Some of my final thoughts (but not really because I always think of new things to be mad or happy about)
1. The lack of stakes. There were no NDEs or even wounds or anything for our main crew. They just kinda got stuck. Yes, Eddie coming in to help was great, but that lack of fear or real emotion made this fall flat for me. No matter how cool the zip line scene was 😭
2. Eddie NOT CHOOSING FOR HIMSELF. Everything he’s done this season has been off screen. Every meaningful conversation. Every character building moment. We got glimpses and that’s it. He had a whole storyline about choosing joy for himself and going to Texas to get his son and what happened? He was STILL planning to leave until Chimney parented him and said “no you’re not”. Don’t even get me STARTED on the fact that when Buck got upset about it Eddie was pissed off at him, but Chimney tells him not to leave and he just suddenly stays? Why all of the angst? Why did they not have him realize his place with the 118 during the emergency and then choose for himself to stay? That’s such a slap in the face for his character development.
3. Buck transferring?? Like it’s reminding me of when Maddie ran away and Eddie went to dispatch and Buck tried to transfer then. Everyone was like “no!!” But this time around they were silent? Also him transferring didn’t really shock me because of the above example, but him saying “it’s just a number” 😒 he would NOT. I know this man is tired and came to terms with people leaving since Bobby is dead and Eddie was leaving AGAIN so he was probably just cutting off his emotional ties with that, but that still felt so ooc to me.
4. Kenny’s speech was beautiful. Out of all the negative, I will say that this speech was so amazingly performed! He needs an Emmy. I do wish Hen would be Captain because her storylines are getting a little misogynistic, but if it wasn’t her I want it to be Chimney.
5. The wrapped up montage that sped ran everyone back to where they were. Like, Bobby’s death really took everyone’s nicely paced storylines and kicked them so hard to the curb that we got smacked over the heads with these “endings” in the last few minutes. They deserved better. We deserved better. MARA DESERVED BETTER
6. The lack of Buddie not necessarily as romantic, but even as just friends who had no communication. 8x17 was PERFECT showing them fighting, finally communicating, becoming a family. Like regardless of them not showing romantic feelings realization, there wasn’t even good friendship representation. No talks about the transferring, no talks about Eddie and Chris moving back at the end, no talks about him moving out, “it was never really mine. I was just SUBLETTING”?????? I know this’ll probably be addressed in season 9, but to end a whole season on that down note for them, leaving us with a sour taste about it for the summer? Come on.
7. The BOBBY of it all. Truly egregious. His death was so incredibly shoehorned in and it hasn’t helped anyone’s storylines. All of them got cut at the knees. Yes, death is many times out of nowhere in real life, but this isn’t real life. This is a network tv show. You don’t do stuff like that unless the audience has already been prepared to know that characters could die at any time and we weren’t because it was made known that they didn’t want to kill characters off. So here we are now with trust issues, grief, and a feeling of betrayal about it all. And then for the send off for Peter to be so abysmal…what happened behind the scenes? What was so bad that they were so disrespectful to not just him but us as an audience? The suspicious way they’d say things, the April fools script “leak”, all of the references to miracles this season…all of it adds up to Bobby alive somewhere and instead it lead to Madney having a baby named yet again after someone who has passed.
8. Was that queerbaiting? Hmmm kinda! The show itself is not queerbaiting yet because it’s not over. They could be (and probably are) planning to do Buddie in season 9 and all of the PR was setting up the GA for that. However, the PR itself WAS queerbaiting because it was 80% about Buddie and all right before the episode instead of spread out over summer, which they know is going to be taken by us as “hey this means something big is happening for them in the finale” and so we watch…then nothing really happens. That’s awful. Coming from someone who has worked in marketing, they absolutely used Buddie as both a bait to make people watch the finale and to ease the GA into the thought of it. HOWEVER!! Do not go blaming Oliver and Ryan! They’re doing their jobs. They stayed coy. Oliver may play into it more, but he has always stayed respectful and sympathetic about the ship. It’s not their fault for any of this (except maybe Oliver with leaking that script mentioned earlier, that was wrong my guy). Blame Tim, ABC, and their marketing/PR department.
In summary, I think they had so much potential for a beautiful finale, but they missed the whole point by building up big changes and then not committing to anything.
