Abby in Season 6
Aug. 5th, 2019 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI can't stopping thinking about Abby's storyline in 6x12 and season 6 as a whole.
I loved Abby in 6x12. I thought she was great and I found all her scenes enjoyable to watch, and that ended up being a part of my issue – because that’s not how Abby has been for much of the season. They compressed an entire redemption arc for Abby into one very full episode. The fact that I enjoyed all of it only makes it more aggravating that we didn’t get more of this Abby during the season as a whole. If Abby’s end was always going to be death and possession by Simone, than we should have gotten Abby’s 6x12 arc spread out over over the course of the entire season. The fact that we didn’t seems to come down entirely to plot necessity at the expense of her as a character and that’s just deeply disappointing, especially for as major a character as Abby is.
There are a lot of piece of Abby being the one to die that worked for me: the mother/daughter aspect with Clarke/Jo, Abby taking the nightblood to save Madi paralleling Clarke in S4 and thus in part making up for her own choices in Becca’s lab while also protecting Clarke’s most important person, and the Abby/Russell comparison of doing whatever it take to protect their families. It managed to feel both shocking and inevitable at the same time which I liked. I mean one of our characters becoming a host to a Prime and not returning was a sure thing especially after nightblood began floating around.
I even loved her death scene itself. I liked everything about how that scene was shot and written and acted. On one hand, it would have been nice to have seen her go down fighting or in a meaningful sacrificial way but on the other hand I thought it was tragic in an almost beautiful way and the emotions of the scene landed perfectly for me. In isolation I loved it.
However, a big theme this season has been about redemption and doing better. I keep coming back to Diyoza’s line to Octavia "As long as you draw breath, you can turn it around." It hurts that Abby isn’t going to get that chance. They dangled the possibility of Abby finally beginning her journey for redemption and then snatched it away, and that left me feeling so dissatisfied.
In the end I think we should have gotten either:
a) An Abby who’s death played out as it did in this episode but one that was built up to over the course of the entire season where this season as a whole was her redemptive journey. A lot would have had to have been rewritten, especially Kane’s death, but for Abby’s death to really work I think she needed that redemptive journey to be more than over an episode.
b) Keep the season as is with Abby’s continuing downward spiral before she finds a new path of hope post-Kane but she survives, thus leaving next season open for her journey for redemption and hope.
I loved Abby in 6x12. I thought she was great and I found all her scenes enjoyable to watch, and that ended up being a part of my issue – because that’s not how Abby has been for much of the season. They compressed an entire redemption arc for Abby into one very full episode. The fact that I enjoyed all of it only makes it more aggravating that we didn’t get more of this Abby during the season as a whole. If Abby’s end was always going to be death and possession by Simone, than we should have gotten Abby’s 6x12 arc spread out over over the course of the entire season. The fact that we didn’t seems to come down entirely to plot necessity at the expense of her as a character and that’s just deeply disappointing, especially for as major a character as Abby is.
There are a lot of piece of Abby being the one to die that worked for me: the mother/daughter aspect with Clarke/Jo, Abby taking the nightblood to save Madi paralleling Clarke in S4 and thus in part making up for her own choices in Becca’s lab while also protecting Clarke’s most important person, and the Abby/Russell comparison of doing whatever it take to protect their families. It managed to feel both shocking and inevitable at the same time which I liked. I mean one of our characters becoming a host to a Prime and not returning was a sure thing especially after nightblood began floating around.
I even loved her death scene itself. I liked everything about how that scene was shot and written and acted. On one hand, it would have been nice to have seen her go down fighting or in a meaningful sacrificial way but on the other hand I thought it was tragic in an almost beautiful way and the emotions of the scene landed perfectly for me. In isolation I loved it.
However, a big theme this season has been about redemption and doing better. I keep coming back to Diyoza’s line to Octavia "As long as you draw breath, you can turn it around." It hurts that Abby isn’t going to get that chance. They dangled the possibility of Abby finally beginning her journey for redemption and then snatched it away, and that left me feeling so dissatisfied.
In the end I think we should have gotten either:
a) An Abby who’s death played out as it did in this episode but one that was built up to over the course of the entire season where this season as a whole was her redemptive journey. A lot would have had to have been rewritten, especially Kane’s death, but for Abby’s death to really work I think she needed that redemptive journey to be more than over an episode.
b) Keep the season as is with Abby’s continuing downward spiral before she finds a new path of hope post-Kane but she survives, thus leaving next season open for her journey for redemption and hope.
