So after the last 2 episodes everyone is really sad and
tense with lots of heavily poked sore spots and everyone is kind of angry with
each other. It’s poignant and shows all these characters I love interacting and
dealing with massive emotional impact
And, I like that we do have a team of teens who did have all of their vulnerabilities exposed and they didn’t run off in a massive epic huff but nor did they just get over it either.
We have a lot of tentative attempts to rebuild bridges
(and I say again that the part of this show I love so much is the relationships
– definitely over the plot lines) and lots of heavy anger and pain with some
beginnings of reconciliations.
Which is when the shadow people show up. Yes these people
just aren’t going away. They turn up and start killing people
They kill Ram’s awesome father and Tanya’s briefly seen
mother
I know this is to ratchet up the dramatic tension but
these characters were essential – parents in a YA series. Involved parents.
Caring parents! Don’t remove them like this!
This collapses Ram who is torn apart by this loss which
gets wrapped up with him and April rekindling their romance. And it devastates
Tanya who is desperate to protect her brothers – and destroy the shadow people.
For which he joins Quill
Quill, who has been asleep due to her pregnancy. She’s
being looked after by Charlie because he has Complicated Feelings about her:
even if she’s not his friend they’re still both the last of their kind which is
a powerful bond. And yes she’s pregnant. Also realising that, being a Quill,
her kids will probably eat her which isn’t something she’s very happy about but
she has other things on her mind – like war, the Shadow Warriors, protecting
Tanya and her brothers by being awesome and lethal (pregnant Quill are
apparently much more vicious and dangerous) and then training Tanya to fight as
well. All while being snarky, awesome and more than a little epic.
She wants her gun back – but she and Tanya also very much
want Charlie to use the Cabinet of Souls to wipe out the Shadows: for both
vengeance and to keep Tanya’s family safe.
Ram just falls apart because he can’t see any win here.
Wiping out the shadows will also kill April just after they’ve both reaffirmed
their love. (And removing that shadowiness will also remove April’s mother’s
magical cure as well). He also pretty much brings the whole painful impact of the
series together – they’ve suffered a lot, dealt with a lot, seen terrible
things and there doesn’t seem to be an end to this. He is losing any kind of
hope – which is excellent. Because after what they’ve been through in such a
short time, what they’ve lost, what they’ve had to adapt to – that’s a lot of
trauma and definitely is going to lead to the edge of breakdown.
And Charlie is till torn. Matteus is utterly against
Charlie using the Cabinet to unleash genocide against an entire species, no
matter how bad they are. Charlie is torn by the horror of this crime. He’s terrified
of what he is becoming. He also has to face that this is the end of his hope:
he had a hope that the souls of the dead could bring back his people – not be
used as a weapon.
Charlie tries to threaten Dorothea and the Governors into
helping – showing how far he is becoming that person he doesn’t want to become
(what Matteusz fears he’ll become) though Dorothea does claim that as Academics
they don’t actually want evil things. Honest. And would help anyway
She doesn’t, all she does is ominously talk about the “Arrival” but she said they would help. Well, they kind of reveal how the shadows are arriving but it’s not exactly helpful beyond acknowledging that they can’t stop them
So that leaves the cast gathered, with Shadows
threatening everyone everywhere, invasion looming with the Shadows wanting one
thing – April, with their leader’s shared heart – to return with them. The
choices are April goes with them and powers up the leader. Charlie unleashes
genocide, killing himself and April. Or the Shadows invade and kill everyone.
Until April offers another option and Charlie visibly
rips another chunk out of his conscience – and shoots April. Shooting April
destroys the shared heart and kills the king of the shadow people: a king that
all Shadow people are forced to obey. This comes with lots of nifty speeches
about finding the light again and basically having the courage to do evil and
find your way back to good because April is good at this
Aside – adding in here that Quill has had epic and funny
lines all through this episode because she is Quill and is awesome
The shadows become inert but there’s a snag… they’re
going to invade and kill everyone anyway: Charlie can sense this as the new
king (since they’ve got this whole regicide=new king thing going) and realises
that the invasion and destruction of Earth is still on the cards and there’s
only one other choice
The Cabinet of Souls. He is going to use the weapon to
destroy them all
Big, epic, and full of every moment of grief and pain
Charlie is feeling: and still being sufficiently up itself that you can almost
hear Quill mocking him for it.
Tanya and Quill fight to keep the Shadows away from
Charlie, fighting together, saving each other’s lives – while Charlie finishes
invoking the mantra that unleashes the souls. They fly from the cabinet and
kill all the shadows. All the Shadows on Earth and their home planet – actually
destroying the entire planet with the Rhodian souls. I can only assume that the
Shadow people are now extinct
And Quill jumps on Charlie, knocking him way from the
soul targeting him (and the shadow soul inside him). She saves him, much to his
utter horror, demanding he lives with the sacrifice. Charlie is absolutely
broken by this – dying with them seems to have been something he was hoping
for: this was not just an utter crime of genocide and extinction he unleashed,
but also expended the souls of his people, his last chance of bringing them
back.
The shard that was aimed at him goes to April – Ram grabs
her body and for whatever reason her body is still dead – but the shadow
warrior who was holding her at blade edge now speaks with April’s voice. Yup,
April has body swapped with a shadowy demon thing.
Between April being a shadow demon, Charlie’s pain (an Matteusz fear/morality), Quill’s pregnancy, Ram’s trauma (and relationship with shadow April), April’s mother being unable to walk again and Tanya’s grief and training with Quill… there’s a lot of hooks here
Now let’s throw in another. Dorothea goes to report to
the Governors because she’s made a big mistake in assuming Charlie wouldn’t use
the Cabinet because they had plans for that and the Arrival. She is duly
executed for this.
How? The Governors turn their back – freeing the Weeping
Angel to kill her…
Weeping Angels!!!!! Oh such an awesome classic Who
villain who have been ruined in almost every episode since they were
introduced. Episodes we will never think of these again.
And, lo, Class
has ended its first season. And I love so much about this – especially the
characters and their relationships which was so well done. As well s some truly
amazing diversity and inclusion which we’ve praised since the first episode
because there’s so much here (openly, non-stereotyped Sikh spot sportsman,
genius Nigerian-ancestry Black girl, gay couple whose relationship is treated
as loving as respectful. Quill who is made of pure awesomeness and snark).
I am frustrated by how short this season was. If Class had a flaw, it would be that its
world building and storylines didn’t come close to matching the awesome
characters and relationships that were depicted. And even those were SCREAMING
for more development or exploration. I think each character pretty much got an
episode but they needed more. There was space for so much more. This whole
season felt horrendously rushed because there was a ridiculous amount to pack
into such a short space. I can see why some people are critical of Class. Beyond the fact they have no
souls. Though I still think they have no souls, no appreciation for awesome and
are clearly possessed by demonic spirits of sadness and despair.
Also in some ways Class
is so good at various forms of inclusion and willingness to not just portray
diversity but spend some time actually exploring some elements of that, that I’m
even more annoyed when it falls back on poor tropes. I do wonder if maybe I am
more annoyed by these tropes in Class
because of the high (almost unprecedented because very few of the shows we’ve
reviewed come close) bar it sets. I ask myself if I would mention these
elements or be as annoyed by them in any other show where my hopes are already
suitably crushed? I think I would, but I wonder
So, Class
you’re better than having a disabled character that you then magically “cure”
of their disability (despite the end). You’re better than that. You’re better
than Ballon, introducing the Black man as a love interest and then killing him.
You’re better than Ram’s dad, showing an awesome, supportive parent, a rare
depiction of a Sikh on television and having a YA show where the parents are
THERE, and then killing him. You’re better than using Tanya’s mother for a
throwaway death. You’re better than this Class.
We know you are. The threat and showdown was epic enough
