With Quinn cured and Ash returned to the ship, the crew of the Galaxy 2 learn that Bolo the Titan, their on again and off again ally, has lost his mind and, to save him, they must venture into the dark recesses of his subconscious.
I’ve said before that I love that Final Space is a show about good people trying to do good things even though they don’t always succeed and, if there is any episode that can be held as a big pulsating example of that tenant, it is this one. “The Chamber of Doubt” is a ruthless episode of lows and then even lower lows that takes our characters, the characters that we care so much about, and runs them through the proverbial wringer with a mish-mashed pate of sorrow and sadness erupting from the other end.
Spoilers ahead.
The Team Squad is imploding with self doubt and suspicion. For Quinn, it’s the realization that her new implant makes her look more and more like Nightfall, the future incarnation of herself that she now seems destined to become. Ash, returned after her encounter with Invictus, is now an adult with two eyes, a new hairstyle, and a lot more power. Avacato senses danger and Gary can’t help but see it too. Of course, Ash is suspicious of Gary as well because of Invicus’ prophecy that he would cause the death of Fox, her adopted brother who was possessed by Invitus and had to be left behind.
It’s apt to say that the Team Squad is a powder keg, but this episode doesn’t just throw a match at it, it light it up with a flamethrower.
Okay, I’m not kidding about those spoilers. You may want to just stop reading if you haven’t seen this episode.
Leave it to Final Space to finally give Fox, a character that has been woefully neglected over the last two seasons, a tragic backstory only to then turn around and kill him off. While I am grateful that Fox does not depart the series as the caricature he entered it, I cannot help but feel that the big guy was done dirty, saving all of his characterization for his last episode and then dumping it all at once at the last minute. What’s more, the voice acting was not Ron Funches as Fox, it was Ron Funches as Fox being controlled by someone else and, while that was creepy, I hate that we never got Fox’s backstory from Fox himself.
To be sure, the death of Fox was incredibly tragic not only because it came out of nowhere and was the culmination of Invictus’ machinations, but also because of how it could not be avoided. Olan Rogers has proven himself to be a master voice artist, selling Gary’s helplessness and horror at what he was being forced to do. The entire scene was painful and awful and will no doubt be remembered in the same breath as “Episode 6” of the first season.
While there were still odd edits that, I assume, were the result of the episode being over-scripted and doing too much in a half hour, “The Chamber of Doubt” was an excellent episode and a testament that season three has been Final Space at its best. This show has come such a long way from its goofball beginnings of a janitor in space and his little green space buddy to a series of grand cosmic scale, life and death, and consequences. Though, to be honest… I’m kind of hoping for a Fox resurrection. It just seems unfair that he finally got a backstory and now he’s gone.
But, then again… maybe that’s the point.
The evolution and refinement of Final Space has been fascinating to experience and it has been an indisputable joy to have come along for the ride.
Jason Gaston 