The Class season finale, “The Lost” unfortunately proved to be one of the more disappointing episodes of the series. With the future of Class heavily dependent on this episode, it is frustrating to see the finale not be able to deliver on it’s own or for the season as a whole. The Shadowkin are back, yet again, and there are still some issues with them as a main villain, this entire season they’ve been a fairly simplistic monster that at this point feels more like a cockroach than anything else. Each of their appearances this season began to feel repetitive as they didn’t ever grow or really develop as an enemy.
Image Credit: BBC
Overall, this episode has too much going on. They’re trying to tie up lose ends from the first 7 episodes and also introduce a new arc that would take us into a second season. “The Lost” ends up lost itself with too quick transitions, creating a jumble out of the entire story. There is a lot of drama in this finale but it’s hard as the viewer to process it when so much else is going on. Cutting back and forth too quickly in the story and adding in new plot points undermines the gravity of the loss, death, and emotion that’s happening. We don’t really feel the impact that those big moments should have, which is a let down for the viewer but also is unfair to the characters. Most of the big dramatic moments end up just feeling a bit trite.
Image Credit: BBC
Corakinus returns to Earth with his army, and he is here to take April and the Cabinet of Souls back with them, he will stop at nothing to accomplish that task. He murders Ram’s father and Tanya’s mother, prompting Tanya to seek out Quill for guidance. Tanyna ends up discovering that Quill is now strangely very pregnant, a plot point which doesn’t really develop much past that. Charlie and Matteusz corner Dorothea and threaten her and the mysterious Governors to help stop this attack. Meanwhile, Corakinus returns and tries to kill Tanya’s brothers, but Quill is able to save them. Upping the ante a bit, Corakinus marks Matteusz as victim number 5 in order to get Charlie’s attention. Corakinus is able to attach his life to Charlie, similar to how he connected with April in the first episode, making it that if Charlie were to use the Cabinet against the Shadowkin he will also die. Quill begins teaching Tanya how to fight in order to prepare her for the war that will be happening at any moment and April and Ram corner Charlie and demand he use the Cabinet to destroy the Shadowkin for good. Soon the Shadowkin are everywhere and humans across the world are under attack by Corakinus’s army. Charlie is given no choice but to use the Cabinet to save the entire planet, even if it’ll kill both him and April in the process. The Cabinet is effective in wiping out the Shadowkin, Quill manages to save Charlie from the weapon but April is hit and seemingly gone. However after a short period she wakes up in the body of Corakinus, the Cabinet somehow protected her soul but placed her in the wrong body. Dorothea is shown consulting with the Board of Governors, scrambling to reassure them that their “Arrival Day” plans will not be ruined and that she is still a faithful servant to their cause. The Governors judge her to be unfit over the use of the Cabinet and she is face to face with multiple Weeping Angels before being murdered by one.
Image Credit: BBC
So apparently, these mysterious Governors, are somehow in league with the Weeping Angels, an all time favorite for Doctor Who monsters. Dorothea discusses “pure belief” and the “Arrival Day” with them, which seems like that would have been a better plot line to explore in this finale than the Shadowkin. This one scene at the very end of the episode, overshadows the entire Shadowkin story arc within 30 seconds. The Governors and the servants like Dorothea, easily would have been a more interesting foe than carrying on with the Shadowkin for so long. Unfortunately, instead of giving it that exciting cliff-hanger feeling, ending season one on this note makes it feel like Class saved all the good things for later. It is almost a dismissal of the entire first season, with the suggestion that all the amazing stories would come in season two.
There were high points to the finale, the actors continued to be amazing in their roles, Quill had some powerful moments and it seems is developing into an even better character. Charlie and Mattesuz share some touching scenes, and poor Tanya, you can feel the emotion coming out of her after her mother’s death and her fierceness to protect her brothers. But all of that sadly is overshadowed by the random jumble of story-lines and the very one dimensional Shadowkin plot. “Detained” was easily the seasons best, followed by “The Metaphysical Engine” the next week. To go from those episodes to “The Lost” is rough. “The Lost” is very much a let down, and not only just as an episode on it’s own; it let down the entire first season as the ending note.
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