SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do not read if you haven't watched the series finale!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do not read if you haven't watched the series finale!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do not read if you haven't watched the series finale!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do not read if you haven't watched the series finale!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do not read if you haven't watched the series finale!
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do not read if you haven't watched the series finale!
This chapter isn't part of the story. But I wanted to interrupt your scheduled reading with a few words about the finale and my story and their one common element.
Obviously I like the idea of Michael and Fi and Charlie becoming their own little family. I like my circumstances better, because in mine, poor old Maddie is felled by a temporary virus rather than a fiery explosion.
I filled in a bunch of blanks in my mind about the logistics of how it worked in the finale. Jesse and Charlie met up with Sam, and soon thereafter Michael and Fiona joined them, and they quickly figured out what needed to happen. Jesse and Sam turned themselves in and made the CIA believe Charlie had died in the explosion along with Maddie (there should've been a headstone for him in the funeral scene), while Michael and Fi whipped up some fake IDs for themselves and Charlie and hightailed it to their little cabin in the snowy woods. I'm cool with all that.
What I'm not cool with is the unspoken treatment of the forgotten character: Ruth. I never liked the idea that Ruth had lost custody because she was in rehab. For one, I think it's unrealistic. I am inside the child protective services world enough to know a white woman with no previous drug/criminal history (and I'm just assuming that here) who is grieving the loss of her very recently separated/divorced husband is not going to lose custody of a preschooler. Just not going to happen. I also didn't like Fi's saying in the premier that Ruth wasn't fit to be a mother. So I wrote my story differently and, in my view, more realistically. I left it (and am still leaving it) an open question where Charlie will wind up in the end.
I don't like that Ruth either thinks her son is dead or thinks he's alive and worries/knows she'll never see him again. I wish Matt would've written even a line or two foreshadowing that Michael and Fi will figure out a way to get Ruth to Charlie, whether permanently or not.
I also wish there would've been some acknowledgment of the enormous difficulties Charlie is going to face after losing 3 out of 3 constants in his life. I like happily-ever-after, but I want to see the challenging journey to get there. It makes the happy happier.
My last nitpick is that Charlie as a character is completely unrealistic. The kid never speaks! Anyone who's been around a 2-3 year old boy for any length of time knows my drawing of him, though done for laughs, is way more true to life. I understand the difficulty of working with and writing for a child actor in a show otherwise made up entirely of adults. Still. Matt's a dad. He's a great writer. He could've made it work.
And now, real life beckons. But I'm working on another chapter, one I started quite a while ago, and it'll be up, well, eventually.
Thank you for reading!