FX’s scripted series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features many star-studded mentions and familiar faces, so why is Real Housewives of New York City‘s Carole Radziwill not brought up in Love Story?

For context, Carole, 62, was previously married to Anthony Radziwill, who was the late JFK Jr.’s cousin and Jacqueline Kennedy‘s nephew. Anthony, who exchanged vows with Carole in 1994, died in 1999 and has been featured on the Ryan Murphy project.

Carole, however, was not brought up on the show so far — despite her late husband serving as the best man at JFK Jr. and Bessette’s 1996 nuptials. Carole’s mother-in-law, Lee Radziwill, however, got her own shout-out in a scene when JFK Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon) were making a list for their wedding and discussing possible guests — with Lee not making the cut.

While no one involved in Love Story has directly addressed Carole’s absence, she is probably not mentioned on screen because she didn’t play a large part in JFK Jr. and Bessette’s romance. After meeting in 1992, Bessette and JFK Jr. were on and off for years before getting married. Their relationship was thrust into the spotlight and they faced many public highs and lows before they both died in a plane crash in 1999.

Related: JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s Relationship Timeline

STARTRAKSPHOTO.COM John F. Kennedy Jr. and wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy had a high-profile romance right up until their tragic deaths. When the couple began dating in 1994, the world was fascinated by their relationship. Considered to be one of the most eligible bachelors at the time, Kennedy Jr. decided to settle down with Bessette-Kennedy. As he […]

“We had Elizabeth Beller’s book for reference, but we did face challenges [capturing certain moments]. They died so young, but we had enough information from people around them to know what the problems were in their marriage, what the tensions were, what the highs were, what the lows were,” executive producer Brad Simpson exclusively told Us Weekly during a joint interview with Nina Jacobson last month. “People don’t have an idea of what her voice was like because we only have a tiny clip of her voice, but they have a very distinct idea of what her image was like. So we had to get the walk down and the look and the allure. But Sarah could really interpret and go with it. John, we have a lot of recordings of him, and we have a lot more on him.”

Simpson and Jacobson expressed hope that viewers saw the care that went into telling Bessette and JFK Jr.’s story.

“We loved these characters. We fell in love with them, and it is essential that the audience loved them too. So we knew that we came to it from a very honest and earnest place — and that the show was never meant to dunk on either one of them in any way,” Jacobson explained. “We knew from the beginning that we were coming in with love and respect for these characters and that we wanted the audience to share that with us.”

Related: How the ‘Love Story‘ Cast Compares to Real Members of the Kennedy Family

FX’s Love Story brings John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette‘s tragic romance to life — but how does the cast compare to their real-life counterparts? Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, which premiered Thursday, February 12, is a limited series that explores the “undeniable chemistry, whirlwind courtship and high-profile marriage of […]

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Since the show is centered around public figures, Simpson and Jacobson revealed who — if anyone — reached out after seeing their portrayal, adding, “We haven’t [heard from anyone] yet, and we hope that people appreciate their portrayals. Every actor approached [their role] with love.”

The writing team chose not to consult with the subjects portrayed on the show.

“You reach out to one person, and then it becomes, ‘Why are you not reaching out to every person?’ We love these characters. We did deep, deep research. It’s based on not just the Elizabeth Beller book but many other artifacts from that time and many other histories,” Simpson explained to Us. “We came from a place of love, but if you foreground one person’s personal story and their version of the truth, then you have to foreground everybody’s, and often they’re in conflict. On all our shows we tried to be true to what we think the characters were and show you what it was like to walk in their footsteps.”

New episodes of Love Story air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX and stream on Hulu the next day.

Rachel Zoe’s youngest son has some thoughts about life without Rodger Berman.

“I guess my questions, how does it feel in general? Like, over the last year,” Rachel, 54, asked her sons, Skyler, 14, and Kaius, 12, during the Thursday, March 5, episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. “Do you feel like this is better than before? Worse than before? Different than before?”

Skyler responded that it was the “same but different.” Kaius expanded on that answer.

“He wasn’t really here a lot anyway,” Kaius told his mom. “But now, he’s just completely gone. There’s not really a trace of him.”

Rachel asked if the “energy” in the house is “different” with Rodger gone.

“Yeah,” Kaius responded. “It feels a bit more peaceful.”

In her confessional, Rachel explained that she and Kaius have previously discussed her relationship with Rodger.”

“Sadly, Kaius has said that he was mad at me for letting me be treated the way that I was,” Rachel said. “Because that means I’m not modeling well for what they think love and marriage and relationships should look like or feel like.”

She added, “More importantly, how they should talk to someone they love.”

Rachel and Rodger were married for 26 years before announcing their decision to separate in September 2024. Rachel filed for divorce in July 2025. The day she filed was showcased on a January episode of RHOBH.

The discussion between Rachel and her sons came after her filing because they were at camp when news of the divorce broke.

“I just want to let you know that we are — you may have already assumed this — but we are moving forward in getting divorced,” Rachel said, noting that she wanted to have an “open forum” with her sons.

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She also brought up Rodger introducing his girlfriend to the boys right before they left for camp, which was revealed earlier on this season.

“I did not know about that because I, obviously, would not have allowed that,” she said. “So I want to understand what actually happened.”

Kaius said that Rodger introduced the woman as his “friend,” understanding that she was “the person.” Skyler noted he “didn’t really care enough.”

In her confessional, Rachel said that the boys “don’t want to know her,” nor do they “want to be around her.” Rachel also told Skyler and Kaius that if Rodger’s girlfriend is present while he’s taking care of the boys, they “have every right” to leave.

“I really have always believed that kids are better off having two parents that love them separately than two that fight all day and live miserably,” Rachel said during her confessional. “That’s just bad all around.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET and streams the next day on Peacock.

Sheila Carrasco and Devan Chandler Long got brutally honest about whether Ghosts fans should be worried about a Thor and Flower split — and more shocking changes on the show.

During the Thursday, March 5, episode of the hit CBS series, Thor (Long) and Flower (Carrasco) had a brief disagreement over a chair in their shared room, which was a fun narrative shakeup for the show’s cast.

“As actors we all kind of crave those episodes with a lot of conflict. Devin and I, we’ve actually been angling for a while for Flower and Thor to have some [of conflict] because it’s just so much fun,” Carrasco, 36, exclusively told Us Weekly.

Carrasco enjoyed the challenge, adding, “They’re still stuck in the house together no matter what so they’re not really ever going to be apart. If anything, it gives them more to work to get back together. I try to think of this as the beginning of the honeymoon being over. This is one battle — but the actual war is ongoing of what’s going to happen with them.”

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Long, 42, meanwhile, recalled “staging a lot of false arguments” with Carrasco to inspire the story line.

“Sheila and I [would do it] in front of the writers. They have a little area where they hang out on set and we would go there and just get in arguments,” he noted. “It was about small things like donuts or cereal. But that’s been going on for about two years now. I think they got the idea that we are interesting when we argue.”

Ghosts, which premiered in 2021, is based on the original British series of the same name. After a married couple moves from the city to their recently-inherited Woodstone Manor, Sam (Rose McIver) suffers an accident that allows her to see the ghosts of people from different eras of American history who died on the property and are now bound to the area.

Flower and Thor’s relationship has been teased since the pilot but it took time for them to officially get together. Now that they are a couple, Carrasco and Long are interested in seeing where they will go next — even if that includes a potential breakup.

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An emotional roller-coaster. From Riverdale‘s Cheryl and Toni to Nancy Drew‘s Nancy and Ace, fans have watched their favorite couples break hearts with some devastating splits. Riverdale, which premiered in 2017, originally introduced Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) as a grieving sister trying to deal with the death of her twin brother Jason (Trevor Stines). After striking […]

“You really find out who people are when they’re in a relationship. So to find out more — in a way — about who Flower and Thor are like within their conflict … I don’t know that they have to break up or even get back together,” Carrasco told Us. “It’s just, ‘What is their character journey throughout the show and and how do they navigate it together?’ Whether they’re together or not.”

Long also weighed in on the possibilities.

“If you wanted them to break up, that’s a cool perspective, too,” he quipped. “I’m unaware of it. But listen, with this show, anything can happen.”

Ghosts airs on CBS Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.

Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for The Pitt Season 2 Episode 9.

It may be hard to believe, but Noah Wyle and R. Scott Gemmill‘s smash-hit HBO medical drama The Pitt is closer to the end of Season 2 than ever. With the situation for this season’s Fourth of July shift in the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center only becoming more dire thanks to a necessary network shutdown, frustrations for both staff and patients are at an all-time high — and the ED’s switch to doing things in an analog fashion means that some cases might end up slipping through the cracks.

Shabana Azeez‘s Victoria Javadi learns that truth the hard way when a breakdown in communication results in her patient unexpectedly coding while waiting for the case to be presented. Although the patient is ultimately revived and whisked off for emergency surgery, it’s a harsh lesson for the young med student to learn — and, as Azeez points out in our post-mortem chat prior to the premiere of Episode 9, “3:00 P.M.,” it’s a strong reminder of the intense pressures that real-life med students are facing every day.

COLLIDER: This is the episode where Shawn Hatosy is making his debut as director. Does he bring a different perspective to directing, as an actor himself?

SHABANA AZEEZ: He knows the world inside out, and he’s so giving. He’s an actor and director and writer, so I feel like he understood everybody and was a real chameleon about it. It was lovely. Also, in Season 1, I was doing a lot of the comedic load on that season, and this is different. I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m so nervous.

Shabana Azeez Reveals Javadi’s True Feelings About Ogilvie on ‘The Pitt’ Season 2

“She’s not interested in that man.”

Image via HBO Max

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Javadi and Ogilvie accidentally both pull the same patient, and we’ve talked before about the competitiveness of those characters, which is really fun to watch. Does that surprise forced interaction between them give Javadi a better understanding of what Ogilvie is really about?

AZEEZ: I think she can’t stand him. She’s not interested in him, which is really rare for her. Usually, even with Santos, she’s like, “I guess they’re just like this.” But with Ogivlie, she’s 20, and you know how, when you meet people for the first time, you’re like, “Oh my god, what is this version of me that’s coming out?” She’s never met somebody who’s created this dynamic in her where she’s itching to be right.

In Season 1, too, she’s not a gunner. She’s not somebody who needs to be right in the moment. She wants to do her best, and she doesn’t want to be underestimated, and she doesn’t want to be sidelined. She gets put in triage, and that’s not her favorite, but she really wants to be her best self. She’s never like, “I know the answer before Santos knows it!” or “I’m smarter than you,” or whatever. Ogilvie creates this dynamic that’s so rancid that it really gives her the freedom to not be people-pleasing or be perfect or be palatable to people. She could just be herself in that moment. For Javadi, it’s just about the version of Javadi she can be. She’s not interested in that man.

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Episode 9 kicks off for Javadi with the young boy who accidentally blows his fingers off with a firework. Do you find yourself intuiting or maybe internalizing anything surprising from a younger actor who’s coming in and having to do a really tough or emotional scene like that?

AZEEZ: That’s such a lovely question. I think young performers get so much credit in some ways, and not in others. They’re so open and free in some ways, and often it’s about really good casting. There were such strange casting processes. I think we’ve got another kid who is under [anesthesia] this season, so Cathy [Sandrich Gelfond], our casting director, just had the kid lie down and poked them with straws and stuff to see if it would bother them. Casting kids is such an art form, and I think Cathy and the entire team are amazing at it.

I love having kids on set because I think they’re this great ego killer in the adult actors. Some actors are very, like, “What can I give?” and some actors are very, like, “What do I need in the scene?” But as soon as you get a kid in, the kid’s needs are paramount. If the kid needs quiet, if the kid needs safety, everybody goes, “Let’s be what we need to be for the kid.” So, I love working with kids. I think they’re amazing. They bring such a wonderful energy by being who they are. Kid performers are often really incredible young people, but also, the impact they have on everybody around them.

I’m trying to think of a lesson I’ve learned. Definitely Harrison, McKay’s son. The actor who played that role, [Henry Samiri], was incredible. One of the best Australian accents I’ve heard in my life. I think it’s often really great parents, too, who create these kids who are like, “It’s going to be fun!” I really wish I subscribed to the tortured artist mentality. I mean, I do do things to myself for work that’s not healthy, but I want to live a fun and impactful life, I want to do good, and kids are really great at being like, “What are your priorities?” It’s not about showing everybody the work. I don’t want to show everybody how hard I’m working. I want everybody to feel like it’s effortlessly chill and be whatever anybody needs me to be. I think that child actors are really great at that, too.

Javadi’s Crashing Patient is a Turning Point for Her Storyline in ‘The Pitt’ Season 2

“The stakes are life and death pretty consistently, day in, day out, on these 15, 20-hour shifts.”

Image via HBO Max

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Javadi’s patient, who presents in Episode 9 with mild abdominal pain, is one of those cases where everyone’s running in a million different directions, and then this, as Whitaker says, falls through the cracks. You can see, in your performance, that you’re walking a very fine line between feeling like you’re going to cry, but you can’t let yourself cry. Is it harder to bring yourself to the threshold of needing to hold back the tears than it is to do a scene where you can just let it all go?

AZEEZ: I think so. And I think so much of those moments are surrendering to if it happens or if it doesn’t happen. They both are okay. I don’t know what ended up in the edit, because we did so many different takes. I’m definitely an actor who wants to give versions and options, and the editor can make that call in the room. Performances are made in the cutting room, not on the soundstage — for the screen, at least.

For Javadi, particularly, the degradation of her mental state over the day, like how quietly things get exhausting and how you have to compartmentalize as a doctor, but you are still getting more and more heightened and more and more exhausted… she has a really horrible day, and I think that last season there was community in that. It was a shared trauma in what happens to them, but I think this season, Javadi is quite alone in the things that happen. Then also, the pain in this particular context, and we say it in the show all the time, but the emergency department is like a team sport, and this particular situation, where it’s like, “Well, the nurse didn’t write the name down. I didn’t clock that, but we all fuck up, and that’s why this happened.” It’s not all her fault, but it’s also not not her fault. You’re meant to just be on top of everybody, helping everybody out all the time, and so it’s so lonely.

I’m excited to see it. I’m very nervous. But I think there is something really heartbreaking about the amount of people you let down. The stakes are so high. And in a story, you can be like, “Oh, well, that’s the one time that’s going to happen today.” But actually, in the ED, she could make that mistake four times in a row today. The stakes are life and death pretty consistently, day in, day out, on these 15, 20-hour shifts.

The dominoes all fell for this patient to be on a bed crashing, and no one knew. How does a mistake like this impact Javadi’s mindset now that we’re heading into the second half of this shift?

AZEEZ: I really want med students to be able to tune in to The Pitt on their worst day of med school and watch Javadi and feel better about themselves. That’s really important to me. Med school is so intense, and it takes so much. Mental health outcomes, even for students, are so wild. I remember vividly when I was at uni, where I grew up, they were getting rid of grades in med schools because of the amount of self-harm and suicides that were happening on campus. It’s so intense to imagine that kind of pressure.

Usually for The Pitt, it’s always been like “We’re trying to do our best, we’re trying to do our best, we’re trying to do our best,” and I kind of actually want that to crumble. For Javadi, she’s always trying her best. She’s always capable of that. I really want this second half of the season to be more complicated than that, because sometimes people do want to quit. You can have all the strongest why in the world and all the integrity and all the gumption and the grit to just try and try and try again, but a system like this that seems so hopeless in so many ways is going to get you down. I really want the second half of the season to be messy and imperfect. She’s not committed to anything yet. She doesn’t know what she wants to do. If you give so much of yourself to something you’re not even sure about, it’s going to take a toll on your mental health, and you’re going to develop an attitude about it, and that’s not unfair.

Roxie, the patient that Javadi and McKay are dealing with, doesn’t want to leave the hospital. There’s not much more you can do for her pain, even after talking with Robby about it. Has Javadi even allowed herself to think about what the logical ending looks like for this particular case, or is she just, like you said, compartmentalizing?

AZEEZ: I think she, as the day goes on, gets more and more tired and ground down and reactive, and she’s not thinking anymore. This particular storyline is so hard for a 20-year-old. I think Roxy’s kids are 12 and eight. We’re eight, nine years apart. It is huge, I guess, at that age, and any age, but I think that parent-child dynamic is quite complex for Javadi, which we’ve seen a bit of already, and we’ll explore as we go on, but she’s never had loss like this. She’s never witnessed it. She doesn’t even know what she doesn’t know.

New episodes of The Pitt Season 2 premiere Thursdays on HBO Max.

Editor’s Note: The following includes spoilers for Elsbeth Season 3, Episode 12.Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) has been in hairy positions before, but never literally — until this week, that is. “All’s Hair,” Episode 12 of Elsbeth‘s third season, sees our favorite redhead investigating the murder of a celebrity wigmaker. It’s a tale of dishonor, distrust, a drag brunch, Diana Ross, and a daring new look for Elsbeth… and Detective Bobby Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio). That said, is “All’s Hair” a cut above the rest, or a shear disappointment?

Dishonor Between Wigmakers Leads to Murder in ‘Elsbeth’s “All’s Hair”

Five expert wig makers are crowded into a room with a customs agent. There’s a coming Wiggageddon, a perfect storm of big events all happening at once, and they’re waiting for news about a priority shipment of Molten-Gold, rare and untreated virgin blonde hair. Unfortunately, it’s delayed, meaning they will have to wait to complete their wigs. Four of the five have high-profile clients that are waiting, and the fifth, Felix West (Jeff Hiller), “The Rug Doctor,” needs to complete a wig for a crypto king’s wedding.

Felix returns to his shop, where he’s visited by Lina Vyanti, host of a national morning show. She has a problem: she’s being ridiculed because the wigs look like wigs in HD, and she wants a natural look, Felix’s specialty. Only Felix has a problem: Lina is a client of Domenico Cappelli, one of the wig makers, and the five have an unwritten code of honor where they don’t poach clients. But honor gets pushed aside with more money and the promise to introduce Felix to her showbiz friends. It’s Felix’s ticket out of business offices and hospitals, and he takes it. Her color, Molten-Gold, is impossible to find, but he has a stockpile of it. Not enough, though, so when he sees a teen on a bench, with her Molten-Gold hair in a ponytail, he walks over, cuts it off, and speeds off to finish his pièce de résistance.

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Just then he gets a phone call from Domenico, saying they need to talk. Felix goes to Domenico’s home, walking in when the aroma of Mama Cappelli’s sauce cooking lures him to the kitchen. Suddenly, Domenico appears and pulls Felix away, accusing him of poaching. Felix feigns ignorance, but Lina cancelled her appointment, opting to use her “natural hair” at a gala. He demands that from now on, Felix is his employee, and he’ll take 40% of every wig Felix produces. He knows about the ponytail snip, and if that gets out, Felix is finito. But when Domenico turns away, Felix attacks him. Domenico gets his hands on a hot curling iron and sears a burn mark into Felix’s forehead, only for Felix to wrest it away and strangle him with the cord. Felix takes the curler and a few high-priced wigs, staging the scene as a robbery gone wrong before darting away.

Elsbeth Cuts Down the Suspect List To Narrow in on Felix

Elsbeth, Chandler (Ethan Slater), and Smullen are at the scene. The smell of Mama Cappelli’s sauce proves irresistible, and Elsbeth walks over to take a whiff of it just as Mama Cappelli walks in. She’s the one who found her son, and adds that the wigs that were taken, like the one worn by Diana Ross, were the most expensive, and posits that whoever killed her bambino knew which ones to take. Smullen and Elsbeth turn back to the body, noticing that he was strangled by a cord, and a burn suggests that the murder weapon could be a curling iron. So, if he was strangled by a heated curling iron, perhaps the murderer, a wig expert, was burned as well. Cut to Felix, who is now sporting a toupee to cover the burn mark on his forehead.

Back at the precinct, Elsbeth and Smullen explain the case to Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), who tells them to bring in the four wigmakers, while he works on a case for a donor to the Payne-Wagner Foundation, whose daughter is being bullied. The four are brought in, with Elsbeth looking them over for burn marks as Smullen does the questioning. There’s nothing to suggest that the first three did it (one does suggest Smullen get a toupee, which he later does, humorously), and Persimmon offers up that when they talked about divvying up Domenico’s clients, Felix only wanted Lina. But Felix states that he’s just a big fan, and if she wants to work with him, he has a stock of Molten-Gold. Only Lina says that she had already commissioned Felix to make a wig before Domenico’s death.

Felix Has Toupee the Piper in ‘Elsbeth’s “All’s Hair”

Image via CBS

Felix insists he didn’t steal her, and that Lina came to him, so Elsbeth and Chandler go to visit Mama to find out if Domenico knew about Lina turning to Felix. She doesn’t know for certain, but is adamant that if he did know, he definitely would have confronted him about it. That puts Felix in the crosshairs (and a jar of Mama’s sauce in Elsbeth’s bag), but they need more. They do know Domenico called Felix just before his death, and when Elsbeth goes to Felix for a wig fitting, Chandler tags along to ask what the call was about. He waves it off as business talk, but as she keeps pressing, he switches topic, and asks what she’s doing Saturday morning.

Saturday morning comes along, and Elsbeth, in a blonde wig, Chandler, and Felix are having a great time at Mimosas and Mirrorballs, the “best drag brunch in the city,” when Felix points out that one of the performers has a Diana Ross wig, one of the stolen styles. The only person that would have come from is Persimmon, so he’s taken into custody. He couldn’t have done it, and has proof, but is surprised to hear that Felix would have poached Vyanti, given he was as desperate for the Molten-Gold shipment. He wouldn’t have enough to make a wig, although he would if he were to have, say, cut the ponytail off a teenage girl.

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Elsbeth is back with blinders on.

Turns out that Wagner’s case is directly tied to the cut ponytail. Domenico found out about Felix’s attack when the girl’s father approached him about a faux ponytail. But there’s still no evidence that Felix was at the scene. Or is there? The secret’s in the sauce, with a wig hair that matches the wig Elsbeth was wearing found in the jar of sauce she was given by Mama. Felix’s invite to brunch was simply to plant the stolen Diana Ross wig so he could shift suspicion to Persimmon. As Felix is escorted out, he says, “So this is it. I played it short and slick in the world of hair and got tangled in my own weave.”

“All’s Hair” is a pedestrian affair. Not the best, not the worst, but just there. Hiller’s good, but doesn’t match the quality of the guest stars this season has brought in to this point. And resting the damning evidence on a strand of hair that somehow made it into a jar out of a huge pot of sauce is among the weakest yet. But there’s an interesting twist to the Alec Bloom storyline, with Winnie Crawford (Henny Russell) asking Elsbeth over lunch if she trusts him. She says she does, but has her guard up about Winnie, while Winnie is pretty sure Elsbeth knows more than she’s letting on. Between that and Teddy’s article, it gives Winnie a path to derail Bloom’s campaign, her true goal in bringing it up.

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Release Date

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February 29, 2024

Directors

Nancy Hower, Robert King, Lionel Coleman, Rob Hardy, Robin Givens, Ron Underwood, Rosemary Rodriguez, Aisha Tyler, Bille Woodruff, James Whitmore Jr., Joe Menendez, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, Lily Mariye, Nick Gomez, Peter Sollett, Sam Hoffman, Tyne Rafaeli, Darren Grant, Fong-Yee Yap, Mary Lou Belli

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Writers

Jonathan Tolins, Erica Shelton Kodish, Bryan Goluboff, Sarah Beckett, Michelle King

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Pros & Cons

• Carrie Preston is excellent, as always.
• Elsbeth with Smullen, Elsbeth with Chandler ? both partnerships get a chance to grow and shine.
• Winnie Crawford’s appearance just made the Alec Bloom storyline significantly more interesting.

• “All’s Hair” is a pedestrian affair in a season that’s been anything but.
• A strand of wig hair in a jar of sauce is by far the weakest piece of evidence to date.

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A finale for a season of a series has two jobs: to close the season’s story arc while also leaving enough of the larger world’s story open for a possible next season. This is even more important for serial shows like The Pendragon Cycle because the entire season usually has its own plot and circumstances while introducing elements of the larger story. The seasonal arc is supposed to provide closure in case the series doesn’t continue its larger arc with another season.

A Sprawling Setup Hints At A Much Bigger Picture

While the overarching plot of Rise of the Merlin is how he winds up advisor to the One and Future King, Arthur’s parents have only just met, and right now, there are Saxon invaders to take care of. Lots of them. A lot more of them than there are Britons under Aurellius’s banner, and some of his allies are getting scared.

Fortunately, there’s Gorlas to hold things together with his usual candor, while his beautiful daughter Ygerna makes eyes at Uther. All of Briton’s kings must unite to fight this threat, but there are a few in question, and Merlin isn’t back yet. Regardless, ready or not, it’s time for war. Will Merlin bring reinforcements? Will Briton prevail against the Saxons? Will Aurellius become High King?

While all the short-term threads are tied together, this finale didn’t seem like an ending. It left more questions than answers, and a lot of the plotlines that have long-term arcs did not get resolved. This is but a segment of Merlin’s very long life, the part that positions him as the eventual advisor of Uther and his son, Arthur. The Pendragon Cycle is not a contained story in the first place, but the window we are provided is not adequate, and I couldn’t help feeling that the series could have benefited from one more episode. Or, perhaps, a second season, please.

Nevertheless, the immediate threat of Hengist and his hordes of barbarians hangs over the camp during the first half of the episode. Having participated in the Society for Creative Anachronisms, a historical cosplay group for medieval enthusiasts, I felt right at home among the tents, kitchen tables with cooks portioning herbs, squires frantically running from encampment to encampment, and especially the noise.

Dramatic intrigue aside, the camp feels like it leaps out of history, which has been a strength of the show in its later episodes. Did I mention the noise? This camp is a living place, and the din of activity is always present in the background, contributing deeply to its authenticity. This episode hardly has any soundtrack music, and this was a good choice that allowed each scene to speak for itself.

Once the armies face off, though, the episode turns into something else: an amazing spectacle of savage medieval warfare, starting with the eerie effect of the Saxon army’s approach. The lack of soundtrack music is even more effective here. Gritty, chaotic, and violent (hide the kids and the squeamish), this is the best battle in the series. The direction of Jesse V. Johnson really takes the forefront at this point. Once again, authenticity reigns as the camera is deftly maneuvered through the field to follow the various players and their tribulations. Distant shots of the battlefield give a sense of scale that compliment the close frames by adding more urgency to them.

The Epic Battle Buildup

Josiah Nelson’s script shows off both his strengths and his weaknesses. I’ve said before that he’s great at drama, tension, and character development, but that sometimes he lingers too long on both the decision to act and the action itself. In a few places, scenes start to lag, but these are quickly caught before they become tiresome. A lot of time is spent in the build-up to the battle, with the various under-kings squabbling, plotting, and considering retreat. Nelson’s writing is especially good when he’s focused on this kind of intrigue.

The actors seized this opportunity. Riveting performances abound from all the cast, but the spotlight this episode falls to Chick Allan as Gorlas, Nicholas Boulton as Morcant, and Steve Varnom as Custennin.

In pairs, they shine, but when confronted with one another, their performances are mind-blowing. Boulton has been excellent through the entire series at portraying Morcant’s Doubting Thomas attitude toward the youthful king and is especially vibrant with the Saxons on the doorstep. Allan brings his rugged humor to Gorlas’s loyalty to Aurellius, especially on the battlefield. Varnom is at his best, now that Custennin is allowed his full range, especially in battle while wielding a very unusual weapon. But in an episode full of great acting, it’s almost unfair to single anyone out.

A Climax That Needs Closure

The finale of The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin seems to have been the focal point of all the production. Hints of it have been dropped along the way: beautiful sets, attention to small details of medieval life, and intense skirmishes that were only a taste of what was to come. This episode brings all that to a resounding crescendo of cinematic visual spectacle. It is almost perfect. Almost.

But the elephant in the room is that it doesn’t provide the closure of a finale. There is still more of Merlin’s story yet untold, too much left undone and unseen. Fans of Arthurian legend will be left with a sense of foreboding that is unfitting for a finale, especially if the show never gets a second season. The single weakness in an otherwise great finale is that Merlin’s story is so dominant over the entire series that it takes precedence over the Saxon invasion, and not enough closure is offered him, which made the finale bittersweet.

Nevertheless, there are so many good things about the finale of The Pendragon Cycle that it’s unfair to hold the fate of future seasons against it. On the contrary, I want to see another season, and the best way to get one is to watch the show and encourage Daily Wire+ to make more.

The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin is now streaming in its entirety on Daily Wire+. Check it out and give this Arthurian epic the attention it deserves.