Shocking.
Electrifying.
Zappy?
The Power is still thrilling to watch, no matter how many puns we toss its way, and
the closing episode of the first season proves this more than any other.
This tale of young females who acquire electrical abilities from Naomi Alderman's deceptively
straightforward idea develops into so much more than simply the comic book-style tale
it could have been.
Instead, her book and the show explore the social and political repercussions of a society
in which women suddenly get the upper hand.
They are both far more realistic than that.
Patriarchal institutions that were once thought to be unchangeable begin to unexpectedly bow
and fall in the face of this new global order as the first eight episodes go on.
But the entire magnitude of this "Power" doesn't really come into play until the last episode.
Join us as we examine The Power's season one finale in further detail and try to determine
what those unexpected developments imply for a desperately needed second season.
There is still so much more narrative from the source material to be told.
With sorrow about inadvertently killing Sister Veronica earlier in the season, Allie/Eve
awakens from a nightmare as the season finale begins.
This would-be messiah is beginning to feel the pressure, but the voice in her brain says,
"Doesn't have time for that shit."
The Billie Eilish song "You Should See Me In a Crown" crashes in, setting the scene
for a highly dramatic conclusion, and she declares, "It's war."
When Roxy bursts into the home of a guy who was allegedly seeing her mother just before
she was killed, she takes that war cry to heart.
It comes out that Christine hid him from Roxy's father, Bernie, out of concern for his safety.
Even worse, the individual in question was a police officer who had been instrumental
in an investigation into Bernie's illicit actions.
He concealed the evidence and left the police service out of fear of reprisal.
When one of her old classmates teases Jos at school and even mocks her boyfriend Nico,
who it turns out is intersex and has grown a skein of his own, Jos, Margot's daughter,
is also having a difficult time.
When she offers a special summer camp to Nico's parents in an effort to remove Nico from the
picture at this crucial period politically, Margot's assistant intensifies the issue at
Nico's house more behind Margot's back.
When Rob, Margot's husband, begins to flirt with a journalist who continues coming on
to him, he acts behind her back in a totally different way.
This always results in his having an affair with her since guys are lousy.
In keeping with the theme of men who screw up Margot's life, her son Matt similarly betrays
her by agreeing to work with UrbanDox on a mission to spy on her senate campaign.
The man behind the screen tells Matt, "If your Mom wins, your family becomes an even
bigger target for the crazies out there," and of course Matt believes him.
In the meanwhile, Tunde meets Tatiana in Carpathia just before he learns that she has become
the nation's new monarch as a result of the death of her husband.
When Tatiana's sister Zoia sends the message, "Pick a side," Tunde immediately goes back
to the hotel with the intention of leaving the nation before anything worse occurs to
him.
The journalist who betrayed him experiences precisely that when he attempts to speak with
the Carpathian insurgents but instead ends up being electrocuted by them after referring
to them all as "cows."
It appears that someone forgot who is in charge right now.
But Roxy hasn't forgotten, so she confronts her father about his part in her mother's
passing.
And yet, it was him who gave the order for the hit all along, to which Roxy replies,
"I'm glad your son is dead," etc.
"I'll f**king kill you," and "That pain won't go away."
She doesn't, though, since it would be too simple.
As an alternative, Roxy makes the decision to give her stepmother a skein, saying that
she will require this strength if she is to remain with Bernie.
By doing this, Roxie basically ends their marriage since Bernie will find it difficult
to accept the fact that his wife is more capable than he is.
Just before one of the girls flips out and accuses Eve of being a crazy killer because
of what she did to Sister Veronica and her abusive adoptive parents, Eve gives Sister
Maria and the other ladies in the nunnery skeins of their own yarn.
She yells, "Are you all brainwashed?"
Pretty much, true, but Eve is utilising her natural persuasive skills right now instead
of her genuine ability to manipulate others via manipulating brain electrical impulses.
Eve exclaims, "God is sending salvation."
A soldier will arrive.
We then moved to Roxy watching everything unfold on her phone while using social media.
She utters, "F**king genius," before focusing on a call from her brother, Darrell, who tells
that Bernie is aware that she is going to board a plane for New York.
As Roxy is already at the airport when the phone arrives, she chooses to rearrange her
trip at the last minute to fly to where Eve is.
In a public discussion with Daniel Dandon, her opponent for the senate, Margot has her
big moment.
The statistics show that domestic abuse against women and the murder of trans women have decreased
significantly since the advent of EOD, but Dandon doesn't care about it.
In order to protect the public, he wants to gather information on women who use EOD and
test them before limiting their abilities.
Asserting that it is inherently sexist to force all of this on women with EOD, Margot
believes that this is a healthcare problem rather than a criminal one.
Daniel makes the somewhat desperate move of bringing up her husband's leaked EOD research.
When that fails, he then introduces a woman who has opted not to get EOD because she contends
that measures must be implemented for individuals who do not want this in their life.
Using this evidence, Daniel claims that scientists still don't fully comprehend the long-term
health consequences of skeins on the body and announces his intention to craft legislation
that makes the transmission of EOD, "an unlicensed weapon," illegal.
Margot rallies the ladies by promoting equality for all women, but Dandon then plays his trump
hand by claiming that her daughter's boyfriend is being forcibly taken to a conversion camp
to be subjected to experiments.
Daniel tells Margot, "You're a liar and a fraud," although she obviously had no understanding
what he was saying.
Nico's "getaway" was planned by her assistant behind her back.
As the odds are stacked against Margot in every way and her daughter Jos is naturally
furious, she snaps and loses control of the energy that has been growing inside her for
several weeks.
And against whom does she strike out?
She live-streams the electrocution of Daniel Dandon, her fiercest adversary, in front of
everyone.
Even if that alone would have been a funny conclusion, this season still has a few loose
ends to tie up.
By the river where his old colleague was slain, Tunde notices a large one.
He asserts on a stream that the abundance of dead people is proof that EOD has "been
used as a weapon on a grand scale."
Tunde's family and friends phone him and ask him to return home, but he has just recently
become obsessed with this tale.
The rebels are already celebrating their independence after a decisive win over the Carpathian army.
But it won't be over after this.
As Eve's inner saboteur hinted at the beginning of this episode, war is coming, and Roxy,
who has finally seen Eve in person for the very first time, has arrived as one of the
battle's most potent warriors.
Eve prevents Roxy from utilising her talents as a demonstration of her heavenly might by
using her special ability to regulate brainwaves.
"Still think I'm a fake?"
Roxy nonetheless succeeds in pushing through and electrocutes Eve.
"You're strong," Eve says.
The same might be said about Eve, "stronger than anyone I've ever seen."
The two of them are the most powerful women we've seen in this show together so far, and
their newfound partnership is going to rock the world in unexpected ways.
Well, nobody else but the authors from season 2.
Even while it appears that The Power hasn't ignited our world in the same manner that
this power has ignited Alderman's, viewers still deserve a renewal, presuming a second
season is ever ordered.
It would be a tragedy for The Power to end abruptly here just when all the chess pieces
have finally been placed ready for all-out conflict.
Without giving away what occurs next, there is so much more to this narrative if the book
is any indication.