So now here I am, doing what seems to be the newest symptom of "obsessed mode": blogging a review of the season finale (ep 316 "Lady Stardust") and season 3 as a whole. Let's get right to this, shall we? Lemme start off by giving my bottom line, now that the entire season is complete: I loovved the first 11 eps of the season (everything up through Annie escaping Russia). I mean, I am IN LOVE with them. I want to marry them and live with them blissfully, happily ever after. And then, I found the last 5 eps to be an exercise in frustration that eventually did have some payoffs in the last couple episodes, especially the finale - which I thought for the most part was a very good ep. But, there's only so much that can be addressed in like 43 minutes. Interestingly, the finale managed to bring some much-needed clarity to both the plot trajectory and Annie's character trajectory, but it also clarified and solidified for me one key thing I have felt was missing in these last 5 eps. Let's start with the good stuff first, and then I'll get to that second part:
- Both the finale and this season have been top notch when it comes to telling a thrilling and unpredictable story. I swear in this category, CA is nearly on par with the Emmy-winning dramas I watch. Now, yes, I did have a feeling that Annie would shoot Eyal with fake bullets in the finale after seeing the preview, but other than that, I was not able to predict any other major turn in this ep. For instance, when Annie showed up to Khalid's house, I had absolutely NO idea what would happen next, and that gave the scene (as with others in the finale) a somewhat electrifying quality. I was glued to the screen the entire episode (and season).
- Related to the above point, in ep 315 I realized that the writers may have been purposely keeping Annie's behavior fairly unpredictable in these past several eps, so that you would be left having no idea what path she'd take in the finale. If so, it was certainly effective in the end, but very frustrating on the journey there.
- I think it was the right choice to avoid killing Eyal off, since he has always been such an awesome character, and they found quite a clever way to do this. The way they dropped hints to the audience to force us to figure out the game plan as it unfolded, the same way Eyal had to, was fun.
- I probably should not admit this, but at first I found myself oddly disappointed when Annie didn't kill Khalid after breaking into his house. But then in the end, we had the excellent scene at the Vesta diner, a great way to bookend season 3. Annie's explanation to Henry of the reason she let Khalid go was pretty brilliant, especially the way she acknowledged that Lena, the same person who had destroyed her life, also taught her a few things. Oddly, life tends to go that way sometimes.
That scene with Henry at the Vesta diner puts Annie's substantial growth as a character on full display, and that is probably the biggest reason season 3 has been so awesome. But still, over the last 5 eps, I kept getting a nagging feeling that something has been missing in her character trajectory as well. Seeing the finale actually helped me identify the missing element. I realized that the reason I was left a bit disappointed when Annie didn't kill Khalid was that I've spent the entire last 5 episodes waiting for her to lose her shit, at least a little. Because logically, I feel like that should have been a step at some point in this journey. I feel like there should be a HELL of a lot of struggle plus a rock bottom or two between "my boss framed me for treason, killed my boyfriend in front of me, pumped me full of bullets till I was nearly dead and then I had to escape a Russian prison" and "I'm back in business, I've got this shit under control and I'm a badass spy now." After all, isn't that end result much more rewarding, and the journey more interesting, if the struggles to get there are more significant and realistic?
I'll admit, I was in kind of a weird headspace when I got pulled into CA, because I had found out a friend was dying of cancer (at age 33) only a week or two prior. I had just gone to visit her and gotten a glimpse into the sheer horror that life can dump on an average family just like yours or mine, utterly randomly, senselessly, and mercilessly. So to be fair, I was in a bit of an angry "life sucks" headspace when CA sucked me in with "Glass Spider". I love dark and gritty entertainment anyway, but I was probably in that mode even more than usual at the time, heheh. I wanted CA to fully commit to the consequences of that brilliantly shocking and brutal turn it took at the end of "Glass Spider," and to some extent, they have. I loved "Let's Dance" (probably my fave ep of the season), and thought "Rock 'n Roll Suicide" was great too. Both these eps did a great job exploring both the aftermath (plot-wise) and the mental state that someone in Annie's shoes would be in: angry, heartbroken, a bit bloodthirsty, unstable, somewhat catatonic after the prison escape, self-destructive due to guilt. The character's struggle was there (including that little prison debacle) and it was very clear.
But then in 312, she got back from Russia, and it got ... fuzzy. At that point, the main focus shifted over to the question of whether Annie can be objective in her spywork with people she's personally close to (Eyal in this case). And don't get me wrong, that is a totally valid focus, but it just barely even scratches the surface of the obstacles you'd have to face after you get back home from a freaking Russian prison. We got a few glimpses of other things too, like the fact that Annie is still very distraught about Simon. But other than the fact that she still wears the necklace and that Joan/Auggie don't totally trust her with Eyal, what effects is that having?? I don't really know. She has a big fight with Joan where Joan basically fires her from the DPD, but Annie doesn't seem to be all that freaked out about it. She causes a drone strike on the wrong people, but oddly that doesn't cause any sort of major panic either. And literally the only time I can think of that she has shed even ONE tear since the Lena debacle is in ep 312 where her PTSD prevents her from going home. But even that seems to be magically cured off camera at some point, because by the end of the finale she's living back home again with no explanation! And then in the finale, I think we're supposed to be wondering if she'll lose her shit and do something crazy, which is partially what makes it suspenseful, but then she doesn't, and everything works out fine. It left me going, "O.k. so ... is that it?? Everything's all good now? She had to deal with some office politics and double crosses from Mossad, but everything worked out fine and now life is a bowl of cherries?" It just seems too ... easy.
I wonder though, if I was the only one who was very disturbed by the fact that Annie was entirely ready to blow the covers of those three CIA assets to save Eyal, until Auggie stopped her. That is a terrible spy move. Are we supposed to be noticing that or are we supposed to overlook it because it didn't end up coming to fruition? Does it mean she's still unstable? I dunno.
Also, am I the only one irked by the fact that they weren't a teensy, TINY bit more realistic with how they played some of this stuff out? I know TV shows love to give characters grievous injuries and then have them magically recover in 5 seconds, but CA seemed to take it to a crazy extreme even for TV. It's not like they gave Annie a bullet to the leg or even the gut; they shot this character twice in the dead center of the damn chest, I mean come on. She had essentially the exact same injury as Simon, who died instantly. They also mentioned a couple times in ep 309 that they had to open her chest for surgery. I know they skipped over the main recovery period, but wouldn't an injury like that be a BIT more impactful?? On Castle they sniped Beckett in the chest in the season 3 finale, and then throughout all of season 4, they were quite clear that she was having to go to physical therapy, psychotherapy, she was having PTSD, she was having some residual physical problems, she had actual scars in the right places, etc. Annie, on the other hand, does not need any physical therapy, she can still kick ass with no problems at all, no one at the CIA sends her to a psychologist or even Bluebonnet for that matter, she seems to have zero scar at all from having her chest opened up, and even her bullet scars magically disappear when she needs to wear a lowcut shirt or dress! Easy peasy!! Again, the reason for my annoyance is that when the character doesn't have to endure many hardships, the story is a lot less interesting, and the end result of the journey feels less rewarding and well-earned.
O.k. lemme just get in a few other random points to end this review:
- Can someone please tell me what the hell was the point of the Joan pill addiction storyline?? Because if they don't pick that back up in season 4, then it will have tied to absolutely NO other existing storylines, and it will have kicked off absolutely zero new storylines. If they just let that thread die where it is and try to call it "character development," I'm gonna be really pissed, cause it only left the audience more confused.
- I seriously hope that whatever's in Henry's folder doesn't involve Joan and Arthur turning fully into "bad guys." That would be a total cheat IMO, considering what lengths the writers have gone to up until this point to show that they are not bad people, especially Joan. I'm hoping this turns out to be a similar situation to Eyal, i.e. "It's complicated." Maybe they are good people who made some bad decisions at some point? I love the Joan/Annie relationship and I would hate for that to be totally obliterated.
- As much as I love "shipping" couples on TV shows, I've actually always found CA to be a nice change of pace in that it does not make the romance storylines its primary focus. But yet, I still found myself annoyed that the last finale scene with Annie and Auggie was so short. And that is because I wanted these two to have had a LITTLE more verbal communication leading into it. They have essentially discussed nothing of significance since Russia. I look at this as yet another unfortunate side effect of shoving such a dense story arc into the last 5 eps of the season - everything else got pushed aside. Sigh.
- Can we get Danielle back at least for a few eps next season? I've actually missed her character lately, which I never expected to happen. She brings a lot of heart to the show that I felt was missing in the last 5 eps of S3.
I know I've spent most of this review complaining, but keep in mind that I would never spend the time to write it if I wasn't totally in love with this show and these characters hahah. I'm 100% sure the S3 finale was not meant to be the pinnacle of Annie's character development, it's just that there are so many open threads right now (in many areas) that need follow-up, and I really really hope we get that. In the meantime here's my next S4 question: What band or singer will they choose for the season 4 episode title theme??
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