Well that was certainly different from the season one finale of Les Revenants, and honestly The Returned is all the better for it. While the first half of the season was essentially a clone of its French counterpart, the latter half slowly morphed into its own show. I’ve seen people complaining about this finale, harping about the lack of answers, but I feel like people also forget that we barely got any answers in Les Revenants as well. Now that pretty much every storyline has broken apart from Les Revenants, season 2 (if we get one) will enjoy the freedom of being able to go in an entirely new direction.

Peter

As usual, the character the episode gets its namesake from barely gets any screen time in his own episode. We do get to see how he died 29 years ago, but other than a scene in the prison (Tommy arrested him because Tommy is a douchebag) where a podcaster visited him, he didn’t have much more screen time. Kara the podcaster did provide this useful bit of information: the same thing happening in this town has happened in other cities as well, but they no longer exist (Roanoke is an example she mentions).

Camille

Camille was able to make amends with (most) of her friends, but it ended in tragedy as Ben died after Camille lost her virginity to him. This is another area of the finale that raised more questions than it did provide answers, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Clearly, it’s not the sex that killed Ben, since Peter has had plenty of sex with Claire and she’s still alive, but what else could it be? I suppose it could be a negative reaction to the shrooms, but that’s doubtful.

It’s not the most compelling way for Camille to spend an episode, as Ben and Hunter and the rest of her friends have been underdeveloped all season, but it was a shocking way to end the episode. Also, Adam popped up for a bit at the end to spook Lena, but it comes across as a case of “why bother?” when nothing else happens on that front.

Victor

After everything Victor has put Julie through this season, all she had to do was tell him that he had to let her go and he disappeared, only to appear on the road for another lonely woman to pick him up. Out of all the storylines this season, Victor’s was probably the weakest. This is mostly due to the fact that Julie took way too long to wise up to his antics (it took her the entire 10-episode season!). Overall, it seemed like a really easy way to get rid of him, but the scene between him and Julie in his house was a good one. He was finally able to speak to Julie, and Holt did a fine job reacting to it (acting is reacting everyone!).

Simon

Rowan is pregnant, as discovered by Lucy, who creepily heard the baby daddy’s thoughts. It’s an interesting turn (and something that was discovered earlier in Les Revenants’ season), but it’s odd that she can hear Simon’s thoughts when he’s still “alive.” Maybe this means Simon isn’t the father? Who knows, it was a creepy moment nonetheless.

Finally, we get to the moment the entire season has been building towards: the dam bursting. While Simon popped up to say hello to Helen, their reunion was short-lived as she knocked him out when he discovered her dynamite. He came to only to see the dam burst and the town begin to flood. Cut to black. As cliffhangers go, it’s not a terrible one, but since we knew this was going to happen ever since Helen started going cuckoo bananas halfway through the season, it wasn’t exactly surprising. I almost wish this would have been the penultimate episode and that we had one more episode left in the season. Despite that minor issue, it was still effective, since we don’t know who will still be left alive next season (again, if we get one).

The Returned ended its first season on a mostly strong note. Some parts of the season (Victor, Camille’s friends) didn’t really gel with the rest, but overall it was a solid first season. Ideally, we will get a second one so that the show can really come into its own and fully step out of the original’s shadow.

Random Notes

• Just can’t stand Kevin Alejandro’s smarmy smirk. When Rowan said “I do” I wanted to punch him in the face.
• Helen sees George in the back seat of her car and he apologizes to her. It’s a decent moment but not entirely necessary.
• All those women Victor killed are probably sitting there in the afterlife going: “Man that’s all I had to say to make him go away?”
• That’s it for The Returned this year everyone! I’m not sure if I’ll be covering Season 2 if we get one, as there wasn’t much interest in the reviews for Season 1 and covering this on the same night as Bates Motel is a big load! I hope those of you who read these reviews enjoyed them!