REVIEW: Marvel's Inhumans "...And Finally: Black Bolt"
There is this inspiring line of remembering that a home is not where you are but the culture you make. It’s the people not the place that make something worth protecting, and therefore protecting the people takes precedence even at the expense of the place. It’s truly an inspiring cause in the middle of an action sequence. Oh wait, that’s what happened in Thor: Ragnarok. Here is just a severely weaker version disguised as a season finale.
In a weird way, Thor: Ragnarok works better as a season finale than this episode. We come back to the characters we know best and have this massive explosion to burn the bridges of everything we know. Not to mention, we have the final development of our main character to his final status as a king for all the right reasons. Those things would all be fascinating for Inhumans as well, but we’ve officially wasted all the time for things like character development.
I’m sorry to those who have not watched the movie yet, but I couldn’t help but remember the climax as they developed a plan to evacuate the entire city. Already in the finale, they broke the cardinal rule of mentioning a product vastly superior to it in every way. Yes, the movie had years of build-up, but the comparison just reminds me of how smaller the show is, especially when the finale is supposed to be the final emotional punch.
It’s a sad sign that an entire city was destroyed and the most emotion I felt was knowing that Louise got her father’s ashes on the moon. I honestly didn’t think I was going to see any human character again, so that was a nice touch. Plus, there’s the fact that what she wanted wasn’t completely illogical like bringing Gorgon back to life or whatever Maximus meant to happen with the city almost being destroyed. But she’s not a main character, and we have to deal with another story.
It’s a shame because this was probably the first time we had even the slightest bit of tension. Of course, it’s ruined by nothing even remotely resembling obstacles preventing them from evacuating the Moon. Am I supposed to believe that stopping Maximus is one? The second they speak to a crowd, they already won back the power.
Where’s the sacrifice in that? What have we learned? It just reminds us how the whole season was a waste of time.
In addition, I’m not one of those people who are only satisfied with something unless a main character dies, but I will admit having every single one of them survive is a disappointing ending. Leaving Black Bolt behind in a crumbling city with Maximus also had all the promise of an actual conflict with the potential for a lesson in what it means to be a king and leader. Then it’s turned around to have Black Bolt escape with no problem. I feel sorrier for the wall guy who, you know, DIED for this.
On top of all that, the final disappointment would have to be the “twist” (and I use the term lightly) regarding Black Bolt’s parents. Likewise, it also reminds me of the uselessness of the flashbacks, but this goes further in wasting more moments. We waste Black Bolt’s only lines in the show, greatly undermine the death of his parents, and only see Maximus as a jerk rather than a villain with a story. Maybe we don’t get a good resolution with Karnak, Gorgon, Medusa, Crystal, or anyone really, but at least they aren’t tossed aside for something worse, like a mysterious threat that will never happen.
Could it somehow be connected to the new season of Agents of SHIELD which takes place in space this time? I guess it makes sense if they’re somewhat connected. Except that show has characters who act like real people most of the time, aren’t complete morons when it comes to dealing with bad guys and making plans, and have decent fight scenes. Perhaps there will be a tie somehow, but from where it looks now, it looks like that show will be facing all the problems the characters in Inhumans left behind with no intention of stopping. Season five hasn’t even started yet, and I’m already more sympathetic to those people than the Royal Inhumans.
While this was probably one of the more structured of the episodes in this short season, there is still little to redeem it. Not only was there no decent character development to reach this point, there was no clear ending to reach. Let’s hope we can soon return to a time of character depth and action before being doomed to return to this again, hopefully starting with The Punisher.
