Okay so hecate was confined to Cackles and Ada coukd remove the spell. However I dont believe for a moment that Ada woukd do it intentionally and force to keep Hecate there. These are just my thoughts, but I believe Ada told her that she could remove it early on years ago, but Hecate refused and told her no. Indigo was confined at Cackles so Hecate made the decision to keep the same fate as her friend. When Indigo fled, Hecate made the decision to finally let Ada lift the spell so she coukd look for Indigo. Indigo was no longer on school grounds so Hecate probs felt there was no reason for her to be confined and do nothing when she could be out there looking for her.
That's just my interpretation of the full scene. Hecate can be stubborn, and she would have felt guilty for Indigo turning to stone so she probs gave herself this punishment to try and atone for what she had done. That's just my two takes on it.
Plus Hecate did tell the Great Wizard Ada Cackle was a force for good. I can't see Hecate saying that if Ada was keeping her confined. Which makes me further believe it was Hecate's decision to keep the confinement spell on herself.
I believe Rob Hoegee left us to write this ourselves, so this is my attempt
“Welcome home Dad.” Gordon offered quietly as his father was lead away to a full health scan followed by, almost certainly, a bout of indigestion.
Penny welcomed him home then took a few steps up the ramp to meet Gordon.
“How was it? Are you all safe?” She asked concerned.
“Yup, all safe, and it went really well, bar the Hood of course.” He was wondering, hoping, why she had stayed in the hanger after the others had left. His heart pounding at the sight of her, so perfect even after the pitched battle to save the island.
“Are you okay?” He asked gently, almost a whisper. She was close now, taking his hand, looking up into his face.
“I am now.” She smiled, “I worried about you all while you were away, but...” She stopped to check he was still breathing. “It turns out that I do worry about you - in particular.” Reaching that short distance to his lips, she kissed him. “I really do!” They kissed again.
“Now Gordon do something really important for me!” Her voice suddenly very urgent - she had his whole attention!
Look y'all. I’m just going to do this once. And then go back to fangirling, yeah?
Because romantic overtures aside, I did have a couple of bones to pick with the finale…but I’m gonna put that all under a cut, because I don’t want to accidentally harsh anyone’s mellow. Peeps on mobile (my people!): apologies and virtual brownies for crowding up your dash.
Ok, so first bone, y'all know what it is: the thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen happened and I was as annoyed as I thought I would be. missfisherobsessed has said plenty on the matter and I don’t want to rehash my own thoughts, but that whole “did it for the right reasons” turnabout was painful to watch, and again, having been in that situation (and having been told by my Henry’s defenders that he has only the best intentions in mind, plenty of times over the years), more than a little insulting. I’m very sorry to be adding Phryne to the list of kickass fictional women who were obviously mistaken about the nature of their own relationships with their parents.
Moving on: I know the “come after me” was meant to be a romantic moment of her inviting him to join her in her journeys, but it ticked me me off. Of course Phryne chooses adventure (except she didn’t: she got stuck with this one * harpharp *), but she (and the audience) knows that Jack can’t. He’s not an aviator and more importantly, he’s not a wealthy man: he’s a copper living on government wages, so his options are limited (show often ignores socioeconomic disparity but it’s usually not this material to the plot). Followed up with the tease about the world being out there, it left me with the distinct feeling they were pulling a complete James Bond/Indiana Jones with Phryne: the dashing hero(ine) that leaves a wrecked soul in every port. The problem with this being: I hate (pre-Craig cinematic) James Bond* with a passion. And the dashing hero archetype has always annoyed the shit out of me for being a prototypical narcissist who cares very little for the damage wrecked in his wake because: Adventure!
A more Casablanca-style ending, more "Too bad this didn’t happen. Maybe in a different life" would have suited me better…and would have still allowed for plenty of conflict in a hypothetical s4.
Ymmv, as always.
And finally, this last bone is mainly a case of fiction and reality colliding: I’m well aware that the Aus-Eng flight is a bit of cheeky nonsense. I get it. But I also happen to spend most of my waking hours surrounded by pilots and aircraft, and taking a plane from point a to point b takes a little bit more than just knowing how to fly it. Like, when exactly was the routing planned? Does she know where she can land? Where she can refuel? I mean…?? Also, international aviation was probably not as tightly regulated in 1929 as it is nowadays (it wasn’t this tightly regulated before 2001 either), but still. That’s a lot of places to be setting down your plane without rhyme or reason other than “I must get daddy to England”.
I guess Phryne Fisher has better maps than Google and more connections than God**. Oh, well * shrug * can’t say I’m surprised (but damn this bugs me - silly real life brain!).
Ok, done. Glad to get that out of the way. Now I can have some dinner and start going through everyone’s reaction posts :)
*Can’t speak for the books as I haven’t read them, and won’t.
** Also she must have excellent luck finding aircraft mechanics. I can’t tell you the amount of times my pilots have been stuck somewhere because this part failed or that part needs replacing.
