With Roy apparently dead and Rowan locked away in his room, the crew of the Nightflyer are left to try to salvage what they can from their mission. But with Auggie now in command and under the influence of Cynthia, is there any way they can achieve contact with the Volcryn?

Episode 9 left a lot of bodies on the floor, literally and metaphorically. Lommie was trapped, Agatha killed herself and Roy was executed by the wildly flailing Rowan, who seemed to have utterly snapped in the wake of Tessia’s death. The show hinted at the fact that Roy was something different to what he had appeared, introducing yet another subplot into the mix, and it seemed all but impossible that everything would get wrapped up in the final episode.

And it doesn’t. Not even nearly. It’s likely, in light of recent comments by showrunner Jeff Buhler, mentioning  plans should the show get renewed for another season, that this is intentional. His comments seem to leave the question open as to whether another season would necessarily focus on the Nightflyer itself (Martin’s novella ends as this season does, apparently, and the author had no other plans to continue that thread) or other aspects altogether of Martin’s ‘Thousand Worlds’ universe, of which Nightflyers was one part.

However, intentional or otherwise, this abrupt ending, after another series of revelations which get to go nowhere, is frustrating to the viewer, leaving Nightflyers feeling deeply unsatisfying as it reaches its conclusion.

Once again, a main issue is the reaction (or lack thereof) to circumstances by the characters. Last episode, Rowan charged onto the bridge wielding an axe and butchered Roy before everyone’s eyes, having already murdered at least one other crew member on his way there. This week, aside from one fairly meekly expressed objection from Mel, Rowan basically becomes part of the team again, and seems to have returned to his normal self.

Auggie is still working in cahoots with Cynthia, but the conclusion of that particular working relationship is as painfully obvious as it is irritating to see played out. Having sabotaged the ship once and failed to get everyone to turn around and go home, Auggie tries again, this time in a more fatal way. Cynthia meanwhile has to be one of the worse arch nemeses ever, wandering around to monologue to Mel about the true nature of Roy, demonstrating again a narratively convenient lack of control of certain elements she previously had all wrapped up and one particularly confusing manifestation to Mel that makes little to no sense in context and suggests a further dangling plot thread left there to entice a renewal.

As for D’Branin, he ends up being the only character of the lot of them to get anything approaching a closure, but that closure is odd and dissonant, requiring him to effectively forget his grief of literally an hour or two ago and continue on his quest to meet the Volcryn and/or be reunited with his daughter (it’s honestly unclear at this point which is his priority or why the rest of the crew are still going along with him).

It all rumbles along rather disappointingly, asking more questions than it answers and ticking down the clock until you become absolutely certain there’s no way at all that it will tie off all its loose plot threads before the credits roll, and I have to admit to swearing fairly loudly at the screen as they did. Having invested ten hours into this thing, I expected at least to come away with some sort of actual conclusion, or coherent theme or message. Instead, it just… ends, and it’s almost as if I can see Buhler sitting there, demanding another season to tell the story properly.

Verdict: Deeply unsatisfying, asking far more questions than it ever answers and mistaking occasional ‘gotcha’ moments of revelation for actual character development. There’s talent aplenty here, and no lack of concepts, but something gets lost in the mix. 5/10

Greg D. Smith