discussing the final season of carmen sandiego
*spoilers* umm....so yeah, i finished watching carmen sandiego, and iām left in a state of perpetual sadness and despair. i feel like the ending of the show wrapped up wayyy too fast, and kind of left off on a bit of an unsatisfactory note for some of the characters. although i love the large and diverse cast of carmen sandiego, one of the drawbacks of having all those characters and arcs and storylines makes it harder to cram in a satisfying conclusion for everyone in a twenty-minute episode. so hereās what i would do if there was more time.Ā
letās start off with the threads that i think were tied off pretty well:Ā
julia & chaseĀ devineaux: i wasnāt really a shipper of julia and devineaux but i actually really enjoyed their relationship throughout season 4. we see a lot of character growth from devineaux in the way that he interacts with julia and the world. julia pushes devineaux to become a better person, to see things with a broader perspective and from other peopleās points of view. and he does really change a lot into an understanding person instead of the overconfident, arrogant detective we first saw him as in season 1. in addition, he also grows to respect julia as a person and partner, and itās completely adorable how he looks at her while zari tells julia that theyāll follow her lead. also i love how he keeps wearing his lucky cat jacket from san francisco in season 4.Ā Ā
el topo & le chevre: okay, i was pretty much shipping these two the minute they showed up on the screen together. you can tell how much they care about each other throughout the series. whenever one of them gets hurt, you can really see how they prioritize each other over whatever thing vile is planning. when things are good, theyāre so sweet and they have so much fun together. and they take dumb cute selfies. theyāre so, so adorable, and this season definitely brings the shipping fodder. and they end the season moving on from vile and running a food truck together. the only thing iām mad about is that we definitely needed more screen time from them.Ā
shadowsan: i didnāt like shadowsan in season 1 but over the course of the series he really went through a lot of major character development and i love how heās now basically a grumpy dad figure to carmen. the season ends with him finally reuniting for good with his brother in japan, and itās a satisfying conclusion for his arc. i also love how he was the one to help carmen in the finale when sheās struggling with the brainwashing thing. which is way better than the brainwashing being resolved by some bs like true loveās kiss. (also carmen and gray are way too hurt and theyāre super not ready for a relationship.)Ā carmen sandiego is a show that emphasizes the importance of family with this father-daughter duo, and i think thatās something really valuable. also iām interpreting that shadowsan isnāt permanently moving to japan, but rather just visiting his brother. heās still definitely going to be there for carmen going forward when she needs him.Ā
player & carmenās friendship: i love this show for having a male/female friendship with absolutely no romantic feelings going on. itās a solid friendship, and depicts a wholesome, supportive relationship. absolutely no qualms here.
and hereās all the stuff that needs expanding/fixing:Ā
tigress: i actually really love tigress as a character, and i personally think that there should have been more of her in the series. i would have liked to see more depth and motivation to her, since she has a lot of character potential. i donāt really know how i would rewrite tigressās arc, because itās virtually nonexistent and thereās not too much to go off of. i donāt think she needs a redemption arc, but i would give her more of a spotlight. (also low key fictional-crushing on her.) i would like to include sort of a tigress-centric episode, which can also generally be more expansion on the inner workings of vile.
cleo & saira: villain couple. villain couple. they need to be a villain couple, enough said. i would rewrite season 4 to have include an emotional downbeat moment in which saira struggles with being able to fit in with society and humans and being completely awkward at it while cleo, in all her regal and ettiquite-esque manners, tries to help. this wouldnāt really help with the main plot, but it would be humanizing and provide character depth. i feel like this could be the b-plot in the tigress episode somehow.Ā
coach brunt: you donāt betray family. at this point, coach brunt has lost the daughter she raised, who, in her mind, has basically backstabbed her entirely. coach brunt was also betrayed by shadowsan and left for the police to find, and in season 4, malestrom basically abandons her to drown. and itās highly likely that somewhere in her backstory sheās been betrayed many times, likely by her own blood family, which would provide context for why sheās such a loyal person to vile, who she thinks of as her found family. in rewriting season four, iām adding one extra episode thatās solely on the backstory of coach brunt. in this episode, we would explore bruntās upbringing and the first time she is betrayed by someone she considers family. in my opinion, coach brunt was likely pushed to fall by another influence, but she also makes the conscious choice to choose revenge over moving on. potentially, we could also explore bruntās budding friendship with the mechanic, who we never see again after that one episode, as well as a reflection upon this from her adult self.Ā
gray & the freaking mind control thing & his moral struggles: *sighs* i can see what the show is going for, but i really just donāt see it in the execution. the way that gray struggles with morality is like itās an on and off switch. heās either graham, basic civilian, or crackle, basically evil. in that one episode, he flip flops between being overly heroic, even taking out time from his day to specifically track down a random kid to return his wallet instead of just dropping it off at the police station or leaving it where he found it. and then the flip side is like heās just robotically relapsing into stealing mode, where he just suddenly has to impluse to steal literally anything. i feel like this flip flop wasnāt really a good portrayal of his struggle and didnāt really demonstrate many active choices made by him. and the way that heās just likeĀ āiām actually just evilā when he confronts carmen at the lab is just super one-dimensional. i just donāt buy it that he flips to vile so quickly in the span of a few episodes. i feel like there should have been more active reflecting and the decision should have been dragged out longer.Ā
also itās revealed in the finale that gray also changed his crackle rod to not go beyond a stun, and i think this was a nice touch, because it demonstrates his aversion to murder, which calls back to the first caper, in which heās confronted with killing the archeologist at the excavation site. but he doesnāt end up having to make that choice, because carmen stops him. but this time, itās his own choice to take that step away from vile ideals. i donāt think gray is ever going to be aĀ āheroā of the traditional sense or have a complete redemption arc, because it just doesnāt fit him. to be honest, i donāt know what the future will hold for gray, but i definitely think of he will fall somewhere along the lines of red x (teen titans) or catwomanās (in certain comic runs) gray morality. (and i think the way gray returns to vile kind of screws this up.) heās still going to steal stuff sometimes probably, but heās not going to straight up murder people. he would probably be the type to work for himself alone mostly, but be okay teaming up with the good guys sometimes. definitely no joining evil organizations tho.Ā
gray & carmen & the āi know youāre in there somewhere fight:ā i definitely ship these two, but i think theyāve got a long way to go before theyāre really ready to admit their feelings for each other. iām happy that theĀ āi know youāre in there somewhere fightā didnāt culminate in a kiss scene being the thing that snapped carmen out of the trance. because that is just so cliche and not the message of the show. instead, itās shadowsan who does. and that makes sense going along with the themes of family. i think the issue with this i dislike how there is no more elaboration after carmen supposedly kills gray. this is her best friend. i would imagine that the reaction would be greater, since he was alsoĀ her friend and teammate during the months they were both working under vile. and then when carmenās brainwashing wears off, she agonizes that she killed her best friend. but thatās it. theĀ āi know youāre in there somewhere fightā is the last screen appearance of both of them together. then itās directly cutting to taking down vile. there should have been a hospital scene where carmen rides with him in the ambulance and talks to him as heās unconscious, and leaves behind a note for him to read when heās awake.Ā
i just really think there should be a āheart to heartā scene somewhere in this finale where they confront their feelings (not romantic stuff, but more about like shared trauma at the hands of vile and their broken apart friendship). this could happen at that sydney cafe. both times carmen and gray go on a ādateā she leaves him sitting there alone, bewlildered. i think the finale should include a scene of them leaving the cafe together and then walking away and waving to each other. this shows development in their relationship, and that they are now closer, but it also visually shows that they still have differences as they walk away with a sort of two toned kind of environment angle that shows the different paths they have chosen. (and carmen calls him gray. and he doesnāt correct her.) itās more of a see you later, than a goodbye though. weāre also getting rid of that part of when gray says he doesnāt want to complicate carmenās life in the hospital scene. instead, heās going to ask for a sheet of paper on which he will write an indiscernible letter to carmen. (the same letter will be seen in at the carmen brand outerwear hq a few scenes later for continuity, but unopened at the time, as if carmenās not yet ready to read it. i feel like both of them need to heal a bit on their own before theyāre ready to reconnect. gray knows he has hurt carmen in the past but he also knows it will hurt her if he disappears without a trace, so heās leaving her with the choice if she wants to see him again instead of making the choice for her.)
ivy & zach & found family: carmen leaves a note behind for ivy and zach and leaves to find her mother. i feel like this did not handle team redās found family very well. basically, the whole show is setting up this importance of family, especially found family not blood family kind of narrative. vile blood runs in carmenās veins but she chooses to do good and find her own family. ivy and zach both choose carmen, their found family, over their racing career. i think that they should have stuck together, and when carmen goes to find her mom, they would have been totally onboard dropping her off at the airport and saying aĀ āsee you soonā or actually driving her to carlotta valdezās house in lydia (the car). i just donāt think that splitting them up via a note is really a satisfying conclusion to the whole found family aspect. and in that time skip carmen really should have stopped by to say hi to the zach and ivy and the acme squad instead of maintaining the air of mystery. that would have definitely pushed the family feel, instead of the mysterious loner archetype.Ā
that time skip thing: yeah, no. this part was completely not needed and unhelpful. instead, weāre going to have carmen hug her mother at the airport, and go to visit all of her friends and found family, especially shadowsan in japan and ivy and zach in presumably boston. and the time skip will be a few onths not two effing years. i think itās natural for them to grow apart a bit and pursue their own personal goals in life after vileās gone, but theyāll definitely be staying in touch and reconnecting and seeing each other pretty often. and lastly of all, carmen will meet gray at the cafe in sydney.
basically, this is how i would redo the episodes for season 4.Ā
episode 1: the beijing bullion caper. (this episode remains as is for the most part, i would like more expansion on lady doksu and shadowsan's past since it seems like their pasts are more tied together than is revealed)
episode 2: the big bad ivy caper. (this episode remains as is for the most part.)
episode 3: the robo caper. (the scenes in which carmen first meets the robot and ivy runs it over with a truck can stay the same. where we start to deviate is with grayās story with a revised, more complex, and in depth view of his moral struggles. instead of being unaware largely as gray flops between graham/crackle, heās going to be a lot more aware. heās still going to rob the house, but instead itās because he feels hopeless that since he was previously a criminal, thatās all heās ever going to be. gray doesnāt want to be a civilian, and feels like the only thing that he can do instead is be a part of vile. however, when he sees carmen again, heās going to realize that if she got out of vile, then that means he has a chance to get out of it too. gray comes to a crossroads of deciding between carmen and vile, good and evil.Ā
episode 4: this will be the episode that concentrates on tigress, with a cleo/saira b-plot. most of this episode will take place within vile, and give more insights on the workings of the organization.Ā
episode 5: the himalayan rescue caper. (this episode is going to get a real makeover. with the insertion of episode 4, this creates more actual space between the last time we see gray grappling with his big choices, which makes it feel like more time has passed. so it actually feels like he had more time to think. carmenās still going to try to rescue gray, and the part with player can stay the same. as gray is manipulated by malestrom, i think this episode should further emphasize how vile manipulates their recruits and amp up the shittiness of how malestrom is acting. i think malestrom should say something along the lines indicating that vile is grayās only family left, this is what he was born to do, he belongs with them, and make up a bunch of bullshit lies about carmen. malestrom will portray this stuff as the ātruthā and then say something like āwe told you to the full truth, while carmen was hiding your past from you. didnāt you say you wanted to piece together more of your past?ā (which gray did express interest in a previous episode.) since more time has passed, malestrom will play theĀ āif carmen wanted to rescue you, she would have done so already. she abandoned you.ā card. of course, itās not easy to get into a super advanced vile facility, so instead carmenās going to be having more struggles with getting in, which is the real reason sheās taking a while.) i want to keep the scene where he says that his name is crackle, not gray and not graham. i think this scene is particularly painful because graham/crackle is kind representative of the two sides of good and evil that gray thinks he has to choose between. gray will accuse carmen of abandoning him, both in the present but demonstrating that heās still hurt by the time when she first left vile, and all those times when she kept secrets from him and disappearing in sydney. carmen asks him to leave with her, but instead of him being like āiām bad, and i was always a villain,ā heās just going to be hurt and feel manipulated and be so conflicted. i feel like gray would choose vile, but not because itās where he belongs but because heās afraid of being brainwashed again if he doesnāt agree and because he just wants to know the truth, which vile happened to tell him first (and carmen had been hiding it from him for a while). why would it make sense for gray to willingly side with vile because heāsĀ āthroughly bad?ā actions speak louder than words, and itās clear that heās definitely not evil enough for vile.Ā
episode 6: the vile history caper. (weāre just going to keep this episode as is for the most part. but like more el topo and le chevre moments.)Ā
episode 7: this will be the coach brunt backstory episode, piggybacking off of her hurt feelings about maelstromās intended betrayal.Ā
episode 8: the egyptian decryption caper. (this one is just going to be as is for the most part. the cleaners kidnap carmen, but weāre going insert one more painstaking scene of gray learning of vileās plan to kidnap carmen. heās not going to know they are planning to brainwash her. heās going to feel conflicted and try to protest, but then realizes that now that heās stuck with vile, if he goes against them heās probably going to get brainwashed himself. and the brainwashing was really traumatizing, so itās understandable heās really afraid of it happening to him again.)
episode 9: the viennese waltz caper. (mostly just keeping this episode as is, but more worrying gray scenes. i feel like he should have had a bigger reaction to seeing carmen so unlike her personality. carmenās lack of empathy should have pushed himself to question if vile is really a healthy place for anyone if theyāre so willing to brainwash his best friend in a greater capacity. i think gray should recognize how bad the situation is but he still wonāt act upon it since heās trapped in the nostalgia of their old squad and since heās been abandoned by carmen before, heās too afraid that reversing the brainwashing will result in a repeat of her leaving him again. and heās still afraid of the brainwashing.)Ā
episode 10 + 11 + 12. the dark red caper. (yeah, this episode is kind of just way too quickly wrapped up. iām going to expand this into a three parter so we have more time to focus on everyone. basically, weāre going to expand this for the angst. and because this is the last season and i need more content. i feel like we can follow the general plot trajectory but with more nuance and include the improvements i wrote above about the finale. absolutely pushing the found family trope to its limits, and less vagueness since thereās not going to be another season. oh yeah, and the scene when carmen fights shadowsan, i feel like they could have amped up the emotional stuff and make it as much as about him being her dad figure as the doll because #foundfamily. and also the extra time gives more space for all of that other stuff like endings for all the characters, and more team red found family, and a bit about the non-jailed vile operatives, and the acme team, and also maybe a little infrastructure rebuilding montage, and also that carmen and gray moment.)Ā Ā
basically i just want a satisfying ending for gray, and i love him, and he canāt just stare out of the hospital bedroom and agree to stay out of her life while melancholy music plays.Ā
