TADC and the Simple Pleasure of Watching A Story Well Told
It's often the case that a show or series just never knows when to end itself, that it keeps on going far past the point of tiredness and nausea, mutating into a husk of its former self.
Many examples come to mind like Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, or even as far back as Game of Thrones and Dexter.
What is so nice, so satisfying about Episode 8 is how neatly everything in the series has payed off, and also become recontextualized with what was elaborated upon in the episode:
Like with the idea that Kinger knows more than he lets on and that the dark calms him, introduced in Episode 2:
Or the set-up of how the cast subconsciously could manifest objects and events in the Circus from Episode 6:
Then there's the call-backs to the Pilot, the mirror scene coming back up again made me gasp. (Also holy animation improvement batman!)
Then there's the recontextualization of the Exit from THE PILOT as a place of safety, and as an example of subconscious manifestation as early as the pilot:
All of these callbacks deliver on things that have been set-up for the entirety of the series, and these references don't subsist on purely nostalgic fanservice either:
They develop upon these ideas, and use them to propel the plot. Pomni gets the computer used to KILL CAINE (i'm still reeling) from the Exit introduced in the pilot.
TADC's storytelling feels very concise in this way, waste not want not: because everything the story is doing has been established in the prior episodes, nothing really feels too convoluted or contrived.
Episode 8 does a great job at irrevocably changing the status quo.
The circus is destroyed.
Caine is dead.
Blood is Fuel
And that sort of leads me to my favorite callback the SWEARING:
Another pilot callback, this moment really solidifies how far gone we are from the first episode.
There's a line from the Steven Universe Future opening:
"I can't believe, we've come so far..."
And that's what makes Episode 8 such a satisfying episode for me, it really does feel like we've made substantial, irreversible progress in the plot and we're not just meandering.
I'm just, so pleased with how the story is coming along and very, very excited to see how it will all conclude.
