I reckon that I was not alone in thinking that, as Paramount+’s Rabbit Hole uncorked its season finale, at least one of the twists would involve someone not being who we thought them to be.
That, for example, maybe Ben — somehow — was also Crowley? Or we’d get a [MOVIE TITLE REDACTED]-ian reveal that a character was purely in twitchy Weir’s imagination all along.
So, bravo to Rabbit Hole for blindsiding me, brilliantly, with one such twist that was nowhere on my radar. And using a bit of “flashback” misdirection to pull that rug out from under all of us.
The season finale, aptly titled “Ace in the Hole,” revolved around Weir deciding to move forward with “The Homm Plan,” the existence of which both startled and probably quietly pleased Ed — even though he was about to also learn that the viral “Ed Is Not Dead” movement was in great part seeded by Ben aka “Zaius.”
The Homm Plan was about getting Ed on live TV to reveal his not-dead-nesss and also detail the conspiracy led by Crowley and other rich and powerful people to use the newly passed Shared Data Act to bend the country to their will. (As we saw early on, one of Crowley’s first acts involved the murder of three SCOTUS judges by three carefully curated patsies.)
Weir met with ABN anchor Debra to hail her integrity and offer a taste of the bombshell he wanted her to broadcast, live, with very special guest Ed at her side. Alas, soon after their meeting ended, Agent Madi and the FBI showed up to arrest Weir and haul him to their office.
Meanwhile, Ben had been sent to the home of Weir’s ex-wife Liv, to keep both her and her son Samuel safe, while Hailey drove Ed to a small “Ed Is Not Dead” protest, so that he could rile them up with a drive-by wave (which Ed took maybe a half- step too far).
While Weir was in FBI custody, Ben and Liv’s first meeting of each other was cut short by a platoon of armed goons, who dragged them away to Crowley’s hideaway. Weir meanwhile managed to pinch a key card from Agent Rasche, then make a dash for it and ultimately meet up with Agent Madi, who we learned was on his side (at least for the moment). As revealed in a jump-back, Weir had earlier emailed Madi proof that Homm was alive (and that the conspiracy ran deep into law enforcement and such), so she helped him slip out and get Ed to ABN.
Even once at ABN, Weir, Ed and Hailey would face more hurdles. Crowley made contact with the security guard who was watching over a freshly nabbed Intern, and blackmailed him into setting the lad free, with a gun. Also, the DOJ stormed the ABN lobby, brandishing legal docs demanding that the live broadcast be stopped. Luckily, the ABN legal team, followed by an arriving Agent Madi and a few agents, who declared (claimed?) the DOJ agents to be phonies, put a stop to the attempted legal action.
Crowley (played by Lance Henriksen), though, did have Ben and Liv now standing before him, cuffed — which he made clear by phoning the ABN producer and getting Weir on the phone. Stop the broadcast, Crowley demanded, or else.
This is where Weir told Crowley a little story, about how his marriage had ended years ago after one of his jobs went sideways and Liv got abducted and hurt, a finger chopped off as proof of life, as a result. Weir explained how he sent an elite assassin/operative in to rescue Liv from her captors, efficiently killing every guard in sight.
We had gotten glimpses of the above scenario throughout the finale, but had been led to think we were witnessing something else — namely, the kidnapping of Agent Madi’s wife, who daughter Chloe had repeatedly called/texted to say was late coming home. But no, the kidnapped woman was Weir’s wife Liv.
Thing is, we’d seen Liv in other episodes, and that woman wasn’t her. This is where Weir calmly informed Crowley over the phone that the handcuffed woman standing before him in fact was not Liv, but the aforementioned ruthless assassin. And on that note, the woman whipped off her cuffs, wrested a gun from one of Crowley’s men and began taking out everyone in sight, a gobsmacked Ben excluded. Once the female assassin’s handiwork was complete, Ben put an ailing Crowley, wounded out of his misery.
Back at ABN, the Intern, lurking off-camera, had Ed in his crosshairs… but upon hearing through his earwig that Crowley was no more, he smiled at Weir from across the studio and slinked away. And Ed then got to tell his story.
In the epilogue, Hailey shared with an impressed Weir how she got the FBI to go after her old boss (and let her keep the millions that technically never existed). Speaking of the feds, Agent Madi showed up to assure Weir that she could still arrest him for one thing or another… but not today. Maybe tomorrow.
Ben meanwhile noticed an earwig in dead Crowley’s ear, and placed into his own ear for a listen, seemingly (too?) fascinated by who/what he heard on the other end….
This story originally appeared on TVLine
