About the finale…

First of all, many titles are borderline spoilers despite the spoiler tags. I get a more generic title like mine is less engaging and less likely to be clicked on, but just my two cents.

Secondly, I know there are a million posts rationalizing it, but Mark S’s decision is nonsensical for both him and Helly. This is just me venting.

Mark S was just almost literally murdered, ending both his and Mark Scout’s existence. Which should have confirmed everything he had been told by Cobel about what was going to happen to him after Cold Harbor was completed. He had just had a big moment with Helly who encouraged him to save Gemma. He is now aware that his outie’s wife is a captive and has been for 2 years while she is experimented on. He has absolutely no reason to believe he won’t be punished or even killed for what he’s just done, or made a captive himself. He wakes up covered in more blood than when he went down to the testing floor. He is aware that Lumon can block the chip and turn it on and off. He has no reason to believe he, as Mark S, will be allowed to go on.

For Helly, she can physically see the pain Gemma is in through the door. She just went through this whole revolutionary moment keeping Milchick away while Mark saved Gemma. Then she’s just going to be like “yeah it’s good we’re gonna run off together, to umm I guess die”? It’s way more likely, and would equally set up a future season, for her to just say good bye and tell him to find her and sacrifice herself not knowing that was the end for her and also knowing her outie was going to be actively hunting Mark.

I’ve seen the theories about how Jame Eagan may allow them to go on because he cares for Helly more than Helena, but that was just a thrown in moment just before the events of the finale to give some credibility to why Lumon wouldn’t just end Helly and Mark S for this revolution. That isn’t something the characters could reasonably be thinking about when deciding to run away further into the floor they are trapped on. They’re action is like if an animal was stuck in a crawl space too small for you to go in and save them, but instead of coming out and trusting that you’re there to help they run further into the crawl space and get more stuck. Which is a reasonable conclusion for an animal, but not for these characters who have become so sophisticated and revolutionary.

I just think the only way this makes sense is as a plot device to keep the story going, but that’s poor writing (in my opinion) which has not been this show’s issue. Mark leaving not knowing if he or Helly will ever see each other again is a much more riveting and engaging idea for future seasons then “maybe this works out by dumb luck and we get to live because helly’s outie’s creepy dad likes her innie more.”