'11.22.63' Recap: 'The Day in Question'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Sometimes, the buildup for a series finale...turns out to be quite the disappointment. We get the feeling that incredible things are going to happen, and we will be treated to a sweeping and epic story that takes our breath away...only to get an ending that is simply an ending, one that may or may not satisfy and leaves us talking about how it didn't live up to expectations for days to come. Part of me was worried that 11.22.63 was going to suffer from this. After all, we only had an hour left, Jake was already in Dallas with Sadie, leaving one to wonder...how would the show handle the act of stopping Lee Harvey Oswald over the course of an hour without dragging it out? 

Well the answer to that question was simple, handle it up front and in stunning fashion because as it turns out 'The Day in Question' was an incredible series finale, one that properly wrapped up every plot thread and every question we've had on our mind, and it truly managed to take your breath away because the Man with the Yellow Card was right...Jake should have never messed with the past, but more on that in a moment, because before this recap gets ahead of itself, we need to talk about Jake's quest to stop Lee Harvey Oswald since the past did everything in its power to make sure he failed to do so. Every possible change it could make to hold them back came out of the woodwork, from impossible traffic jams, to the dead appearing briefly, to the past simply trying to wipe out Jake and Sadie if it meant yesterday would remain unchanged. But lo and behold, Jake and Sadie survived all of those wild attempts to finally come face to face with Lee...and despite the close calls with failure, Jake managed to succeed in his mission, but at a great cost. 

Because in the midst of distracting Lee long enough for President Kennedy to escape, Sadie took a bullet from the would be assassin and it wasn't until Jake finally put an end to his rampage did he see his love wounded and the two shared a wonderfully tender moment before she passed on. But if that wasn't enough for Jake to suffer through, Dallas P.D. and the FBI placed him under arrest, under the suspicion that he was the man who took a shot at the President and it gave Jake a sit down moment with Agent Hosty where he was able to use his knowledge of the future to confuse the man long enough to get one important phone call...from the President of the United States, personally thanking Jake for saving his life, and with that call, Jake was now the hero of the hour...one that asked to be kept anonymous and one that was ready to go home and see what positive changes had come to 2016 out of this painfully pyrrhic victory. So he returned 'home' to Lisbon, Maine and once more stepped through the diner's portal...only to find one horrible surprise.

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For once he returned home, Jake quickly discovered that the world he left behind now simply ceased to exist, replaced instead with a devastated wasteland wherein he finds few humans...save for one important one, Harry Dunning. Under attack by wasteland thugs, Jake saves Harry once again and is taken to Harry's home as thanks where he learns quite a few things. For starters, he finds out that Harry remembers him from the night he put down his father, but despite Jake's efforts to save the family, one by one they all died after America went straight to hell after Kennedy left office. President Wallace, as it's implied, brought war and a horrible bombing upon our once great nation, resulting in the wasteland that Jake now sees before him.

It means that Jake has no choice, but to go back once again, to reset the past and let Kennedy live in order to save the human race. But his return to reset the timeline also means that young Harry must endure the horrible night his father killed his family since it's clear the timeline won't save Harry from suffering the loss of his family either. The only thing that Jake wants at this point from history, is to let him be with Sadie and nothing more, and oddly enough, the day he goes back, is the day she was visiting her cousins, the day she said they just missed and upon his return to 1960, Jake spots the love of his life driving by and chases her down to the diner she's at to reintroduce himself one more time and restart an incredible love affair, only to see the Man with the Yellow Card waiting outside for him, and when he steps outside, he's chastised for starting his own nightmarish loop and warned that she will die over and over every single time he returns to the past to try and save her and be with her. Which means Jake is forced to do the unthinkable, and say goodbye to Sadie and return to the 2016 he once knew to live his life. He returns to his teaching job, he apologizes to Harry for not being able to do more for him...and when curiosity takes over, he looks Sadie up, only to find she's being rewarded by Jodie High School for her incredible work through the years and he goes to see her one more time to share one last dance...

That's where our story ends, with Jake being able to see his love once again, and the world back the way that it always was and well...this was a brilliant series finale. We were able to play out an incredible 'what if' scenario and see the drama and wonder that comes with trying to change the past and it was quite the ride, but more importantly, this was...a thoughtful series, one that works to teach all of us a little something about life, specifically how important it is to live in the moment and enjoy all that the world has to offer. It never discounts the importance of the past, if anything the story stands strong by the fact that the past shapes us in multiple ways, but we should never remain within it, we should always move forward and enjoy the moments that can never be captured again and well, when all is said and done, this is one of the best Stephen King adaptations I have ever seen and it's one that quite frankly I plan to watch over again a few more times to properly appreciate one beautiful story.

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