Post-apocalyptic Apple TV+ series See comes to its thrilling conclusion this week, sending off Baba Voss and his family in high bloody fashion.
With the whole of civilization in a tunnel to freedom, Haniwa, Maghra and Kofun must decide whether to let Baba go to his death by himself or stay with their people in their hour of need. Can Baba stop deposed queen Sibeth Kane before she destroys everything, or before he gets caught and killed?
It took three seasons, but See is finally worth seeing. And wouldn’t you know it? It’s over.
See recap: ‘I See You’ (season finale)
Season 3, episode 8: This week’s episode (titled “I See You“) starts, bafflingly enough, with a singalong to “Let the River Run” by Carly Simon down in the tunnels as everyone flees from Sibeth (Sylvia Hoeks), Tormada (David Hewlett) and their bombs.
I won’t miss the ridiculous music choices on this show but there’s undeniably a fever-dream quality to some of this. You’ll be sitting there listening to people sing a cappella some forgotten M.O.R. “classic” you haven’t heard in 20 years and wonder, “Am I awake right now?” Can’t rely on just any show to provoke that.
Anyway, Baba Voss (Jason Momoa) and Ranger (Michael Raymond-James) have stayed behind to kill Sibeth, who has figured out everyone’s gone and has resumed her bombardment of the city. Bear in mind, if these morons actually got the lead out of their asses and ran to their destination when they first thought the plan up like six hours ago, they might have been safe by now.
But no. The bombs tear a hole in the tunnel and cut off their path to escape, nearly killing Kofun (Archie Madekwe). They decide to stand and fight instead. Wow, yeah, sure, super-helpful! Could have made a single decision when you were in the right time frame but, hey, let’s just leave everything until 10 seconds after it’s too late.
Baba and Ranger’s cover gets blown immediately, and soon they’re fighting for their lives. Maghra (Hera Hilmar) walks over to the field where her sister Sibeth is camped to talk to her. Because Sibeth is also a big dumb moron, she believes that Maghra’s coming to surrender in good faith, and she orders Tormada to stop the bombs.
The time for bloodshed arrives
Photo: Apple TV+
The siblings have a touching reunion — and then Maghra stabs her sister in the throat. Just as Tormada is about to have Maghra killed, Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo), Wren (Eden Epstein) and Haniwa (Nesta Cooper) show up to back her up.
Then Baba finds Tormada and runs for him. But Tormada throws a grenade at Baba, and is about to throw another when Ranger leaps on him, shoving the grenade into Tormada’s stomach so it blows him up from the inside. Then, for good measure, Ranger stabs his blade through Tormada’s head. Pretty gnarly!
Then Baba gets up, tears the debris out of his chest, tears off his shirt, and goes to kill everyone still standing. (Technically, Momoa’s in his Conan the Barbarian get-up with the baggy pants — do people remember his Conan movie from 2011? — but maybe the actor just really likes baggy pants. He certainly wears the hell out of ’em.)
Then Baba takes a big hammer and smashes Tormada’s tower of bombs to conclusively wipe the explosives (and himself) off the face of the earth forever.
Now … I don’t believe the science is with Baba Voss on this one but whatever. It’s a good ending, even though once again there’s a moment where he whispers Maghra’s name amid a full-scale assault, and she somehow hears him despite that being completely impossible. Whatever. We’re done here.
A return to normality, of sorts
After the battle, Wren and Haniwa get married. They rebuild the city, they mourn Baba Voss. Kofun raises his baby happily. The only snag is that Maghra can’t convince the other heads of state to lift the ban on eyesight, which means her sighted kids are still outlaws.
Charlotte (Olivia Cheng) comes back to town to give a report on the children of Jerlamarel. And she’s bearing a gift: a map to a new House of Enlightenment. Now she and Wren just have to go find it. Maghra and Tamacti Jun have a nice moment where they remember Baba Voss together, and admit they need each other for support and friendship.
And then the dumbest part of all happens: Kofun decides he wants to blind himself so he can maybe be king someday. Sure, man, whatever.
Death needs to be earned
Photo: Apple TV+
The end of See is not really the end of an era or anything but it does sort of feel like one. If we look at the 10 major modest-to-large-budget shows that Apple TV+ launched as its first block of programming, four of them have now been canceled, which does point to a fatal flaw in the marketing and production of these things.
How was it ever going to be sustainable to lob quadrillions of dollars at TV shows without first getting the service onto people’s streaming devices and laptops and stuff? They were banking (as Apple always does) that the idea of the thing would be enticement enough. And if that failed, then they usually have a virtual monopoly to back them up. There aren’t that many excellent alternatives to the iPhone, and the iPhone is the one with all the cool stuff on it. That wasn’t true of Apple TV+.
I’m sure the network is doing fine. It only produces a handful of things a year, but I’m also not at all surprised to learn that a show as expensive to produce as See, which I’m guessing wasn’t pitched as a three-season run (is anything?), is coming to a close. Shows like See cost a gajillion dollars to make, and Apple TV+ can produce cheaper content that can last longer (or miniseries that only need one round of funding). Why bother encouraging their showrunners to shoot the moon?
See: Like Game of Thrones, but goofier
See was always the dunderheaded twin to the more mean-spirited but also more coherent Game of Thrones, the Hell on Wheels to that show’s Deadwood. But See did kind of stand in for the ambition of the network.
Seeing the show build to an admittedly exciting conclusion that had basically nothing to do with where it started (except for the connection between Maghra and Sibeth, which really wasn’t the locus of the drama even if it was always there) revealed flaws not only in the plans for the show but in the plans of See creator Steven Knight.
Where did he see this show going? Did he see it going anywhere? Or was this just a chance to do his usual thing on a huge budget because he was offered the chance? Knight jumped ship when Apple asked for a second season (in which a character we’d never met is suddenly the most important antagonist on the show). And then in the third season, the events of the first two seasons were led down a series of culs-de-sac and then hastily wrapped up. (Though not too hastily — looking at you, episode seven.)
An interesting concept, but a faltering vision
See looked very impressive on paper. And indeed, as a collection of post-apocalyptic set-pieces, it frequently proved fun and occasionally hold-your-breath thrilling. But in hindsight, there’s just no way this was anyone’s vision for the show. And again, the irony of a show called See lacking vision is a joke too hacky to pass up.
I won’t necessarily miss See, but it was kind of comforting knowing this meatheaded metal fantasia was out there. After all if this could get to three seasons without growing much in the way of a plot or changing anyone’s character dynamics or anything, then it does rather encourage one to follow their dreams.
I liked Jason Momoa in this a lot, but I like him in everything. There were some undeniable pleasures in See. I guess we’ll just have to hope something equally wonky comes along on Apple TV+ that’s at least as entertaining, and maybe a little less frustrating. We can always hope.
★★★☆☆
Watch See on Apple TV+
You can now watch all three seasons of See on Apple TV+.
Rated: TV-MA
Watch on: Apple TV+
Scout Tafoya is a film and TV critic, director and creator of the long-running video essay series The Unloved for RogerEbert.com. He has written for The Village Voice, Film Comment, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Nylon Magazine. He is the author of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Form of Tobe Hooper, the director of 25 feature films, and the director and editor of more than 300 video essays, which can be found at Patreon.com/honorszombie.
