Season finale review: Enlighted ‘Agent of Change’ – It’s A Beautiful Thing

There’s no world where we all come out on top. There just isn’t – and most of us realize this once we’re past the idealism of our college years, and have to face the shitty realities of the real world. ‘Agent of Change’, the beautiful, poignant season finale (hopefully not series) for Enlightened reinforces this idea in every shot, every sequence, and every bit of dialogue. Every victory comes with a defeat, and on a few different levels, Amy’s lost more than anybody, despite becoming the whisteblower she’s always wanted.

But Enlightened‘s never been about material success or possessions – it’s been about an internal transformation, Amy’s path to her “higher self”. By the end of ‘Agent of Change’ has she found that better version of herself? Not really, but she’s certainly taking steps in the right direction. In a parallel from the pilot, Amy finds herself in an elevator when an angered executive starts screaming and cursing at her through the closing doors, following a scene where Amy’s been more calm and composed than we’ve ever seen her. She nearly resorts to her old self when she storms in on Krista, talking about how she fucked her for the last time – but hey, we all can’t completely change ourselves overnight, right?

Some people might be confused by Amy’s insistence on blaming Krista, especially when connecting a few dots would reveal the truth about Tyler and Eileen. But Amy’s not really going over there because she’s pissed about her blowing up her spot: underneath that is a deep-seeded jealousy Amy’s never been able to get rid of. Krista’s got the life she wants: good-looking, dark-haired husband (never blonde or ginger for Amy), a happy life, and most of all, a child. But is she ready for a child? Again, probably not: Amy hasn’t suddenly changed from her mission to point out her self-realizations to everyone, and still remains the beautiful contradiction from the past two seasons, mirroring every other event in the episode.

Everything really is a ‘beautiful contradiction’: Abbaddon gets called out in the paper, but Amy and her friends all lose their job. Jeff prints the story, but reveals himself to be the conniver he always was (by the way, have fun getting sued Amy! I’m going to polish my Pulitizer frame). Helen kicks Amy out, but we can tell she’s never been prouder when she reads that article in the paper. And now Tyler’s without a career, but he does have Eileen waiting at his door in the morning to reconcile.

The season’s last scene (before it’s quick montage wrapping up the season) brings it all full circle: Amy shows up at Levi’s with no work, no job, and nowhere to be. After Levi offers her a beer (suggesting that his progress has hit a bit of a hitch), Amy looks at him and tries to figure out who she is. And Levi, the man who can’t get past himself, whose every life decision since him and Amy lost a child has been all about bringing himself down farther into his pit of depression, tells her: “it’s a beautiful thing to have a little hope for the world, you know?”

And in the end, that’s what Enlightened is about: hope for oneself, hope for the world, and trying to balance those ideals into an existence we can not only tolerate, but can enjoy. As Amy says in the closing voiceover, there’s so much we don’t understand as people, but “we don’t have to run away from life, our life.” We can live, we can walk out of Hell, and most of all, we can change ourselves and the world around us. And that’s where we leave Amy, as she looks at the headline in the LA Times everyone is reading (not picking up a copy for yourself), and walks down the street, continuing on her path to her better self.

If this is the end of Enlightened (which we all hope it isn’t), it’s a beautiful, if a bit clustered, end to Enlightened, able to resolve a ton of plot by keeping focused on its characters (a very tough thing for any show to do, when there’s a lot of plot going on), a cathartic end to one of the most unique show’s I’ve ever watched. Enlightened is a show that will challenge a viewer and frustrate them with Amy’s mannerisms, but also a show with such an honest, beautiful philosophy at its core, a quiet mediation about difficult people trying to make difficult changes. If this is the end, ‘Agent of Change’ is a stunning finale to a television series that aspires to do something many don’t even care about: inspiring its audience.

Grade: A
Other thoughts/observations:

– this week in Biblical references: any thoughts on Krista naming her baby Abel? It’s either a symbolic name, or Krista’s a big Sons of Anarchy fan.

– I already mentioned it, but it’s worth saying again: Szidon flipping shit on Amy is a fantastic parallel to the pilot.

– Lots of shots of doors closing, or people framed between two walls (Tyler) in the first half, while the second half opens things up to longer shots, more landscapes, and a feeling of freedom and light the first half explicitly avoids. Again, Mike White’s cinematic touches at work.

– Connie the missionary… There’s another show I’d watch on HBO.

– Amy looks up in the elevator (another callback to the pilot), but there’s no turtle up there to soothe her.

– I never noticed it before, but there’s a bumper sticker on the back of Amy’s car that asks: “What will you build?”

– The beehive clips in Szidon’s office are a little spot on (and weird that would be playing on four TV’s during a shit storm like the one Amy’s caused), but it only lasts a moment, just long enough to get the point across.