Review: Final Space “Chapter Six”

Oh, the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon…

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Little Cato’s message reaches the Galaxy One, spurring Avocato into action. Quinn objects, noting their mission to save an entire world means more than one life, but to Cato, his son IS his whole world. Or at least, that’s what he means to say. Gary makes the tie-breaking vote and he knows the mission is important, but they need to save the little guy first. So, Quinn is tied up, the bros give a heartfelt hug and take a rock-filled skydive down to the prison planet (in special suits I would swear were only there to sell toys if this was airing on a regular kids network), only to land on the wrong one of the two. They easily correct this and get ready to storm the place with guns blazing, but find the place deserted. This is very clearly a trap, but the two press on, soon meeting a floating, dead-eyed Little Cato.

This seems like a good time for a FLASHBACK! Avocato once served as the Lord Commander’s second in command and followed his every order without question UNTIL he was ordered to kill his own son. This disobedience was not without consequence, as his son became a captive and leverage against Cato. But now they can rescue him, and Gary’s along for the ride until the end. And that ride seems to include following Little Cato’s lifeless body into a meeting with the Lord Commander himself. So, we’re back to the same old telepathic strangling from last time, only with Cato fighting his mind-controlled son and the Commander invading Gary’s mind for Mooncake’s location on the ship.

Meanwhile, Quinn very easily manages to get out of her restraints and attempts to flee with the ship, but H.U.E. shows her every single video log Gary had ever recorded for her, including one he made just today. Moved by this, Quinn decides to rescue him, landing a Mooncake laser shot on the planet just in time. The Catos hug and punch it out and get on the ship, but the Commander finds some dropped explosives and throws them onto Little Cato. In a split second decision, Cato grabs them, tells Gary to take care of his boy, and takes the blast, his body sucked out into space.

OUR TAKE

WHAT A TWIST! I joke, but I honestly didn’t expect this for multiple reasons. For one, Coty Galloway, Avocato’s voice actor, is a longtime friend of creator Olan Rogers, so I assumed he’d be sticking around quite a bit longer. AT LEAST till the end of the season. And I love Steve Yuen, but I saw HIS character dying for shock value before anyone else. That said, this was probably the right call, especially in showing how serious the situation’s become. Cato’s been probably the most likable and developed character in the show thus far, so losing him is a very tangible loss going forward. I do anticipate Little Cato (who I might just call Cato starting next episode) getting to know everyone on the crew and form some character dynamics similar to his dad, but I suppose we’ll all be right there with him as he misses his dad’s presence.

Though unfortunately, I have to be a Debbie Downer and poke a hole in something within this otherwise great episode, specifically Quinn’s reactions to Gary’s video logs, as well as what the perception of Gary is versus how he actually behaves. For one, before their reunion two episodes ago, Gary and Quinn had maybe spent a total of 15 minutes together at most before his arrest, in which time he drugged and impersonated an officer to get a chance to hit on some girl he thought was hot. That’s not to say that behavior should be something that haunts him (since no one really seems to care about that incident anymore anyway), but it does mean that all of the logs he sent to Quinn over those five years weren’t about or for her, they were about Gary’s IDEA of her. As such, I’m not sure the effect H.U.E. wants those logs to have on Quinn is what SHOULD have happened, mainly because Gary was still just pining for someone he didn’t know (made clear when they met again and she wasn’t anything like he thought).

Furthermore, to say “Gary always puts those before himself” is a pretty blanket statement that makes him seem more altruistic than he actually is. Aside from the aforementioned destruction of ships and property that led to his arrest, this episode shows Gary prioritizing a mission that can only save one person over another that could save more. That said, I’m not saying he didn’t have GOOD reasons for helping out Cato, I just don’t think you can say H.U.E.’s assessment can be called accurate with that in mind. One might say that Gary has changed from however selfish he might have been because of his confinement and now wants to help people so he isn’t alone anymore. I could get behind that if the show did more to explore that, but for now, it’s just wishful thinking.

But let’s end this on a more positive note, not just because the episode ending was kind of a downer, but also because this was a genuinely good twenty minutes of television. The show is off next week, sadly, so we’ll have to stew in this for awhile, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing how we set course for the final stages of the maiden voyage.