S01.E10: We Are Gone

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

The expedition's epic journey reaches its climax as men find themselves in a final confrontation with the Inuit mythology they've trespassed into.

 

[formerlyfreedom]

A reminder that this topic is to discuss the episode specifically, along with past events on the previous episodes. For discussion of the actual Franklin expedition, or books or websites about it, please visit the True Story of the Franklin Expedition topic. Thank you!

[mrspidey]

Crozier lives!! 

I'm glad they took some artistic license and gave us a tiny bit of hope in the end. 

So he's essentially the new Tuunbaq now, protecting the Inuit. At least i think that's what the last shot was symbolizing. 

[Efzee]

3 hours ago, mrspidey said:

Crozier lives!! 

I'm glad they took some artistic license and gave us a tiny bit of hope in the end. 

So he's essentially the new Tuunbaq now, protecting the Inuit. At least i think that's what the last shot was symbolizing. 

I thought it was him hunting for seal, indicating how integrated he'd become in their society as he previously said how incredibly difficult hunting seal was.

[Ohwell]

The title of this episode alone makes me sad.

[Earlwoode]

Oh dear, great series but the ending....no, just no.  Disappointing despite all the gore.  How much do we need to suspend belief?  Crozier gets healed nicely in what?  A couple of weeks?  No medicine, no antibiotics, no people other than Silence (forgot what her real name is, lol) and he survives all that, ends up with a 

Spoiler

very neat stump and then decides he'd rather stay and live with the Eskimos?  

I suspended belief for the silly bear but it is much harder to suspend belief for this.  Still, Hickey's descent into madness and his delusions about Tuunbaq were kind of fun though I could have done without all the gore 

Spoiler

Goodsir's gruesome wrist cutting and his half dismembered naked body included.

Good show but this was the episode I liked least. It felt very, very contrived.

[formerlyfreedom]

As posted in the Notes from the Mod on the front page, all episodes of this show aired on AMC Premiere prior to tonight's broadcast, so entering this before you watch it means you may be spoiled.

[Crone]

Too many commercials!! Argghhhh!

[Ohwell]

So Hickey was so vile that Tuunbaq choked on him?  Works for me!

[SoSueMe]

I guess I will never understand Hickey. I guess I wasn't expecting such a complex madness. I really can't imagine a different ending, but I'm feeling strangely adrift.

@Captanne

I hope that you were able to hear the music somehow. It was haunting.

Edited May 22, 2018 by SoSueMe

[slothgirl]

I guess I'm going to have to rewatch to figure out just what is going on in the big battle between Tuunbaq and the sailors. I still wasn't totally clear on who was at which camp by the end, so visiting everyone's demise either in a frenzied attack or in camps after the fact, was confusing.

We spent a lot of time with Hickey revealing that he isn't Hickey, which we already knew (although his crew didn't) and far too long with LS staring at Goodsir's body. They could have made the big showdown a smidge less confusing.

It also seemed unnecessary for Goodsir to do what he did (not that he could have known) since they all ended up in battle with Tuunbaq anyway.

Edited May 22, 2018 by slothgirl

[LittleIggy]

Wow, that was intense. I can usually take all kinds of gore, but Goodsir cutting his wrist was too much for me. I guess the poison got to Tuunbaq, too. I didn’t know that he had a person’s face until he died.

What was with the guy hooking the watch chains into his face? 

There were reported sightings of Crozier by natives as late as 1858 so I was hoping he would survive.

The actress playing Silence/Silna was beautiful.

Edited May 22, 2018 by LittleIggy

[TheRabbi]

I absolutely loved this series, but am not quite sure about this finale. I need more time to digest it and maybe read some thoughts.

I honestly don't think this show needed any of the supernatural stuff. There was plenty of drama to be gleaned from the other events, and I will be researching more tomorrow about the real goings-on. 

I just read that this show was shot almost entirely on a soundstage with exception of a few shoots in Croatia. It was done by the same VFX team as The Martian. Pretty stellar effects I say, as it really became a character in itself.

But back to the finale, I guess I wanted more of the saga of the trip south, and less of the tuunbaq stuff. I guess they just froze and/or ran out of supplies? And no further mention of the folks left behind on the ship?

But I really did love this series. 

[slothgirl]

35 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Wow, that was intense. I can usually take all kinds of gore, but Goodsir cutting his wrist was too much for me. I guess the poison got to Tuunbaq, too. I didn’t know that he had a person’s face until he died.

What was with the guy hooking the watch chains into his face? 

There were reported sightings of Crozier by natives as late as 1858 so I was hoping he would survive.

The actress playing Silence/Salik was beautiful.

The face of Tuunbaq has been one of my pet peeves from the first time they showed it. And although it was nice to see Hickey finally get his due, that was some really bad CGI there. Another pet peeve was that these men had been wearing those clothes non-stop for YEARS. Even with one or 2 changes of clothes, all of them should have been in rags by now. Damn, the British navy makes really durable stuff!

I didn't get the guy hooking chains to his face either unless it was psychosis and he was unaware of what he was doing. At first I thought maybe someone had done it TO him, but who was left to have done so?

I got a little flashback to A Man Called Horse (with of course, Jared Harris' father Richard Harris) when LS was expelled from the Inuit community for losing Tuunbaq. There's a brutal scene about a woman who is left without a man when her son or husband is killed in battle.. her belongings are distributed among the tribe and she is left to starve and freeze. 

Edited May 22, 2018 by slothgirl

[SoSueMe]

1 minute ago, TheRabbi said:

I absolutely loved this series, but am not quite sure about this finale. I need more time to digest it and maybe read some thoughts.

I honestly don't think this show needed any of the supernatural stuff. There was plenty of drama to be gleaned from the other events, and I will be researching more tomorrow about the real goings-on. 

I just read that this show was shot almost entirely on a soundstage with exception of a few shoots in Croatia. It was done by the same VFX team as The Martian. Pretty stellar effects I say, as it really became a character in itself.

But back to the finale, I guess I wanted more of the saga of the trip south, and less of the tuunbaq stuff. I guess they just froze and/or ran out of supplies? And no further mention of the folks left behind on the ship?

But I really did love this series. 

Wow, I am definitely going to have to re-watch. I must have blinked out when people were left on the ship. I thought they all left after the fire.

[Crone]

Read the book and at the time, I thought the ending was sorta weird. But tonight I wished they’d used the book ending or something closer to it. In the book, tuunbaq survived and refused to eat Hickey. Crozier discovered that the netsilik lifestyle was actually quite comfortable most of the time. (I liked him finding warmth in the furs with lady silence...) I even liked the ESP communication that the elite far north Eskimo group used, and their continuing mission to keep the tuunbaq under control.

I guess I need to watch the show again. Too many things didn’t make sense to me. Can’t see Goodsir giving up like that, even though he had a plan. He wasn’t a quitter. Why didn’t Crozier continue south? Without Silence, he had no reason to stay. Where did she go? The amazing spiritual tuunbaq choked on that nasty little Englishman-really? That gives Hickey too much power, I think. What was that scene at the end? 

[TheRabbi]

10 minutes ago, SoSueMe said:

Wow, I am definitely going to have to re-watch. I must have blinked out when people were left on the ship. I thought they all left after the fire.

There was a scene where Crozier said goodbye to a few men, said they were leaving enough rations to survive one more winter, and gave them instructions on what to do if the ice melted and permitted starting the ship again.

[Ohwell]

6 minutes ago, Crone said:

In the book, tuunbaq survived and refused to eat Hickey.

That's even worse if Tuunbaq didn't even want to eat him.  Hickey really was a little turd.

I did love it when Hickey offered up his tongue and Tuunbaq basically said nope nope nope and proceeded to eat his arm..

Edited May 22, 2018 by Ohwell

[tennisgurl]

No wonder they kept showing commercials for Jaggermeister, they knew that we would all need a freaking drink after that. A great show, but so very tragic. Even though I knew that everyone was doomed, I kept hoping things would be different. At least poor Francis survived, even after losing his entire crew. 

There were a lot of heartbreaking scenes (Francis trying to convince Goodsir that he was still a good person, Francis finding poor Jopsons body) but what really got me was when Lady Silence saw Goodsirs mutilated body on the table. Her face just crumbled. 

[slothgirl]

Great review that also cleared up a few things for me:

https://tv.avclub.com/for-its-masterful-final-act-the-terror-stares-death-in-1826214184

[Crone]

20 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

Wow, that was intense. I can usually take all kinds of gore, but Goodsir cutting his wrist was too much for me. I guess the poison got to Tuunbaq, too. I didn’t know that he had a person’s face until he died.

What was with the guy hooking the watch chains into his face? 

There were reported sightings of Crozier by natives as late as 1858 so I was hoping he would survive.

The actress playing Silence/Salik was beautiful.

Yeah, what was up with Little and the chains? Were we supposed to think he did that to himself? And I guess he lost the argument about rescuing Crozier... 

Agree about the actress. Wish she had more to do. (Like she did in the BOOK! Ok, I’ll stop now.)

[zobot81]

Like a impressionist painting.

Stunning.

[peeayebee]

25 minutes ago, slothgirl said:

It also seemed unnecessary for Goodsir to do what he did (not that he could have known) since they all ended up in battle with Tuunbaq anyway.

I figure he was so traumatized by having to cut up that man for the others to eat, that he just didn't want to live anymore. I thought it was ingenious to put poison all over his body -- except the soles of his feet! -- in order to either kill or make the others [more] sick.

I was kind of annoyed that Hickey never seemed sick. From anything.

 

24 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

What was with the guy hooking the watch chains into his face? 

I was confused by this too. I thought Hickey's men had somehow gotten to him and put the chains on him. If he did it to himself, there must be some symbolic meaning to it.

 

6 minutes ago, Crone said:

The amazing spiritual tuunbaq choked on that nasty little Englishman-really? That gives Hickey too much power, I think. 

I thought what happened was that the other end of the chain that was attached to Crozier's wrist was down Tuunbaq's throat. Crozier kept pulling and pulling, and he pulled the bear's guts out, or something like that.

I didn't understand the final shot. I get that Crozier had assimilated, but he, the sled, and the child looked like a statue. The snow was blowing around them on the ice, but they were unmoving.

I did love this series. I hadn't been watching from the beginning and had to binge off of AMC.com before I watched the last few eps I recorded. Jared Harris was remarkable.

[slothgirl]

5 minutes ago, Crone said:

Yeah, what was up with Little and the chains? Were we supposed to think he did that to himself? And I guess he lost the argument about rescuing Crozier... 

I couldn't understand why there were 3 camps that Crozier and LS found. The one with the sick left behind. Another with with books and whatever strewn everywhere, and the last where Little is still alive with his face piercings. How did they end up in 3 camps (not including Hickey's) instead of 2?

[tennisgurl]

18 minutes ago, Crone said:

Yeah, what was up with Little and the chains? Were we supposed to think he did that to himself? And I guess he lost the argument about rescuing Crozier... 

 

The Terrors Twitter account said this was based on a true account by some natives who found the bodies of some of these men. They found a mans body that was "positively festooned" with jewelry, his body seemingly mutilated with piercing and jewelry. No one knows why he did it.

Edited May 22, 2018 by tennisgurl

[Crone]

3 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

The Terrors Twitter account said this was based on a true account by some natives who found the bodies of some of these men. They found a mans body that was "positively festooned" with jewelry, his body seemingly mutilated with piercing and jewelry. No one knows why he did it.

Wow. Maybe lead poisoning? That’s interesting- I need to do some reading. 

[SoSueMe]

35 minutes ago, slothgirl said:

Great review that also cleared up a few things for me:

https://tv.avclub.com/for-its-masterful-final-act-the-terror-stares-death-in-1826214184

Thanks for the link, that is a great review. I've read a lot of the comments and plan on reading more when I'm not so beat.

[Christi]

Fuck Fuck Fuck...

[tennisgurl]

What a great series this turned out to be. It was certainly confusing at times (gonna need to read some comments!) but I've loved trying to decipher it, and I appreciate when a show makes me think about what its saying, and not spelling everything out. The books ending, I admit, sounds kind of cooler than the shows, but I get why they went with this ending for the show. It was set up a lot more, and I think it worked. Although, I do like the idea that Tuunbaq took one look at Hickey, said "thats a hard pass" and turned up his nose. Ancient demonic polar bears have standards damn it! 

First of all, the music and sets and cinematography was amazing throughout. So haunting, and desolate. It set up this frightening atmosphere, without having to go nuts on the gore. I mean, they did go nuts on the gore eventually, but those were never the scariest parts. The scariest parts were the creeping dread of the crew, and their descent into despair and madness. Those shots of Hickey ranting and raving on his empty boat about how their empire wasn't the only empire and they would find the monster was amazingly shot. It really did have a very Paradise Lost vibe to it. "Better to Reign in Hell than Serve in Heaven" indeed, Hickey. 

My biggest tearjerker moments involved poor, sweet Goodsir, who deserved so much better than to die horribly and get eaten after so much suffering. He just wanted to study plants and help people, and he ended up being literally eaten. By the time he talked to Francis, he was already spiraling into despair, and I think he realized that no way was he getting out of this alive, so he decided to take these assholes down with him. It was so heartbreaking to see him telling Francis that he was dirty and tainted because of what he had been forced to do, while Francis tried to convince him that he was still a good man, and that God couldn't judge him for what he has done. Then begging Francis to take the ring the guy way back when had for his sister, and giving it to her if he could. He was such a good, decent, intelligent person, its just so awful what he ended up getting. Then in the end, he got to see the beautiful natural world that he loved, not the awful life he had been living.

"You could have just joined up." was probably the funniest line of the whole season. Especially because you could almost hear Francis adding "dumbass" to the end of that. 

Poor Jopson. I hope this show has an afterlife, and he can see that his beloved Captain really didnt abandon him to die. Its just too sad to contemplate him dying alone and in pain, thinking his friend and captain left him behind without a thought, after everything they went through together.

Whats really sad is that, in the end, both sides ended up going to Hell, even if Francis's men took longer to lose it. It seems as though they too descended into cannibalistic madness, without hope of escape to hold them over. While the show put fourth Crozier vs Hickey as a sort of decency or evil dichotomy, it was never that simple. At the end of the day, these were just men who were pushed to the brink, and, with one exception, didnt make it. Even Little, who Francis hoped would hold things together, wasn't immune to going past the point of madness and despair. Even lady Silence ended up having to give her life up, even after everything she went through, even if at least she got to keep her mind. Its not even that these were evil men (again, except Hickey and some of his lackeys) or even bad or weak ones, it was an impossible situation, and who knows what people will do in that kind of situation? Its just horribly tragic.

But, at least Francis made it, and decided that he was better off away from home in the Empire that keeps pushing into places it clearly has no business pushing into, and has no clue what they're getting into. He ended the series deeply scarred, but not broken. Which is at least a tiny shred of hope to be taken from this whole, miserable, tragic affair. Poor Francis really showed himself to be a hero in all of this, and he still couldn't save his men, who he cared about so much. Even offering comfort to the mutineers who were planning to kill and eat him.

So, yeah, great acting (seriously, one of the best ensembles I've seen in quite awhile), great setting, the writing was ambiguous and yet sharp, and it was dripping in existential terror (title drop!) and dread, but it was not without hope or humanity. I will definitely need to watch again to see if I get everything down, but wow. I hope they keep at least some of the cast for next season, and can keep this quality up. Maybe they can be a teeny bit more clear about some things, but not too much. Got to have stuff to discuss here after all!

[SimoneS]

Brutal finale. As improbable as it was, I was grateful that they let Francis survive. I think that was his family and the child was his. At least, he found peace after all that brutality and betrayal.

It was crushing when Francis was looking at the boots that Hickey was wearing and recognized James' initials. They had unburied and ate him. It hurt me more that Francis was so positive that his men would come and rescue them. He also still optimistically believed that he could turn some of the mutineers back onto the right path.

Losing Goodsir, Edward, and Jopson was heartbreaking. Goodsir's suicide made sense. I think that some part of him was hanging onto to hope that help would come and deliver him from this hell, but Francis' capture finally broke him. Edward tried so hard, but those men were dumbasses. I think that he was delusional to the end which is why he mutilated himself. And Jopson crawling, trying to reach Francis was so sad. 

I don't which group of men was more delusional and stupid tonight; the mutineers or Francis' men. Edward was right, they could not survive without Francis' experience and language skills. The mutineers were fools from beginning to end. They really thought they could return to England after everything that they did. It would only be a matter of time before the Navy broke them and figured out what really happened. Only Hickey understood that there was no going back.

Poor Silna, exiled and all alone.

I think that Hickey's evil soul killed Tunnbaq (sp?) not Goodsir's poison. 

I enjoyed this series. It was so well acted and the filming was outstanding. I thought the make up tonight was very done. Jared Harris looked like he had aged 20 years in a few weeks.

ETA: Francis' line, "you could have just joined up" was so weirdly funny and showed the chasm between him and Hickey as men.

Edited May 22, 2018 by SimoneS

[Christi]

Im probably alone in thus, but I did not want Tuunbaq to die!

We invaded their lifestyle, and killed his Shaman.

Of course Tuunbaq is going to seek revenge.  To me, its a metaphor for "civilized" people putting a flag in a piece of ground and claiming it.  They had no rights out there...I know they were on a noble mission, but kill  Tuunbaq's handler and all bets are off.

This whole thing was epic-ly heartbreaking...its hard to absorb it all.

I have 3 Great Pyrenees dogs, which are a giant dog breed that look like polar bears.  The Tuunbaq scenes (and the entire show) were roooough here?

The making of Tuunbaq

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclusive-the-terror-concept-designer-neville-pages-reveals-the-tuunbaq-design-process

Edited May 22, 2018 by Christi

[slothgirl]

I decided I'm not up for watching the rebroadcast so soon... but I'm wondering about the Tuunbaq image. I keep getting the feeling that the face was meant to resemble Crozier's. It was definitely human and certainly didn't look like Hickey or anyone else. If somehow Tuunbaq represented an aspect of Crozier throughout, then that opens up so many interesting ideas.

blah, blah, overeducated, blah

;)

[thuganomics85]

And so it ends.  For pretty much everyone but Francis, apparently.

Jopson dying alone and thinking his captain abandoned him was certainly heartbreaking, but Goodsir's death got me the most.  Just so disturbing and hard to watch.  I guess there is a bright side that he helped take Hickey and his lot down with him by poisoning his body, but it was just so sad seeing Goodsir being driven to the point that he decided death was preferable to living.  Massive credit to Paul Ready for taken what could have been a typical "noble, good" character, and not making him feel trite or boring. I hope we see more of him in other shows.

Dodgy CGI aside (admittedly not the show's strong point), Hickey finally getting taken down was cathartic.  Truly one of the most despicable characters on all of television. I'm usually pretty good with not letting actor's past work effect how I view their next ones, but I have a feeling that I'll probably automatically say "Fuck you, Hickey!" if I ever see Adam Nagatis on another show.

Even Lady Silence; who we finally found it is names Silna; has a tragic end, as she is basically booted from her camp after the Tuunbaq dies.  And her reaction to seeing Goodsir's half-eaten body was crushing.  Nive Nielsen really did a lot with her facial expressions alone.  I kind of want to see a... err, face-off between her and Q'orianka Kilcher, who did some impressive silent acting as well on The Alienist.

Was confused over why Edward suddenly was covered with gold chains when Francis found their camp.  Interesting that Francis' plan was actually for Edward to go against his orders and save him, but he didn't account for the rest of the men to not want to risk it.  But, of course, it ended badly for them as well.

So, Francis ends up being the lone survivor, but decides to stay with the Eskimos.  I guess he just couldn't bring himself to go back home after everything that happened?

All in all, this show will go down as one of the hardest ones I ever watched, but one of my favorites as well.  The atmosphere, the tragedies, the story, and the characters just gripped me.  And all of the cast deserves a bow for turning in some amazing work.  I hope the Emmy's show them a little love, but in my personal opinion, they should already engrave Jared Harris' name on the trophy for his category, because he gave one of the best performances of not just this year, but the past few.  He's always been one of my favorites, but he this might actually be his best yet, which is really saying something. 

[HollyG]

3 hours ago, Crone said:

Read the book and at the time, I thought the ending was sorta weird. But tonight I wished they’d used the book ending or something closer to it. In the book, tuunbaq survived and refused to eat Hickey. Crozier discovered that the netsilik lifestyle was actually quite comfortable most of the time. (I liked him finding warmth in the furs with lady silence...) I even liked the ESP communication that the elite far north Eskimo group used, and their continuing mission to keep the tuunbaq under control.

Did they explain in the book what the tuunbaq actually was? I don't recall an explanation, but I'm sure I dozed off here and there during the series. 

[Earlwoode]

5 hours ago, slothgirl said:

I got a little flashback to A Man Called Horse (with of course, Jared Harris' father Richard Harris) when LS was expelled from the Inuit community for losing Tuunbaq. There's a brutal scene about a woman who is left without a man when her son or husband is killed in battle.. her belongings are distributed among the tribe and she is left to starve and freeze. 

Wow, I got the exact same impression.   I saw the guy with the multiple chains and thought WTF, channeling from A Man Called Horse (a brilliant movie btw which portrayed the brutality and harshness of life as a Native American).   It was a scene which made no sense at all.

i agree with the person who said it was confusing to know which group was which as the tents and terrain where exactly the same.  To me, that was the greatest weakness of this show: I had great difficulty in telling characters apart and telling places apart as well.  Even the ship scenes were confusing.

I presume the people left on the ship sailed them to another location because that’s where they were found in RL though they did not get very far.

I think Crozier mentions at one point the Tuunbaq was already ill from eating all  the poisoned men.  When he came upon the camp he was either wounded or ill.  Hence the quote about “tell me what you eat...”

On a comic note, I thought it was hilarious when Hickey revealed he only wanted to go to Hawaii lol, as his motive to join the expedition.  I laughed my head off at that explanation. What a pity he wasn’t born a few years later, he could have saved everyone a lot of trouble and just booked a Thomas Cook holiday, ROTFL!

Great series but weak ending.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Earlwoode

[WearyTraveler]

3 hours ago, Earlwoode said:

I presume the people left on the ship sailed them to another location because that’s where they were found in RL though they did not get very far.

Or they became dislodged during warmer weather and drifted off

[Osmigo]

9 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I didn't understand the final shot. I get that Crozier had assimilated, but he, the sled, and the child looked like a statue. The snow was blowing around them on the ice, but they were unmoving.

I was uncertain about this, too.  When I saw that final shot, at first I thought it was a still photo.  Then I saw the snow blowing, but Crozier et. al. were ABSOLUTELY motionless, like statues. My conclusion was that they had frozen to death.  So everybody's saying they were alive? I found it a little dissatisfying for the show to end with this uncertainty.  Thoughts, comments?

[zobot81]

40 minutes ago, Osmigo said:

I was uncertain about this, too.  When I saw that final shot, at first I thought it was a still photo.  Then I saw the snow blowing, but Crozier et. al. were ABSOLUTELY motionless, like statues. My conclusion was that they had frozen to death.  So everybody's saying they were alive? I found it a little dissatisfying for the show to end with this uncertainty.  Thoughts, comments?

Yes, I have thoughts. My thoughts are that the final scene is meant to evoke a still photograph or painting.  Most of the finale's shots, the sets, the costumes -- especially Hickey's final scene, when he orates madness in his pajamas from inside of a   boat being dragged across a rocky sea, as well as the final shot of Crozier and and little Inuit girl, frozen in time on the ice -- it is all very "stagy", like we are suddenly watching a play. And I was very moved, even comforted by that feeling.  So much of the show is this great, visceral journey (a doomed and dark journey into suffering, inhumanity, and eventual demise) that I felt relieved when they sort of broke the fourth wall.  When I say they broke the fourth wall, I only mean that we are drawn back into a play-like context, which makes the story seems less "real".  Also, it mirrors the early flashbacks we get of a previous expedition, depicted on a stage in London (presumably).  I always wondered if they would circle back to that vignette, and in my mind (especially with the two shots that I already mentioned), the director accomplishes this parallel in the finale.

The Terror is a play. It isn't real. But it is real, or it might be real. You decide.

To me, The Terror is a beautiful exploration of fantasy and horror v. reality and tragedy, and where the mind draws its lines around them.

[slothgirl]

1 hour ago, Osmigo said:

I was uncertain about this, too.  When I saw that final shot, at first I thought it was a still photo.  Then I saw the snow blowing, but Crozier et. al. were ABSOLUTELY motionless, like statues. My conclusion was that they had frozen to death.  So everybody's saying they were alive? I found it a little dissatisfying for the show to end with this uncertainty.  Thoughts, comments?

 

1 hour ago, zobot81 said:

Yes, I have thoughts. My thoughts are that the final scene is meant to evoke a still photograph or painting.  Most of the finale's shots, the sets, the costumes -- especially Hickey's final scene, when he orates madness in his pajamas from inside of a   boat being dragged across a rocky sea, as well as the final shot of Crozier and and little Inuit girl, frozen in time on the ice -- it is all very "stagy", like we are suddenly watching a play. And I was very moved, even comforted by that feeling.  So much of the show is this great, visceral journey (a doomed and dark journey into suffering, inhumanity, and eventual demise) that I felt relieved when they sort of broke the fourth wall.  When I say they broke the fourth wall, I only mean that we are drawn back into a play-like context, which makes the story seems less "real".  Also, it mirrors the early flashbacks we get of a previous expedition, depicted on a stage in London (presumably).  I always wondered if they would circle back to that vignette, and in my mind (especially with the two shots that I already mentioned), the director accomplishes this parallel in the finale.

The Terror is a play. It isn't real. But it is real, or it might be real. You decide.

To me, The Terror is a beautiful exploration of fantasy and horror v. reality and tragedy, and where the mind draws its lines around them.

My take:

Crozier describes in one episode how hard it is to learn to hunt food there. The natives spend years learning how to fish under the ice. So to me the last scene is saying that he has learned to do it and that one of the things involved is long periods of patient stillness. He has fully assimilated and this is now his home and culture. I like the idea of it transforming into one of the "tableau" from the stage productions. The beginning tableau is on stage in London glorifying expedition and the hubris of the Empire. This final one is the actual life in the land and conditions they think they are portraying in the first. Crozier appears in the first one and in the last one. The show is HIS journey from one to the other.

Edited May 22, 2018 by slothgirl
grammar can be a wonderful thing... or not

[SimoneS]

My morning after thoughts are mostly about Silna and Francis.

I agree with @Crone, they should have given Silna more to do. Nive Nielsen is talented. Silna's actions were fascinating and I can only imagine her emotional turmoil. The shaman turned back when they sensed that Tuunbaq had died, but she went on, maybe to give him his "last rites." She ignored the one sailor begging for help, after all when her people tried to help them, their reward was death. Her tearful reaction to see Goodsir's butchered body confirms that she had some affection for him and appreciated his kindness. I was a bit surprised by her willingness to help Francis. She must have felt some debt to him for helping her and protecting her from the other men.

Francis lost everyone under his command then Silna. In the end, he could help no one, not even those who loved him and those who had helped him. I was glad that Francis realized that Silna and her father along with the other Inuit suffered as a result of the British greed and empire building. This is why he came up with the story that there was no northwest passage, technically he was right because the British were looking for a shortcut to China and that didn't exist the way that they envisioned it.

Regarding the final shot of Francis and the child, it was to depict how assimilated he had become into Inuit culture and the Arctic environment. Remember he told the men how difficult it was to hunt seals. The Inuit would stay perfectly still for hours next to the hole with a spear waiting for a seal to come up for air before making the kill. It takes tremendous patience and skill to kill a seal. We are being told that Francis has learned that skill or what @slothgirl said. Great minds. :)

Edited May 22, 2018 by SimoneS

[Fellaway]

10 hours ago, Christi said:

Im probably alone in thus, but I did not want Tuunbaq to die!

 

Oh, no, I didn't want it to die either.  The only one I wanted to die was Mr. Hickey and, as it is, I found his death rather anti-climactic.  It was over too quickly, with but a nano-second of his horror on display.  At the risk of sounding bloodthirsty, I would've preferred he die at Mr. Goodsir's hand, slowly coming to the realization of what Mr. Goodsir did and suffering from it before he died.  I wanted to see more of Mr. Hickey's death.  He deserved it far more than the Tuunbaq did.

I was confused by the number of camps Crozier and Silna came upon.  Why were there three?  One for the sick men left behind, one for the group who left them behind.  Then I figured the second one, where we saw all the books, was a former camp of the latter party; they just left a bunch of stuff behind as they weakened, just as Crozier predicted would happen when they first left the ships.  Now I'm trying to puzzle out why Jopson and Edward were in different camps.  Did Edward go with the ones who left, after all?  I guess he must've.

The two guys back in England, I couldn't believe the callousness of the one talking about finally going to find "it," the Northwest Passage, nevermind the men on the two lost ships.  He didn't even recognize that that was not what the other guy was about.

Jopson's and Edward's deaths were devastating, the more so for Crozier's gentleness with both men.  Mr. Goodsir's death was devastating, especially as it seemed unnecessary in hindsight.  The whole show was devastating.  Honestly, this is one of the most haunting, impactful shows I've ever seen.  Just load up a boat with Emmys, it deserves them all.  It's definitely a show that bears rewatching, if only to go back and look for them now that I have a better sense of who all those secondary characters are and I can put names to faces.  But, also, I think this is a show where no detail is superfluous.  It may not mean something now, but down the line, it'll tie right back in.  This is one show I'm going to be watching again, many, many times.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Fellaway

[proserpina65]

OMG, that was intense, and gross, and bleak, and finally horribly, horribly sad.  There were parts I couldn't even watch (I'm sure you can guess which ones), and then there was Mr. Not-Hickey getting torn apart and eaten by Tuunbaq.  Go Tuunbaq!  Hell, I was even a little sad when Tuunbaq died, especially due to Lady Silence's response.  And I think her reaction to finding poor Mr. Goodsir's body answers any questions about whether or not she felt some affection for him.

[SoSueMe]

10 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

What a great series this turned out to be. It was certainly confusing at times (gonna need to read some comments!) but I've loved trying to decipher it, and I appreciate when a show makes me think about what its saying, and not spelling everything out. The books ending, I admit, sounds kind of cooler than the shows, but I get why they went with this ending for the show. It was set up a lot more, and I think it worked. Although, I do like the idea that Tuunbaq took one look at Hickey, said "thats a hard pass" and turned up his nose. Ancient demonic polar bears have standards damn it! 

First of all, the music and sets and cinematography was amazing throughout. So haunting, and desolate. It set up this frightening atmosphere, without having to go nuts on the gore. I mean, they did go nuts on the gore eventually, but those were never the scariest parts. The scariest parts were the creeping dread of the crew, and their descent into despair and madness. Those shots of Hickey ranting and raving on his empty boat about how their empire wasn't the only empire and they would find the monster was amazingly shot. It really did have a very Paradise Lost vibe to it. "Better to Reign in Hell than Serve in Heaven" indeed, Hickey. 

My biggest tearjerker moments involved poor, sweet Goodsir, who deserved so much better than to die horribly and get eaten after so much suffering. He just wanted to study plants and help people, and he ended up being literally eaten. By the time he talked to Francis, he was already spiraling into despair, and I think he realized that no way was he getting out of this alive, so he decided to take these assholes down with him. It was so heartbreaking to see him telling Francis that he was dirty and tainted because of what he had been forced to do, while Francis tried to convince him that he was still a good man, and that God couldn't judge him for what he has done. Then begging Francis to take the ring the guy way back when had for his sister, and giving it to her if he could. He was such a good, decent, intelligent person, its just so awful what he ended up getting. Then in the end, he got to see the beautiful natural world that he loved, not the awful life he had been living.

"You could have just joined up." was probably the funniest line of the whole season. Especially because you could almost hear Francis adding "dumbass" to the end of that. 

Poor Jopson. I hope this show has an afterlife, and he can see that his beloved Captain really didnt abandon him to die. Its just too sad to contemplate him dying alone and in pain, thinking his friend and captain left him behind without a thought, after everything they went through together.

Whats really sad is that, in the end, both sides ended up going to Hell, even if Francis's men took longer to lose it. It seems as though they too descended into cannibalistic madness, without hope of escape to hold them over. While the show put fourth Crozier vs Hickey as a sort of decency or evil dichotomy, it was never that simple. At the end of the day, these were just men who were pushed to the brink, and, with one exception, didnt make it. Even Little, who Francis hoped would hold things together, wasn't immune to going past the point of madness and despair. Even lady Silence ended up having to give her life up, even after everything she went through, even if at least she got to keep her mind. Its not even that these were evil men (again, except Hickey and some of his lackeys) or even bad or weak ones, it was an impossible situation, and who knows what people will do in that kind of situation? Its just horribly tragic.

But, at least Francis made it, and decided that he was better off away from home in the Empire that keeps pushing into places it clearly has no business pushing into, and has no clue what they're getting into. He ended the series deeply scarred, but not broken. Which is at least a tiny shred of hope to be taken from this whole, miserable, tragic affair. Poor Francis really showed himself to be a hero in all of this, and he still couldn't save his men, who he cared about so much. Even offering comfort to the mutineers who were planning to kill and eat him.

So, yeah, great acting (seriously, one of the best ensembles I've seen in quite awhile), great setting, the writing was ambiguous and yet sharp, and it was dripping in existential terror (title drop!) and dread, but it was not without hope or humanity. I will definitely need to watch again to see if I get everything down, but wow. I hope they keep at least some of the cast for next season, and can keep this quality up. Maybe they can be a teeny bit more clear about some things, but not too much. Got to have stuff to discuss here after all!

Kudos on this post. You put into words much of what was ping-ponging around in my brain. Most of the terror and horror had more to do with "This place wants us dead." than Tuunpaq. It showed the best and worst of humans and somehow even managed to insert a brief moment of hiliarity - Blanky slyly cluing Crozier into his fork scheme. I know I will be haunted by Goodsir and Jopson.  

[SimoneS]

6 minutes ago, Fellaway said:

I was confused by the number of camps Crozier and Silna came upon.  Why were there three?  One for the sick men left behind, one for the group who left them behind.  Then I figured the second one, where we saw all the books, was a former camp of the latter party; they just left a bunch of stuff behind as they weakened, just as Crozier predicted would happen when they first left the ships.  Now I'm trying to puzzle out why Jopson and Edward were in different camps.  Did Edward go with the ones who left, after all?  I guess he must've.

Yes, Edward went with the men who abandoned the sick men. The first camp was the sick men including Jopson and the second camp was the one with Edward and the other men. The men had resorted to cannibalism and had died and then apparently gone insane.

Edited May 22, 2018 by SimoneS

[zobot81]

33 minutes ago, slothgirl said:

 

My take:

Crozier describes in one episode how hard it is to learn to hunt food there. The natives spend years learning how to fish under the ice. So to me the last scene is saying that he has learned to do it and that one of the things involved is long periods of patient stillness. He has fully assimilated and this is now his home and culture. I like the idea of it transforming into one of the "tableau" from the stage productions. The beginning tableau is on stage in London glorifying expedition and the hubris of the Empire. This final one is the actual life in the land and conditions they think they are portraying in the first. Crozier appears in the first one and in the last one. The show is HIS journey from one to the other.

I love your point!!   I was expecting to see a hole in the ice emerge in the shot, as it zoomed back from Crozier and the girl, but never saw one. Which made me think that the director was showing the audience something else. 

Perhaps the way the Inuit hunt in the arctic is with a very short spear, which penetrates both the ice and the prey item in a single motion?  I honestly don't know...and if you saw a hole, please, tell me!!  I absolutely could have missed it.

Or maybe the hole was implied?? Could be anything, neither, both...and that's what's so cool about a television series that transcends into art...sheesh this was a breathtaking show!  : )

[Osmigo]

1 minute ago, zobot81 said:

I love your point!!   I was expecting to see a hole in the ice emerge in the shot, as it zoomed back from Crozier and the girl, but never saw one. Which made me think that the director was showing the audience something else. 

Perhaps the way the Inuit hunt in the arctic is with a very short spear, which penetrates both the ice and the prey item in a single motion?  I honestly don't know...and if you saw a hole, please, tell me!!  I absolutely could have missed it.

I was also looking for a hole.  It looked like Crozier was staring at something.  But they were motionless; they didn't even blink, even with that cold wind blasting him in the face.  That's why I suspected they were frozen to death.  But that wouldn't really make sense, either. 

 

That's a human tendency this show played upon: our natural demand to "understand" everything.  Everything has to "make sense." When we see something we don't understand or can't explain, it really bothers us.  What is that? Why did that happen? Where did it go? We insist on having answer to these questions.  And so it was with that final scene. Were they alive, or frozen? Was there a hole? If not, why were they sitting there motionless like that?  It makes sense if we stop insisting that it make sense.   As Zobot stated, "...the final scene is meant to evoke a still photograph or painting...."  which is an excellent proposition. 

[slothgirl]

13 minutes ago, zobot81 said:

I love your point!!   I was expecting to see a hole in the ice emerge in the shot, as it zoomed back from Crozier and the girl, but never saw one. Which made me think that the director was showing the audience something else. 

Perhaps the way the Inuit hunt in the arctic is with a very short spear, which penetrates both the ice and the prey item in a single motion?  I honestly don't know...and if you saw a hole, please, tell me!!  I absolutely could have missed it.

Or maybe the hole was implied?? Could be anything, neither, both...and that's what's so cool about a television series that transcends into art...sheesh this was a breathtaking show!  : )

I'm fairly sure I saw a hole... it was pretty small, so I was confused. That's why I figured he was fishing for fish not seals. Where I live, people ice fish on lakes in the winter and the holes are about the size of a post hole. No way you could get a seal through that hole. Another posted clarifies that they spear the seal when it pokes its nose up to breathe.

The hole was less visible not only because of it's size, but because of the "snow" around its perimeter from the ice removed to make the hole

Edited May 22, 2018 by slothgirl

[tennisgurl]

Normally I say you are what you eat, but Hickey was no Goodsir. 

Too soon? 

[zobot81]

This is not really meant as evidence of anything regarding the final shot, but I do think that the show's creators had a holistic vision for the show's aesthetic  -- right down to the show's promotional material and website. 

I shared these "period portraits" from AMC.com, on "The Terror in the Media" thread, simply because I love them....beautiful and haunting...

Portrait Group #1

Portrait Group #2

[SoSueMe]

30 minutes ago, Osmigo said:

I was also looking for a hole.  It looked like Crozier was staring at something.  But they were motionless; they didn't even blink, even with that cold wind blasting him in the face.  That's why I suspected they were frozen to death.  But that wouldn't really make sense, either. 

 

That's a human tendency this show played upon: our natural demand to "understand" everything.  Everything has to "make sense." When we see something we don't understand or can't explain, it really bothers us.  What is that? Why did that happen? Where did it go? We insist on having answer to these questions.  And so it was with that final scene. Were they alive, or frozen? Was there a hole? If not, why were they sitting there motionless like that?  It makes sense if we stop insisting that it make sense.   As Zobot stated, "...the final scene is meant to evoke a still photograph or painting...."  which is an excellent proposition. 

I will have to re-watch but I could swear I saw a small movement from one of them, sort of a twitch. With all the fur garments blending into each other it was hard to tell, but I think the child moved just slightly.