When the Netflix notification on my phone showed that the Sense8 finale was ready for streaming, I was torn between dropping everything I was doing and watching it immediately and waiting for a while because I did not want the show I have spent three years loving to end. I am heartbroken it is over but, as a hardcore Sense8 fan, I couldn’t have expected a more fitting goodbye to show that is all about love, connections and community.
The Sense8 finale, titled Amor Vincit Omnia (Love Conquers All), clocks in at two-and-a-half hours and is a love letter to the fans of the show. Is it overstuffed? Yes. Is it somewhat incoherent? Yes. But it will leave you with a smile on your face and that is all that matters. It is like one of those group hugs we’ve seen our favourite sensates give each other through the show.
The finale starts off right where it left off, with the sensates (Homo sensorium, who are connected to each other through their minds and usually exist in clusters) and their allies gathering in Paris waiting to exchange Whispers, the guy who is operating for an organisation called BPO to lobotomise the sensates, for one of their own, Wolfgang Bogdanow (Max Riemelt who is still a prisoner with BPO). It is the first time since the season two finale that we see all the other sensates — Will Gorsky (Brian J Smith), Riley Blue (Tuppence Middleton), Nomi Marks (Jamie Clayton), Sun Bak (Doona Bae), Capheus Onyango (Toby Onwumere), Kala Dandekar (Tina Desai) and Lito Rodriguez (Miguel Angel Silvestre) — in one place. And the finale’s best moments come from when they are interacting with each other.
The song scene as the sensates and their extended family make their way to Naples is one of the most joyous sequences. While Nomi and her girlfriend Amaneeta (Freema Ageyman) are clearly the leading pair of the finale, none of the other characters are short-changed and we see each of them playing their individual strengths, whether it is Sun with her fighting skills, Will with his detective skills, Kala with her quick thinking, Capheus with his magic with cars, Lito with his flair for dramatics, and Riley with her ability to make connections both with humans and sensates. It was also great to see all the side characters show up for the last hurrah even though not all of them had much to do.
It is a little difficult to wrap your head around what exactly is happening and who is actually where during the moments when the sensates interact. Since we are not used to them being in the same place and you are not always sure what is happening in their heads and what is happening in reality.
As the finale hops from one tense, high-octane situation to the next, you can see that Lana Wachowski hasn’t lost her touch when it comes to action. The last shootout sequence especially stands out. There is a liberal sprinkling of humour that mostly Bugs and Kala bring to the equation, giving it a light-hearted feel even when things are grave.
Yes, a lot of what transpires in the finale seems to be convenient like Sun’s love interest landing up in Paris and saving her, or Kala’s husband in Paris and saving the sensates, and how the Kala-Wolfgang-Rajan love triangle is sorted out in the end, but you have to realise that the finale had to cram in storylines that would have been explored over three seasons if the show hadn’t been cancelled. So a lot of the plotlines remain either fuzzy or under-explored, like the concept of the Lacuna, or how the resistance inside BPO was working, or even the concept of the Archipelago. If only the show had another couple of seasons!
The finale left me crying, laughing, clapping and so, so emotional. Nomi and Amaneeta’s wedding gave us the perfect closure. It just reiterates what the show has been about — embracing diversity whether it is ethnic, sexual or religious. It shows that family is what you make, not just who you are related to by birth. And like the show has done, it celebrates love and shows that love, is love, is love. It doesn’t matter if you are two women, two men, a man and a woman, one woman and two men, one woman and three men. Was the last orgy scene necessary? No. Was it necessary to show a rainbow- coloured vibrator? No. But this is the last hurrah for a show that has been about breaking down barriers and I am glad they did. If you are a Sense8 fan, then the finale will hit you with the feels. If you are not, then this is not a watch for you. #Sensateforever
The Sense8 finale worked/ didn’t work for me because... Tell t2@abp.in
