▷ On “Endgame”
So, I can’t lie. Most of what I am feeling right now is pretty much straight-up disappointment.
The Season 1 finale was so well-crafted, following directly but surprisingly out of information we’d been fed over the course of the season. We got to see all our heroes in action but none was cheated of a moment to grow or to connect with another character. Yes, it did have its own little Deus ex Machina in the Starrotech cure, but that ploy set up an awesome, collaborative final endeavor that culminated in some fast-paced, emotionally fulfilling ass-kicking. And everyone got their time.
In that way, I feel like the previous episode (“Summit”) would have been a much more fitting finale, excepting in that it didn’t resolve a few loose ends. Honestly, this last episode stretched itself so thin that several scenes that should have been given the time and weight of an arc in a full episode - Jaime’s confrontation of Black Beetle, Nightwing’s resignation and of course, Wally’s “death” - were treated as quick, passing moments, completely robbing them of their impact. And yet there was still so much left untouched. Who’s raising Lian? Where is Garth? Who the hell is Rocket marrying?
Yes, some of these things would have been handled in a theoretical season 3. Yes, some of them will be answered in comics. And Invasion had some truly magnificent moments in the middle (“Depths,” “The Hunt,” “Summit”). But looking at exactly what we’ve been given, I’m left at the end of the season feeling as I did at its start: Season 2 bit off a little more than it could chew.
It was still great. But compared to the sleek, well-oiled machine that was Season 1, it just doesn’t have quite the same punch.
