Review: Final Space “Chapter Nine”

I’m waking up at the start of the end of the world.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The crew preps for their mission on Earth: retrieve an anti-matter bomb to close the breach to Final Space. Using some old logs left by Gary’s dad, Quinn narrows the location of the bomb down to the Infinity Guard spire. Okay, sounds easy enough, but arriving makes it clear things will be a bit harder. The breach has started sucking up the planet, with its oceans and sea creatures the first victims (or at least the ones that aren’t mowed down by Gary’s terrible driving. Reaching the surface doesn’t help, as the planet is mostly abandoned and the city in flames.

The team has six hours to find the bomb, and are IMMEDIATELY showered with laser fire, so Gary thinks this is the perfect time to ask Quinn out to drinks. Hell, good a time as any, I suppose. She initially refuses, but a few compliments and a well-timed save seem to make her reconsider. KVN joins the fight, managing to turn other KVN units on the enemy and obtaining a reluctant thumbs up from Gary.

With this help, they make it to the chamber seen in the logs, but no bomb, no information on where it might be, AND a sudden ambush mean things might all be lost. Gary tells Quinn the reason he likes her is that she’s everything he’s not, which is…hm. Well, no time to think about that, as they’re rescued again, this time by Tribore (also voiced by Olan Rogers) and his resistance, who help the Galaxy One team find the bomb’s secret location. Coincidentally, this brings them to the bar where Gary and Quinn first met, finally giving them a chance to have that drink.

The good mood is soured a bit upon finding the guy Gary drugged back then, apparently having been sprawled over a toilet for five years without food or water or any assistance…and it seems what Gary gave him was Crylenol (apparently slang for something to give someone who is overreacting). I don’t know whether to blame Gary or Quinn or the Infinity Guard, but the dude is somehow still alive, so…yay?

And now, forget about all that, because KVN found a secret entrance into an underground gave, conveniently containing scuba gear with which to dive further down. Eventually, they reach an abandoned structure that seems to be holding the bomb. In no time at all, and after a bit more mutual flirting, the bomb is retrieved as the place collapses. But we need to up the tension, so Quinn gets hit by some falling rocks and Gary and Mooncake race to save her, even as volcanoes begin to erupt around them.

The planet collapsing around them, Mooncake fires his largest beam to clear the debris, unknowingly giving away his position to the Lord Commander. Things seem pretty hopeless, and that guy Gary left unconscious is DEFINITELY dead now, but Gary’s just gotta keep pushing Quinn to go out. Settling on a maybe, HUE saves them by a hair and jets of the planet as they make their way to the breach. They are hailed by the Lord Commander who gives them one last chance to hand over Mooncake, which they naturally refuse to do. His forces shower the night sky, and the final battle begins.

OUR TAKE

What a vibrant, exciting, and colorful way to watch the end of the world! A shame it’s the best part about it. I mean, watching a planet blow up is usually intrinsically a bad thing, but that’s usually because we care enough about the plan, t to begin with to see why it being destroyed is bad. Considering the Earth is the biggest thing at stake in stopping the breach, we sure haven’t spent a ton of time on it before now. The only places we’ve seen on it in present day were Infinity Guard facilities, and nothing about those gave much of a sense regarding what life was really like in a time where co-existing with aliens and commercial space travel are now commonplace. Our two Earthling cast members don’t have much of a connection to the pale blue dot either, as Gary seems to have no family outside of his dead father (his mother might’ve disowned him for getting a five year prison sentence for all we know), and Quinn apparently has a sister and dog, neither of which we ever see. Not that they or anyone else would very likely be in mortal danger since almost everyone already evacuated Earth long before the Galaxy One got there. Quinn’s pleas to save the planet because it’s their home end up pretty hollow if it’s just based on the fact humans originated there. Plus, the place is pretty wrecked regardless of what they do now, though I suppose a busted planet is better than having no planet.

The Gary/Quinn romance begins to heat up throughout this episode, giving us a bit more insight on what really drives him to keep carrying a torch for her. He says that she’s “everything he’s not”, which is a statement that could actually apply to several other characters. He’s certainly not weapons efficient or a cat person like either of the Catos, or an automaton like the HUE or KVN, or even tiny marketable flying booger like Mooncake, so what does Quinn have that Gary is drawn to besides differing genitalia. Though that’s not to say neither of them have good chemistry or necessarily shouldn’t like each other (at least since meeting up again and not during that five year gap where Gary pined over someone he barely knew). It does seem like Gary is going through some reflection after finding out he left a guy to die (twice), but I can’t be sure they’ll do anything with that. They seem to have kind of a Fry-Leela sort of thing going, though it speaks a lot to Quinn’s restraint that she’s leaving things at a maybe while they’re dealing with all of this.

…what’s that? They kiss in the preview for the next episode? Well…s, crew me, then.

But hey, at least we can take solace in my complaints about the lack of gender diversity were answered as we welcome a New Female Character! Yes, this episode marked the debut of this…black haired lady. She is never referred to by name (which according to the closed captions is “Shannon”), is ignored by everyone, and her entire character seems to be about obsessing over new resistance leader Tribore, who also never speaks to her. She really does seem like last minute addition to the episode that could be completely removed and change nothing. But hey, we finally have another girl. Take THAT, SJWs!

And so we begin the wait for the tenth and final episode of the season, which will hopefully resolve just enough for the network to greenlight another. Will we learn about how the Lord Commander became evil, or whether or not he knows Gary is his former partner’s son? Will we find out more about the Titans, Mooncake, and Final Space? Will we ever find out who put the bomb in that underground lair? Probably not, since the Earth’s about to be destroyed, but I guess we’ll have to come back next week to find out.