Note: Major spoilers for the final three episodes of the 11.22.63 mini-series, you have been warned.
Since I got so behind on my recaps of the mini-series, I am not going to give a full recap of each of the episodes, but instead just discuss some of the high points (and low points) of the final three episodes, including my overall thoughts on the mini-series as a whole now that it's over.
For the first of the three episodes, the biggest moment that happened was when Bill turned on Jake and had decided to not help him anymore, as he had become somewhat of friends with Oswald. I had already put into my mind that Bill was potentially the "second gunman" and it was a pretty good moment when Jake comes to that same conclusion. Of course, it turns out he was wrong and that there was no second gunman, but still the paranoia of the moment and what he does next were pretty good for the storyline. So he goes to Bill and tells him that Marina is having the baby, and she is at the hospital, so Bill goes with him even though he is still mad at him. When they arrive, Bill gets taken by a doctor and put into the psych ward, per Jake's orders. He told the doctor that his "brother" was sick and needed help, and Bill only helps that theory along by talking about all the things that Jake has been and is planning to do.
The other big moment was when the past pushed back against Jake and he got beat up by a guy that he won money off of with his gambling. At the end of the episode, Jake is laid out unconscious in the street, and I thought there was at least a chance that he was going to be so injured that he wouldn't be able to follow through with his plan. As it turned out, this didn't happen, but I thought it would have been an interesting way to go with it. Due to only having a couple of episodes left, however, caused this to not really be a feasible way to handle the situation.
I thought the episode was okay, and the way that Jake got rid of Bill so that the didn't do, in Jake's mind, something stupid and help Oswald kill the president was pretty well done. I almost wish they had held on to this and let it actually happen, so that Jake then had to try to stop Bill as well. It would have given reason for Jake and Sadie to split up, which could have opened up all sorts of other scenarios, but I was okay with the episode as a whole.
The next episode was, in my opinion, the worst episode of the series. I felt like everything was kind of rushed, and not much happened. The most of the episode found Jake trying to remember what he was doing, and why he was there, and he only had a few weeks left before the assassination. Once he remembered, he went to check on Bill, thinking he could give him the answers. This was the only real big moment in the episode as we find out that Bill has been subjected to shock therapy, and his brain is pretty much fried. He doesn't hate Jake anymore, but he also can't seem to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. Jake says that he is going to get him out of there, but then Bill jumps out the window and kills himself. We then get to the end of the episode, and it is Oswald standing at the window with his gun, waiting for the motorcade to come by.
I was pretty disappointed with this episode considering how much I have enjoyed all the other episodes, so I was starting to think that the ending wasn't going to live up to the rest of the series. Other than the moment with Bill, which I was sad about because he just got dragged into this whole thing, nothing else really happened and I felt like they were just trying to get to the end. I guess that was the whole point of the episode, since they still had a month to go, but I just felt like a lot of the episode was forced and was just weak compared to the rest of the series.
In the mini-series finale, we see the past trying to stop Jake, but he gets to Oswald and shoots him with his own gun, saving Kennedy. In the process, however, Sadie gets shot and dies, and Jake gets arrested. At the station, he is being accused of working with Oswald and trying to kill the president, but then the president calls and thanks Jake for saving his life and so they have no choice but to let him go. With nothing left for him in the past, Jake returns to the future to find that things didn't work out like he had planned. The world has pretty much gone down the toilet as America was attacked and saving Kennedy has only made things worse instead of better. Jake runs into Harry and he remembers Jake saving his family when he was a boy. He explains what happened, and Jake decides to go back and reset everything, so that he can be with Sadie. He figures out that the whole purpose in him going back was to be with her, so he finds her right away and forgets about all the other stuff. As he talks to her, the yellow card man shows up and Jake goes to talk to him. The man tells him that he is in his own loop now, and that she will die over and over, and there is nothing Jake can do to save her. Realizing that he can't do that to Sadie, he instead leaves and goes back to his old life.
Back in the present, he sees Harry again, and Jake says he is sorry. Harry says it's okay, and that Jake is a good man, which hit me pretty hard right in the feels. Jake also looks up Sadie on the internet and finds out that she is still alive, and is receiving an award, so he goes to see her. Sadie is obviously old now, but she has touched so many people in her life, so Jake gets to see the impact he had by not messing with the timeline. At the dance after the awards show, Jake goes to Sadie and asks for a dance. He asks her if she lived a good life, and she explains to Jake that she is happy. She asks why he asked, and he says, "You just look like you deserve to be happy." And with that, the series ends.
I have to be honest, the last fifteen minutes or so really got me more emotional than I thought it was going to. This whole time, the series was about something else, until the very end when you realize it wasn't about the assassination attempt at all, but it was instead about Sadie the whole time. By trying to save Kennedy, he instead messed everything up, which brings home the idea that everything happens for a reason, and that you have to look for the good in situations, not the bad. The final meeting with Jake and Sadie was really well done, and I teared up a bit watching it, because I didn't realize how attached I had gotten to her, and how much their relationship was the base of the show.
Overall, I thought the series was really good. It had a couple of moments coming down the stretch there that made me wonder how it was all going to end, but I was really happy with the ending. The beginning was really strong, the middle was okay, and they ended on a high note. I won't say the series was great, but I definitely think it was worth watching. I'm glad they didn't just cop out at the end and have him save Kennedy and make everything better in the future, as I thought it was good to show all the consequences that he had to endure for trying to change things.
My rating for the final three episodes is 7/10, 6/10, and 8/10
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