1x08 ...And Finally: Black Bolt

[6.4/10] I’m not a fan of prophecies in stories. A quarter of the time, they’re played completely straight, and it not only removes the dramatic tension from the work, but it devolves into a trite “you can’t fight fate” message. Another quarter of the time, someone does defy fate and it makes you wonder what the point of the prophecy was in the first place. Five percent of the time, someone comes up with a legitimately clever subversion and it can knock your socks off. But the other forty-five percent of the time (these are very precise figures, people), it’s just some predictably ironic twist on the whole thing that leaves the viewer easily guessing what the missing detail or reinterpretation of the prophetic words/scenes will be.

So from the moment that the seer kid (he got a name this week, but damn if I can remember) declared that his vision depicted Maximus as the unquestioned king of Atalan, and Black Bolt as “gone,” it was easy to predict that Maximus would be left in the ruins of the city on the moon, and that Black Bolt would evacuate the rest of the Inhumans somewhere else. You didn’t necessarily know how, but it was pretty damn obvious where all of this was going, and it took a lot of the jolt out of the proceedings.

The same goes for how heavily-telegraphed the destruction of Atalan was. From the minute that Karnak declared what the “flaw” in Maximus’s plan, it was overwhelmingly clear that Maximus would try to save the city, and wait until it was too late, and end up going down with the ship. That gave the audience a lot of the “how” of the ending, and considering the destination was already pretty damn predictable, it rendered much of this episode lacking in any tension.

SPOILERS FOR THOR: RAGNAROK -- It’s also interesting that this is basically the same ending that Thor 3 had. The bad guy, who is a sibling of the good guy, is neutralized in the destruction of their shared home. The good guy rescues his subjects by taking them to Earth. And there’s even a conspicuous echo of the “____ is not a place, it’s a people” verbiage. There’s enough similarity to make me wonder if it’s intentional.

I was also pretty nonplussed by the reveals and teases in the episode. The twist that Maximus basically (though inadvertently) tricked Black Bolt into killing their parents did absolutely nothing for me. I don’t know if it’s supposed to make Maximus more evil or more sympathetic or what, and on a better written show, that could count as complexity, but here it just comes off as a twist for the sake of a twist, that doesn’t really change the relationship between the characters or their current situation. Hell, Anson Mount (Black Bolt) isn’t even a good enough of an actor to use his non-verbal skills to make it seem like this “shocking” revelation had an effect on him.

What’s more, given the likely impending cancellation of Inhumans, the grand tease about this supposedly greater threat that the Inhumans have secretly been preparing for for years feels like something vestigial that’s unlikely to actually matter. Is it Thanos? The Kree come to destroy that which they once created? Maybe the Skrulls? Who knows, but considering we’ll never find out, it comes off as a shoe-horned in hook for something to come that never will, rather than a natural extension of the events we’ve witnessed. (The same goes for the cryptic mentions of “The Boss.”)

That said, the reason this episode doesn’t fare worse, at least on the rating side, is that some of the emotional and character material lands surprisingly decently. It’s no great shakes or anything, but there’s a handful of pairings here that work.

First and foremost, I was exceedingly glad to see Medusa and Louise reunited. Their connection was the high point of this series, and it was nice to see a grace note given to their friendship and story. Their dynamic is still good, and the smile that Medusa gives at Louise’s hug, Medusa’s reciprocal promise to put the necklace with Louise’s father’s remains on the room, and Louise’s reaction to letting those remains go were all easily the greatest thing here. Maybe that’s not a high standard, but it all legitimately good stuff, which owes a lot to the strength and rapport of the performers.

I’ll even go to bat for the Karnak-Gorgon business here. While a bit overwrought, I like the idea that Gorgon is angry and out of sorts from the second terrigenesis process, and that Karnak is torn between joy at having his dear friend back and guilt at the pain and discomfort this caused Gorgon. There’s a certain Pet Semetary quality here, and that’s a bit dehumanizing to Gorgon in a way that’s somewhat troubling and uncomfortable, but as bad as the dialogue is, the actor who plays Karnak does a good job selling the character’s love and remorse for his friend, which covers for a lot.

The rest of the episode is a mixed-bag character wise. The much ballyhooed Black Bolt/Maximus confrontation falls completely flat, both for Anson Mount’s underacting and Iwan Rheon’s overacting, and the terrible storytelling and dialogue. Auron’s story basically came to its conclusion last week, but she at least gets a nice moment in brokering the face-to-face with Medusa and Maximus. (And for what it’s worth, Maximus’s scene where he lamented that Medusa was once his only friend was pretty much the only time he was legitimately sympathetic.) Everyone else, from Crystal to Triton to Lockjaw, was basically a prop, doing varying degrees of cool-if-empty things that left the characters dramatically inert.

And the series leaves all the characters (save Maximus) on Earth. If we were to have another season of Inhumans, it would be a decent way to refresh the series, create crossover possibilities with Agents of Shield (which theoretically may still come to pass), and come up with novel conflicts for the group to overcome. It completes something of a season arc, where the Inhuman Royal Family is initially disdainful and/or fearful of humans, but after experiencing their kindness, decides to seek sanctuary with them. But it’s all pretty trite stuff, and leaves little-to-no-impact.

To be frank, I’m just glad that Inhumans is over. To be frank, between Agents of Shield ending, the diminishing quality of the Netflix shows, and this turd of a mini-series, my patience for the televised side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is growing thin. More and more, these shows are feeling like an obligation rather than a treat, something that feels like homework to keep up with this neat idea of interconnected storytelling on the small and silver screens where the minimal synergy and strained connections among show are increasingly not worth the effort to keep up.

Inhumans isn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it’s still easily the worst thing to come out of the MCU (and I slogged through all of Iron Fist), and even in eight episodes, it felt like too much time to spend with this show and this version of these characters. This finale isn’t terrible, and if anything, the fact that it no longer has to do character work and can just overload on plot helps it a bit, but it still feels like a pointless excursion, a chore of a television show, and Scott Buck’s least appealing television outing yet. The Inhumans are gone from Atalan and likely from our television screens. Good riddance.