Endings Part 2

If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.

Well, this blog fell off the face of the earth much quicker than I thought. I had planned out these posts to coincide with the end of the TV season, now hear we are three months later, and everything is staring up again. Ah well, I write better in the autumn anyway. Rather than do a full write up of my favorite finales like I planned, I'll just do a quick rundown of the ones that have made a lasting impression on me.

First up is "Not Fade Away" from Angel. Named for the Buddy Holly song (or depending on your perspective, the Grateful Dead song), it was originally conceived of as regular season finale, until word came down that a sixth season was not going to happen. The whole fifth season was a bit of an amazing disaster, as studio meddling had forced the producers to abandon the serial storytelling that had become the series hallmark, as well as having Buffy refuge Spike join the cast. Even though it was wildly inconsistent, when the show worked, it was producing some of the best stories of the whole series. The core principle of Angel was that the so called evils of the world can never be defeated, all we can do is continue to fight against them until the day we die. So its only fitting that the last image we see of the Angel gang is them preparing to face the wrath and hordes of hell, where they all almost certainly met their death. A stupid sacrifice? Maybe, but they fought the good fight.

The bones is your's DAD!

"Fall Out," the finale of cult 1960s series The Prisoner, is another matter entirely. Like most British TV, it was conceived of as a limited series. In fact the original order of seven episodes was extended to twenty six, before being cut back down to seventeen. By the time of the finale the battle between prisoner No. 6 and his captors had grown increasingly more symbolic, and the the spy nature of the series became completely superfluous. No. 6 became a symbol of the individual vs conformity, the spy genre provided a convenient outlet to tell these types of stories, but once these were set up, it was essentially discarded. "Fall Out" is full of what can only be called mind-fuckery. It is scene after scene of baffling symbolism, actors who may or may not be reprising characters from earlier in the series, and the most sinister use of "All You Need is Love" I've ever seen. In the end No. 6 is seemingly allowed to leave, after first confronting the man who has imprisoned him for so long SPOILER FOR A FORTY YEAR OLD SERIES: it's himself.

This ending proved highly controversial to say the least. Poll Prisoner fanatics, and you're likely to find the same jaded opinion that currently is making its way through Lost fandom, that it was a cop out and a let down. Me though, I sat stunned and laughing like a fool through the whole thing. Its beautifully crazy, just like the rest of the series, and I love it for it.