A Finale SouthLAnd Post

Whether last night's episode was the season finale or the series finale will be unknown until June. What we do know is that last night's episode was aptly named. It was, indeed, a reckoning.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "The consequences of our actions take hold of us, quite indifferent to our claim that meanwhile we have 'improved.' " While Nietzsche was arguably insane, he was a believer in what he saw (unlike Kant, who turned things inside-out and upside-down).

[explanatory philosophical note: Nietzsche believed all things came from the senses. There is no truth, there is no good and evil in things. Those are merely labels that we apply to things. He also recognized that applying those labels is what drives the human experience and that the "herd" (all of us non-enlightened philosophers) cannot function without them. Thus, some of his aphorisms have nuggets of truth about them. His insanity came from his assertion that there was no absolute good or evil or truth at all. Then things went badly.]

In episode 510, we see every character in the grip of the consequences of their actions. Every character has reached the "end of the line"; the place that each character has been left at the end of the episode is where they have been going for five seasons.

The Good Consequences:

Lydia: tough, independent woman. When introduced, she accepted help from no one. She "knew best," and had her life under control. Through a series of choices and circumstances, things slowly escaped her control. She lost her ability to trust in and depend on her partners. She was eventually alone; she deliberately shut out her professional partner and suffered the loss of her mother. By being left truly alone, she learned that real independence does not mean isolation. By having someone depend on her - her baby boy - she learned (slowly) to depend on others. She learned real strength and gained real peace by allowing herself to forgive others and trust them. At the end of the finale, we see her finally reconciled and ready to trust the person who betrayed her worst in the series. High-five, Lydia!

Sammy: loveable man with a strong sense of duty. Sammy is arguably one of the unluckiest guys you'll ever meet on television. He lost his partner, divorced his absolutely nut-case of a wife, was betrayed by his partner, and someone broke in to his house. All sorts of really unfortunate circumstances occurred and Sammy did almost nothing to incur them. He wasn't perfect, no. But he was a sincere, good-hearted guy. Pretty much everything he did was out of a sincere desire to help people. He always believed the best of people, especially his partner. (Bad Ben.) So many things happened to Sammy that were just... unfair. They were "through no fault of his own" occurrences. But he persevered and, in the end, got his just reward. He realized that while he should help people, he doesn't have to help everyone. He only has to help those that he can. And that's ok. And his baby boy? Adorable.
I want to marry you, Sammy!

The Bad Consequences:

Ben: wide-eyed, do-gooder, Robin Hood rookie turned into nihilistic, self-centered, corrupt cop. He had unrealistic expectations of his power and influence as a cop when he came into the job. When he realized that the badge came with limitations, he stretched the rules. We see him making little stretches at first, which are easy excuse because they're so little. He was the arbiter of justice, the one who decided what was good and what was evil. In the footsteps of Nietzsche, he disregarded the moral code and wrote his own. The stretches became bigger. It's hard to believe that this guy who joined the force to do good could have gone so very wrong. In his last scene, we see a heated exchange between Ben and Sammy. Sammy yells at him, "This has always been about you!" Ben feels entitled to whatever he wants out of some misguided sense of sovereignty.  Where Sammy may stretch rules mildly in an attempt to help & protect others, Ben always does it to boost his career/save his own skin and this increases his sense of entitlement. It works so well for him. We see him climb the ladder of success, being praised from every side. Then it all comes crashing down. We see him lying on the ground, defeated by the consequences of his actions.
Ben, you need therapy. After I give you a good beating.

Cooper: oh, Cooper. I feel nothing but pity for you. From Ben's FTO to the victim of a vicious kidnapping. Cooper's storyline is the downward spiral of despair. Drugs, rehab, and a tough front to hide pain. We see him shine (with the girl trapped under the bus), but his bright moments are always overshadowed by something dark and scary. We see more of Cooper's struggle than we see of any other character's struggle. He fights, but he just keeps getting beaten down. At that last moment, we see him despair. Surrounded by LAPD officers, shouting at him to drop the gun and put his hands in the air, he stands, defiantly clutching the pistol. They shoot him. But he knew they would. He's a cop. He knows the rules. Unlike Sammy, who gets dirt kicked in his face repeatedly, but resolutely struggles through, Cooper loses hope. Maybe that's because Sammy has a child to "live for" and Coop sees himself alone and broken. Cooper seems to have given up on happiness, on life. He's tried, he's suffered, and he's at the end of his rope. We've seen him desperately gripping that rope, but constantly sliding down it. He gave up. The consequences of actions - not those he has done, but those inflicted upon him - have gripped him to the point where he can no longer fight them.
I wish I could hug you, Cooper.

Dark and Unresolved

It has been claimed that last night's episode would not be a fitting ending to the series, but I strongly disagree. Yes, it was dark and unresolved. Characters were left without their lives being tied up in neat little bows. But since when has SouthLAnd tied anything up in neat little bows? This show - all five seasons - have been about the unresolved, nitty-gritty aspects of life. If they were to take each character and give them a "happily ever after," it would be nice, but it would be incongruous with the rest of the show. No character has had complete and total resolution in any part of their lives for five seasons. Why should it end differently? Each character has been left at the "end of their line." They have all reached their destination.

What The Heck Happened

So there is much twitter twatting about what happened at the end of last night's SouthLAnd episode. Using my moderately-priced liberal arts education, I have logically deduced the most likely scenario, ruling out several other theories by their circumstantial implausibility. So if you're confused and want to be unconfused, here's what happened (I think...).

The Facts:

Sammy got into a confrontation with Stroke-Face earlier in the episode. A graffiti slogan for his gang was spray-painted on a house in the background. Some of his gang members were standing there, looking on.

Ben wanted to get the incriminating tape out of Sammy's house, so he hired Elena's brother to get it for him. Elena's brother has no known gang ties, but it's probable that he is in a gang. Since he is Hispanic, however, there is no way that he's in Stroke-Face's all-black gang.

Here's the probable scenario:

Elena's brother went into Sammy's house, looking for the tape. He probably evaded the notice of the nanny, either by coming in through an upstairs window or sneaking carefully up the stairs. In either case, he didn't do anything to the nanny. He probably didn't even know she was there. (Supported by the fact that he was freaking out, telling Ben that "I thought you said nobody would be in there!")

While upstairs, he probably heard the louder break-in of Stroke-Face's gang. They proceeded to vandalize Sammy's house with their graffiti and beat up the babysitter. At this point, Elena's brother would have the tape in his hand and would be ready to just bug out of there. But being a human being with some sense of right and wrong, he took Nate (who would've been sleeping in his crib) and hid him in a closet. (Because no 18 month old is going to hide himself in the closet. He's just going to cry.) After that, he would've run for it.

So, while Ben did co-conspire to breaking and entering, which is illegal, he didn't cause the massive, almost devastating gang incident. If Nate had been kidnapped, hurt, or killed, it would have been tragic, but unrelated to Ben sending Elena's brother in to get the tape.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happened... in all likelihood. I may be off on some of the particulars, but I do know this: Ben's involvement and the gang break-in were unrelated. The SouthLAnd team just wants to confuse us all. :)