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| This is pain. |
First off, we see Riley's whole painful birth and loss experience, stranded in the snow with a dead husband and a dying baby. It's grueling, and feels like much too much, although in fact it all comes home in the end of the episode.
Next, Wolfgang wraps up his family business by killing a lot of people. Will stops in to warn him that his Uncle was wearing a bulletproof vest, and Kala's chemical skills make an improvised bomb to help him take out the muscle, but the coldblooded assassination of the Uncle is pure Wolfgang, marking him out from the others in the cluster and horrifying Kala, who is still in tears later in the episode.
The rest is the rescue. Nomi and Nita use the late Dr Metzger's credit cards to arrange a flash sports car to race Will to the research facility where Riley is being held. Riley recovers consciousness briefly and Jonas and Yrsa both urge her to top herself to save the rest of the cluster. Will, however, promises that he is coming for her, which is a defining moment for him and the cluster and sets them apart from their 'parents'. Where Jonas, Angelica and Yrsa all felt it was impossible to escape or defeat Whispers, they are at least ready to try.
“Men cannot stand to see a beautiful car in trouble.”
“It’s a primal instinct. Look at you, you’re hesitating.”
“It’s a really nice car.”
Nomi directs Will to sabotage the car as a distraction, citing his reluctance to do so as proof that no man could fail to be moved by the plight of a flashy red sports car in pain. Then she forges him access to the building, where Lito steps in to smooth-talk Riley's location from a nurse. Sun crashes the room in her inimitable style, then Kala administers a wake-up shot to the unconscious Riley. As they make for the exit, however, Will sees Whispers and their eyes meet.
Relentless, Will gets Riley to an ambulance and Capheus hotwires the engine. Nomi directs him towards a mist-bound pass where Whispers' helicopter can not follow. Whispers tries to block them, telling Will he knows he won't endanger Riley or the pilot by crashing into the chopper, but Will trumps his game of chicken and lets Wolfgang take control. In the pass, Riley has to confront her loss, and then take Will to safety while he anaesthetises himself so that Whispers can not use him.
We end with the eight gathered on a boat, in fact or visiting, as Riley spirits the unconscious Will out of Iceland, having overcome her loss to become the hero, because it's important that having been the object of the rescue she finishes as the agent.
Given how a lot of the plots have worked out, I was glad that this one didn't resolve through pure violence, but through the interaction of the varied skills of the eight Sensates. It was also good to see Kala getting to do something besides being conflicted. A lot was left open for future series - in particular Whispers' foothold in Will's mind and Sun's ongoing incarceration - and many potential connections - such as the drugs and diamonds from Mumbai - yet to be explored, but the purpose of the season was to build the world and bring the cluster together, and this was achieved in fine style.
Sense8 made a good fist of its overall message of human unity, especially in this final episode. There has been a lot of violence in the series, but Wolfgang's actions here stepped into a different level and in many ways served to provide a cap on the potential of violence to solve problems. This was important, as there was at least one point where Will and Reilly had a good chance to assassinate Whispers and let it go. Presumably this was to avoid presenting deliberate murder as a resolution even to as horrific a foe as Whispers, but in universe is easily explained as the shock of Wolfgang's actions resonating in the network. Few of the Sensates are innocent of violence, but he inhabits it far more readily.
Let's talk about symbols, archetypes and that final shot.
Capheus is the centre, the heart. In the image he is the sun. I'm pretty sure he visited more people than any other and he always wanted to know about them and where they were. If this is a show about empathy, and it is, then he is the hero, because he wants to know and to like everyone. He knows violence, is somewhat inured to it, but it doesn't own him. He is the Knight, an Arthurian figure who truly believes that might should serve right.
Nomi is the brains of the operation, and more than any other the senses; she stays local, but lives global, her hacktivist networks and electronic infiltration the electronic equivalent of the Sensate cluster. She is the Crusader, refusing to let a wrong stand. She also knows pain, rejection, but also love.
Lito is the Trickster, who lies with all his being, but he also understands the transcendent quality of love. While Jonas may call love within the cluster the purest form, the most passionate, the most elevating love affairs in the series are Nomi's relationship with Nita and Lito's with Hernando. Nita gives Nomi strength, while Hernando gives Lito heart.
Will is the Soldier, duty-bound. In any other show, he would be the hero, the straight, white, alpha male who rescues the damsel, but here he is one of eight and also in need of rescue. Actually, everyone is in need of rescuing at some point, and everyone rescues someone, even if not physically.
Riley is the hardest to categorise, because the mystery of her past is such a dominant part of her character. I think, in the end, she is the Hero, the one who more than anyone faces her past and emerges stronger and better. She has the greatest pain, and thus shows the greatest strength.
Kala is also difficult, but I think she is the Idealist. She tries to do what is right, tearing herself apart to do it, and while she clearly hates and is a stranger to violence in a way most of the others can no longer understand, she is willing and able to defend those she loves.
Sun is the Warrior, cool and detached and effortlessly capable, in business as in combat. Her pain is a part of her strength, a rock on which she plants her feet, and she has been disappointed so often that only hope can open her heart enough to be hurt.
Finally, Wolfgang is by his own definition the Barbarian, the cluster's own monster of the id. He is the last to be shown in the closing group shot; for a moment it is almost as if he has detached from the cluster. He is cold where Sun is cool, embraces violence where Capheus accepts it, and knows what is best in life.
So that was Sense8 Season 1; the planned arc is five seasons, so fingers crossed it can keep going.
Nomi directs Will to sabotage the car as a distraction, citing his reluctance to do so as proof that no man could fail to be moved by the plight of a flashy red sports car in pain. Then she forges him access to the building, where Lito steps in to smooth-talk Riley's location from a nurse. Sun crashes the room in her inimitable style, then Kala administers a wake-up shot to the unconscious Riley. As they make for the exit, however, Will sees Whispers and their eyes meet.
Relentless, Will gets Riley to an ambulance and Capheus hotwires the engine. Nomi directs him towards a mist-bound pass where Whispers' helicopter can not follow. Whispers tries to block them, telling Will he knows he won't endanger Riley or the pilot by crashing into the chopper, but Will trumps his game of chicken and lets Wolfgang take control. In the pass, Riley has to confront her loss, and then take Will to safety while he anaesthetises himself so that Whispers can not use him.
We end with the eight gathered on a boat, in fact or visiting, as Riley spirits the unconscious Will out of Iceland, having overcome her loss to become the hero, because it's important that having been the object of the rescue she finishes as the agent.
Given how a lot of the plots have worked out, I was glad that this one didn't resolve through pure violence, but through the interaction of the varied skills of the eight Sensates. It was also good to see Kala getting to do something besides being conflicted. A lot was left open for future series - in particular Whispers' foothold in Will's mind and Sun's ongoing incarceration - and many potential connections - such as the drugs and diamonds from Mumbai - yet to be explored, but the purpose of the season was to build the world and bring the cluster together, and this was achieved in fine style.
Sense8 made a good fist of its overall message of human unity, especially in this final episode. There has been a lot of violence in the series, but Wolfgang's actions here stepped into a different level and in many ways served to provide a cap on the potential of violence to solve problems. This was important, as there was at least one point where Will and Reilly had a good chance to assassinate Whispers and let it go. Presumably this was to avoid presenting deliberate murder as a resolution even to as horrific a foe as Whispers, but in universe is easily explained as the shock of Wolfgang's actions resonating in the network. Few of the Sensates are innocent of violence, but he inhabits it far more readily.
 |
| Man, I am reading all kinds of symbolism into this shot. |
Capheus is the centre, the heart. In the image he is the sun. I'm pretty sure he visited more people than any other and he always wanted to know about them and where they were. If this is a show about empathy, and it is, then he is the hero, because he wants to know and to like everyone. He knows violence, is somewhat inured to it, but it doesn't own him. He is the Knight, an Arthurian figure who truly believes that might should serve right.
Nomi is the brains of the operation, and more than any other the senses; she stays local, but lives global, her hacktivist networks and electronic infiltration the electronic equivalent of the Sensate cluster. She is the Crusader, refusing to let a wrong stand. She also knows pain, rejection, but also love.
Lito is the Trickster, who lies with all his being, but he also understands the transcendent quality of love. While Jonas may call love within the cluster the purest form, the most passionate, the most elevating love affairs in the series are Nomi's relationship with Nita and Lito's with Hernando. Nita gives Nomi strength, while Hernando gives Lito heart.
Will is the Soldier, duty-bound. In any other show, he would be the hero, the straight, white, alpha male who rescues the damsel, but here he is one of eight and also in need of rescue. Actually, everyone is in need of rescuing at some point, and everyone rescues someone, even if not physically.
Riley is the hardest to categorise, because the mystery of her past is such a dominant part of her character. I think, in the end, she is the Hero, the one who more than anyone faces her past and emerges stronger and better. She has the greatest pain, and thus shows the greatest strength.
Kala is also difficult, but I think she is the Idealist. She tries to do what is right, tearing herself apart to do it, and while she clearly hates and is a stranger to violence in a way most of the others can no longer understand, she is willing and able to defend those she loves.
Sun is the Warrior, cool and detached and effortlessly capable, in business as in combat. Her pain is a part of her strength, a rock on which she plants her feet, and she has been disappointed so often that only hope can open her heart enough to be hurt.
Finally, Wolfgang is by his own definition the Barbarian, the cluster's own monster of the id. He is the last to be shown in the closing group shot; for a moment it is almost as if he has detached from the cluster. He is cold where Sun is cool, embraces violence where Capheus accepts it, and knows what is best in life.
So that was Sense8 Season 1; the planned arc is five seasons, so fingers crossed it can keep going.
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