risk since that means she's no longer immune to the other kinjs. Hope that doesn't come back to bite her. "The ending has begun." One more week to go.
Yeah, at first I thought that Talon giving up her kinj was no big deal since opening a gateway to the Plain of Ashes is kinda academic at this point, but then I remember that it also grants her immunity from the other kinjs, including the nasty red, the life-sucking green one, the mind-controlling one, etc. Wonder if Aster will end up using her old kinj to banish the other gods to the Plain of Ashes.
He sounded like he's determined to finish them off for good rather than settle for imprisonment again.
I just recently realized something about The Outpost. I don't think we've seen a single hint of same-sex romance or sexuality at any point in this entire series. It's all been unquestioningly heteronormative. A couple of decades ago, that would've been the expected default for a commercial TV series; now it feels strange. Though I guess there's still time for Talon to realize Garret is a drag and act on the chemistry she clearly has with Luna...
Not picking up THAT kinda chemistry between Talon and Luna. Talon and Gwen, on the other hand . . . Looks like Talon isn't going be without her kinj for as long as we thought . . . . Meanwhile, no major fatalities this week, for what seems like the first time in a while. Saving them up for the big finale?
Funny, it seems the other way around to me. I should've anticipated that twist. Of course it would be the series lead who's the most pivotal player in the climactic battle, not some guest star we only met last week. Anyway, if the Masters all come from the same place and have been together for ages... why do they have so many different accents? This episode felt like it was going through the motions -- too much setup and plot mechanics. Evacuating the townsfolk felt like it was done to save money on guest cast and extras. And too much of the episode was just repetitive variations on the main cast members all deciding to stay, as we knew they inevitably would, so it didn't mean that much. (Poor Warlita is the only recurring speaking character who got left out.) Also, Munt made an implausibly fast recovery from his near-mortal wound. It doesn't seem like it can have taken more than a couple of days for Talon, Luna, and Aster to get back. He shouldn't even be able to walk yet. I'm not sure if they're going to kill anyone else off. There's hardly anyone left. I doubt they'll kill either Talon or Garret, not now that they've gotten engaged. No way would they kill Wren, who's pregnant, and I doubt they'd kill Janzo either. And Marvyn (né 313) seems unlikely too, since presumably they'll find a way to revive the Kahvi, and they'll need Marvyn to show them the way. That leaves Zed, Munt, and Luna. I could maybe see them having Munt go out heroically, but they already faked us out with that just last week, so it would be repetitive to do it for real now. And killing off Luna feels like it would be out of left field for her character arc. Zed seems the most likely prospect if anyone else is going to die. He might make some kind of pivotal sacrifice to avenge Nedra. Aster seems a likely sacrifice as well. I suspect the title "character" itself, the Gallwood Outpost, may well be destroyed. Evacuating the townsfolk could be clearing the way for that, and a lot of shows like to trash their standing sets in their series finales.
Okay, so that's the finale. They have a plan to save the Kahvi as well as everyone else, it goes wrong, they have to fight against impossible odds and kill the Masters one by one, eventually they win, cut to happy ending. Worked well enough, but there weren't any real surprises. They didn't even kill anyone off besides Aster, as I halfway expected. One strange omission was the question of just what happened with the Navia spores. The plan was to let Janya use her life force to revive the Kavi, then somehow prevent Vorta from delivering the spores. But we didn't see how the latter part of that turned out. It looked as if Marvyn was the only one with a spore and the others were just following his orders because of it; but if so, how did Janzo et al. stop the spores from reaching them? Or if they all got spored, how did Janzo et al. fail to stop the spores? They just kind of skipped over the resolution of that part, and it was confusing. So at the end, Talon marries Garret and they become queen and king by public acclimation, promising to be humble and serve the will of the people and all that. Okay, fine. I still don't think it'd really be a happy ending unless they abolished the monarchy and invented democracy. But we heard Janzo musing about the possibility of a fairer system of leadership earlier in the season, so I suppose it's likely that with him and Wren as her chief advisors, and with her reluctance to rule in the first place, Queen Talon will be open to establishing some kind of parliamentary system as a check on absolute royal power. I'm a little surprised that Talon kept the Asterkinj. I would've expected it to be necessary to get rid of all the kinjes to end the threat for good. I wonder if Talon might use it to go exploring in other dimensional realms. It occurs to me that there's an oversight. They talked at the end about how Blackbloods, humans, and Kahvi would all coexist now. But the show has chosen to forget that there's another humanoid species on the planet, the orc-like Greyskins, who were so prominent in season 1 but haven't been seen since season 2. Quite a change, given that they were originally presented as the reason for the Outpost's existence. The Outpost defends the border between human and Greyskin lands, so it's right up against their territory, but the show's focus has been entirely on the human side of the border for most of its run, and it bugs me that they just seemed to forget about the Greyskins. I mean, I get why they did that from a production standpoint, since the scenes in the Greyskin lands in season 1 were filmed in Utah and the show relocated to Serbia in season 2. I guess they figured they couldn't match the visuals and just decided to steer away from those territories. But I wish there had been at least some token acknowledgment that that part of the worldbuilding hadn't just been erased or forgotten. I think there was a throwaway mention of the Greyskins a few weeks ago, but otherwise their current status is unknown. And with so many humans killed by the Masters, this would be a perfect time for the Greyskins to exploit that weakness and launch an invasion. Come to think of it, are Talon and Garret going to reign from the Gallwood Outpost itself, or will they relocate to the capital? Then again, Janya pretty much killed everyone in the capital, so maybe it's considered cursed now and will be abandoned. Honestly, the Masters killed so many humans and destroyed so many towns that I'm not sure just what's left for them to rule over. It's a much less idyllic outcome than the finale made it look. Proof of what Orson Welles said (or at least what he's attributed with saying) -- "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story."
I wonder how much of the rather elaborate backstory, involving the Three, the kinjs, the Blackbloods, the Plain of Ashes, etc., they had worked out when the show began. It seems to hold together fairly well, although I'm not sure where exactly the Lu-Qiri fit in. And, yeah, I had completely forgotten about the Greyskins. Still, it was satisfying happy ending that, in particular, showed how much Talon had changed and grown over the course of the series: from rootless loner with a chip on her shoulder, trusting no one and living only for vengeance, to the happily married, respected queen of the realm, surrounded by a whole community of close friends and allies.
True. Despite my musings about how events on this world (which was never given a name, just "the Realm," I think) will play out in the future, I recognize that the overall arc of the series was the story of how Talon made that journey. Well, not the arc, because it turned out to be more of an ensemble show than that, but her arc was what tied it together in the end. Still, I would've been just as satisfied if the series had ended with the election of President Janzo. He was just as pivotal to all of this as Talon, if not more so. It was his and Wren's compassion that enabled making peace with the Kahvi, and his genius that helped the others figure things out and save the day on countless occasions. I think the wedding scene was the first time in this entire series that we've seen Jessica Green with glamour makeup and hairstyling, instead of her usual tough-girl look. She still looked gorgeous that way, but I think she was even more gorgeous the usual way.
It occurs to me to wonder if part of the reason The Outpost didn't seem to get a great deal of attention is because it had such a dull title. I wonder what might have been a more striking title that still works for the series as a whole. Maybe Blackblood? While Talon was not the only central character in what was essentially an ensemble show, the evolving saga of the Blackbloods was a unifying thread through the whole thing. Last of the Blackbloods could've been a cool title, but it obviously wouldn't have been accurate after season 1.
I am getting ready to get heart surgery, so it will be a long while before I can give detailed notes (well, maybe not Trek level) But real quick responses to some thoughts (sorry don’t have time to quote and respond appropriately) I think this was hard to promote because it is original, and with “no-name” actors, so you couldn’t get started with fan bases , like say, the Flash did (from Arrow as well as the previous TV show and DC comics as a whole, which they kept giving pre-show easter eggs and references), who could generate buzz before the show started. (Other shows maybe had actors instead of the IP that had fan bases, or BOTH, like Walker Texas Ranger). The best promo I can think of that they could have done is “While you are waiting for the Lord of the Rings TV to start, watch this.” I think they dropped the Greyskins because the CGI was pretty bad (as was for the L’Qiri), and they (Greyskins) didn’t have enough intelligence to explore them as a people (as opposed to the Karvi). I am also not sure how well thought out the mythology was over the first 3 seasons…I wonder if they reworked things between each season. I don’t have time to get into detail….but the actors, including the eastern European ones (especially Marvin) were great, and I hope we see them in more shows or movies (and we should let others know)…despite what I feel are flips in general plot, the characterization definitely feels like logical character arcs. Again, no time to detail right now…but that even Munt had some shining moments (whereas 1st season I barely remember him) was great…. Reece Ritchie seemed to have a lot of fun this season. Sorry it is a little disjointed… but hope to talk more soon. It was a fun ride that we were able to get our 10 year old to join me and my wife on.