WARNING: The following contains minor spoilers for Final Space. Watch episodes Mondays at 10:30PM EST on the TBS Network. Final Space Chapter 4 airs tonight.
It takes four punches to tell a guy you aren’t flirting with him. Good to know. Essentially I’ve gotten what I hoped for here, Gary has wildly overblown expectations of destined romance with Quinn the very moment they meet again. Quinn, however, doesn’t even remember him. While I’d find it hard to forget a guy who impersonated a space pilot to impress you, and not in a good way, she has bigger things on her mind. So far, Quinn and Avocato are the real heroes. And with that, a rivalry is born, and I love it.
Halfway through the episode there is a sequence I can only describe as magic. A haunting piano begins to play as Gary ventures into the vacuum of space, soon accompanied by a beautiful woman’s singing, and my desire for the Final Space OST grew three sizes this day. Mooncake once again gets a moment of character development and the last thing I expected was for this show to find more ways to make me feel so hard for this little green space ball. Additionally, Gary gets his own development, featuring Caleb McLaughlin! True to form, emotion is not sacrificed for comedy as we see these raw moments from Gary’s past. Were it not for the dashes of humor before and after, I might have cried at this sequence. But what I love about all of the threads in the narrative Final Space has so far is that there are smaller connections woven in, such as a quick line within Gary’s memory that suggests his father’s mission was the same as Quinn’s is now. The show doesn’t hold your hand or point these connections out because it’s so proud of itself, no, it’s subtle. Not so subtle you’d have to really look, but enough that you may feel a hint of pride for figuring things out. This show has made me think, theorize what may be to come. I think this is the kind of thing both kids and adults should have, a creative, action-packed experience with heartfelt and intricate storytelling.
So far, Chapter 4 might be my favorite! KVN finds a way to win me over and H.U.E. continues to be one of my favorite characters partially by being Tom Kenny’s robot voice saying “those dickheads from the infinity guard.” I’ve had a hard time trying to figure out the age range of this series, but that might be part of its charm. Its creator, Olan Rogers, has always gone with the beat of his own drum, so I can only assume he was able to do this even in the mainstream. You hear stories of creators like Alex Hirsch being censored by Disney with Gravity Falls, but something tells me that the TBS Network and executive producer Conan O’Brien, Mr. Rogers had a lot more free reign over his neighborhood. (Oh yes, I’m keeping this pun in.)
Tiny sidenote: Somebody should probably tell the IMDB page to change Gary’s name to Gary Goodspeed.
