Episode Description:
"During a visit to the Florida Keys, an ocean gateway lands Whit, Eugene, and Wooton in a boatload of trouble." -AIO
Episode Review:
"Out to Sea" is a really fun and entertaining episode that also has a really bothersome ending. It is bothersome not because it's too predictable. The problem is that it's too unpredictable. "But aren't endings supposed to be unpredictable?", you may ask. No, not at all. Endings should sometimes be difficult to predict, but not unpredictable. Surprise endings only work if there are clues and information during the episode that foreshadow - and support - the ending in a logical way. Otherwise, the audience will feel cheated. And, here, I felt cheated.
You see, from the very beginning of the episode, I was hooked. I liked the epic setting as well as the characters involved, like Captain Quidd. I was instantly reminded of the episode "Flash Flood", where our favorite characters are pitted against nature, where hilarity and danger ensues -- in that order -- and where they have to use their brains to get themselves out of their sticky situation. Lines such as, "guaranteed to be the highlight of your visit to the the Florida keys, unless your staying at the Aqua Kingdom off of Route 1, with the three story waterslide, cause let's face it, who can compete with that?" were great. And then came that thrilling climactic moment where we're led to believe Wooton was eaten by a shark, where Whit is tossed overboard, and where Eugene is hit by a tidal wave. And I was gearing up for an even more exciting final chapter. But then Eugene walks out of the Room of Consequence. And the moment felt so random, so strangely out of place.
Why did this surprise ending not work? Consider the film "The Sixth Sense", where we eventually discover that Bruce Willis's character (spoiler alert) was dead the entire time. It is considered one of the greatest and most surprising endings of all time. But the ending only works because we can look back and spot certain pieces of information that support this reveal: for instance, we suddenly realize that Bruce Willis's character only had conversations with the character who saw ghosts. The same rule applies for surprise endings in Adventures in Odyssey episodes, such as "It happened at Four Corners", where it's revealed that all the events took place within one of Bernard's stories. We accept this surprise ending because we can look back and see that 1) Bernard was starting to tell a story right before another vehicle nearly runs them off the road and 2) Eugene and Bernard were acting increasingly less like themselves as the story progressed.
A more recent example would be the episode "Things Not Seen", where we find out that Renee was inside the Imagination Station the whole time. Here, the surprise ending works because we suddenly remember the moment Renee entered the Imagination Station at the beginning of the episode. From "Someone to Watch Over me", where we find out Jimmy was in a coma, to "Push the Red Button", where we find out Wooton was telling a story, there have been countless variations of the somewhat cliched "it was all a dream" ending, with varying degrees of success. What separates the good surprise endings from the not-so-good one is that you can think back and remember clues/information that validates the logic of the ending. Ever wonder why you hate certain surprise endings and not others? That's precisely why.
Also, one of the largest reasons the ending doesn't make sense is because Captain Quidd was in it. None of the characters in this episode have ever met Captain Quidd, so how did this character end up in the Room of Consequence? Now, is it possible that Whit or Eugene heard about the Barclay's adventures in Hawaii and, at some point, programmed this character into the machine? Or is possible that one of them encountered him on some other occasion? Maybe. But I don't buy it. Because some of these details don't quite make sense to me, I'm left feeling as though the ending exists because they needed to wrap things up quickly.
In the end, this particular ending just wasn't the one that felt logical to me. Despite it offering a nice moment between Whit and Eugene, I wished they scrapped it and made this into a two-parter. Will I get over my momentary disappointment as time passes? Of course! "Out to Sea", for the most part, is just plain fun. So fun that I just wish there was more of it. And, although people put a lot of emphasis on endings, they're not everything. The journey is often the best part. And this journey has all the ingredients of a classic.
"During a visit to the Florida Keys, an ocean gateway lands Whit, Eugene, and Wooton in a boatload of trouble." -AIO
Episode Review:
"Out to Sea" is a really fun and entertaining episode that also has a really bothersome ending. It is bothersome not because it's too predictable. The problem is that it's too unpredictable. "But aren't endings supposed to be unpredictable?", you may ask. No, not at all. Endings should sometimes be difficult to predict, but not unpredictable. Surprise endings only work if there are clues and information during the episode that foreshadow - and support - the ending in a logical way. Otherwise, the audience will feel cheated. And, here, I felt cheated.
You see, from the very beginning of the episode, I was hooked. I liked the epic setting as well as the characters involved, like Captain Quidd. I was instantly reminded of the episode "Flash Flood", where our favorite characters are pitted against nature, where hilarity and danger ensues -- in that order -- and where they have to use their brains to get themselves out of their sticky situation. Lines such as, "guaranteed to be the highlight of your visit to the the Florida keys, unless your staying at the Aqua Kingdom off of Route 1, with the three story waterslide, cause let's face it, who can compete with that?" were great. And then came that thrilling climactic moment where we're led to believe Wooton was eaten by a shark, where Whit is tossed overboard, and where Eugene is hit by a tidal wave. And I was gearing up for an even more exciting final chapter. But then Eugene walks out of the Room of Consequence. And the moment felt so random, so strangely out of place.
Why did this surprise ending not work? Consider the film "The Sixth Sense", where we eventually discover that Bruce Willis's character (spoiler alert) was dead the entire time. It is considered one of the greatest and most surprising endings of all time. But the ending only works because we can look back and spot certain pieces of information that support this reveal: for instance, we suddenly realize that Bruce Willis's character only had conversations with the character who saw ghosts. The same rule applies for surprise endings in Adventures in Odyssey episodes, such as "It happened at Four Corners", where it's revealed that all the events took place within one of Bernard's stories. We accept this surprise ending because we can look back and see that 1) Bernard was starting to tell a story right before another vehicle nearly runs them off the road and 2) Eugene and Bernard were acting increasingly less like themselves as the story progressed.
A more recent example would be the episode "Things Not Seen", where we find out that Renee was inside the Imagination Station the whole time. Here, the surprise ending works because we suddenly remember the moment Renee entered the Imagination Station at the beginning of the episode. From "Someone to Watch Over me", where we find out Jimmy was in a coma, to "Push the Red Button", where we find out Wooton was telling a story, there have been countless variations of the somewhat cliched "it was all a dream" ending, with varying degrees of success. What separates the good surprise endings from the not-so-good one is that you can think back and remember clues/information that validates the logic of the ending. Ever wonder why you hate certain surprise endings and not others? That's precisely why.
Also, one of the largest reasons the ending doesn't make sense is because Captain Quidd was in it. None of the characters in this episode have ever met Captain Quidd, so how did this character end up in the Room of Consequence? Now, is it possible that Whit or Eugene heard about the Barclay's adventures in Hawaii and, at some point, programmed this character into the machine? Or is possible that one of them encountered him on some other occasion? Maybe. But I don't buy it. Because some of these details don't quite make sense to me, I'm left feeling as though the ending exists because they needed to wrap things up quickly.
In the end, this particular ending just wasn't the one that felt logical to me. Despite it offering a nice moment between Whit and Eugene, I wished they scrapped it and made this into a two-parter. Will I get over my momentary disappointment as time passes? Of course! "Out to Sea", for the most part, is just plain fun. So fun that I just wish there was more of it. And, although people put a lot of emphasis on endings, they're not everything. The journey is often the best part. And this journey has all the ingredients of a classic.
Writer: Phil Lollar, Bob Smithouser
Director: Phil Lollar
Executive Producer: Dave Arnold
Music: John Campbell
Theme: God's Perfect Timing
Original Airdate: 12/01/18
Review date: 12/03/18