Heading into this final episode with great anticipation, I kept asking myself, “How are they possibly going to tie up all of the loose ends to this insanely complex plot in eleven minutes?” The answer became apparent very quickly: They’re not.
In contrast to last week’s extended episode, “Prolegomenon” resumes the tradition of a full-length opening theme song. After this, Fitz drops Skillet’s flying attire and casually walks into the nearby diner, which now has a strange pinball machine inside. Of course, he decides to play. We’re over two minutes into the episode when suddenly a pink cloud named Archeus descends from the sky and repairs the city in a burst of light, after which it begins talking to Fitz. He tries to ignore her and continues playing pinball.
Naturally, I’m thinking to myself, “Are you kidding me?! The clock is ticking down! What about the key? What about Amalockh? What about Muff? What about the river, and the asprind, and the robots?!”
Then, as Fitz begins talking to Archeus, I realize something that would be readily apparent to anyone who hasn’t been following the show: It doesn’t really matter.
Perhaps if the episode has a point to deliver that is it. No matter how hard Fitz tries to solve all of the complex problems in his world, he can’t manage to do it. The code on the pinball machine is a prime example. As Archeus says, “if you give up the fight for everything, you will be able to read it.” All of the mysteries and enemies are gone in a single moment at Archeus’ arrival – or so it seems.
The second half of the episode delves further into dues ex machina absurdity, offering the explanation that the city is actually a virtual experiment taking place on the head of a mushroom in Georgia. Shark, Rich Businessman, Peanut, the Eye, and Green-Sweatered Woman are all actually human beings. Fitz and Skillet…are really just two giant rodents. As for the rest of the characters, it looks like we’ll never know. The “reality” sequence is truly ridiculous (and perhaps yet another Matrix parody), but by this time you’ll hopefully have come to realize that we’re not going to get a satisfactory resolution. If you keep that in mind, you might be able to savor the final moments of what is quite likely the best show ever to air on Adult Swim.
There will almost certainly be fans who aren’t entirely satisfied with the show’s finale, but think about the options Matt Maiellaro had after being notified of the show’s cancellation. Assuming he already had a plan for how the story was going to wrap up properly within sixteen more episodes, being cut down to ten would definitely throw a wrench in that strategy. He could have tried to cram sixteen episodes worth of plot into ten, but then how much fun would the show have been? It may have resolved all of the story threads, but it seems doubtful that the show would have been able to maintain its trademark balance of ridiculous comedy and drama.
Instead, he chose to continue driving the episodes along at a normal pace up until the last two. At that point, he was forced to make an attempt to crash this beloved machine in a beautiful way, and in that I believe he has succeeded.
Of course, the crew that maintained this gem of a show deserves a hefty amount of applause too. The sound, animation, acting, and editing were all unique and instrumental in building the show’s one-of-a-kind feel. Because of everyone who worked on 12 oz. Mouse, weekends on Adult Swim have been considerably brighter.