A season finale that changes things just a little bit.
What They Say:
The Fall – In the third season finale, the Master reveals himself and initiates the endgame of the battle.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Oh frustrating show, come to a close once more for a season. I had been hopeful with the series when it first began to give us some dark and dangerous vampire material instead of the more commonly accepted pretty boy material we’d gotten since the Anne Rice years. And we did get that, but mired in some really bad storytelling and less than compelling characters. The show didn’t clean house fully the last time around but it did get rid of several of them so that we’re going into a tighter thing at the end as the city falls and as we get the fourth and final season next year.
The cold open here is an interesting one that showcases how humanity has changed over the centuries with the things it faced and the significant losses along the way. Setrakian’s narration is pretty good as he talks about how things got botter and the mindset changed before we get to the forty-one days since the Master arrived in New York City. We’ve seen how quickly things have fallen around the country, more by word than by visual unfortunately, but the fall of the city has been prominent in this season, even as weakly as it’s been done. The shift in fortunes has been an area the show could have exploited more and some of that is still seen in Palmer as he now throws his lot in full with Setrakian, supposedly, in an effort to take down the Master after what happened the last time around with Eichhorst.
The desolate and empty nature of the city is definitely something that the show needed to do more of, an area where The Walking Dead excels, but we get some of that with Zack and his underling that Kelly has given to watch him. Zack’s been one of the big weak links in the show – through both actors – and seeing him taking on the city with the spawn child is not something that’s going to end well. He’s in control of her but only to some degree, which means he ends up being complicit in some other deaths. Not easy for a kid to cope with to be sure but he’s always been weird when it comes to what level of emotion to show in any number of scenes. I’m still thinking it’s less the actor and more the direction and the writing and this just feels regularly reinforced.
Changes are in the mix elsewhere in disturbing degrees as we get Palmer losing his bodyguards thanks to the Master showing up there through some controlled military men. But the Master is intent on bringing him under sway by granting him eternal life, just not the kind he expected. Since the Master wants the nuclear weapon that Palmer took from him, it’s the quickest and easiest way to regain control over everything. Palmer’s turn toward helping Setrakian was a minor bit of redemption for him, not that I fully trusted him, so seeing it yanked out from under him is no surprise. We essentially saw the same for Justine recently where she’s done her best and has largely been focused on helping others, even if it was helping herself, only to end up dead along the way.
The Master is certainly interesting in taking over Palmer this way as he’s going to use all that he has through him to achieve his goals. And part of that is getting Eichhorst back on track, which really bothers Eichhorst because of his distaste toward Palmer. A revival is simple but effective here and it really does a great job of reinforcing what kind of loyal soldier Eichhorst is when it comes to the Master. But boy does it rankle him to see the Master wearing that form in a big way. Eichhorst is at least all business with this as he knows it’s just a shell and having the opportunity to serve his master once more is what will drive him. Of course, he plays weird father figure to Zack with this as he shows him the nuclear bomb and gives the control to Kelly, which even with her being swayed over feels like a terrible idea as you know it’s just tempting fate. And that feels out of character for Eichhorst, even if he does want to use it in a poetic kind of way.
As the back half plays out with the team doing their best to try and capture the Master while Eichhorst sets things in motion with the bomb, it’s not bad but it lacks the kind of tension it should because of the slow buildup here. That we continue to get Eph and Fet waving wang at each other and then having Fet frustrated and angry with Dutch over sleeping with Eph, it’s just the worst kind of foolishness in the moment. The slow split of the group at least helps to reduce some of these tensions as they focus on their missions in the Stoneheart building, which is curiously empty at this point. Of course, Quinlan knows things aren’t right and tracks it down well enough, but everyone is being maneuvered into the right place without realizing it, all to the machinations of the Master.
The confrontation with Palmer is an area that works well, though he falls into classic villain mode as the Master by toying when he should just be destroying before they realize anything. It also has some of the usual silliness with Dutch’s device not working right away and Quinlan coming in to save the day when everyone else is smacked down hard. It is a team effort to get him in the box but at least they finally do achieve that. The ripple effect from that is fun since the Master’s voice is silenced and that has others like Eichhorst panicking. Kelly, for her part, is struggling to retain control when her instincts are to devour Zack. But it’s another moment of showing how the control of the strigoi side with what’s underneath is not total. Of course, she and Zack have to end up where Eph is as he recovers from his wound and things go all sorts of south here.
The bigger problem with it being such a high stakes sequence is that the family dynamic has been terrible since the second season. Kelly’s just primal here for the most part but it’s Eph that delivers the killing blow. Again, I can get the emotional factor but considering he had given her no thought for quite some time and had been involved with two other women since then, it just doesn’t resonate as strongly as it should. The bigger issue is Zack, of course, as he now has the control mechanism for the nuclear bomb that will set a nuclear winter into the world, turning day into night for the strigoi to rule over with. Visually, it’s a fantastic moment as the bomb flows out and the chaos hits, but pairing it angry Zack just dilutes it of all its meaning. Leave it to Zack to end the world. Punk kid.
In Summary:
As the saying goes, never work with kids or animals. And when trying to save the world, avoid them at all costs as they’ll definitely make things turn for the worse. While there are some hollow moments here in terms of meaning, the show does go for the big and radical change here that should make for an engaging fourth and final season. Unlike Arrow, they can’t just mostly ignore the whole nuclear weapon being used thing. The payoff isn’t worth the season as a whole as there wasn’t a lot achieved here until the last couple of episodes and that just reduces the value of the season as a whole. Still, I’m on board for the fourth and final to see what it will actually do to deal with all of this.
Grade: B