S01.E13: Path To Paradise

[formerlyfreedom]

SERIES FINALE!

With only one shot to take Dr. Lommers down for good, Lex carefully plans his next steps. Jana Suzy, Teresa and Xander make their dangerous escape out of the cordon, but unexpected road blocks threaten to destroy their chance of making it home. Inside the cordon, Dr. Cannerts and Jake make a breakthrough discovery following a risky experimental treatment. Finally, with time running out, Lex is forced to make a decision that will change his life forever.

 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Can I get Two Tickets please ?  Any Eddie Money fans out there ?

Can the National Guard please collapse the tunnel on top of Jana, Suzy, Pregnoteen, Xander, baby Leann, and Quentin ?  Pretty please ?

How come no one tried this escape path from the cordon in the previous 17 days ?

[xaxat]

Path to Paradise? I was really hoping for

Edited July 14, 2016 by xaxat

[Free]

On 7/13/2016 at 7:08 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

Can I get Two Tickets please ?  Any Eddie Money fans out there ?

Can the National Guard please collapse the tunnel on top of Jana, Suzy, Pregnoteen, Xander, baby Leann, and Quentin ?  Pretty please ?

How come no one tried this escape path from the cordon in the previous 17 days ?

Judging from the title, it sounds like a forced HEA for the main characters as expected.

[Rachel RSL]

I'm not sure of spoiler rules here since this show airs a day early in Canada but, to be on the safe side, I'm just gonna spoiler tag this whole post for now.

Also, SPOILER: If you've seen the first episode, you know how it ends. Because, seriously, basically NOTHING changed since then. Except for Lex, almost all the same people are stuck in the same place, with the same problems, the end. 

They couldn't even offer us a lame epilogue about the cure/consequences? Instead we got that cheesy voiceover of Jake yammering about...something, before he goes off to live happily ever after with his Shower Curtain of Germs, I guess? I feel like we all just got trolled. Well done, CW. Well done.

[DarkCrystal]

Spoiler

The ending felt tacked on.  I assume because the show got cancelled.

[Free]

8 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

I'm not sure of spoiler rules here since this show airs a day early in Canada but, to be on the safe side, I'm just gonna spoiler tag this whole post for now.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, SPOILER: If you've seen the first episode, you know how it ends. Because, seriously, basically NOTHING changed since then. Except for Lex, almost all the same people are stuck in the same place, with the same problems, the end. 

They couldn't even offer us a lame epilogue about the cure/consequences? Instead we got that cheesy voiceover of Jake yammering about...something, before he goes off to live happily ever after with his Shower Curtain of Germs, I guess? I feel like we all just got trolled. Well done, CW. Well done.

It was definitely a complete waste of time, nothing actually happened in the end.

8 hours ago, DarkCrystal said:

  Reveal hidden contents

The ending felt tacked on.  I assume because the show got cancelled.

I can't imagine much else than more of the same stalling since the writers couldn't seem to come up with anything for the show.

[ottoDbusdriver]

After a minute and a half of previouslies -- this is the last episode after all, wouldn't want to bleed anymore viewers -- we get a quote from Dante Alighieri.

As we start off on Day 19 -- to emphasize it has been 2 days since last episode to hammer home the fact that the intrepid crew trying to break out of the cordon has been in quarantine for 48 hours -- we get the National guard blowing up any/all tunnels they can find running out of the cordon.

As Lex argues with Captain Scott about saving people already in the tunnels when the explosives go off, he gets a letter from Internal Affairs and an order to report to the chief. That can't be good.

Meese opens up the quarantine room and after a little haggling over money Jana, Suzy, Pregnoteen and her baby, Xander, and Quentin get ready to move out.  Why is there a manhole cover in the middle of the Pregnoteen's mom's store ?

Jake finds Dr. Cannerts doing a blood transfusion between Thomas and the gang member that was spattered with infected blood last episode. And is mildly concerned about draining Thomas dry.

Bert and Grandma are still in their house -- and Grandma's leg isn't getting any better, and Grandma feels dizzy, so Bert heads out to find more meds.

As Thomas recovers from the procedure, the gang member starts to have a seizure and falls off the bed and dies.

As Meese leads Jana et al through the tunnels, only now does Jana ask Suzy about her claustrophobia -- despite the fact that Suzy freaked the first time they entered tunnels at the church that were filled with gas.

Only then do they start hearing the explosions from the National Guard blowing up the tunnels -- because these clowns never thought in a million years that the National Guard would finally get around (after 2 and a half weeks) to demoing any possible escape routes.

Jana bitches to Meese that she doesn't think he's the guy to find the way out -- which is incredibly stupid since Meese is apparently the only one of the entire group who was been through the tunnel system and found the exit where Meese's contact would help them escape.  Seriously, unless the tunnel has arrows marking the way -- which it doesn't -- these people are just too stupid to live and deserve to die in a cave in.

Meanwhile, Lex is back at police headquarters meeting with Internal Affairs -- and they are blaming Lex for helping coordinate with the guy who broke the cordon (and was killed).  Really ?  I smell a setup.  And they are blaming him since he tried to break into the cordon to visit his girlfriend, but since they aren't arresting him Lex just leaves.

Jake preps the dead gang member for incineration by uncovering his face, and then leaves the incinerator room to find the gang leader strangling Dr. Cannerts -- seriously, who wouldn't want to strangle this guy by now.  Jake intervenes and compares the gang leader losing his brother (the brother that he caused to be infected in the first place) with Jake losing Katie (the love of his life).  Jake tells Dr. Cannerts that the dead gang member didn't bleed out of all his orifices like the rest, but he was all sweaty -- and Dr. Cannerts leaps to the conclusion that he didn't die from the virus, but died from the treatment.  So they might be on the road to a cure.  They also might be on the road to nowhere.

As the cops remove possible evidence from Lex's dad's house, Lex and his dad determine that they have Lommers scared and need to attack her somehow.

As the explosions continue to occur nearby in the tunnels, pipes start to leak and the ceiling starts to crack, and finally the ceiling collapses separating Xander, Pregnoteen, and the baby from Meese, Jana and Suzy.  Oh nooeessss !!!  I was expecting the Kool-aid guy to show up at some point, all infected and yell "oh, yeah".  But Pregnoteen and Xander tell Jana to leave them behind and find the way out to send help, but Jana says "we'll find a way and circle around to find you".  Umm, it's a tunnel, there's only one way, where are these other tunnels Jana speaks of, and how would she even know about them considering she has never been here before.

Dr. Cannerts determines that they need more of Thomas' blood for the cure, but would probably kill Thomas in the process.  Jake suggests finding another source like Thomas and Cannerts pulls out of his ass that 1 in a 1000 people would be immune, so Jake does the math and determines that there's 4 people out there inside the cordon. Wait a minute, first they say that Thomas is extremely rare, but now there are 4 more people within the cordon who are immune.

Meanwhile, outside the cordon, after 19 days protesters are still accumulating outside the fences.  Really ?  Lex asks Captain Scott for the APD assignment schedule outside the cordon, and Lex immediately spots something funky, but it's just two cops swapped shifts.  Seriously, the cops are acting all casual like they are pulling paid duty at Turner Field despite the fact that they are guarding an area with a lethal virus.  FFS !

Jake tries to recruit people for blood testing outside a distribution center of some sort, and Jake continues to be the only person not wearing some form of face mask.

Lex confronts Walden the cop that swapped shifts and just happened to be the cop that shot the guy that tried to break the cordon.  Walden confesses to Lex that he is the one working with Meese, because Meese got screwed over when he was thrown behind the cordon.  Wait a tick, Meese volunteered to enter the cordon with the satellite phone to do the Chief's bidding and then through in with the gang that setup shop at Prenogteen's mom's store, and then lost the satellite phone within about a day or two, so how has Meese been communicating with Walden to coordinate the escapes ?  This makes absolutely no sense at all.

But Lex tells Walden that Meese did volunteer, and he got paid. As Lex tells Walden about the demolition of the tunnel system, Walden indicates that there are still people in the tunnels.

As Jake mopes while looking at Katie's jar full of ashes, Dr. Cannerts asks for the results of Jake's search for volunteers.  And then tries to peptalk Jake about his courage for staying in the cordon -- I guess Dr. Cannerts didn't see the temper tantrum that Jake through because he was trapped, and was going to miss the ball game he had tickets for, but sure Jake is courageous.  Whatever.  And then Dr. Cannerts says some nonsense about how Katie always saw the good in people -- this is the same Katie that regularly accused Dr. Cannerts of being in on the virus conspiracy, but sure she saw the good in everyone, just keep telling yourself that.  And somehow this gives Jake an idea and pulls a notebook from a box -- we have no idea what this notebook has in it since it has never been seen before.

I'm just surprised that Jake hasn't given Dr. Cannerts that shower curtain and asked him to scrape off a few cells and clone Katie for him.

Meese conveniently finds a locked gate inside the tunnels, uses a rock to break the lock, and they are off to find Pregnoteen.  But Quentin is scared and Jana promises that nothing will happen to him.  Can all of these people just die in a tunnel collapse so we can end the show already ?

Somehow, the batteries in a police bullhorn are still charged -- after 19 days -- and he starts reading names from it outside in the park.  Turns out it is a list of the people he has incinerated, and he tries to convince random people in the park to come back at 3pm to be tested for a possible cure.

Somehow, Lex still has access to Cordon control center where Dr. Lommers et all are watching the news.  Lex confronts Dr. Lommers and Lommers confirms she is responsible for the IA investigation.  Les'x plan is to stop the demolition and find the people in the tunnnels and send them back.  Really ?  Lommers gives him one hour to do the search and she will commence demolition whether Lex is in there or not. Come on, it would take an hour just to get people together and gear up to go into the tunnels.

Somehow, Meese has extensive knowledge of the tunnel system to the point that he can draw maps of the tunnels.  How would Meese even know this ?  Oh no, Quentin loses his hat -- will the ghost of Katie find Quentin's hat and return it to him ?

Bertie returns home and finds Grandma in pain and tells him that the infection is bad, and it is time for the good wine.

Dr. Cannerts and his team -- somehow he still has a team of people who we have rarely seen recently -- setting up a testing center in the park.  3 members of the gang, including the gang leader, show up to get their blood tested.  And this seems to open a floodgate as many, many others show up -- considering only about a dozen people heard Jake's announcement, how did all these other people find out about the testing ?  There's no Internet and no phones, so how ?

Guess I was wrong, it only takes 20 minutes to gear up as Lex announces they have 40 minutes to go search the tunnels.  Lex's dad calls to tell him that he has located Leo the reporter, and Lex tells him to take down Lommers if he doesn't make it back from his upcoming mission.

Xander, Pregnoteen and the baby make it back to Pregnoteen's mom's store only to find a dead infected on the floor right by the tunnel entrance. They all get out of the tunnel, and Pregnoteen decides to clean up the store and re-open.  Won't the gang members want all their stolen MREs back ?

Meanwhile, back at the park, Dr. Cannerts finds another immune like Thomas -- and he is a reverend, who apparently thinks the Lord blessed him with immunity.  Why not ?

Meese, Jana, Suzy and Quentin finally reach the egress point, and Meese heads out to meet his contact.

Lex's dad dropped off the flash drive with the hospital security videos to Leo the reporter.

As Lex and the police team search the tunnels, Lex finds Quentin's hat -- and announces to Lommers that there are "kids down here".  Does he really expect the whole kids thing to shake Dr. Cannerts ?  The virus release has already killed dozens of adults and children, she doesn't care.

Meese encoutners Walden in the tunnel -- and confronts him about going into the cordon intentionally -- and Meese shoots Walden dead.  Really ?

Bertie crushes up some pills and pours some wine -- time for a little suicide by Grandma.  Grandma assures Bertie that this is how she wants to check out.  Down the hatch !!  Turns our Bertie dosed his wine as well so they are checking out together.  Smell ya later cordon !!

Lex confronts the "People of the Cordon" and tells them not to come any further, but it's all ok since it's Jana and crew.  But Lex can't do let them through.  

Lommers calls to tell Lex that time is up -- and to resume the implosions.  But first, Leo the reporter has release incriminating evidence about Dr. Lommers.

Cut to Jake on the hospital rooftop, reminiscing about how people have changed in the cordon -- you can tell this was filmed after they found out they were canceled.

Bertie and Grandma are dead.  Xander and Pregnoteen are still running her mom's store, and Xander has proposed to Theresa/Pregnoteen with a home made engagement ring. Leo the reporter and Lex's dad are working together to take down Dr. Lommers. Lex, Jana,Suzy and Quentin somehow got out of the tunnels and are seen hanging out at Pregnoteen/Theresa's store -- and none of them are wearing masks.

Jake rambles over during the montage about how he found love in the time of cholera or some such nonsense -- as he scatters Katie's ashes to the winds from the roof of the hospital -- with a final "I love you, Katie".  Wouldn't it be ironic if Katie's ashes blew outside the cordon and somehow infected more people.

And that's all folks.  What a depressing end to a 'limited series'.

[Free]

Quote

And that's all folks.  What a depressing end to a 'limited series'.

Depressing seems right and not because of the characters too.

[xaxat]

The two biggest emotions generated for me by this finale were laughter when the gang member fell of the hospital bed and anger that Teen Mom decided to stay at the store with all of those rations even though she knew her grandparents had nothing to eat. And they died because she didn't go to check on them!

I don't think that's what the writers were shooting for.

I still don't know what the conspiracy was about. But I admit to not really paying attention to the show. Interesting premise, based on an existing (apparently successful) show with the freedom of a limited run. So many missed opportunities.

[Muffyn]

The biggest laugh for me was the heart-wrenching moment when Lex realizes it's Jana in the tunnel.  It was just so terrible.   The cheesy music really helped make it special.  What will Lex do?  What will he dooooooo??????? 

Dammit, Quentin lived.  I really wanted that kid gone. 

I couldn't even muster up  some ability to care when grandma and grandpa pregnoteen were sucking down death wine. 

What a waste this show was.   

[Texasmom1970]

13 hours ago, xaxat said:

The two biggest emotions generated for me by this finale were laughter when the gang member fell of the hospital bed and anger that Teen Mom decided to stay at the store with all of those rations even though she knew her grandparents had nothing to eat. And they died because she didn't go to check on them!

 

I know my daughter and I were both like WTH, go check on your family, what a useless grand daughter! The only part of the show that got me was the elderly couple and I was touched at their love and devotion. Could not give a rats ass about any of the other characters or story lines. Bye Bye craptastic show!

[tvsoothesthespirit]

I'm glad it's over. I was holding out hope for a fire bombing but it was not to be.

[Netfoot]

Jake chucks Katie off the roof... so I get duppy-dust in my soup?  Eeeeech!

[Adira]

Welp, I'll be the one naysayer who's sad it's over and we didn't get a proper series finale.  This was decent for a season finale, but I would've liked it wrapped up a bit more.  Bummed Quentin didn't at least make it out.  And the baby!  But I'm glad Dr. Cannerts is on his way towards a cure, so in my mind, he's able to cure it, the virus runs its course with no more people getting infected, and they finally are all free.  And all our left-over main characters survive because I like happy endings.

[miracole]

I really liked this show. Each episode was entertaining. I know they were setting this up for a second season but I like the way it ended.  A situation like that shouldn't end all pat and dry. I made sure to catch the quotes at the beginning of each episode, I think they set the tone. I feel the theme of this show was, when everything falls apart what kind of person will you be? And that goes for the people inside and outside of the cordon. People made many different choices but  good or bad, you could understand the motivation behind all of them. I liked watching all those SLs play out. I also liked the dialogue on this show, I actually laughed when I was supposed to laugh and the talks between the different couples weren't cheesy garbage for the most part. They were serious, poignant, funny or sarcastic depending on the situation and they made sense. I liked most of the characters Suzy was the only one that consistently annoyed me.  I didn't mind the kids but weren't they supposed to be like 10 or 11? If so I thought they played them a little young.  All in all good limited series that I enjoyed. 

[Free]

On 7/20/2016 at 0:00 PM, Texasmom1970 said:

I know my daughter and I were both like WTH, go check on your family, what a useless grand daughter! The only part of the show that got me was the elderly couple and I was touched at their love and devotion. Could not give a rats ass about any of the other characters or story lines. Bye Bye craptastic show!

They seemed to be the only characters actually having a survival story whereas everyone else was stuck in their self absorbed whininess for 13 episodes straight.

[thuganomics85]

Finally saw it, and I barely got anything to say, really.  Only major change is Lex is now in the Cordon, the likable enough old couple is dead, and Lommers is exposed.  Oh, and despite claiming to be "limited series", they still leave loose threads, because despite their claims, they obviously would have been down to bring it back if it got gangbuster ratings.  But it didn't, and The CW is thankfully smart to enough to support better low-rated shows like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane the Virgin, The 100, and iZombie, instead of this dud.

Bye, Containment.  You will not be missed by me.  At least Chris Wood is going to be on Supergirl, and he was decent enough in this.  Then again, the cast wasn't offensive; they just got saddled with so much dullness and annoying characterization.  This show even made me not be entertaining by Claudia Black.  That alone, makes this show dead to me.

[AudienceofOne]

What a non-ending. And what was the point? There was no point! The release of the virus was an accident, the cordon is still intact, the conspiracy had no bearing on the existence of the cordon in the end. 

All I got from this is "people don't like being locked up with a virus". I didn't need 13 episodes to tell me that. Also, every character - even the strong ones like Jana - were so selfish by the end. Was there one character who responded to the situation appropriately? 

On 7/25/2016 at 7:37 AM, thuganomics85 said:

 This show even made me not be entertaining by Claudia Black.  That alone, makes this show dead to me.

I really hoped they'd let her have her real accent rather than that awful American one she's used previously. Her accent has improved but it's still not great. She still sounds to me like an Australian trying to do an American accent. Just let her have the real one. Would it really be so odd to have an Australian in that role?

Anyway, I have binge watched it and it was... tedious. It was tedious. What a shame.