Loveday Writing

The job of a season finale is to conclude the season’s story arcs and establish new ones for the next season (if there is a new one). This finale mostly did its job.

This episode takes a different approach by kicking off in Vienna, where we see an orchestra consisting of teenage musicians, performing. The camera immediately focuses on trumpeter, Arlo, to signal that he is the recipient this episode will be focusing on. It’s revealed that Arlo and the orchestra are on a European tour. After their performance in Vienna, Arlo and a friend of his are showering, where Arlo takes off his glasses, and his friend accidentally and unknowingly knocks them into a nearby bin, which is subsequently emptied by the hotel staff. Arlo then discovers his glasses are missing. He is seen on a bus on the way to his next stop the next day, video calling his mother. He informs her that he is wearing contact lenses, and shows her the view out his window.

When Arlo arrives in Frankfurt, Arlo notices his eyes are irritated by the contact lenses. His eyes continue to get worse, to the point that his conductor and supervisor calls his mother after he discovers how bad they’ve gotten, when he asks Arlo remove a pair of sunglasses he is wearing. When Arlo returns home to Melbourne and is sent to the hospital for analysis and treatment, it’s revealed that he has contracted Severe Pseudomonas Keratitis, an aggressive bacterial infection of the corneas. His doctor tells his mother that, unfortunately, they didn’t catch it in time and that he has corneal blindness and will need a cornea transplant. Arlo, depressed, starts to learn to navigate around his home.

We then cut to ten months later where Lillian is shown arriving at the hospital to say goodbye to Ash, and an honour walk is conducted as Ash is wheeled into surgery to retrieve his organs. Jordan is also shown being arrested, and Janet and Caroline arrive, where Janet immediately lashes out at Lillian. Mary tells her that Janet’s pain will eventually pass with time. Two days later, Janet shows up to Lillian’s apartment and asks for Ash’s baby boots (seen in a box under Lillian’s bed in an earlier episode) and for Lillian to sign the funeral contract, clearly being dishonest about what the contract is stipulating.

We then arrive back in the present day, where Caroline visits Janet at her home. When Caroline discovers Ash’s urn in the cabinet, Janet tells her that she didn’t want to throw his ashes away. Caroline gently points out to her that she would be scattering his ashes and they can scatter them somewhere nice, but Janet snaps at her. When Caroline goes to leave, Janet tells her about getting Lillian to sign the contract to pay for the funeral.

Meanwhile, Andrew buys a diamond necklace for Kelly to apologise for not telling her about his plans to expand Rosalie Estate to Ballarat. Kelly takes him to a nearby vineyard that is for sale and encourages him to buy it as part of the expansion, however he doubles down on his plans to expand in Ballarat. They end up having an argument, which leads to him breaking down, and admitting that he never thought his donor wouldn’t look like him (confirming that his shock had partly racial undertones). Kelly tells him that no-one’s perfect and he doesn’t have to weigh himself down with the guilt of his reaction forever. He tells her that she doesn’t understand what it’s like to survive his situation. Kelly agrees and encourages him to live his best life, and he tells her that he is doing something with his guilt. She tells him that his desire to go to Ballarat is similar to having an affair, he tells her not to be ridiculous, and she walks away.

Back in Ballarat, Lillian finishes selling Ash’s sports stuff and texts Michelle to let her know that she should be finished paying off the debt by the end of the week. Michelle then lashes out at Phillip for helping Lillian, and tells him that they had her back. As Lillian goes to work at Sovereign Hill, she finds Caroline waiting there for her. Caroline asks Lillian if she has any photos of Ash when he was older, as the pictures she saw at Janet’s home were of him when he was younger. Caroline then confides in her that Janet used Ash as a “life raft” to cope after his father, Taj’s, passing. Lillian tells her that a child shouldn’t be used as a life raft and Caroline agrees. Caroline tells Lillian that she can help Janet heal and asks if she feels she has a responsibility to make sure that Janet is alright. Lillian walks away and goes to work.

Meanwhile, Hamish and Mary have lunch together at the hospital, as a way for Hamish to check in on her and for Mary to confide in him, revealing that she is using therapeutic tools to cope with her PTSD. Later, Mary goes to see Lillian at her apartment, as Lillian is pulling another raft of Ash’s downstairs to sell. Lillian reveals that she knows about Mary’s PTSD as Hamish told her about it. They end up going for a row in the lake, where Lillian reveals that she thought Mary had counselling after the incident, and Mary in turn reveals that she was diagnosed with Delayed Onset PTSD.

Later, as Lillian, Hamish, Mary and Jack are eating dinner together, Lillian reveals that she received a video message from Taylor’s son, Jett, inviting her to his birthday party (even though it’s months away). Hamish then points out that Lillian gets lovely messages like that from recipients and Janet’s stuck in her own grief hell. Lillian later texts Caroline to let Janet know that she found Ash’s baby boots and will send them to her. Lillian and Jack later share an Uber home, where Lillian accidentally kisses Jack as he leaves.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s viticulturist arrives at Rosalie Estate to accompany him to Ballarat to see the vacant land for the proposed winery. Andrew invites Kelly to come but she angrily declines, telling him she has things to do.

The next day, Jack texts Lillian and asks if they should talk about their kiss. She tells him no and he responds that he doesn’t want things to be awkward when they see each other again. She responds that they’re never going to see each other again. Jack agrees but then points out that Hamish’s birthday party is coming up. She tells him that they should be separated, and he tells her that he didn’t hate kissing her.

Later, Caroline and Janet show up at Lillian’s apartment to collect the baby boots. Lillian tries to provide an olive branch by asking Janet if Taj had the boots made overseas. Janet confirms the story. Caroline then sees the balcony and tells them she knows about it from the photo Ash sent after he proposed to Lillian, a photo that he didn’t send to Janet. Janet tell Lillian that she picked up Ash’s remains but lashes out at her again for donating his organs. Lillian, upset, walks away from her, with Caroline gently calling Janet out on her outburst.

Lillian later goes to see Mary. Mary tells her that she needs to make things right with Janet for herself, as Janet will always be in her head from that night. Lillian then lashes out at her, making a remark about her PTSD, which she quickly apologises for. When Lillian returns to her apartment, she finds Jack sitting on a nearby bench waiting for her. She avoids him and sneaks back into her apartment. Lillian has a sleepless night, before taking off a necklace she has been wearing with her engagement ring on it, and puts it away in a jewellery box.

The next day, Andrew texts Hamish about the vacant land. Hamish goes out there to see it and Andrew, and Andrew offers him work to help build the proposed Ballart winery from the ground up, as he has a great eye and knows the region. Meanwhile, Lillian goes for a jog and gets a call from Susan. Susan forwards on a video Arlo made as a “thank you letter” for Ash’s cornea donation. Alongside the orchestra, he plays the song, Gonna Fly Now, which briefly lifts her spirits. We then see the pain of Ash’s loss and the emotions from meeting recipients get to her, as we see transplant teams with eskies of Ash’s organs again, as Susan makes a phone call to a woman named Miranda to tell her that she has good news. Lillian then gets up, suddenly having had an epiphany before the episode cuts to the end credits.

Overall, this was a solid season finale with plenty of springboards for story arcs for a second season, if the show is renewed. These possible story arcs include: Andrew’s expansion into Ballarat and working with Hamish, Andrew and Kelly’s marriage as trouble is brewing there, a possible romance between Jack and Lillian, and Lillian possibly meeting more recipients. In terms of story arcs that came to a close, you could make the argument that the Janet story arc came to a close, as despite Lillian’s best efforts to provide an olive branch, Janet still hasn’t changed and will clearly always blame her for what happened to Ash.

A few nitpicks I have is the kiss between Lillian and Jack, as I felt the kiss and by extension a possible romance, came completely out of the blue as there was no hint of any romantic or sexual tension between them. If the writers are going for a possible romance angle, they should have built it up over the season. I also have a nitpick about the episode’s final moments, showing Lillian quickly getting up as if she had a sudden epiphany – is this supposed to indicate that she has some sort of “Spidey sense” that someone else has received Ash’s organs, or has she had a sudden epiphany about life, herself, or something else? The moment was sudden and unclear to me. I also have a nitpick about the timeline, whether a full year or longer has passed since Ash’s death. The dialogue referencing the timeline in this episode and throughout the season hasn’t been entirely consistent nor easy to follow, but perhaps I misheard the dialogue or missed something.

I appreciated that the third recipient was a child, this provides a different angle to explore and Lillian will most likely never meet him, as tracking him down would be morally and legally wrong. The orchestra “thank you letter” was the highlight of the episode for me.

In regards to the season as a whole, I felt it was solid with little to no flaws. It explored the heavy, sensitive and complex topic of organ donation with realism, taste, and sensitivity. I appreciated that each recipient was unique, and that only three were focused on, allowing for more recipients to be introduced in a second season if the show is renewed (according to Transplant Australia, approximately four solid organs are donated by one donor, and up to 10 people could have their lives changed by a single donor). I also appreciated the realism in the exploration of Lillian’s grief and Mary’s PTSD.

Overall, I enjoyed this series, which touched on an incredibly important issue. I’m hoping it’s renewed for a second season, but if not, it did manage to end well on a somewhat optimistic and hopeful note.

Stray Observations:

• A throwback to the pilot episode was shown with the song How Can You Mend a Broken Heart playing towards the end of this episode. The song title is also the pilot’s title, and the song played during the pilot’s end credits.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I want things to go back to normal, where you two gang up on me and I feel like an idiot.” (Hamish to Mary on hers and Lillian’s relationship)
• “How can you be so smart and so terrible at this?” (Lillian to Mary on her rowing)
• “Guess what I got.” “Oh, pick me, a restraining order from another recipient?” (Lillian-Jack)
• “I love you too, you massive pain in the arse.” (Mary to Lillian)
• “Goodnight, you anti-celery weirdo!” (Jack to Lillian)
• “There’s nothing to be scared of…except your impulses, I’m scared of those.” (Susan to Lillian)