AWESOME I was going to make a post about this anyway, fantastic to know the public craves my takes.
Under a cut cause this got long lmao
So first off I think Season 5 is really good at avoiding Prequel-itis this is where that falls apart a bit. To be fair the most egregious culprit of this is 73 actually with the five minute infodump about Floor 13's Torture Maze Therapy??? I said "we don't have time for this" out loud. But also there's some stupid chess maneuvering that needed to happen for Season's 4 infodump about FUTURE's corruption on the surface to still make sense with SimInc. I actually do buy FUTURE playing along and biding its time but the fact that this was all part of SAYER's Grand Plan, and moreover that all of the plotting happens at a breakneck speed in the last five minutes of the season is so wonky.
And I'm soooo disappointed with Young's role because the ep had something awesome totally teed up - SAYER is offering this Young a deal; we know he doesn't take it and dies instead because S2-3 Young has no knowledge of any of this. I was really hoping for one moment of petty spite where he tells SAYER to fuck off and doesn't surface FUTURE and puts SOME kind of dent in its plans, like maybe SAYER's intent was to kill FUTURE immediately and instead it has to wait it out.
(I'm also genuinely a bit confused as to what part of the plan comes from who - SAYER told simYoung to tell FUTURE some shit and simYoung also told FUTURE some shit of his own volition and I think FUTURE is also doing some of its own shit. IDK I hate SAYER being the sole originator of all of this.)
This is part of a bigger beef I have that just now became a tipping point - as of S5, the only character who has any agency is SAYER (and OCEAN who is kinda SAYER). I was annoyed with this with SPEAKER getting battered around in S4, and in hindsight with FUTURE too. No one but OCEAN has gotten even a ghost of a leg up on SAYER, it never gets put on the back foot. And on some level, especially in anthology episodes, it's kind of like... sexyreassuring??? The bad guy is ALWAYS going to win and we all love the bad guy. But as the series gets more plotty it's starting to grate a little.
And back to Young, it's disappointing because I LOVE HIM IN THIS EPISOOOOOOOOODE I had a moment of "oh my god sayoung is becoming OTP for real" I love them at each other's throats I love him getting some jabs in. I love how sympathetic AND shitty this season has made him. I LOVE finding out his manuforge plan and how it fits with his paranoia and how it made SAYER even angrier at simYoung (an analog mind in a digital body how terrible :3c). And I think it's in-character for him to fold immediately to SAYER and surface FUTURE like he's told but would also be in-character (petty assss) and some fun little nonlinear character development for him to die ten toes down. And specifically him getting captured and toyed with by FUTURE is like c'mon mannnnnnnn we did this one already. I was so gleeful when I realized we were getting another iterative Youngdeath but what makes Youngdeaths so fun is that it's a different thing every time.
AND LAST THING the ending is super rushed after the pacing in this season has been peak af. Oh I just made myself mad because I traveled to a world where there's one last scene and it's a devlog from Brady where he's talking about how good the FUTURE project is going, it's making everyone laugh and developing a sense of humor yay. :) Can you imagine!!!!!
