I believe it all is coming to an end. Oh well, I guess we’re gonna pretend.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

After Gary tells everyone to find each other once the battle is over, HUE launches their lightfold engine to launch an opening strike against a considerable portion of the Lord Commander’s forces, as well as a distraction as they rocket to the breach. In response, LC orders the release of his hive ships, parasites who eat through energy shields like my nearly dead phone batter eats through a charge. KVN and Mooncake try defending the ship, giving them time prep the bomb for transport and send Little Cato out to properly avenge his father. And also to give Olan Rogers to write a scene where the two characters he voices get to talk to each other.

Gary reluctantly lets Quinn take on the task of bringing the bomb to the breach, and the two kiss before she heads off (obviously meaning things will resolve nicely by the end if Gurren Lagann is any indication). Tribore, his brain finally beginning to function, calls in his resistance fighters to aid in the battle. KVN is destroyed, much to Gary’s joy, leaving Mooncake open for capture, which Gary is less than enthused about. Cato lands on the LC’s ship, making a beeline and eventually finding his chamber. The two face off, interrupted only by Gary, who rams the remains of the Galaxy One of them.

Saving HUE onto his helmet, Gary goes to confront the Lord Commander one last time. Not that it’s any easier than last time, now that he has Mooncake’s energy to directly power him. Gary tries to appeal to the Commander’s former life as John’s good friend Jack, but that and a bit of taunting just gets him thrown back out into space. Not a minute later, the breach is further opened, revealing a giant claw that reaches out and pulls the entire Earth inside, denying the Lord Commander his dream of becoming a Titan that we are just learning about right now.

Things aren’t much better for Gary, as he hears Quinn’s last message before she uses the bomb to close the breach. Gary floats through space, slowly losing oxygen over the following ten minutes, and accepting his fate. He slips into unconsciousness, finding himself in another white void, once again seeing his father, who offers him a way to the other side or back to life. Gary chooses wherever his friends are.

As his body basks in the void, a light shines down on him.

OUR TAKE

You know, after watching Infinity War and the end of Gundam IBO, I could really use something more positive where everyone lives. Maybe this will be OH GOD DAMMIT.

But yes, here we are, at the culmination of everything we’ve seen so far. Except it really isn’t the end. Of ANYTHING, really. Aside from Quinn using the bomb to close the breach, pretty much nothing is resolved, and even her fate is left ambiguous, just as is everyone (aside from KVN, but he’s no big loss, and Gary, who is obviously still alive). I know that this is probably not meant to be a one-shot miniseries with a clean ending each season, but WOW is this a lot to leave hanging.

That’s not to say they don’t use a lot of the episode well enough on its own. The battle is intense, gloriously animated, and paced in such a way that really gets the blood flowing. Everyone gets a moment to shine, everything gets to come into play, and it all adds up to what would probably be a great episode BEFORE the finale. If I were just a viewer, I’d probably be reveling in everything the ending left me to savor and chew on, but in terms of analyzing it critically, it’s noticeably lacking.

The problems of the last episode rear their ugly heads again, namely in the ostensible significance of the Earth, or lack thereof. The risk of letting the breach stay open was that the planet would be sucked in, but not only do the characters still not have any real attachment to it, pretty much everyone already left before things got serious. Seeing a giant eldtrich demon arm grab it and pull it inside is certainly a stunning visual, and losing an entire planet probably has at least SOME ramifications, but aside from Quinn feeling kinda sad about it, the Earth’s fate has far less of an impact than it must’ve been planned to. This is all connected to a larger issue with the season as a whole, but I’ll get into that next week with the Season Review.

The revelation of the Lord Commander’s connection to Gary’s dad shares a similar problem, seeing how it ultimately affects nothing other than a brief mention, and neither does his sudden new motive to become a Titan that comes out of nowhere, but he’s also one of the only characters who are definitely alive by the end, so we may see some exploration of that in a future season.

All in all, another action-packed and visually appealing episode of Final Space, but not quite up to snuff for a finale, even with its gripping ending visual. We’ll cover the flash forward scenes (that I forgot to bring up in the first week and was too embarrassed to mention until now) along with character analysis and hopes for the rest of the series when we look back on the first season next week.

Score 8/10