As the See series rapidly approaches its series finale, the penultimate episode, “God Thunder” brings us plenty of action and explosions. It’ll be interesting to see how the series wraps up its main storylines, especially because it has lost its overall thematic focus in season 3.
What mind-bending See finale awaits? If “God Thunder” is any indication, it’ll be the same mixed bag of good and bad we’ve been given all along.
See Recap, Episode 7
The curtain opens on the violent, bomb-hurling trebuchet assault on Pennsa by Tormada and Sibeth, who have taken Korfu prisoner. Maghra, Wolf, Tamacti Jun and No are caught in the collapse of the palace, but are rescued by Baba Voss, Ranger, Haniwa and Wren. Sibeth and Tormada both mess with Korfu, but eventually send him into Pennsa with an ultimatum for Maghra.
Wounded, Maghra experiences flashbacks to her first meeting with Baba Voss. With her people surrounded and unable to escape the city, Maghra decides to face Sibeth as she demands, but the late Harland’s key unlocks a map of smugglers’ tunnels out of the city. As the citizens of Pennsa make their subterranean escape, Baba Voss quietly peels off to hunt and kill Sibeth (with Ranger’s help).
See Review, Episode 7
The opening scenes of “God Thunder” prove that See had enough of its big budget left to put together a bone-shuddering siege sequence. The writers quickly skip past any practical issues blind bombardiers might have with operating ballistic weapons, suggesting that a string on a topographical map is all that is needed for them to judge their range, assess targets and calculate aiming corrections for creaky, medieval artillery. But hey, this is fantasy after all.
Nonetheless, Tormada’s bombardiers land perfect shots on their targets and leave Pennsa a burning wreck. Maghra, Tamacti Jun and Wolf survive the violent collapse of the palace ceiling; despite being crushed under heavy slabs, Tamacti and Wolf emerge unscathed (?) while Maghra takes a serious blow to the head, causing her to drift in and out of her own memory.
Beyond the fiery opening sequence, See returns to its usual rounds, giving each character their moment. Maghra’s visions of her early days with Baba Voss are effective and heartwarming, but the fragmented structure of the episode dulls their impact. There’s actually a lot of fine interactions between characters here as doom hangs over them, but they weirdly make little effort to come up with an inventive way to save themselves.
“God Thunder” is an odd episode even by See standards. With Pennsa decimated by the first explosive salvos and surrounded by enemies, the danger and numerous deaths fade into the background while Baba Voss and Ranger take a break to relax on debris to sunbathe and smoke pot. Sure, they expect Sibeth and Tormada to hold their fire while awaiting Maghra, but it all feels rather tone-deaf.
Following in the unfortunate See tradition of providing extremely episodic stories that often lose sight of the series’ major plotlines, “God Thunder” gets locked into its myopic, one-hour box o’ obstacles: outgunned and surrounded, Haniwa tries the late Lord Harlan’s magic key on every box in Maghra’s room, finds a map to secret underground tunnels and uses those tunnels to escape the current crisis.
Baba Voss and Ranger jauntily set out to assassinate Sibeth just before the closing credits of the last episode before the series finale. Baba Voss is likable, but he’s still the same person he was in the first episode, having experienced little character arc or growth. Ranger seems like a good guy but we hardly know him. At this point in the tale, we should have been given more.
Episode Grade: C
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