Misfits series 5 episode 7 review

This review contains spoilers.

We’re nearly there – the final hour of Misfits is only one week away and, judging by how darn entertaining the past seven weeks have been (and the lengthy promo we were given at the end of this episode), I’m looking forward to it immensely. This penultimate episode was weird in the way it seemed so determined to stay standalone and non-epic, but then that’s the show we know and love – if there’s going to be anything traditionally cinematic or finale-esque, my guess is they’ll save it until the very end.

The one thing that did make this episode feel like a pre-finale finale was its placement exactly one year after the original storm. Because Abbey and Rudy Two technically didn’t exist before that day, they’re also celebrating their first birthday, and this brings up a lot of the tension between the two Rudys that has been brewing all year. The perpetual sidekick – at times acting simply as his conscience – now has a mission of his very own and, to the same degree that most of the characters are completely disinterested in saving the world, Rudy Two has assembled his own super-team.

There were plenty of viewers who didn’t like how the show strayed into traditional superhero stuff back with Simon in series three, and this feels like a happy medium. Rudy Two technically isn’t part of the new ASBO Five, and can thus headline the Jumper Posse without changing anything essential about the show itself. Our three periphery superheroes aren’t particularly interesting or well-developed right now but, for the purposes of showing us another way of dealing with superpowers in the real world (seeking revenge of litterers, apparently), it works very well. That’s if they’re everything they seem, of course.

And, though I might sound like a broken record at this point, the reason that these two concurrent adventures are working so well in series five is entirely down to Joseph Gilgun and the way he portrays his two Rudys. To have your two favourite characters on a series be not only played by the same actor but also be two sides of the same person is a bit weird, but that’s the way it’s turned out. Because the show took it’s time developing both Rudys as separate people this year, we’re now at a point where most of the audience are comfortable seeing him almost single-handedly steer the series into its final hour from two entirely different angles.

The rest of the seventh episode was pretty good, too, with an unfortunate side-effect of ecstasy providing the main threat to our gang. With the drug reversing everyone’s powers – I was surprised none of our characters had encountered this before – Alex managed to actually install the devil he took out of Finn back into a girl he had been helping and, just like that, his new mission and lease on life was contaminated. Every superhero has a moment where they inadvertently hurt someone they wanted to save and, although his journey has been a bit rushed and often problematic, I appreciated the emotional impact of this particular resolution.

The second villain, which was dealt with by Rudy Two’s Jumper Posse, was Tim. As the sole returning guest star in this final series, it was sad to see him go but, at the same time, his presence in next week’s finale might have felt out of place. His death served to bring that particular group together, and I have a feeling that Mark’s anticlimactic demise will also spur Abbey on for next week. With most of the characters not speaking to each other and a lot of threats coming their way, I’m enormously excited and curious for whatever they come up with for the final hour.

I’m not even going to theorise too much, but just go in headfirst and hope to be entertained. This year may not have been up to the standard of the much-celebrated first two series, and there is a large section of the fan base that will never love Misfits without the presence of Nathan, but neither of those things have mattered to me. I have been with this show since the very first frame and, now approaching the last, I’m entirely satisfied with how this fifth series has played out. I’ll see you next week for madness, flying, babies and probably some heartbreak.

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode here.

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