"The truth is like the sun. The more you look, the more it blinds." [SPOILERS AHEAD]
Did we really just have nearly an all out war with aliens? The season finale of Project Blue Book has dropped and so have some jaws. Let's get into it. Just as Hynek ran onto the National Mall of the US Capitol, dragging Quinn with him, nothing happened! Now that's a false setup. The episode opens as showing Hynek even more confused about the unexplained activity he's involved in before the real action starts. The delay in UFO activity is perhaps only to create more mystery between Quinn and Hynek's working relationship at this point, but UFOs did arrive. The Mall went aflutter with scared citizens, as they witnessed something incredible in the form of flying balls of orange light, not too dissimilar to other cases we've seen this season. The activity the History channel portrays definitely has a consistency to it. This may be some way to lead to a final conclusion, however many seasons away that could be.
On the home front in Ohio, things are just as weird. We see Mimi having a terribly static and odd-sounding phone call with her worried husband. He's just trying to warn her of the danger he's witness in the skies over DC, and the news is covering the craziness with a tone of hysteria. This prompts her paranoia and she unscrews the phone receiver to find what is (she only believes could be) a microphone. While we know it's Susie's handiwork, she's convinced it's the government and they've bugged her house since day one of Allen's new job.
The doctor and Captain are now being questioned by Harding and Valentine, the season-long harasses who've had the boys by the berries to sell the public something they can find peace with, even if it's total fiction. Can we revisit the hovering, disappearing flying saucer we saw the government test in episode 2? There's so much more going on with the President (we finally see him) and various factions of authority covert ops than we thought. All the panic that needs to be avoided after so many people witnessed the flying fireballs on the National Mall means that Harding, Valentine and Fairchild are in damage control mode, but no one can convince anyone else about who or what is causing the chaos. Aliens, Russians, weird temperature inversions? The public is clearly having a near-meltdown and no one's calm in the entirety of this episode, (save for maybe the very end with Dr. Hynek's homecoming).
The finale wouldn't be complete without more of the Man in Black, and at a clandestine meeting in a parking garage, we get an entire K-pop band's worth of Men in Black. They're silent but for Hynek's friend, who's now been introduced to a clever Quinn who followed him to the meeting. The standoff ends with Hynek and Quinn finding a video reel labeled "Operation Ivy" in the trunk of a car. The implication of what's on that video is groundbreaking, and shakes the government higher-ups. A UFO clearly destroying a nuclear test missile mid-air is what is recorded in the seconds-long clip. What the UFO is, or where it's from, is anyone's guess.
Just as Mimi and Susie heated up last week, they cool right off in the finale. With one conversation, Mimi takes back control of the situation, and ends whatever nonconsensual strangeness was between them. We see an only *possibly* hurt Susie, so her killing her boss/fake hubby seemed emotion-driven at the time, but this shutdown from Mimi might have just changed everything. We also see Susie clearly covering her tracks with the innocent but nosy neighbors of the Hynek's. Donna was dead at the hands of Susie, and now her husband has been set up for surveillance. Mimi is horrified to think she'd been living next to such nefarious people, and spying on her no less. Susie's convincing, I'll say that. Her endgame though? Getting in the pants of Quinn! Which, to be fair, has been pointed out to me by Ryan before and it seems he was right about it's likeliness, but who would have guessed he'd be second choice?
The drama continues when Fairchild is killed in a car explosion at a gas station. Someone knows he's seen that video reel. Is it just me, or did the blurry person seen sticking something under Fairchild's car when he was at the counter seem to resemble a Man in Black? Hynek and Quinn finally meet the president in the wake of these events, and we learn how little information he may be privy to after all. Still, no one has convinced any other party of who's behind it all, but the complexity grows. Quinn is then tasked with flying a fighter jet to combat whatever is had now flown over the Mall a second time. The aircraft seems to come under control of the UFO, and Quinn nearly suffers the same fate as previous pilots when encountering these things in the sky.
In a final confrontation and conclusion of the episode, Hynek and Quinn are debriefing and giving final statements to the government. Quinn speaks from the heart, but Dr. Hynek lies, going with his atmospheric explanations for the activity. Quinn is hurt until Hyenk reveals his lie allows them to stay off the threat radar and keep digging for the truth. Season two is in production now, and we know the complexity is yet to ride out to conclusion, keeping the 50's paranoia and alien speculation on high until next season.
🛸 Project Blue Book airs every Tuesday night at 9pm EST
on the History Channel.
I'll be reviewing each episode of Project Blue Book after it airs every week. If you liked this review, please subscribe to the blog to be notified of new posts. A like or share goes a long way!
