Sense8: I Can’t Leave Her

Jonas: "Do you have a plan for getting in?"
Will: "I'm going with a nine-millimeter tucked under my arm."

With a title holding double meaning within the episode this finale was far more about emotion than spectacle, although there was quite a bit of spectacle.

While each of the cluster had a chance to shine in this episode, this was essentially a singular story. Riley has been struggling for two episodes in a psychologically induced fugue state with some flashes of her past. We now get the full picture and it was harrowing. There were not any major new reveals about Riley's situation, since the basics were already something we had seen. The details are rough. So what happened? Riley went into labor one dark evening in the middle of winter, her husband Magnus was driving too fast along narrow roads and went off a cliff when he was distracted by Riley's labor pains.

The car rolled down a hill settling on the roof. Magnus was killed instantly, leaving Riley alone. Her water broke and she had to give birth alone, then with a newborn she realized no one was coming to save her. Her only option was to venture out into the frozen mountainous terrain and try to get to a high point and hope someone would see them. While Riley did get saved by a rescue helicopter (summoned by Yrsa), her daughter died from exposure.

It's exactly the kind of story anyone would struggle to move past. Here the whole situation hinges on the fact that Riley is still stuck in that moment on the mountain top, wanting to die. It is perhaps a bit on the nose that during the escape, Riley and Will end up on the same mountain top in summer, the black and green a sharp contrast with the black and white of winter. Perhaps symbolizing that Riley has come to a different point in her path, where life has returned and she has a reason to live again.

Meanwhile during the escape (more on that in a moment), Will accidentally locks eyes with Whispers and is now entangled with him. Effectively this means that Whispers can visit with him any time and anywhere he goes, allowing him to track Will's location and hunt down the rest of the cluster. So Will has no options left. While Riley is stuck on that hill, he is forced to realize he has to kill himself to save everyone else.

But that's not what he does. At the last moment he takes himself out of the equation by injecting drugs into his system that knock him out. This leaves Riley alone, but with a new motivation. She can stay up on that hill, allow Whispers and BPO to catch up with them and they would both likely end up dead or Bolgeresque zombies. This would give her what she wants, but would doom herself, Will and probably the other six people attached to her.

It gave agency back to her and let her make an active choice in her life. It was a strong narrative choice after pushing her into a clichéd corner of a grieving mother unable to move on. I say clichéd because it is an overused trope in Hollywood, not to diminish the pain of a woman who has lost her husband and child. Which brings us to a new normal, with Riley and Will together and on the run from Whispers, ending in that fabulous scene of everyone together on that boat.

So the escape, it really was amazing. Will being absolutely zeroed in on saving Riley, we get some great stuff from Nomi who hand delivers a lot of stuff up front, including a rental Porsche that ends up being destroyed, much to the chagrin of Will and most of the guys in the cluster. Riley does have a moment of clarity too early on and manages to get a gun. It is a pivotal moment because she chooses to not kill herself, and is knocked unconscious.

Perhaps it is heavy handed to have Riley make that choice twice in one episode, but letting her live through her trauma might have been enough to force that to happen narratively. Either way, because Riley was knocked out, Whispers couldn't make eye contact with her. This gave Will enough time to break into the facility, again with Nomi's hacking help. Each of the cluster then came through in the clutch during moments of the escape.

Lito used his acting skills to manipulate and seduce a woman into giving him Riley's location. Sun used her hand to hand skills again to take out the team of guys guarding her room. Kala mixed up a counteragent to the drugs Riley was dosed with. Capheus came in to jump start the getaway vehicle. And finally, Will let Wolfgang take over when Whispers tried to play a game of chicken with Will and the helicopter. Each and every bit was excellent and satisfying, and also illustrated how powerful they are when they work together.

I wrote this entire review and totally forgot about the opening scenes involving Wolfgang and his bloody revenge. That shoot out was incredible, with Will and Kala coming in to help a few times, but it was really all Wolfgang. He went into that house without any illusions that he was coming out alive; sheer luck and one improvised explosive later, and he came out on top. It was thrilling and probably deserves more than a paragraph, but I can't think of much more to say. I did love how Wolfgang was finally able to confess the fact he killed his own father. It must've been cathartic, especially right before killing his uncle. I wonder what kind of repercussions there will be next season after this bloodbath?

Bits:

The scene where Will touches Riley for the first time was amazing as they mentally switched places several times. What a gorgeous interpretation of such a sensation.

That final scene is the first time all eight of them shared a scene together.

Due to the chaos of the episode there were a few continuity errors and mistakes, nothing glaringly obvious but they do stand out when highlighted. Things such as a rolling pin that rolls to the floor and then is back on a table later on, Riley's tights disappear and reappear, the glass in the car was smashed and then unbroken... little stuff.

Jonas continues to be a bit of a question mark. At times he seems to be on Will's side and at others he seems to be colluding with Whispers. Is he a double agent or a triple agent? It is a little less ambiguous when Whispers is torturing him, but I guess time will tell.

There were two visual gags that were fairly effective for very different reasons, both involving Will. The first was when he was in the psychologist's office and the camera pans to the ghostly little girl whom he was basically told is just in his imagination. The other is when he is sharing Riley's vision and suddenly has a pregnant belly. This is played more for laughs but it was a fun visual.

Quotes:

Will: "Do I know you?"
Lito: "Yeah. We had sex."
Will: "Wha – Oh. Uh... Eh... It – That was..."
Lito: "Very special."
Will: "Oh, hey... Uh..."
Nomi: "We're on a clock here, fellas."

Kala: "This was your plan?"
Wolfgang: "How was I supposed to know he'd be wearing a bulletproof vest? Who wears a bulletproof vest in real life?"

Amanita: "Men cannot stand to see a beautiful car in trouble."
Nomi: "It's some kind of primal instinct. I mean, look at you, you're hesitating."
Will: "It's a really nice car."
Nomi: "See?"
Cut to after Will arrives and the car has billowing white smoke coming from the engine.
BPO Security Guard 1: "Such a shame!"
BPO Security Guard 2: "It's a '14."
BPO Security Guard 1: "It's only a year old, man!"

Unnamed Psychologist: "You know, for some people, snow brings on a very specific feeling. Uh, some love it. It feels clean and pure, like a fresh start or a beginning. For others, it's frightening. Cold and silent and isolating. What are you thinking about when you look at the snow?"
Young Will: "That I'm gonna have to shovel it."

This was a fabulous episode that set the stage for a very different second season.

4 out of 4 Gun battles, fist fights and car chases, oh my!

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

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