Ah. Now that was some fun television. I've been having my doubts over the season-long arc. Worse, I've been wondering just how far they intended to take Henry's character towards the dark side. Joe Morton has the chops to pull off a Harvey Dent / Mr. Freeze descent from Best Friend into obsessed madman, but I was really hoping not to see that path.

And lo.

The main arcs of the season have traveled parallel to each other, plowing into each other last week, and at first, it did look like Henry's character was pulling a complete one-eighty. Not great work there, and half the dialogue sounded like it was straight out of Days of Our Lives. Once the reveal came, though (not the "Henry did a misdirect" bit, which at least wins points for being a fake world-shattering crisis that leads to the real crisis) the fun really got started and all the character pieces fell into place.

Things that are love: Carter and Stark bantering throughout the episode. Alone, the scene when Jack saves Stark while Taggert looks on smiling was worth the price of admission, moreso because I know the slashers will sleep well tonight. Pretty much their entire time on-screen together was fantastic. "Protect him" was a perfect moment, and given the entire context of the scene of Allison, Kevin and Stark on the couch while Jack looked on at the end, that was also a perfect moment.

Jack's relationship with Henry was also brilliantly underscored in this episode. After the whole season, after the memory-wipe and the mistrust and the anger, everything in Henry's posture and demeanor at the end said he finally forgave Jack, too. That's good acting.

Since the series has been renewed for another season, I am hoping the story will be that Henry goes to Club Fed for a month or three and then (much like Zane) is released because he's too valuable to leave locked up.

The other character interactions were a lot of fun, too. I really enjoyed the one-upmanship between Fargo and Zane, and I adored how Jo stayed in charge of the situation inside S.A.R.A.H. Also nice to finally see her interact, even a little, with Taggart. As for Taggart himself, well, first, someone needs to send a memo to Matt Frewer to keep an eye on his accent. Second, I have to admit that back to back "Resistance is futile," and "Never go in against an Australian when death is on the line," was glory onna stick.

I am ambivalent about Allison in this. I loved watching her punch Beverly, and get back up again and beat the snot out of her. Someone had to, and all of her buttons had been pushed by that point. I thought the "worried mom" angle has been overplayed this season, and this episode didn't change my mind, but at the end when she's asking whether Kevin will be like he is or if he'll go back to his nearly non-verbal self from last season, that worked for me. That really worked for me. Her grief was premature, and seemed premature since for all she knew, he'd been transported to the other site instead, but her relief was genuine and sealed the rest.

So this is the end, for now. This season wasn't as strong as last year, though the arcs running through it managed to tie together more or less satisfactorily. Henry finished the season grieving but healing. Jack has started on a new life, maybe away from the one we saw in the future, and ditto with Jo. Zoe is on the path we saw, and it's not a bad one at all. Stark and Allison are at the (re)beginning of something, and who knows where it'll lead? And we don't know where Kevin is yet, though we've got an indication it'll be a long time until he's able to tell his mother that he loves her again.

I can't wait until next July.