Writer: Zack Whedon
Director: Dan MinahanCast: Austin Nichols (John Monad), Bruce Greenwood (Mitch Yost), Rebecca DeMornay (Cissy Yost), Luke Perry (Linc Stark), Keala Kennelly (Kai), Brian Van Holt (Butchie Yost), Greyson Fletcher (Shaun Yost), Ed O'Neill (Bill Jacks), Paul Ben-Victor (Palaka), Luis Guzman (Ramon), Emily Rose (Cass), Dayton Callie (Freddie), Matt Winston (Barry Cunningham), Chandra West (Tina Blake), Matt Mather (Dwayne) & Jim Beaver (Vietnam Joe)
John and Shaun return to Imperial Beach..."The end is certainly near", to paraphrase John Monad, our enchanting and perplexing guide through this equally stultifying and brilliant series. The final episode begins with another perfect JFC montage, beginning in the clouds of "Cincinnati"/Heaven, before descending to the waves of Imperial Beach, where we find John (Austin Nichols) and Shuan (Greyson Fletcher) surfing home after their disappearance...
As you'd expect, the episode struggles with the difficulties of maintaining its unspoken mystery, whilst simultaneously having its human characters ask pertinent questions. John may be able to sidestep such directness, but Shaun shouldn't be able to. So, when father Butchie (Brian Van Holt) demands to know where the hell he's been, Shaun can only play the amnesia card. It's annoying, but expected, and it helps that Shaun has been quite a distant personality throughout the show (John-like at times), so the script gets away with it.
Of course, it being the last episode, viewers demand some kind of answer, or at least enough half-answers to satisfy watching. A great scene between Linc Stark (Luke Perry) and John, both sat cross-legged on the ground, is perhaps the show's most successful attempt at this. Sort of. John's parrot-talk remains vague and confusing, but Linc has far more success understanding John and how his "your words, my words" vocabulary works.
There is a definite feeling that creator David Milch asked this episode's writer Zack Whedon (son of Buffy creator Joss!) to wrap up and truncate plots that would probably have spread into season 2. The Hawaiian's story, with the arrival of their Chinese boss seemed unnecessary, is most rushed, while "The Chemist" (Howard Hesseman) only appears in one silent moment!
Barry Cunningham (Matt Winston) gets a great little scene, talking to Ramon (Luis Guzman), that finally crystallized his fears and gave us a reason for his teddy bear fixation. It was also interesting when everybody witnessed Mitch's levitation, even if their reactions were as ridiculously subdued as ever.
His Visit, Day Nine builds towards a "rebirth" of the Yost family and their Stinkweed connection with Linc Stark. The episode ended with an ad hoc parade through I.B, with the Yost's outfitted in John's "stick-man" wet-suit design, finally putting aside their differences. I particularly liked the moment a lecherous man heckled ex-pornstar Tina (Chandra West), only to be verbally slapped down by Cissy, of all people.
The closing moments hinted at things that will go unexplained, such as John's voice-over bizarrely mentioning that that Dr Smith (absent in the episode) returned to I.B "20 years younger" during the Yost family parade. Huh? What was that about?
Or, even stranger, was the last line spoken by John's voice-over, saying "mother of my father" over a clip of Kai surfing? That seemed to infer (to me, anyway) that Kai is destined to become a modern-day Virgin Mary character -- with Butchie as a Joseph? So maybe John's work has only just begun with this important family?
Sadly, it's an in-road for season 2 that will go untraveled... as John From Cincinnati was canceled by HBO. I'm not surprised. This is easily the most complex and distancing television series in years; both a pleasure and a frustration.
I stuck with it for its impassioned and kooky acting styles, original premise and vague hope everything would jigsaw together in the end. I'm glad I stayed the distance, as JFC began to make some hazier sense after episode 6, but I'm also disappointed this last episode didn't provide the gob-smacking punch I'd been waiting and hoping for...
Posthumous Review
Written: 23 August 2007
HBO
