Afterlife 1x11 'Hope'

by Jon Nyqvist

The dark army sweeps across the lands of the Afterlife. As the final conflict is upon them, Aurora begins succumb to her mysterious illness!

So! The finale to the wonderful Afterlife, then. Basically comprising of the last two planned episodes shoved together, I'm going to keep this intro short because I want to see if the show can maintain the unfeasibly good standards it's kept for the last few episodes...

Opening with one of those dramatic, cinematic shots that make this show so damn visual, we have Jon and Aurora stumbling away from a literal tide of dark beasties, as the skies turn black overhead and pour down with rain as thick as tar. Eep! As a doom-laden voiceover takes us into a sunlit field, we get a look at Jonathan's tombstone. Er... what? Oh dear. We pull back to find it's his sister Jenny, leaving some flowers at his grave. Aah. Present day. Jenny steps back - and there's Lynn! You remember her - she's the one who taught Aurora how to be such a stone cold badass. And she tells Jenny she has a lot to discuss with her...

Back with Jon and Aurora as they stop for a breather, sharing a rare moment of light relief given the situation. Aurora has a sudden attack of the Darkness, hearing the voice of Pain, the creature she's struggling not to become, ordering her to attack Jon. He's helpless to do anything as she stumbles, very nearly impaling Jon to the nearest tree before her energy thankfully runs out. Talk about your no-win situations! The storm rages on as we move back to Darkwood, the town boarded up against the incoming army. In the inn (narf), Kate and Lianna face the Darkness with no clue as to how to stop it, or even defend themselves. They need a hero! But that can wait. We're in the Real World as Jenny and Lynn talk, set up through a great little dissolve shot from the dark skies to a glass of Pepsi. I know I keep banging on about it, but some of the shots in this series really are inspired. Jenny obviously has something on Lynn in that she saw her take somebody out, but Lynn doesn't seem like she's about to silence Jenny - in fact, it looks like she has plans for her. Capital 'p.' Back with Jon and Aurora, and some heartfelt dialogue leads to Aurora implying that Jon needs to kill her before she turns to the dark side completely. Jon won't do it, of course, lowering his sword and bringing her close for a hug... and Aurora gets an arrow in the back! She slumps to the floor as Betrayal lowers her crossbow, Murder and the army behind her. She fires again, but Jon classily slices the bolt in two, putting his sword halfway through Betrayal's chest before scooping up Aurora and making a run for it. Murder starts after him, but Betrayal has other plans, conjuring up a vortex of the black rain and infusing it with power, as we rejoin Jon scurrying along a cliffisde. He sees his rope (this is where he took out the beastie last week) and starts to climb - but Betrayal's wall of evil water (if there is such a thing) is right behind him, chasing him as he desperately scales the rocks, Aurora on his back...

Back with Jenny and Lynn, as Lynn drives the captive Jenny somewhere and idly mentions there might be torture in her future. Lynn's car arrives at Bridge Manor, where Jenny is unceremoniously dumped into a small, dark room and left locked up, and as she cries to be let out we return to Darkwood. Kate has the villagers gathered inside the Inn, but the rising tensions get a welcome distraction as Jon bursts in, the dead Aurora in his arms. We sweep into a dream as Jon is met by Diana, who tells him he can't save everyone - no matter how much he wants to. Then, however, she tells him that while Darkness is set to sweep over the world, Jonathan is the one element that disrupts its unity - he's Chaos to its Order. This seems to make sense to Jon, who wakes up to find himself resting in a room at the Inn, little Nera watching over him. Nera asks what happened to Aurora, and as Jon comes close to saying he loved her, a hurt Kate hears him talking about her before she steps in. Line Of The Week contender:

JONATHAN
I'd say it's good to be alive, but
the jury's still out on that one.
(beat, serious)
Listen Kate, we need to get
everyone out of here as soon as
possible. There's an army on the
way.

KATE
I was afraid you'd say that. How
many?

JONATHAN
I lost count around "holy crap!"

Nooch. Jon and Kate head downstairs to start assembling the villagers into some kind of defence force, but in the room where Aurora's body has been left, she suddenly rises... This is not good. Aurora's eyes open and the Darkness now covers her whole body - Pain has been born!

Back with Jenny as a mysterious voice tells her he has plans in store for her - which understandably freaks her out a fair bit - before we cut back to see Lynn and the Shadow Man watching her from a monitor elsewhere in the manor. Seems that the Shadow Man and Lynn have been working together, getting people like Jenny to use for their own ends - and rather nastily taking advantage of Jenny's claustrophobia to break her spirit. But there's a shocker to come - as the Shadow Man smacks Lynn for daring to speak up to her, reminding her that she's been his bitch for the last twenty-six years and not the other way round, he reveals one of the show's biggest revelations - Aurora was Lynn's daughter! She never know until this very moment, so Lynn was responsible for both training and betraying her own child without even realising. Boom! A cut back to Darkwood Inn has Jon getting the townsfolk's attention, and a call for some options on how to fight back has Lianna suggesting the Scarlet Knights, a fearsome order of holy warriors. How does she know so much? She used to be one of them! Seems she had to leave when she became pregnant, but the threat of the incoming Darkness should be enough to get them to pitch in and help. However, the party is about to get crashed as Pain strolls casually down the stairs, throwing out a few choice insults before throttling Kate! Jon gets in with a well-placed head butt, the two getting into a knock-down brawl which doesn't seem to be hurting her all that much (she is the embodiment of Pain, after all), before Kate appears with a torch, reminding her that she's now splashed with alcohol. Nooch. Pain decides to bug out and leave the villagers to it, and despite Kate's pleas Jon is straight out after Pain - and this time he knows he has to end it. A quick cut back to Lynn shows her letting out her frustrations on her apartment, smashing the place up before accessing her Men In Black style cache of hidden guns. Girl wants some payback! At Darkwood, Lianna is heading a caravan of people to go and request help from the Scarlet Knights, with Kate casting a longing look after the departed Jonathan as they get moving. Murder is griping that Betrayal is wasting valuable conquering time hunting down the denizens of Darkwood, but when Pain appears and asks to join the gang the detour suddenly seems worthwhile. Murder doesn't seem too fussed about the involvement of the Scarlet Knights, but as the evil trio move on, they're unaware that Jonathan is stalking them from the shadows...

A brilliantly noirish shot of Lynn knocking back a stiff drink and letting the glass fall segues into the caravan from Darkwood splashing onwards, with sombre music accompanying the whole montage as we see Murder's forces tearing a hapless village in its path to shreds. Pain almost clocks Jonathan's presence but he's undetected for now, before a push in shot of Jon's eye pulls back to reveal Jenny's (See? These various cuts and shots may be little things, but they're way better to read than a flat 'CUT TO:' at the end of a scene, aren't they?), as she languishes in her room at Bridge Manor. Lianna wakes Kate up to tell her they've arrived at the home of the Scarlet Knights - a castle at the edge of the ocean, with an army assembling itself at the foot of the peninsula. Lianna says they call this place the Field Of Truth before hiding at the back of the wagon train, as we head into the Knights' camp to find them making ready to tackle the Army of Darkness head on. Their leader, William, appears to have some kind of precognitive ability as he's told of the caravan's arrival, waving past Kate and searching out Lianna. They have History, don't you know. Nudge, nudge. William seems fine with letting the villagers join the party, and as he heads off to 'catch up' (hem hem) with Lianna, we find Jon watching the Army up ahead as Diana joins him. Jon grimly knows he has to kill Aurora, but Diana cryptically hints (is there any other way?) that there might be another option... William and Lianna, meanwhile, clear up a few things - they haven't seen each other for seventeen years, and Nera just so happens to be William's kid! He avoided a witchcraft trial for his second sight when he saved somebody's life, and is now the undisputed leader of the pack. The cosy moment is spoilt as a horn sounds - it's game time! The Scarlet Knights bravely get into formation as the Dark Army erupts from the woods, with Lianna sending Nera back to the castle with anyone else unable to fight. William has a few more tricks - his alchemists have modified their oils to produce brighter, stronger flames against the black rain, so the chief weapon against the Darkness is back on their side. As Kate says - cool.

Another shot of the heartbroken Lynn mourning the daughter she never knew she had leads us into the Field of Truth, as Jon watches the two armies moving into position from the vantage point of a huge ruined temple. The dark beasties surge forward as Betrayal powers up for another magical attack and Pain senses Jon again, before William lets his archers fire at will at the advancing creatures. The flaming arrows do their job but Murder isn't slowing down yet, and as the army pushes on we rejoin Jon - as Pain steps into frame to join him. Their fight begins, with the temple crumbling to bits around them, but Pain's clearly in charge here - even her own pain gets her off, as she puts it, and Jon's getting thrown around as we return to Bridge Manor. Lynn arrives in her sedan, heading through the front gates as we find Jenny about to face the very same torturer she looked in on way back in episode three. The torturer is just about to start cutting when Lynn blasts her way in, even getting space to fire off a wisecrack before her bullet. Like mother, like daughter, eh? Lynn frees the disbelieving Jenny as we get back to the battle in the Afterlife. The Scarlet Knights all ignite their weapons as one, charging to meet the beasties head on. Kate gets an arrow into Murder's back, but that doesn't even slow him down as William shows why he's the boss. He takes out one beast and gets his trebuchets ready to blat a huge Dark T-Rex lumbering into the fray. Pain is still kicking Jon around, but he takes a page from the Xander Harris book of 'How To Beat Unstoppable Evil That You Also Happen To Love,' appealing to Aurora to fight it and managing to get through to her as William's mortars fire in the background. Emotional resonance and rocket launchers, as Joss Whedon would say. The sounds cut out to be replaced by music, as a quick insert of Lynn mowing down the guards at the manor returns us to the battle, as a horrified Lianna sees Betrayal sending torrents of dark water down on the Scarlet army. Jon and Aurora, meanwhile, are actually getting busy if you can believe it, their make out session intensifying as a blaze of brilliant light gets the battlefield's attention. At the manor, Lynn gets Jenny into her car but takes a shot in the chest, courtesy of Shadow Man. Jenny manages to complete the escape, to Shadow Man's obvious frustration, while back in the battle it seems Aurora is her old self again - but now Betrayal wants a piece! Murder is about to kill our Kate when she sticks an arrow in his leg, buying time to escape while Betrayal puts the smackdown on Jon and Aurora. She's too tough for them to handle, but as Betrayal mocks Aurora and prepares to blast her out of the world for good, Jon dives in and takes the shot himself, getting thrown off the temple and into the ocean a hundred feet below... Aurora charges in to attack, but this time she has the light on her side. Literally. A blaze of light weakens Betrayal long enough for Aurora to get in close, whisper her forgiveness - and snap her neck! It's Rachel whose body hits the deck, and with its master gone the dark skies overhead quickly start to clear as well. Sunlight pours onto the battlefield and the Dark Army is routed - saving Kate's bacon in the process - but Aurora cries her heart out for the first time in years as there's no sign of Jonathan! Jenney tries to help the dying Lynn, but there's no saving her this time. She tells Jenny everything is connected again before she dies, and as Jonathan gets a thank you from Diana and wakes up (despite being a long way down in the water), Aurora realises something else has happened - she's pregnant!

Wow. Now that is how you end a series, ladies and gentlemen. None of this Lost style multiple cliffhanger malarkey, no sir. A few deaths, a whole lot of Lord Of The Rings-tastic fantasy battle action, some mano a mano smackdowns you've been itching to see and a final twist to really bring the whole thing to a tasty conclusion. There's a bit of closure in Lynn's story, what with her death and finding out Aurora was her daughter, though Jenny does get left at a bit of a loose end after her escape from the Shadow Man's clutches. Aurora gets her redemption and her payback on Rachel, Jon helps save the world and gets his girl, Kate gets to kick some ass and even the Scarlet Knights work. A lot of effort goes into fleshing them out so they're not just some deus ex machina thrown in at the last minute. All is good. There's so much going on in this that it's hard to pick much more out, so I'm just going to head straight to the final words. Freakin' sweet.