Closure is another lost little chapter of the Bernice Summerfield stories. Originally part of the Buried Treasures, and nowadays just a sort of freebie with another set, Closure is a very dark story full of war crimes of all sorts of varieties.

It is a very grim listen. In Buried Treasure, after the empty kookiness of Making Myths, this is a bit of tonal whiplash. Lisa Bowerman and Sarah Mowat once again do what they can with the material, but it is tough getting through the content. The idea of the story - going back in time to stop a war criminal - is interesting enough, but I feel as though the writing is overtly clumsy and really struggles with the material at hand. Really, this is just best viewed as a bit of trivia in the history of Bernice. I don't really think it is of value beyond that as all it really served was to bring down my mood a bit with some difficult material.

Closure does remind me a bit of ...Be Forgot, a short I recently read that deals with Benny coping with the fallout of a different cataclysmic war. In comparison, I think the written short better navigates that material because there is something of value to Closure - I'm just not sure it is fully realized, preferring graphic content over something more thought through.

29.10.2022
BFDW: Bernice Summerfield: Buried Treasures
e02: Closure

That, on the other hand, is nothing short of a masterpiece. I'm almost tempted not to spoil it away in a slim chance you ever listen to this. Nevertheless, a synopsis alone should be interesting enough:

Bernice, a historian and an archeologist, goes back in time to when a ruthless dictator was a baby. There, she meets his mother. They talk.

How brilliant is this? I love how they spin the usual trope to have a meaningful story about the nature of violence and its cyclical nature, how it affects us through generation and how to break out of it. Today especially it hits very hard. 5/5, it's the best a short-form sci-fi can be.

A very well done 2-hander. Be warned, it is gruesome.