That season's finale was perfection
There are many current shows that I love or enjoy, but RECTIFY is definitely the best. Pure masterpiece. Already up in my tv pantheon, with OZ, Buffy, Deadwood, The Wire, BSG and Breaking Bad. I simply marveled at Ray McKinnon's beautiful work and his sense of defying tv conventions.
There is no weak episode in the first two seasons, and some episodes are just sublime. This finale leaves a lot of things in the air, and yet the final montage was a perfect way to end this season. "Unhinged" is just a series of perfect scenes, from the opening one to the last one, with great character moments. The center piece is Daniel's morceau de bravoure in the courthouse, but the rest of the episode is brillant as well. And, as usual, acting and directing were flawless.
Aden Young was riveting in this finale, in his scenes with Tawney, Janet, Ted, Jared, Amantha, John, and of course in the courthouse scene. What Erik Adams wrote in his excellent review for the A.V Club was so true:
"Young comes alive in his righteous anger, his profound sorrow, and his heartbreaking resignation. This year, Rectify had to open up and learn to tell other people’s stories, but in this moment, it’s Aden Young’s show once more."
That line was a distorted echo to what chaplain Charlie told him in prison, that "beauty will redeem the world". BTW the famous piece by Arvo Part was played again in this episode.
RECTIFY is a thing of beauty that hurts in the most devastating way.
Daniel is a fascinating character, and Aden Young's performance is terrific, but my heart still belongs to Teddy!
I so agree with Alan Sepinwall's remark about his favourite bit:[Spoiler (click to open)]
*) My favorite part of that scene is at the beginning, when Teddy slips some cash into Tawney's purse before she comes downstairs. Both there and when he offers to help her out in whatever she's doing next, we are reminded that while Ted is not the greatest human being alive (that would likely be his father), he is capable of generosity, and reflection. He knows he did many bad things in this marriage as well, and he also cares enough for Tawney to help her even as she's leaving him. And then all that empathy and introspection just gets crumpled up along with the letter when he realizes that Tawney spent the night with Daniel (even if he doesn't know, like we do, that no sex was involved).
I loved that detail so much!
Teddy's cry "he's taken everything!" was heartbreaking. It's just so sad. During the Teddy/Janet scene I couldn't help thinking of the pilot, and how Teddy was told not to call her "mom" anymore around the Holden children (who usually call her "mother" not mom btw), not mom but Janet, as if she were just a step-mother. Daniel's being released has deprived him from the woman whom he's loved as a mother for half his life, before he even started losing his wife. And it's significant that the first Teddy/Janet scene in ages, happens in the very kitchen that Daniel destroyed not so long ago.
Of course by screwing up Daniel's plea deal Teddy is going to tear his family apart...but eventually it might also help to "save" Daniel -- it's still a bit ambiguous whether he killed Hannah or not, though --, now that sheriff Dagett is having second thoughts and is growing suspicious towards Trey...
See you next year, beautiful show!
ETA: From an interview with Ray McKinnon this very significant and great answer he gave:
"My feeling on what anybody intuits is that it’s their subjective experience with the show. And once it’s out there, in some ways it’s out of my hands, so I don’t get into the business of trying to dictate or to coach others into what I think they should believe because that’s part of what fiction does. It leaves some of it up to the beholder, and hopefully what we’ve done here-not just in a plot narrative, but in the characters and the characterizations and the narrative of the characters’ own lives-is to leave some mystery, and some unknowingness.
But specifically with this “Did he or didn’t he?”, which has always been hanging over the head of Daniel and the family and the town and the viewers: I guess, in an ideal world, it’d be great if people went away from that episode with different takes on what the truth is. Some come away with “He did it,” and some come away with “He didn’t do it,” as you’re saying. And perhaps there’s the idea of are there really such things as forced memories that become like real memories? And is that a part of it?
That’s kind of a meandering non-answer, I guess. But I am interested in storytelling that we’re conditioned to, and I think one of the reasons that storytelling became part of the human experience is we’re always trying to make sense of a world that sometimes doesn’t make sense. And storytellers can do that for us-but there’s also the idea that, as in real life, things don’t always become completely known. And maybe that’s a part of where we’ll wind up with the story. I’m not sure yet."
There is no weak episode in the first two seasons, and some episodes are just sublime. This finale leaves a lot of things in the air, and yet the final montage was a perfect way to end this season. "Unhinged" is just a series of perfect scenes, from the opening one to the last one, with great character moments. The center piece is Daniel's morceau de bravoure in the courthouse, but the rest of the episode is brillant as well. And, as usual, acting and directing were flawless.
Aden Young was riveting in this finale, in his scenes with Tawney, Janet, Ted, Jared, Amantha, John, and of course in the courthouse scene. What Erik Adams wrote in his excellent review for the A.V Club was so true:
"Young comes alive in his righteous anger, his profound sorrow, and his heartbreaking resignation. This year, Rectify had to open up and learn to tell other people’s stories, but in this moment, it’s Aden Young’s show once more."
That line was a distorted echo to what chaplain Charlie told him in prison, that "beauty will redeem the world". BTW the famous piece by Arvo Part was played again in this episode.
RECTIFY is a thing of beauty that hurts in the most devastating way.
Daniel is a fascinating character, and Aden Young's performance is terrific, but my heart still belongs to Teddy!
I so agree with Alan Sepinwall's remark about his favourite bit:[Spoiler (click to open)]
*) My favorite part of that scene is at the beginning, when Teddy slips some cash into Tawney's purse before she comes downstairs. Both there and when he offers to help her out in whatever she's doing next, we are reminded that while Ted is not the greatest human being alive (that would likely be his father), he is capable of generosity, and reflection. He knows he did many bad things in this marriage as well, and he also cares enough for Tawney to help her even as she's leaving him. And then all that empathy and introspection just gets crumpled up along with the letter when he realizes that Tawney spent the night with Daniel (even if he doesn't know, like we do, that no sex was involved).
I loved that detail so much!
Teddy's cry "he's taken everything!" was heartbreaking. It's just so sad. During the Teddy/Janet scene I couldn't help thinking of the pilot, and how Teddy was told not to call her "mom" anymore around the Holden children (who usually call her "mother" not mom btw), not mom but Janet, as if she were just a step-mother. Daniel's being released has deprived him from the woman whom he's loved as a mother for half his life, before he even started losing his wife. And it's significant that the first Teddy/Janet scene in ages, happens in the very kitchen that Daniel destroyed not so long ago.
Of course by screwing up Daniel's plea deal Teddy is going to tear his family apart...but eventually it might also help to "save" Daniel -- it's still a bit ambiguous whether he killed Hannah or not, though --, now that sheriff Dagett is having second thoughts and is growing suspicious towards Trey...
See you next year, beautiful show!
ETA: From an interview with Ray McKinnon this very significant and great answer he gave:
"My feeling on what anybody intuits is that it’s their subjective experience with the show. And once it’s out there, in some ways it’s out of my hands, so I don’t get into the business of trying to dictate or to coach others into what I think they should believe because that’s part of what fiction does. It leaves some of it up to the beholder, and hopefully what we’ve done here-not just in a plot narrative, but in the characters and the characterizations and the narrative of the characters’ own lives-is to leave some mystery, and some unknowingness.
But specifically with this “Did he or didn’t he?”, which has always been hanging over the head of Daniel and the family and the town and the viewers: I guess, in an ideal world, it’d be great if people went away from that episode with different takes on what the truth is. Some come away with “He did it,” and some come away with “He didn’t do it,” as you’re saying. And perhaps there’s the idea of are there really such things as forced memories that become like real memories? And is that a part of it?
That’s kind of a meandering non-answer, I guess. But I am interested in storytelling that we’re conditioned to, and I think one of the reasons that storytelling became part of the human experience is we’re always trying to make sense of a world that sometimes doesn’t make sense. And storytellers can do that for us-but there’s also the idea that, as in real life, things don’t always become completely known. And maybe that’s a part of where we’ll wind up with the story. I’m not sure yet."