Welcome back all you Dead End fans! Sadly this one is not a musical. My hopes were dashed, my dreams destroyed. Lament with me as we descend into heck and watch the neutral plane go up in smoke. Or, you know, be petrified by a couple petulant siblings.
And as always, spoilers ahead.
1. Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Party Here
The apocalyptic vibes of “Into the Fire” are strong. We got fire. We got brimstone. We got everyone turned into statues while little imp demons futz around. And little Timmy fell down the well!
Wait. Sorry. Wrong notes. *Ahem* And Patrick is nowhere to be found!
What a way to kick off the finale. The stakes are pretty dire and it’s not clear how they’ll be able to get out of this one. Barney & Norma may be good at finding unorthodox ways of stopping the supernatural but this time they seem pretty outclassed. In fact, I was really curious to see how far down the path the show would go.
Would things get worse or was this the rallying point? What would remain permanent and what would be reversed? The answers were a bit surprising and a bit expected. Kudos to Dead End team for finding a good balance in the end. While it’s a little pat, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
2. If Barney Wrestles in Season 2, Please Let His Intro Music Be a YBC song
Before we get to that ending though, let’s jump back to the beginning! Specifically watching Barney get to break out his love of pro wrestling and pile driving an imp. I love it. I think this is the first time we’ve learned about this side of him in the show? I’m not certain. If it is, what a way to bring it in.
It’s not much for a full thought, I know. I just didn’t know where else to bring it up. Barney’s current arc has pretty much concluded by this point in the season, with just a couple loose ends to tie up re: reconciling with his parents and taking Logs out on a first date. We didn’t get that second part yet, unless you count fighting a horde of imps in a theme park before being petrified together a date. The finale is really Pugsly and Courtney’s time to shine, with a hint of Norma.
It’s fitting considering Barney has been the driving force of much of the season’s emotional moments. It’s been his season, with the others as important but still peripheral characters, and that’s only started to change with these last two episodes. He’s not unimportant now, just simply more recessed than before.
3. To Protecc the Realm of Memes
Courtney’s arc is the most fascinating for me. Perhaps because she’s become my favorite character – right after the show stealing, gut-busting, cameo-breaking antics of GORM – or perhaps because she’s able to grow without losing the chaotic demon persona that made her such a knockout hit at the start.
When we check in with her, she’s finally back in the demon realm, eating a drink with way too many eyeballs for my taste. She’s watching a news story about Telemachus and Zagan taking over “the neutral plane,” which is also known as the realm of memes, with a little foreshadowing for what future seasons could hold thrown in for good measure. Acting as a reminder of what her actions (or inactions) caused, we see how lonely she is, even when she’s “home.”
I love how it’s primarily a funny scene. Even though much of the episode is pretty serious, the humor never goes away for long and rarely undercuts the drama, which I like. Courtney’s coming to terms with her failures to support her new family and discovery that all she wanted was a home and not her old home.
So she comes back and helps Pugsly to fix her mess without getting too sappy, though first she has to get his trust again. And she ends up crying! Real happy tears! Don’t call it a redemption arc but do call it a homecoming.
4. Plot? What’s a Plot? I Don’t Know Any Plot.
Continued belowThe actual thrust of the episode revolves around Zagan, Temeluchus’ sister, pulling some Game of Thrones wackery to take the throne. It’s not clear if her plan was to always stab Temeluchus in the back or if she just wanted to mess around in the neutral plane with her big bro and when he was subsumed by Pugsly, she saw an opportunity. Whatever the case, she’s the actual big bad and I love that turn of events.
Sure it would’ve been fun to see Temeluchus actually take over for a bit but we already saw that in episode one and he’s always struck me as a bit of a bumbler anyway. Putting him into conflict with Zagan is much more fun, especially when it turns into an honest-to-goodness sibling fight, just with demonic powers and arm loss. Don’t worry, it was the robot arm. I think.
Oh! Oh! And Temeluchus has a new design that’s just a big version of Pugsly and it is adorable. It also lets Courtney make the argument that there’s something special about our plane and brings home the series’ themes of being made better by kindness and love. Who is the goodest of demon lords with the Good Boy Hat? Temmy is. Yes he is! Yes he is!
5. Giving Up the Ghost
Amazingly, Pauline doesn’t end up playing much of a part in the finale here. I was expecting her to be more active considering her role in things during the last couple episodes. It’s not a bad thing, just an observation. She ends up being another, albeit far more reluctant, helper to defend the park. Barney’s talk about legacy got through to her and while she really doesn’t change, she does do the right thing. It’s a good character to have: the Vegeta. Although in this case, Pauline is plotting revenge at the end and is whisked away by the mysterious season 2 cliffhanger character.
Poor Pauline. We barely knew the real, green you.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey. It’s been a while since a show has lived up to prior expectations this well. Congratulations to the whole team for putting together this show and I’m miffed that it only has a 6.2 on IMDB. Samurai Rabbit has a higher score! AND is getting a season 2 that may or may not be the second half of a first season order when this isn’t confirmed? That’s just not right.
I really, really hope Netflix gives/gave this show the green light for a season 2. It’d be a real missed opportunity to not let it live its full life after everything it took to make it. We want more Gorm! More Courtney! More Deathslide and Norma! More Logs and Barney! MOAR GORM. Creepy, funny, heartfelt, refusing to talk down to its audience, and very queer, this is one of the animated shows the 2020s deserves and deserves more of.
Best Lines of the Night:
1. Logs: “Why is Pauline Phoenix green…and dead?”
2. Courtney: “Trust me!”
Pusgly: “Why?”
Courtney: “Good point.”
