Review: Final Space “Hyper-Transdimensional Bridge Rising”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Things seem to be pretty calm on the Galaxy Two as the crew heads back to earth so they can finally get home. However, they’re going to need someone who is still outside of Final Space to open the portal from their end, that person being Clarence, who they left in disgrace after he nearly sold them out. Ash sends him a message asking for help in this, but the transmission spreads throughout the galaxy, being found by numerous present and former enemies who all converge on the portal. But against all odds and taking a fatal blaster wound, Clarence redeems himself by opening the portal. Gary and the gang are ready to make this sacrifice worth it…

…but then Quinn finds out that Kevin Van Newton programmed the KVN robots to protect the Earth against Titans, so they all decide to stay and take them all out first. Sorry, Clarence!

OUR TAKE

I just want to point out that I avoided mentioning Tribore in the Overview because, once again, he contributes absolutely nothing to the story. I truly hope this is the last we see of him. His only purpose seems to be wasting time.

Anyway, up until the last scene, this is pretty much an episode that focuses on wrapping up loose threads from the first two seasons, mainly through involving Clarence, played by Conan O’Brian. Weird timing killing his character off right as he announced he was retiring from late night tv, huh? It was neat to see him again all things considered, and they gave him a pretty good send off, though bringing back all of these old bad guys kind of just furthers my thoughts that this show is very weird about how it lays out blame on characters sometimes. Of the returned bad guys, we have Todd H. Watson, who blames Gary for something he had absolutely no control over or involvement with, the Dewinter family, who blame Gary for the death of a family member who died by total accident, the alien queen played by Fred Armisen who rightly blames Clarence, and the time travel rabbit guy who…well, yeah, his issue is definitely Gary’s fault. But at least they were all used well enough to give Clarence a good and proper last stand and a way to best help the team…

…which they end up totally wasting because of a last minute and sudden new detail about KVN that comes right the flip out of nowhere. It’s not even that bad of a hook for the remaining four episodes of the season, it’s just so weirdly revealed and timed! Not to mention, as we see in the final seconds, Gary (and likely everyone else) is starting to contract the same condition that Gwen had before she got her implant. Granted, them being here not as long means they have plenty of time until it gets as serious as hers did, but even so, wouldn’t it be a good idea to send most if not all of them back into their own dimension and recharge for a bit while they work on the KVN stuff? If it’s a matter of making sure they can reopen the portal later, why not just leave some people behind and switch out so that no one gets too sick? I just feel so numb to the show’s attempts at drama when they don’t end up making logical sense. But who knows, maybe this will add up in the end