The Outsider (1×10) Must/Can’t Review

For our review of last week’s episode of The Outsider, click here.

Synopsis: The group finds itself in a climactic showdown in their last-ditch effort to root out El Coco. (HBO)

So it’s all been leading up to this, the finale of The Outsider, where we finally get some closure after a rollercoaster mystery that has taken us and most of the characters to a cave in Tennessee. Will it be worth it? That’s a hard question to answer as it in incredibly hard to satisfy everyone these days but this episode certainly tried though it most likely won’t succeed with everyone.

Must/Can’t started where the last episode left off with the shootout just outside the bear cave. It was definitely intense and got worse as Salomon and the Boltons arrived. Adding to the body count was Seale Bolton, Katcavage, and Salomon for whom the first two were shot and the other was killed in an explosion (Sablo got shot too but he survived). Gibney just had enough. With her in Hoskins’ crosshairs, he just couldn’t pull the trigger which didn’t exactly sit well with El Coco (the subsequent rattlesnake bite was a nice reprieve). Free from its control, Hoskins alerted the others that El Coco was in the cave before blowing his own brains out.

With that, Anderson and Gibney headed into the cave. It didn’t take long for them to get to El Coco who wasn’t exactly trying to hide. The standoff wasn’t that tense (though the cave was at risk of collapsing) as Gibney tried to ask it questions (they connected for some reason over their outsider status hence the show title I suppose) but Anderson would rather it not talk (there may or may not be others and it needed to eat to survive and children apparently tasted the sweetest). The real Bolton showed up and wasn’t overly interested in chatting so he shot El Coco which triggered a partial collapse, trapping Bolton. Of course El Coco wasn’t quite dead. When Anderson told Gibney that they needed the body to help exonerate Terry Maitland for which she replied “Who’s Terry?”. As Gibney helped Bolton out, Anderson made sure that El Coco didn’t leave and to make sure know one new it ever existed (cue a pretty good Ben Mendelsohn monologue) before bashing its face in.

Meanwhile, the rest of the episode would deal with the aftermath of this which also meant everyone (who was still alive) had to get their stories straight about what happened to establish another narrative for everything (the suspect got away but they had them on video and Hoskins was an accomplice). They also needed Glory Maitland on board which was going to be a problem. Hayes would inform her that his office was set to announce the dropping the charges against her husband and the reopening of the case in a press conference. Anderson and Gibney went their separate ways as Gibney said goodbye to Katcavage and Anderson shared with Jeannine his experience with their dead son as they visited Frankie Peterson’s grave.

When it seemed like it was over, we would be treated to more Gibney in a mid-credits scene that may or may not have implied that El Coco got to her earlier (maybe during the cave collapse?). Sure, the last third of the season felt rushed which kind of impacted the finale which perhaps wasn’t as exciting as it could have been but it wasn’t without it’s fair share of moments. I certainly wouldn’t mind a second season following Cynthia Erivo as Gibney though for now, let’s check out the book!

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.