Strike Back ends its run with a stripped down survival episode centered on our core heroes.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the Strike Back series finale follow…
“It’s not a white flag situation!”
Admittedly, I haven’t been exactly over-the-moon about Strike Back’s final season. There’ve been some good moments, but teenagers and germaphobe codebreakers have worked to tug the shirt out out of the slacks a bit. With the former presumedly inserted into the first half of the season in order to help cover up star Sullivan Stapleton’s on-set injury. But the fact that the main villain arc, for the first time, got wrapped up last week in Episode 9 meant that this final episode (which aired tonight in the States, but months ago in the UK) was free to be exactly what it needed to be. A tight, stripped away “last stand” focused solely on Stonebridge and Scott attempting to survive in the woods while being tracked by mercenaries.
Spartacus’ Dustin Clare returned as gun-for-hire Faber (along with Leo Gregory’s Mason) for this exciting forested shoot-em-up as our heroes’ own government enacted a kill order on the remaining Section 20’ers in order to clean sweep everything. It was basic, bloody Strike Back and it was great. No bombs to stop or poison gas to contain. No ticking clock or terror plot. It was Stonebridge and Scott finding their way out of the tightest of impossible situations. And all of it, basically, acting like the severe “final straw” that would work to get them up and out of this life. Scott back to the States so he could attempt to be a father to Finn. And Stonebridge to…who knows where?
In fact, if I had one gripe about this series closer it’s that it didn’t do enough with Stonebridge. It didn’t give us any look into his next steps other than him saying he had “no f***ing idea” what to do with his life. One might think he’d track down Martinez and try to make a go at a relationship with her. Or, you know, I’d have settled for anything that showed us that he was ready to open up his heart again. But he remained a closed off, despite now being free of his former life.
Meanwhile, Scott, who also lost someone in Julia Richmond, never allowed his own tragedies to stop him from being overly emotional. And thus, he often had more interesting things to contribute to the show this final season. Including one last sex scene with the returning (and ever treacherous) Christy Bryant, who hadn’t been seen since the “Vengeance” year. And if you think getting shot in the gut and almost dying would work to dampen Scott’s libido, well then you haven’t been watching Strike Back.
So let’s talk about that bullet wound for a second. One thing that I definitely wasn’t certain of during this final episode was both of these guys making it out alive. And yes, that vision of Richmond did make me think that Scott may have been done for. Also, that final moment of shooting when Scott’s gun clicked empty and we cut away made me briefly think that both of them had perhaps bit the dust, Butch and Sundance style (also an acceptable ending). Silly me. I should have known it was all to end with fist bumps, motorcycles, Vegas, and Bob Dylan. But there were some nice close calls along the way.
Faber, while not someone I ever predicted would return as the curtain call villain, matched up with our guys well in the sense that he represented everything they didn’t. And the moment when he actually assumed the two of them had millions tucked away because that’s what one does was very telling and effective. This episode also featured our heroes, for the first time in a few seasons, actively talking about their life choices and future prospects. I mean, it wasn’t poetry, but it was exactly what the show needed for its close out. In fact, the Austrian man, Oscar, who let our heroes rest up in his rustic home, looked like he could be an older, future version of Stonebridge. So casting-wise, it certainly worked.
And the action was excellent. The whole (damn) dam set piece was exciting (if they hadn’t jumped off that thing, I’d have been super pissed) and the two separate fights they had (Scott in the water and Stonebridge vs. Two Mercs) were thrilling. This was the ending that this series needed. Two heroes being disavowed by their own masters and sent scurrying. Soldiers who were too good for the government they were fighting to protect. And now, the open road awaits.
Strike Back ended exactly the way it needed to. Sure, overall I wished we’d gotten more of an inkling as to what Stonebridge’s next steps were (aside from tailing Scott and his son to Vegas) but the idea of these two being violently forced out of their solider lives was a compelling way to end things.
