The Club has fallen. The Club has lost members. The Club is done running.

This is one of those tremendously frustrating stories to review because it’s so much fun to listen to cold. The big reveal here is graceful in a way that manages to break new ground for the series but also calls all the way back to the New Adventures novels. That by itself is impressive. The fact it does so in a manner that doesn’t require you to have read them is flat out stunning. Like I said last time, this is science fiction as archaeology and here, Bernice brushes away the final dust to reveal the full design of the series’ hero, the series’ villain and its writers.

The big stuff all lands and lands well but this series has always been about character and this story is no exception. 312 gets a quiet, dark moment to himself that’s haunting in its implications and more in how it goes unnoticed. Starll and Grisella get to be the murder couple the universe both deserves and should flee in terror from, and best of all, Secretary Pym becomes an unlikely action hero. Nickolas Grace is fantastic here, anchoring a good chunk of one plot as Bernie lead the Club into frantically MacGyvering a solution. Niamh Cusack too gets a series stealing turn as the Oldest either reveals her true identity, remembers herself or turns over another puzzle piece of her own. It’s a brave move leaving a plot like this where they do. Every event is resolved and every answer is there but not all of them are spelt out and that’s crucial to the show’s complex and well executed tone.

That tone is embodied in Bernice herself. Lisa Bowerman’s work here is exemplary because of both its subtlety and its honesty. Bernice is fiercely clever, very funny, deeply kind and carrying a backpack full of archaeological tools and past trauma. Seeing her find a new home with the Club, even after everything she goes through feels earned, welcome and reassuring in a way I wasn’t expecting and didn’t know I needed.

Verdict: The Eternity Club quadrilogy is unlike anything else I’ve heard Big Finish produce, and it’s an enormous success. Like Midsummer Murders went out for pizza with Mass Effect. An enormously fun end to an enormously fun series. Here’s hoping for many more. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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