Absentia Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Iterum Nata
Christine Orlando
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Riveting suspense and unshakable faith-filled Absentia Season 3 Episode 10 as Emily and her family fought to keep themselves safe while taking down Meridian's operation.
But we soon learned it wasn't just the criminal organization, Meridian, involved in the nefarious plans.
It was Kerlan Pharmaceuticals and Border Outreach, both run by Brigitte Kerlan.
When we first met Brigitte during the fundraiser event on Absentia Season 3 Episode 5, it seemed a little too coincidental that she ran an organization to help refugees just down the road from a prison illegally experimenting on those same refugees.
In fact, they were running those refugee prisons on multiple continents all over the world. Was the group able to hide their actions because of their vast power and money, or did others know what was happening but were too fearful or apathetic to try and stop it?
Kai was killed trying to stop it.
Nick was abducted and tortured while trying to stop it, and countless others, like Agent Thompson and Deputy Director Webb, lost their lives so that this nefarious secret could be kept.
In the middle of it all, I was proud of Agent Derek Crowne for figuring out the identity of the real mole.
It was all too easy. Webb was a smart guy. He was an FBI Special Agent in New York for decades, and what? We just catch him on the take, like that easily. Uh-uh. He was smarter than the evidence shook out, or at least he should have been.
Crowne
After Gunnarsen called him an idiot behind his back, there was something very satisfying about Crowne being the one to help Emily take her down.
At that point, it was clear that Julianne's days were numbered. When she stormed into the room to stop Cal and Nick's interview with Brigitte Kerlan, it was merely confirmation of what they had all suspected; Julianne was protecting Kerlan.
But Meridian and Kerlan weren't done yet. If they were willing to abduct an FBI agent from his home, there was no limit to what they'd do to shut down this investigation.
That's when the picture on the window changed everything.
Flynn: You don’t have to worry about me anymore.
Emily: I’m always going to worry about you.
Flynn: Even when I’m grown up and living on my own?
Emily: Yup. Always and forever.
Emily and Flynn had some fantastic scenes in this episode. Flynn has grown up so much, and although I doubt, or even hope, that he'll ever be the warrior that Emily is, he's proven that he is capable of protecting himself.
He's also not naive about the danger that surrounds his parents' lives. The kid has lost enough and survived enough to learn how to roll with the punches.
When the house blew up, I knew exactly what had happened. Flynn was never going to be safe as long as Meridian and Kerlan believed he was alive. The organization would hunt him down to use him as leverage against Emily and Nick.
So Emily and Nick took him out of the game.
Nick: I’ll keep him safe, Em, I promise.
Emily: I know you will.
Nick: And I think I’m going to need to be just a Dad for the first time in a long, long…it’s going to be…it’s going to be a nice change.
Emily: You’re a good man, Nick.
Nick is a good man, and he could use a break. After Emily disappeared, it seemed like Nick dove into his work. Once he married Alice, it appeared that she picked up a lot of the parenting duties.
Hopefully, Nick can spend some time being a dad to Flynn without it being overshadowed by grief or guilt.
Even Jack and Emily had a brief moment to bond after what happened at the farmhouse...
Emily: Thank you for everything at the farm.
Jack: It was my turn to get shot.
If I had one issue with this final installment, it was that things with Julianne almost wrapped up too quickly.
I know we've been searching for the mole over several episodes, but the jump from Crowne suspecting it wasn't Webb to seeing Julianne in a prison jumpsuit felt like it went by at warp speed.
However, I was appeased when Emily got to ask Julianne about Alice.
Julianne: You could have killed me on that rooftop. Why didn’t you?
Emily: I don’t know. Why did you kill Alice Durand?
Julianne: Rich and powerful people need someone to clean up their mess. The rest of us are disposable. Alice was stupid, soft. She would have sold us out in a minute.
Julianne was correct. The only way they could have kept Alice from talking was to kill her or threaten Flynn, and killing her was easier and more permanent.
Gunnarsen was so determined to be useful to the rich and powerful people in control, that she murdered many and helped a criminal organization torture and kill innocent people all over the world.
Emily: You wanted to be just like them, live in a world of privilege, but in the end, you discovered that you were disposable too.
Julianne: Isn’t that, isn’t that what everything comes down to in the end? Just wanting to be special.
Emily: Not always. Sometimes it’s just about valuing human life.
The one extraneous scene I would have found interesting was Julianne meeting her ex at the prison. I can't imagine how Michelle might react upon learning that the woman she considered raising a child with was a murderer and traitor to her country.
Michelle once said she hated all of the lies and secrets that took place at the FBI office, but perhaps it wasn't the office at all, maybe it was just Julianne.
Finally, we get to Emily and Cal.
Cal: I was trying to buy you more time to find Nick. I wanted to keep you safe.
Emily: I don’t need protection, Cal.
Cal: What do you need? Let me know.
Cal tried to explain that he never betrayed Emily, no matter what it may have looked like to her. But Emily's priority was to keep Flynn safe and take Meridian, Kerlan, and Julianne down, and Cal understood that.
Six months later, Emily was serving drinks from behind a bar somewhere in Europe, and she looked as healthy and serene as we've ever seen her.
Of course, she wasn't just working as a bartender, she was actually trying to take down a black-market arms dealer.
What organization she was working with was unclear, but what was unmistakable was that Emily had reached out and contacted Cal, and he was overjoyed that she had.
It looks as though Emily has figured out what she wants, both professionally and personally. I don't think we've ever witnessed her with a happier expression than when she invited Cal to work with her and then slipped him her hotel room key.
It was an uplifting end to what was a gripping, dramatic, and emotional season. Not only were the atrocities at the refugee camps uncovered, but Julianne was sent to prison, and Emily was left smiling.
This ending was so hopeful that it almost makes me worry about the possibility of an Absentia Season 4!
But it seems to me that there is still plenty of story to tell in the Absentia universe.
I would love to see Emily and Cal working as a team in the future, whether that's with the FBI or on their own.
Rowena made it clear that she'll be collecting that favor from Emily eventually and that saying no was not an option.
Will Nick ever fall in love again after his first wife was inaccurately declared dead, and his second one was ordered to marry him?
And what will Flynn choose for his future after having this incredibly strange childhood?
Who else out there wants to see more of Emily Byrne's story and is rooting for Absentia Season 4?
C. Orlando was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow her on Twitter.
