The Innocents: Season 1/ Episode 8 “Everything. Anything” [Season Finale] – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)
The Innocents comes to an end with a conclusion which is geared to get people clamoring for a season 2 – even if it barely gave you reason to make it to the season finale. [adinserter name=”General Ads”] Network Netflix Director(s) Farren Blackburn Writer(s) Simon Duric Air Date 8/24/2018 So Many Questions: Ben, John, Harry,…
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The Innocents comes to an end with a conclusion which is geared to get people clamoring for a season 2 – even if it barely gave you reason to make it to the season finale.
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| Network | |
| Netflix | |
| Director(s) | Farren Blackburn |
| Writer(s) | Simon Duric |
| Air Date | 8/24/2018 |
So Many Questions: Ben, John, Harry, June, Sigrid, Elena
Despite holding Harry prisoner, it seems Ben expected Harry to answer his questions about June without even trying to make nice. You know, with some food, a glass of water – something! So, with nothing to exchange, Harry doesn’t provide much about June’s first shift at all. He just bangs on the glass and deals with the idea of possibly being trapped forever.
All the while, June is left to believe that Harry left. Something Ben wishes John would too for he is asking a lot of probing question. Also, he broke into his office for hearing from June that Harry left did not make any sense. Especially considering he had so many reasons and opportunities to do so before.
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But, getting back to the questions, his focus is about being “cured” and why people stay afterwards. Which agitates most of the women, and June, and leads to John being asked to leave in the morning. However, then, on loudspeakers, we hear audio play.
Commentary
I’m trying to understand how June, so quickly, was able to believe Harry just walked away. This dude has basically helped you discover your trigger and has coached you, multiple times, back to yourself. Do you really think now he would kick rocks? The boy traveled across Europe, with your father of all people, walked around a huge ass lake, just to see you and save you. Hell, he even rushed because Kam, as crazy as she is, her hinting you was in danger was a call to action.
Yet, you think some man he barely knows, doesn’t even sound like he trusts all that much, he can convince him to leave you? While your dad is basically saying he isn’t going anywhere? You have to be joking right?
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Then with Ben, recognizing why he needed Harry and John out of the way, there is a need to question how did he think he could get away with this? Was it, kind of stepping into the next topic a bit, he thought he could have Elena and June bond and threaten her, Elena, to get his ultimate goal? Was that it?
In case you are wondering who David Koresh is, he was a cult leader in Waco, Texas who died after his people and the government had a stand off over reported illegal arms and explosives. He didn’t die during the shoot out but a subsequent fire which killed him and dozens of others. To add onto the story, there are claims he abused children and it is noted, when you look him up, he had children with multiple women within his cult. You know, usual bat-s*** crazy cult activities. Just with the suicide being going against government forces.
The Truth Comes Out: Kam, June, Sigrid, Runa, Ben, John, Elena, Steinar, Harry
All is revealed. As they head down into the barn we see Steinar, with a rifle, watching a video with him and Kam, as Freya, in it. During this, he forces Ben to admit he forced Kam to shift, with her being mercilessly shocked until she did so. Also, he pushed how much control he had over Runa and that she wasn’t going anywhere.
And with Ben being put on the spot, with enough people in the room to rip him to pieces, he takes the one opportunity he has to switch things up. With one maneuver he takes the rifle and starts making demands. He wants June and Runa and Sigrid decides to call his bluff, call him out, something which you shouldn’t do to someone with a gun – so he shoots her in cold blood.
Leading to him taking June and Runa into the room where Harry is, and threatening June to either shift into Runa, fully become her, or Harry will be shot in the head. Yet, somehow, for some reason, because keeping a firm grip on a rifle is hard, Harry gets the gun and opens the door. Runa then takes the gun, and pretty much lets everyone out so it is just her, Steinar, and Ben.
At that moment, as Runa, even with early onset dementia, recounts how Ben ostracized her from her own daughter, Kam reveals herself. Then, with a sudden movement, Ben is shot. Leaving Kam and Runa talking but it being clear it is too late for them to be a family again. Kam is a whole new person, Freya is dead, and Runa is on her own. Both figuratively and literally since no one remains alive on Sanctum but her.
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Commentary
Where exactly is Steinar during all of this? Not that his existence is a big deal, and we know one touch would mean she would shift into him, but there is still a curiosity about how she handled the body. Though, considering how she did Harry’s, and he was a decent person, Steinar is probably wherever he dropped. Might be bleeding out on her floor.
Yet, part of the appeal of Kam is you can believe she would do that. For as cold-blooded as she is, the girl does have a heart. It’s just, like a whole lot of people, she got betrayed in ways she’ll never recover from. But, when people like June come around, they do their damndest to either not let them go or still be welcome in their life from time to time. How else do you explain her coming all the way to Sanctum for June, after being told off, yet barely speaking to her mom for more than 10 minutes?
In a twisted way, she sees her mom doesn’t have any real value anymore. There is no need to fight and have a conversation because she has no desire to reconcile. She has survived without her so there is no need to get her back. June, on the other hand, she gets her, they connected, and in Kam’s mind, it wasn’t June who messed up but Kam. That thought, that she was to blame, probably hasn’t come often considering what she has went through. So that guilt is a serious driving force. Leading you to wonder, if this show gets a second season, will she be a guardian angel type or may actually try to engage with June again?
As for everything else that happens? Well, with Ben dead comes the question of who is going to replace his role in the series? Sanctum is done. This show also needs a villain, as it did for almost the entire first season. So, considering each generation is stronger than the next, this idea Ben presented of shifting and becoming someone new, to maybe continue your lifespan, who is to say there isn’t a shifter hunter? For it remains very unclear the full extent of how this power can be used. Such as, could some form of immortality really be on the table?
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I mean, granted, with the way this show has handled itself, it may even make a villain who body hops dull but you could cross your finger and toes for something.
History Always Repeats Itself: Harry, Christine, June, Elena, John
With a, honestly, lackluster season, there has to be that last minute shock – something which leaves those who made it this far say NO! YOU CANNOT LEAVE THIS SHOW HERE! For The Innocents, it is John and Elena creating a distraction, as Elena is arrested, and Harry and June speeding off. Leading to an accident in which June’s life is threatened and so she shifts into Harry. But, not too long after shifting into Harry she shifts into Christine who was hot on their tail. Thus leaving Harry catatonic and, like Lewis, repeating the last thing he said.
Commentary
Here is my thing, did I like Harry and June together? Yes. However, despite them being the core of the show, and the two of them having many cute moments, they didn’t become the kind of couple which would make Harry becoming just like his dad devastating. Did it suck? Yeah, but I’m not in tears or anything. And I’m sappy AF.
So while I get that is the type of ending you have when you want fans to clamor for a second season, this is a blip on a heart monitor after the show already damn near flatlining. For while I can wonder who will be season 2’s villain, will they find a way to save Harry, what will happen to Elena, and a few other questions, I don’t say that with overwhelming excitement. Those thoughts come to mind because I’m already debating if I’d even want to watch a season 2.
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Especially when season 1 barely delivered compelling relationships, be it, family, romantic, or platonic; didn’t really push the shifter thing to the point of real excitement, and didn’t really give anyone with even a bit of personality the type of focus needed to be some kind of hook for the show. Not to forget, the conflict was so weak on this show. Ben didn’t fully reveal himself as a villain until damn near the last episode. Steinar was a joke and while Kam had a dark side, she wasn’t developed to be a fully complex figure. Never mind the Pennines Five situation didn’t blow up into as big of a deal as, in any other show, it would have.
Collected Quote(s) & .Gifs
He only loved you for what you are, I loved you for who you are.
— Kam (Freya)
Highlights
- Learning why Freya left home, and Kam abandoning her mother rather than reconciling like most shows would do.
Low Points
- Basically everything in the last three paragraphs for the 3rd topic’s commentary.
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