Please note, spoilers ahead.
The Outsider Season Finale is the perfect encapsulation of HBO’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel — at times it’s a thrilling, beguiling masterwork, and at others it’s a slow, meandering mess.
And that’s the frustrating thing about The Outsider, it should have been great. The cast, the cinematography, the source material, the showrunners, the producers — it all should’ve spelled instant classic for HBO, on the same level of a True Detective. After the first two, stunning episodes it definitely seemed like it was on that track.
However, the ensuing episodes never found a consistent tone, pace, or level of excellence. Some weeks you’d be hit with thrilling like The Tear-Drinker or something redundant like The One About the Yiddish Vampire. It belabored points like Ralph’s (Ben Mendelsohn) disbelief in the supernatural for nearly every episode of the season only to have him become a true believer, no questions in a matter of five minutes. The series’ biggest sin, however, was it built up a big evil character, only to have him (presumably) crushed fairly easily by a none-to-powerful hero.
The Outsider Season Finale, ‘Must/Can’t’ is all these problems spanned across one episode. It opens with with the continuation of the firefight between Jack Hoskins (Marc Menchaca) and our heroes. Jack, being the marksman he is, takes out Andy (Derek Cecil), Howard (Bill Camp), Seale Bolton (Max Beesley), and Alec (Jeremy Bobb)…but is snapped out of his El Cuco-induced trance by Holly (Cynthia Erivo) screaming “Damn You to Hell.”
Really? That is what snaps him out of this demonic hold placed over him? It’s all too quick, and too neat, and too unbelievable of a moment to close out a season-long arc with Jack Hoskins.
From there, Holly and Ralph head into the caves to confront El Cuco (Paddy Considine). Before they can take action Claude Bolton (also Considine) comes in, shoots his Cuco-clone. As they leave Ralph sees two ghosts (those of his son and the Peterson boy he shot), and knows he must give Cuco the coup de grace.
Again, way too neat, way too unbelievable. How could this all-consuming demon get iced by a cop, an unhinged ex-con, and an unarmed detective. It couldn’t do anything to stop them? Yes, it was “weak” but it’s a DEMON. I know this is a Stephen King property, and a bunch of children defeated a murderous clown demon, but at least they undermined that demon’s existence by proving they didn’t fear him.
Here? It’s an ex-con unloading on him with a shotgun, and a non-believer turned absolute believer cop, caving his skull in. Oh, and speaking of Ralph — he can see ghosts on the now? And why were they (his son and the Peterson brother he shot) to help him?
From there, we get a slow farewell montage where everything is tied up in a bow. Of course, we’re waiting for the “dun dun dunnnnnn” moment. It was so painfully telegraphed, that you were just waiting for all these moments of closure to pass so we could get to it.
And then it came. Holly sees a specter of Jack Hoskins, then we see a big cut on her arm. How did the all-seeing, all-knowing detective not see an obvious cut on her arm? She knows how El Cuco operates – why didn’t she nor Ralph (who also knows how he operates) check themselves out post-cave? Did they accept the cut was from the cave-in, or are we just not worried about logic?
And the shame of it all really could be that this was a way to set up a second season. The Outsider Season Finale just felt like a rush to get everything done, and then employ a cliffhanger to potentially set up a second season. Surprise endings have worked beautifully for HBO limited series before — see Sharp Objects and Watchmen as an example.
Was this a bad episode? No, it wasn’t. As with every episode — the cast and cinematography elevated everything. Erivo, Mendelsohn, and Considine were all terrific in their roles. Mendelsohn probably had his best performance of the series because he was actually given dialogue befitting his prowess. He was able to act instead of being a passive viewer of the case. The cinematography is stark, and breathtaking, and expansive and claustrophobic. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
But, it could have been so much better. A stronger final stand between El Cuco and our heroes would’ve made this episode better. Cut back on the meandering epilogue, and give us what we came for — the battle between good and evil.
That perfectly summates the series though — a good series that could’ve been so much better.
