‘Lisey’s Story’ Recap: ‘Lisey’s Story’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the finale of ‘Lisey’s Story’.
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When we're in the midst of the pain that grief and loss send our way, we find ourselves dreaming of one specific and magical day. The day that we wake up in the morning and feel peace in our souls because we've finally overcome our ache, and we're ready to move into the next chapter of our lives with a newfound strength that we've never known. Alas, it takes time and several big steps to get to that point and finally embrace that kind of equilibrium. To finally achieve that sense of calm and inherent motivation to take on the world again, we must conduct one final step in the healing process: We must learn to let go of the one we love and do our best to honor them going forward because there's still a life for us to lead; a life where beautiful moments and new memories await us.

This is precisely what Lisey Landon did in the finale of the AppleTV+ series, Lisey's Story, and it made her closing chapter (one that shares the namesake of this series) in this harrowing saga, both beautiful, satisfying, and at times… downright terrifying. Before Lisey could take the final step on her path to find peace, there was one last problem to deal with: Jim Dooley. When we catch up with Lisey and Jim, they're in the thick of Boo'ya Moon, and they're both aware that only one of them can walk away from this final showdown. Lisey knows that she's going to have to do something drastic to ensure victory for herself because Jim is strong, resourceful, and ruthless, which motivates Lisey to do something supremely dangerous— something that might even ensure that neither of them survives this fight.
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Risking her own life doesn't stop Lisey from making as much noise as possible to bring forth the Long Boy, all in the hope that it might choose to deal with Jim over her. Thankfully, Lisey's gambit pays off, and in a stunning and uncomfortable sequence, Jim Dooley bids his farewell to life in the worst way imaginable— dying at the horrific hands of a giant waking nightmare. Jim Dooley's demise lets Lisey return home victorious and be reunited with her family. As an added bonus, Lisey was able to deal with Jim's remains on her terms— a move that ensured that the police would pay no mind to Jim's end. Once the dust settled from their ugly and final fight, Lisey could finally turn her attention to the last step of healing: The big goodbye to her pain and every link to it. In order to properly let it all go, Lisey had to return to Boo'ya Moon one last time.

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Lisey believed that Scott left her one last surprise, and she was correct in that assumption. Buried beneath a tree in this magical place, was Scott's final book: Lisey's Story. A grand novel that spoke to how Lisey was the hero of Scott's story and how she accepted his dark past and a broken man and how that gave him a peace and a love he never thought he would know. Now that Lisey knew every inch of Scott's story—because it was buried within the pages of that heartbreaking novel— she returned to the waters of the strange and confusing Boo'ya Moon to see her beloved one last time before he disappeared into the void beneath the waves. Because Lisey was given the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to the man that changed her life in ways she could never imagine, she was able to move on at last.

While this appears to be nothing more than a simple and satisfying ending for Lisey, an ending that's happy and magnificent in every way imaginable, it's the subtle moments in her goodbye to Scott that exemplify how we let go of our pain. Lisey's actions in this moment help teach us that when the time is right, and we're ready to move on, we have to look at our loved one's life in an objective manner. This way, we can view their life as a complete journey filled with ups and down and lessons that made them into someone who inspired us and left us in awe. When we see them in that uplifting manner and realize that their story will live on through us and the stories we will tell about them, then we can finally do as Lisey did in the auditorium— bid them farewell and step back into the light.
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This is an incredible lesson to find embedded within the framework of a scary story that features a creature made of lost souls and a world where madness rules the day, but the message is there, and it's glorious. That message also informs us that this was a different kind of horror story because it took the time to explore a topic that few people want to discuss. Taking that route makes this one of Stephen King's finest stories, period. It takes guts to write a story, and eventually a teleplay, about a topic that's taboo, but King made it happen, and the end result is powerful, visceral, and full of hope. For Lisey's Story truly reminds us that "this too shall pass," and that we never really lose the people we love because we carry them in our hearts. And that, Dear Reader, really is a wonderful way to close out a harrowing story that focuses on our greatest collective fear.

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