A super charming small scale story about widening horizons and the return of Le Great Big Epic™ at the same time, and they actually fit together really, really well.

Le Great Big Epic™‘s return here is different though from how it was in the Cloakroom. It’s very much kept away for until halfway through, and it’s also much more actually dramatic as well. It’s almost as if the moment that the alternate universe gateway opens and the entity comes through, it takes a whole other tone with it as well. Pym’s naivety isn’t wholesome and funny anymore but becomes worrying. Bernice’s quips aren’t quippy for the sake of it, but to deflect her stress. It’s a pretty heavy shift, but it works, because the shift comes when the in universe big shift of the creature coming happens. Like I said, they come together, and it’s like one brings the other with it naturally. Then the coming of the creature itself is build up very well throughout the silly fun at the start, so everything just clicks into place once the drama comes. Which is almost cosmic-horror-y in its execution, with its ununderstandable powers and seeing the entire universe as just a prison for ‘The Death’, which I like.

Also I’m not sure if this is what they’re going to go for in the next parts, but (in extension kinda of what I said before about prisons) this story implies at least a little to me that the entire Eternity Club was only just a really elaborate prison for ‘The Death’. Which I think can bring some cool existential stuff with it too. Everyone there has gaps in their memory, they don’t know what the place is and don’t want to find out. They are all simply brainwashed pawns who think they’re a lot. It won’t seem unlikely to me if some force comes next episodes and wipes a bunch of them out in a second. When all of these… kinda friends of Benny she (and we too) has been spending all this time with, turn out to not have been who they thought they were, that they’re all like 312.

Now that I think of it, I can also see a thematic link with Rhubarb, about the little things in life. Where there it’s about looking after those, and how small stuff can create big problems, Pym’s perspective makes us appreciate the tiny aspects. Everything that’s new is extraordinary, and one doesn’t know what they’re missing until they’ve found it or something. But also, it’s why I think this arc clicks so well. All those little forgettable details, from seemingly random technobabble to character motivations, all come together when Bernice realizes what’s going on. The reveal or twist or whatever you want to call it, of course comes out of left field, but it feels earned, like you should’ve figured it all out yourself long ago, because the story’s been telling it to you through the themes it’s handling. I think it’s brilliant. And it helps making it feel like a finale without even being one. (which in turn can excuse its more dramatic tone too)

Also, Big Spoiler: one of the last drops in the bucket that made me get this: The Master. Great. Perfect. Even if it isn’t, it is, actually. Even if I was spoiled, it was still glorious. Loved every single second of that ending. As they say: “Just the best.”