‘Homecoming’ Recap: ‘Stop’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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There has been and will forever be, a great debate in our society revolving around how a story should end. For there are those who firmly believe that happy endings are an outright joke and darkness and grit and moments that stun the audience should be the focus of creative minds everywhere. But on the other hand, there are those who believe that the happy ending is a staple of the story, and that by giving us something joyous, the reader or the audience is being rewarded for sticking with the story. But the fact of the matter is, there is no proper way to end a story, it should simply end as it supposed to and/or do the story justice in the process.
 
Which is why I was so supremely satisfied with the finale of Homecoming, ‘Stop’, because it gave us a proper and justified ending to this wild and harrowing tale by giving us a bittersweet wrap up to just about everything. For there was justice and sadness and joy to be found in every facet of this tale, starting with the fact that it finally resolved any lingering questions we had about 5/15/18 by filling us in completely on that fateful day. And on this day, we learned that shortly after Colin gave an incredible speech that likely helped lock up the program’s future, a phone call to Heidi, put an end to this nightmare since Colin’s fury over the fact that Walter was sent home because of Heidi’s decision to give him a supersized dose of the drug, was overheard by everyone of note at that meeting…
 
If anything, it was supremely satisfying to see this Jerk deserve his comeuppance at last in some form or fashion, and thankfully, the series wasn’t quite done with dealing with this jackass just yet. For the phone call that Pam (Carrasco’s boss) made to Geist in the last episode, forced the company to do something about this mess at last. And shortly after Colin’s doof of a boss was reassigned to another project, Colin was forced to face the music and it was made inherently clear to him, by his newly promoted secretary, that he would need to sign off on a letter admitting his involvement in Homecoming, and how he went ‘rogue’ and made decisions that were not sanctioned by Geist. Meaning that he was the fall guy here and every consequence would fall upon him in the end and that made for a supremely satisfying end to Colin’s story.
 
But while much of that is happy in its own right, I mentioned that this episode had bittersweet moments as well, and all of those came about from Heidi in this finale. For she decided it was high time to set things right and atone for her mistakes and her apology tour started with Walter’s mother, wherein she told her the complete truth about what happened at Homecoming and with that now complete, it was off to find Walter and apologize to him as well and she used his personalized map of California, to start a cross country trek to find the tiny town he dreaming of living in and well…after a few setbacks, she finally ran into him at a local diner and was able to chat it up with him and see that while he didn’t quite remember her, he was happy and at peace and because of that…Heidi let him go without ever speaking a word about the past so he could enjoy his future…
 
Yet, what was equally as incredible about that moment, is that Walter may indeed remember her after all, since he shifted a knife on her side of the table in the same manner he often did with her pen on her desk back in the day, but for now the truth as to whether or not he does remember her will elude us. For that moment, brought us to the end of this incredible story and well, I found it to be quite satisfying when all is said and done. For every plot thread was wrapped up, every character found their closure and that’s really all can you ask for in a story and I am so glad I took the time to check this out simply because, it was so unique from beginning to end. But thankfully, this is not the true end of our journey, for a second season of this series is planned, and well, I’ll be counting down the minutes to it because this really was a phenomenal ride, and I cannot wait to see where this world will take us in season two. Until next year.

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