“Sometimes when we try to help one person, another gets hurt”. When does the price of a rescue become greater than the reward? Well, when it concerns the person you love, that’s somewhere between nope and never. Some people are just worth rolling the dice for. In the thrilling finale to Sense8's first (and hopefully not last) series, Will risks it all to save Riley from the clutches of Whispers, but will he be prepared for the cost?
Episode 12, I Can’t Leave Her – With Riley captured and taken to a BPO facility, Will arrives in Iceland to rescue her with the entire Cluster in backup to tag in when required. Can they save her from the clutches of the Whispers? Meanwhile, Wolfgang makes a suicidal attack on his Uncle’s entire criminal gang to finally be free of them (with a little help from Kala).
If there’s only thing above all else, that’s clear in Sense8’s outstanding finale is how brilliantly effective its visiting and sharing character concept can be towards delivering a narrative. By simply removing the necessity to have all characters present at all times, it means that intricate location based stories can move with almost perpetual motion. Once the main rescue story gets going, it never stops or stalls as Will works his way through the compound security and out again. The main focus stays tight around Will as the point man and Nomi as his earpiece analyst backup. Any other Cluster members can just drop in at a moment’s notice, always with an effortless sense of surprise. What’s more, for the first time in the whole series, everybody has their own purpose, without which they all would have failed. The biggest step up here is Kala. After spending much of the series just worrying about her own love life, we finally see her role as the doctor/scientist of the group, “I do not know how to use my fists but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to fight”. It makes her character feel much more endearing as she plays a more active role. Others contribute some more familiar but still highly enjoyable skills. Obviously, Sun was going to get her fight on but watching her in action is as ever a pleasure. Her balcony drop kick was one of the episode’s best moments and you have to love her mild disappointment at only getting four guards to play with. Lito does a Team America and saves the world with his acting. His gradual flirtatious confidence gaining raises a few smiles. Capheus is the vehicle specialist and Wolfgang gets the most surprising call up for his criminal ruthlessness, “Maybe I can’t but I know someone who can”. More than anything, we’ve seen before, it demonstrates the power of a fully harmonised Cluster. The only shame here is that Riley goes the full duration as the Damsel. It would have been nice to see her demonstrate her unique skills at some point to “Make the 8” as Robert Baratheon would say.
Wolfgang’s sub-quest should also not be overlooked. It could have been a less satisfying required element to break up the main story, but it’s so much fun it almost steals the episode! It’s almost a John Wick scale one man demolition as Wolfgang guns his way through everyone around. A few nice twists, helped out by brief Cluster interactions. Kala’s kitchen bomb-making produces great results and their little non-goodbye gives the scenes just the moment of respite they need to avoid feeling monotone. What’s more, Wolfgang’s surprising finishing position throws fresh doubt his relationship with Kala. Despite his clear feelings for her, he’s afraid his darker side will corrupt her. The childhood flashback reprisal delivers this with immense shock. As satisfying as the main rescue mission story becomes, it would have been nice to see the episode include the odd moment or two more within the characters individual stories. While it concludes on a high of teamwork, the credits do roll with a few too many unanswered questions. The most frustrating area is still the main villain of Whispers, who feels too underdeveloped. We’re under no delusions he’s the bad guy but his motives are still vague at best. Then there’s the greater scale of the Sensate population; it’s implied there are more out there but it would have been nice to get at least some idea of where our Cluster fits into the bigger picture.
A surprise ace up the finale’s sleeve is Riley’s flashback to her child birthing trauma. Not only does it circle nicely into present story relevance some of imagery is utterly stunning. From the moment their car veers off the road, no punches are pulled. Just the basic emphasis on Riley’s isolation is enough to crank the drama right up as she desperately tries to protect her new life in the event of such tragedy. Her windshield escape, in particular, is positively brutal; it’s almost like something out of a Saw film. Not to mention the desolate and remote mountain scenery as she wanders hopelessly for help. Will’s opening flashback doesn’t fair as well. Yes, it implying him with a saviour complex supports his later actions but this has already been well reinforced over the series; like his early rescuing of the gun shot gang kid. Showing him being visited by, presumably another Sensate, at a younger age raises plenty of interesting questions about their pre-existing abilities before the series timeframe, but it just doesn’t go anywhere with it, which is a shame.
This episode is a fantastic and rewarding way to wrap things up. It's action packed and thrilling while still being immensely fun throughout. The Will & Lito reunion will reduce you to hysterics and you have to love the way Nomi’s beautiful car distraction plays out, “It’s a 14, it’s only a year old man!”. It’s a series that’s been a real breath of fresh air for science fiction by the way it’s downplayed..... well, the science fiction elements in favour of deeper character examination, which we rarely enjoy from more event-driven shows. The Wachowskis have stated they’re now taking a sabbatical following 6 years non-stop on the job with no film projects in their immediate future. Hopefully, this will give them plenty of time to consider keeping this television connection alive for the future. Well, we know Van Damme always comes back.