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- Sep 14, 2008
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I'm late to the game but I watched the finale Sunday (originally was gonna watch it on HBO Go but the crash and all that jazz happened) but wow. What a finale. It was indeed unexpected, but in an unexpected way. I tend to not have theories due to the danger of falling in love with them and being disappointed. But I strictly went in thinking one of them was going to die, mainly Rust. Despite both being prepared to die, I figured one of the dying would befit the established tone of the show of overall darkness and pessimism.
But watching the finale, boy was I glad I was wrong. The ultimate surprise was the fact it was a happy ending. And I loved that. If you were to tell me the Rust Cohle we know and love would survive and change as a human being then I would have laughed at you. But that was the genius of it. Sure we got the wonderful tension wrought showdown with Errol. But that was just part of the greatness of it. The heart of the episode lay in the final ten minutes. The place you didn't expect it to go: The light. Hart's reunion with his family, and Cohle telling Marty that being close to death changed him. For all his nihilism, all his pessimism, Cohle realized there's more to life now. For all his flat circles of degradation and violence, he now has something to live for. The only way he could live was for him to change. And vice versa. To end on such a note, where the final words were (out of Rust's mouth no less) were, "If you ask me, the light's winning."
Beautiful. Final scenes can sometimes redefine how you look at an entire story, and this is a shining example. So to sound redundant, (I'm still giddy about this episode three days later) there was a character arc. There was optimism. That was the ultimate "mind blowing end" people seem to want out of all finales these days. Pizzolatto delivered.
I don't remember a first season this superb since Lost (Dexter has one of the best first seasons, though it doesn't touch these two). Despite it only having a first seasons so far, it still matches up to any great full series show.
But watching the finale, boy was I glad I was wrong. The ultimate surprise was the fact it was a happy ending. And I loved that. If you were to tell me the Rust Cohle we know and love would survive and change as a human being then I would have laughed at you. But that was the genius of it. Sure we got the wonderful tension wrought showdown with Errol. But that was just part of the greatness of it. The heart of the episode lay in the final ten minutes. The place you didn't expect it to go: The light. Hart's reunion with his family, and Cohle telling Marty that being close to death changed him. For all his nihilism, all his pessimism, Cohle realized there's more to life now. For all his flat circles of degradation and violence, he now has something to live for. The only way he could live was for him to change. And vice versa. To end on such a note, where the final words were (out of Rust's mouth no less) were, "If you ask me, the light's winning."
Beautiful. Final scenes can sometimes redefine how you look at an entire story, and this is a shining example. So to sound redundant, (I'm still giddy about this episode three days later) there was a character arc. There was optimism. That was the ultimate "mind blowing end" people seem to want out of all finales these days. Pizzolatto delivered.
I don't remember a first season this superb since Lost (Dexter has one of the best first seasons, though it doesn't touch these two). Despite it only having a first seasons so far, it still matches up to any great full series show.
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