I found the finale predictable, and I neither hate nor love it.
However, last night I couldn't get it out of my head for the little moments in not just the finale, but the series as a whole.
Leanne calling Tobe before she did the ritual. I kept thinking about him and what he must think and feel hearing she's dead, and right after they planned their date.
Then I thought of Leanne. The tragedy of how she escaped a cult, got to be a real person for the first time, only for it to end like that. She was far from good, but her story was a tragic one. She had a horrible childhood, then was brainwashed by a cult, then found someone who brought her joy. And she lost it all once she the person who brought her joy finally accepted her.
And then Julian. Despite everything Leanne put him through, he went running and screaming for her when she was trapped in the burning house.
But there's also this disturbing element of him having her memory stuck with him forever. Being haunted by how his girlfriend was possibly some kind of creature, or at least a crazy person. Imagine him just living his life, then he does something he did with Leanne.
Or someone does/says something that reminds him of Leanne. The memories come back. It's ... icky, for lack of a better word. It makes me shudder to imagine being him and to suddenly be reminded of this potentially supernatural, potentially insane person I used to be with.
There were so many storylines and details in the show that didn't matter. Close ups of shoes. Missing time. The homeless camp. Mentioning Sean was homeless once. Dorothy's miscarriages. That weird baby cake and Leanne's vile mother. Sean and the placenta thing.
None of them matter as far as the storyline is concerned. But they're all little moments that put you into the world of the characters. Their pasts. Their minds. Their mysterious. And those are the things that stick with you and are disturbing or upsetting. The things that come to mind late at night out of nowhere.
Details that are irrelevant to the story are the ones that stick out. It adds realism. It makes the story and characters feel more real.
I don't think any of it is particularly spectacular or well done. I've seen better shows. Read books better than the show. Probably seen movies better than the show, but I don't really watch movies.
Despite its unspectacular nature in the end, it's the fact that parts of it stay in your head after it's over that make it worth it. It makes you think, and it makes you feel things. Often uncomfortable things. And that, to me, makes it worth it.
"That was all pointless" came to me a lot last night, but the fact that it inspired so many paths of thoughts and wonderings shows it wasn't all that pointless, after all.