The Changeling comes to a hopefully temporary end with the eighth episode. We’re back with Apollo and William Wheeler on the witch’s magical island of Amazons, but don’t worry, there’s plenty of horror left for our protagonists.
This episode opens with a shot of something large swimming under the surface of the East River toward North Brother Island. Then a recap of everything that’s happened thus far. But the eighth episode really begins where the fourth left off: with William Wheeler going monstrous and Apollo freaking out about it. Apollo races back to the center of the island to warn Cal’s flock, but he’s too late. Whatever William summoned explodes several buildings, killing at least one person. Cal is herding survivors away and Apollo joins the escape. After a frightening ordeal, they manage to get everyone onto Cal’s “navy” and away from the island. Apollo sets off to find Emma while Cal stays behind to delay William and his monster enough to let everyone escape. More death comes to the island. We also check in on Emma from back when she first left the island for Forest Park. She enters the forest and encounters a strange carousel.
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On one hand, the recap shots had the vibes of following a trail of breadcrumbs, each shot and scene leading viewers down a dark and winding path. On the other hand, if you were hoping that trail would have a destination, you might have felt frustrated. Confusion is an intentional part of the reading and viewing experience of The Changeling, but I felt like this episode went too far down the path of all questions, no answers. I started writing a list of all the questions I had after just this episode and gave up when I got to two dozen.
Even as someone who has read the book and knows at the very least the outline of the story head writer Kelly Marcel is working with, I was confused. If I hadn’t had any prior knowledge, I’d have no idea what was going on. Again, I minded that confusion much less in other episodes of the season because there is an expectation that the finale will bring the story arc to a close or that everything is leading to a climactic scene. We got a big action sequence, but it was delivered by a creature we didn’t even know about before this episode. Threads from other plots will be left loose to set up season two, but the finale should, as far as I’m concerned, make the season feel like a complete story. Things get tricky when adapting a book, because it’s not designed for closure in the middle of the story. As far as the novel goes, this is a good spot for the season to pause, but for television it’s less satisfactory.
There were two misses for me. First was not developing William enough as a villain. I loved how Kinder Garten reminded me of Jack Nicholson from The Shining and his whole troll vibe (also the stake to the heart like he was a vampire). However, he shifts so quickly between man and monster and corpse that we learn too little about him as a person. In the end, he doesn’t make for much of a season-level Big Bad. I also would’ve liked the show to have done more with the parallels between Lillian’s immigration story and the 19th century Norwegians. Given what’s coming next season, I assume Marcel is saving that conversation. But especially on the heels of last week’s fantastic episode it’s disappointing that those connections weren’t made this season.
All of this is a long way of saying even though I’ve let this episode tumble around in my mind for almost a week and have watched it a couple of times, and I still haven’t made up my mind as to how I feel about it. I don’t think it worked on a structural level as an episode or really even a finale. Yet I also don’t think it was a bad episode of television. I was riveted the entire thirty minutes, but when it ended it felt unfinished or cut off too soon.
I think the episode’s downfall was set by the cliffhanger from the last episode featuring Apollo. While it was a great way to end episode four, it didn’t leave any room to maneuver in episode eight. The season clearly had to end before Apollo gets Little Norway and Emma to Forest Park, but between his realization of the depths of William’s monstrosity and the attack on the island, there isn’t much story happening. There wasn’t enough plot to stretch out into a full hour, and a chunk of the 30-minute runtime was recap. However, episode four wouldn’t have worked if it had ended sooner, either. I don’t know how to fix that problem, but coming off the high that was episode seven, this was a bit of a let down. I maintain that the root of the problem (with this show and many other streaming shows) was that it was limited to an 8-episode first season. It probably should have been a 12-14 episode miniseries instead of trying to hack it into two too-short seasons.
Although we haven’t yet gotten word of a renewal (and I’m guessing we won’t until after the SAG-AFTRA strike ends), I hope this isn’t the end of Apollo and Emma’s stories. Overall, the season was strong. A combination of talented actors, excellent visuals and behind-the-camera craft, and a killer original story delivered a show that was creatively compelling if at times uneven. Regardless of the flaws, I’m looking forward to season two.
Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).
