The OA finale: LOVE/HATE

Oh I think we are going to talk about this...

The OA what happened


WHAT I LOVED

-This time the sweatshirt is the title sequence, as always water rushing over it. I want that sweatshirt.

-That awkward moment when you are rooting for two people not to cure a very sick women.

-The tension when she is teaching them the fifth movement is too much, you know Hap can barge in any second with his gun.

-Hap shoots the sheriff and the happiness, giddiness of the episode before is gone.

-Their faces when OA is telling them about Hap leaving her on the side of the road. Why is she holding a knife while telling it?

-" I'm busy Nance, I'm making a waffle." Oh Herschel.

-" I though because she was blind she would love me forever. " That is one chilling mommy dearest statement.

-So here it comes. Alfonso finding the books, like staring at the wall in the police station and understanding that Kaiser Soze was never there. Strange that not too many reviewers have made the link. I have to go back, but there was a hint to Soze, I just don't remember what it was, anybody?

- Alfonso staring in the mirror and seeing Homer staring back at him. Like Cooper staring in the mirror and seeing Bob staring back. What does this mean? did OA use him as inspiration, or is it something sinister?

- They sure are champions of the high-take, this one again over the neighborhood and the clouds reflecting in the lake.

-"I brought my car in for a tune up. I can go everywhere." Oh Betty.

- Alfonso putting on music in the school atrium staring at the trees outside, and suddenly you know that something bad is going to happen here. This is the room of Prairie's dream, similar to the aula of the FBI, like Rahim suggested. Again, the hint is only a visual one.

-Steve imploring them to stand up, to have the courage, to do what they were trained to do.
On New years eve I rewatched Guardians of the Galaxy. Remember that moment when Chris Pratt/Star Lord starts to dance, and when asked what he is doing, says "I'm distracting you, you big turd blossom."Well here we have it, dancing works.

Again there seems to be some backlash on the school shooting. With the reality of them, some people think you cannot use one in your storytelling. I really don't understand the reasoning of this. They happen in real life so we should ignore them in fiction. They happen in real life so five people standing up and doing their dance, is discounting the horror of what people go through in real life? Must everything be so literal? This is fiction, it is about the courage to stand up. Not a manual to what to do during a shooting. Then you should hide and run. But in general, when somebody is here to terrorize, courage is what we should have. Courage, not fear. So, lets proceed.

-We only see the shooter's legs. I really expected it to be Hap or Homer. We never get to see his face. A bit frustrating, maybe this has to go in the hate column, but, I am leaving it here for now.

-The sound in the trees, when the ambulance doors are closing. Steve realizing what it is and running after it.



So, what happened? What does it all mean?


Do I believe OA?

What I believe:

The premonitions. She has them.

The Russian story.  Not entirely, there is something off about The Voi, her father, but I believe the bus accident.


What I don't believe:

There is no Hap. I think the babushka here is a hint. Not only are there more than one person in Prairie, her father and Hap overlap, her father having a mine, and Hap keeping them captive near a mine. One of the two does not exists.

-The captivity scenes. especially the resurrection and the healing. Khatun. The magic of the movements. The NDE experiments. Hap killing his colleague. Hap finding her at Central Station, only hearing a few notes.

In the captivity scenes there were some allusions to a psych ward. In Homer's NDE specifically. I am not discounting this interpretation entirely. Nancy kept the note from Abel, Nancy medicated her for all these years. Did she lock her up after finding her at Central Station? (this is not my favorite interpretation, but it can work).

The fish tank  in Homer's NDE is also a big giveaway, if it's the inspiration for Prairie's imagining of the glass cages, then she must be the one seeing the fish tank. So did she have Homer's dreams, is she him? Or is it all a fabrication?
What does it mean when Alfonso sees Homer in the mirror? When this happened in Twin Peaks, Bob was an entity that took control of a person. I don't think this is happening here, it may be only that Alfonso is recognizing himself in the story, just the realization of where Prairie found some of her inspiration.


The most important thing for me is, Prairie jumping off the bridge to get back to them. If she meant Homer, Scott, Rachel and Renata she would know that being dead is not enough.  She would need the dance movements, the portal, yada, yada. So, again I come back to the bus accident. We see her under water, the others in the bus, their glass cage, she separated from them. I think that is the crucial moment she wants to get back to. Is it survivors guilt? In the end does she hope to die and be reunited with them?

I trust YouTube, and the internet. There was  bus accident, and Prairie was at Grand Central. Remember all the characters are Kaiser Soze. And Homer? The Odyssey is not only a tale of a man lost, it is also the story of a damn good storyteller, who is able to adjust his tales to whoever is listening to him.
Prairie seems acutely sensitive and like Rahim says she picks up on very subtle external cues. She knew what Steve, Betty, Alfonso, Buck and Jesse needed to survive what would come next.

But I believe in the power of connection. In faith being just that. Something that becomes powerful just because it brings people together.

And I hope I'm wrong, and we get our own The OA 's Black Lodge, time travel, transcendence of individuality, all of that. When is season two coming?