Tragedy gives way to hope and the resurgence of humanity as witnessed through Station Eleven's finale
Exploring trauma, grief, and the desire for better in "Station Eleven"
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Station Eleven
I remember damage. Then escape. Then adrift in a stranger’s galaxy for a long time. But I’m safe now. I found it again. My home. I have found you nine times before, maybe ten. And I'll find you again. I find you because I know you and I know you because we are the same.
The lines above are interwoven through voiceover in the final half of the season finale (“Unbroken Circle”) of Station Eleven as Kirsten, the young girl who grows into a formidable young woman, reads out loud a passage from the graphic novel, Station Eleven, to a younger child of the underseas. The novel, of course, becomes the post-pandemic parable that serves as both a spiritual and moral compass for the story’s survivors and especially for its lost, parent-less children, of which there are an abundance. This is in large part due to a character named Tyler aka “The Prophet” who kidnaps them in the name of forming a cult of followers, post-pans who all prescribe to the teaching of Station Eleven.
Shakespeare’s works poke their way into the narrative throughout the duration from the show’s start and the cataclysmic, foreboding production of the fated King Lear that results in Arthur’s death, Jeevan’s relevance, and Clark’s emergence, to the end as the Traveling Symphony perform their final performance on the wheel with Hamlet at the airport. No doubt, Shakespeare is utilized as a vehicle to deliver a sort of shorthand that gets at universal human truths about close relationships, betrayals, and families. Prestige TV podcast has a really insightful podcast episode on how many current shows are popularizing Shakespeare lately and how on trend this trope is.
Ultimately, though it isn’t Shakespeare whose stories have prescient power on the new generation seen in Station Eleven but a different voice - a quieter one. It’s the introspective and sage musings of a trauma-ridden artist who is by day, a logistics supervisor and Arthur’s first wife - Miranda Carroll - whose, unsung passion project, known as Station Eleven, acts as a salve for all the lost souls, herself included - where the most redemption and connection is found. And it’s through that connection and its almost silent language of pain and loss, that this series finds its emotive pacing. The fact that Tyler and Kirsten become almost religious in their reading and protecting of the story as kids and it later serves to save them by establishing the thing they have in common speaks truth to how art can be the bridge between people and act as a powerful force against destruction and death. It’s the soul, the purpose and the sense of right and wrong that differentiates us from other beings. Perhaps this is the lesson we find through this story more than anything else.
We are here for the pain and the loss. We are here for the renewal and to bear witness to the resilience of the human spirit as the testament of Kirsten, Tyler, Clark, and Jeevan’s stories’ collectively put down. And in the end, as wholesome and American as this may be, we need the win and a happy ending.
Random stray observations:
Alex, the post-pan (pandemic) title holder of most annoying teen but also to her defense the only teen, was the baby delivered by Jeevan in the superstore in episode 9 that then goes on to be raised by Kirsten and seen in Year 20 riding off with the Prophet leaving Kirsten behind. So I suppose anyone with some ties to pre-pan Chicago is connected to everyone else in post-pan Michigan? Yes, pretty much. It’s not 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon here. It’s 1 degree of Jeevan.
Alex being birthed. By the time Jeevan and Kirsten reunited in minute 52 of the season finale, I’d forgotten that that still needed to happen. And as understated as the moment was, I bawled my eyes out. It was perfect. No words were needed and Himesh Patel and Mackenzie Davis played it perfectly.
Gives me the chills. So good. After being mauled by a wolf in the middle of the night, losing a lot of blood, and finally his foot, but nearly his life, to reclaim the one thing that child version of Kirsten loved more than anything in the world, namely her Station Eleven novel, Jeevan remarks upon opening the novel to two black pages with barely any words, “So pretentious!” What parents and caregivers can appreciate more than anything at that moment, is the “Seriously??” relatable moment of when we, as adults, give into the likes/whims of our little charges (kids) for things that seem pointless to us. And also, if we’re being honest, the novel is a little pretentious.
The “Museum of Civilization” is exactly what Instagram aspires to be with its time stamped pop culture vignettes of all of our “stuff” without the higher purpose of memorializing things-we-can’t-live-without like iPhones.
Kirsten has trouble letting go of people she’s lost (i.e. her family, Sarah, Jeevan, later Alex), but isn’t that a “normal” reaction to loving deeply and losing someone you love? I mean I’m still scratching my head at the fact that Clark and Elizabeth were practically a married couple after spending 20 years together and building a rather solid community at the airport together, and all that was exchanged between the two of them when Elizabeth finally left with her son leaving Clark behind, was a “So long. Don’t let the wheel hit you on your way out.” That, to me, was much more disconcerting.
Anyone else irritated by the fact that the little girl in the finale that Kirsten entrusted with her Station Eleven passage reading, later stole Kirsten’s book, kept it and handed it to Tyler who then smiled at the girl and hugged her? Like really? Jeevan lost his foot over that Ziploc-sealed blood splattered edition all to be stolen in the end by a bratty kid with allegiances to a guy who calls himself “The Prophet” and thinks a giant spaceship is going to save them all?
Annoying kid who steals Kiki’s book and Tyler’s pride
One of my other favorite scenes in the finale is the big reveal moment when Elizabeth and Clark realize who Kirsten (and her connection to Arthur) is. She spells it out for them because they needed to wrap up the loose end but still, it was good. The recognition in Clark’s face when he recalls how he met Kirsten as a girl when she played a young Goneril in King Lear with Arthur is a thing of beauty delivered masterfully by David Wilmot. And yes, Clark. Kiki is a diminutive form of Kirsten, apparently.
In Clark’s nostalgia for Arthur, he says that Arthur would have wanted him to be the one playing Claudius. Sorry, that’s bubkis. Arthur only really cared about himself. I’m with Tyler on that one. But I do wish we’d seen more of Gael Garcia Bernal.
At some point in the final episode they make mention of Clark dying 20 years after Miranda but doesn’t that put his death around the time of the final episode? Trying not to think about that too much.
Miranda’s arc was gutting. I mean the fact that she spent the last moments of her life trapped on an island in a hotel room trying to talk to the pilot on board the plane of infected travelers in Severn Airport, Michigan attempting to convince him not to let the passengers off the plane in the name of protecting Clark, Tyler, Elizabeth and all the “well” people inside the airport really drives home what she writes, “I have a job to do.”
Here’s hoping the afterlife is sweeter for Miranda. She sure deserves peace. I can’t tell which was more offensive - Tyler’s delivery of “I’m sorry I burned down the tower” (i.e. The Museum of Civilization) during his heart-to-heart with his mom, or Elizabeth’s response, “It’s Ok. I hated that f*ing place.” Ugh, yuck. I really didn’t care much for these two.
I think we could have bypassed Episode 4, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern aren’t dead” and the David Cross backstory with Lori Petty’s Sarah altogether. It sets up the Prophet as a villain on par with his portrayal in the book, but not so much the level of villain he is in the series. He’s less of a “destroyer” as Clark calls him out in Episode 5 (which felt like Episode 1) and more of a sobbing, whiny, angsty Hipster with mommy issues, walking around in his Osh Kosh overalls brooding with his dark, shiny, coiffed straight hair.
Curated Station Eleven Playlist (comprised of songs that are featured in the show and also ones that should be listened to as you’re pondering the show):
Can I Kick It? - A Tribe Called Quest
Excursions - A Tribe Called Quest (co-rapped by Frank in Episode 7)
I Feel It Coming - The Weeknd (the video is space-y)
Forever Young - Alphaville (this one makes me think of Clark and Arthur in the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead acting days)
Space Oddity - David Bowie
It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I feel fine) - R.E.M.