Last week’s episode delivered the big reveal that sweet, cuddly, trusting Boyd was in fact, the big bad of the series and tonight we got to witness the rest of the characters’ coming to that same realization. The action packed episode delivered the answer to the main question we were left asking ourselves last week: Why?
The answer? Because Boyd’s power crazed, in a nutshell. He brought Echo in because she has magic spinal fluid that’s immune to the technology that Rossum was creating. When the world gets mind-wiped, Echo’s special DNA will save a precious few from falling asleep for a little while. Thanks to Topher’s genius, Rossum now has the technology to remotely mind-wipe anyone and everyone. Boyd’s crazy logic was that since the technology exists, its best to be on the evil side because at least you can keep your sanity.
There were two casualties in tonight’s episode. Mellie killed herself after she was triggered to use her murderous “three flowers in a vase” programming. Given the choice between sweet November biting it or Ballard, I think they made the right choice here but her suicidal death was no less sad.
I thought perhaps that Whiskey might die tonight as she was imprinted with Clyde’s mind and pulled an Illyria on us as she sat in her pantsuit and acted as though she controlled the universe. The only thing missing was her telling everyone they were filth who groveled at her feet. For all of Amy Acker’s range, I really wish she would’ve been around more in this series. Clyde-Whiskey lived though, after a full-on girl fight between her and Echo left her unconscious and later dragged from the Rossum building before the explosives went off.
We knew Topher and Adelle would live (since they were around in Epitaph One) and it seemed unlikely that Echo would die before the last episode. Priya and Anthony also lived. And we got to see the return of Enver Gjokaj’s brilliant Topher impersonation as Anthony was temporarily imprinted with Topher’s personality.
That just leaves Boyd. The evil genius who, in addition to calling all of the people he betrayed “family,” went about pretending he was just another member of the team while trying to get Echo hooked up to a spine-sucking machine. One by one, each of the characters figured out that it was Boyd running the show and it was almost too late. But Echo was saved from the spine-sucking machine that reminded me of the Master’s freaky blood-sucking device from Buffy and in the end, Topher, who was clearly feeling the remorse of being the guy who invented the thoughtpocalypse device, was there in the nick of time to zap Boyd with said device and wipe him clean.
Boyd’s end was a chilling one as we saw him standing there, as vulnerable as a child, wearing a belt of explosives and clutching a grenade. He was left to pull the pin out after everyone evacuated the building and, promising to be his best, he did his job. In a way, it was a fitting ending for him, though I feel like it would’ve been even more effective emotionally if we had more time for Boyd to be built up as a truly evil man, getting a taste of his own medicine.
And that episode brings us to Epitaph Two, the series finale which takes us ten years into the future. Apparently, the world wasn’t saved when part of Rossum’s building got blown to bits and now its up to Echo and Ballard (and whoever else is still around) to try to pick up the pieces of a shattered civilization.
