Brave New World’s bloody season finale leaves the door open for more

Brave New World wraps up its story in a somewhat satisfying finale that leaves the door open for an intriguing follow-up.

After a season of ups and done, the final iteration of Brave New World stops the Soma intake cold turkey, treating us to a bloody massacre where all the major players basically get what the want, except for John, who gets what he deserves.

It’s not a happy ever after ending, and a lot of things don’t quite work. But Brave New World does close things out enough to stand on its own feet, with just enough setup for a second season if it wants one. Honestly, I could go either way.

In “Soma Red,” John is living underground with the Epsilons, thanks to Gary supplying them with copious amounts of chicken pot pies. He whips them into riot mode, resulting in the destruction of the pill-making machine and the violent deaths of many of New Londoners. Benard tries to maintain stability as the new Director, but things get out of control. Lenina attempts to leave the city but is taken captive by a reconditioned Frannie armed with a cattle prong-like device.

After the chaos ends, Bernard confronts John and tells him this is all his fault. Then Lenina, who escaped during the mayhem, almost confirms that by choosing not to go with him. Elsewhere, Mustaffa Mond uses CJack60 to kill the elder he was cloned from. Indra, in a shocking turn of events, helps Bernard meet up with the extremist leader in the savage lands who told him never to return. He gives her a gift and then leaves with her and Helm.

Mustaffa tells Lenina it’s not over and offers her the position of Director, where she can maybe change things for the better. In the end, John is all alone fishing his days away staring at holograms of his lost love.

It’s unclear if we’re getting a second go-round, but if we do, perhaps Indra, Bernard and an army of savages could take on Lenina’s New New London, with John caught in the middle.

The finale was a mixed bag. Frannie’s reconditioning storyline feels like the show forgot about the character and then tried to turn her into a threat. It didn’t really make sense when every other Beta and Beta-Plus runs in fear like a small child during the Epsilon uprising. Had we seen more Betas showing rebellious behavior, possibly starting their own faction, that might have made it more believable.

It’s hard to tell if Alden Ehrenreich is going for “brooding” in his performance or if he just can’t wait for this whole thing to be over. The ending of his arc feels very flat. John and Lenina both have pretty convincing cases that Bernard is the cause of all this violence, so his ending up alone in exile seems like a fitting punishment rather than something we should sympathize with him over.

Lenina becoming director was an intriguing turn of events, although it kind of feels like she got the gig because she’s the first person Mustafa ran into who wasn’t trying to stick anyone and was still breathing. It would be interesting to see New London rebuild with Lenina at the helm.

The real MVP of the series is Harry Lloyd. While Bernard’s journey has been frustrating at times, the finale set things up for him to finally sit on a throne. The glimpses of him as a leader indicate that this series could shift gears into Game of Thrones territory pretty quickly, and no one wants to see Bernard go full villain more than me.

Brave New World was a bold opening move for Peacock. A second season sounds fun, but if the journey ends here, at least the first season of Brave New World more or less stands on its own..

Episode Grade: Beta minus

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