Falling Water - The Art of the Deal (Season Finale) - Review

Hello fellow dreamers! Well, the end has come. Billed as the season finale, and certainly orchestrated as one, The Art of the Deal gave us what could realistically be our last high-stakes adventure with the dreamers we've come to know. Until I hear otherwise though, I refuse to acknowledge this as the end, so let's take a look at how our second chapter ends, and what it sets up for our third chapter.


The Art of the Deal

Our final outing of the season opens with Tess in the dreamworld spying on a nightmare/memory of Ginsberg's. He and a woman discuss his inability to give her a child before she heads out the door for America, and he calls after her promising to give her a child before calling her name, Charlotte. You know her, right? Tess's mom. It's cool, no big deal. He then turns his attention to Tess for a moment before the two of them wake up. After Tess and Burton  have a quick chat, Tess is alerted that Ginsberg is in town, and our team meets up to discuss strategy for taking Ginsberg down. The next day, when everything is set up, Woody heads out to make the deal, but things don't go exactly according to plan. The important parties show up to the meeting, but Taylor Bennett is noticeably missing as she informs Woody over the phone that she sent her half of the payment electronically. It only gets worse from there. Taka and Alex move in to arrest Ginsberg and his men, but it turns out Ginsberg has an ability we didn't know about: he can put people to sleep and control them. He departs with Woody, Burton, and Taka in tow, leaving Alex behind because he has no use for her. Tess later infiltrates the man's dream and, after turning Dream Charlotte to ice and shattering her, swears she'll find him and get her friends back.

This wasn't our only noteworthy journey, however. Boerg continues to have dreams about his dead sister, Katrina, no doubt sparked by the Ginsberg situation because he was meant to be her doctor before he "died". At the end of the episode, he records voice notes of his experiences and ultimately comes to the decision that he may finally have to accept Katrina's death.

Which brings us to our other exciting journey, Tom Dolan's. After being released from custody because there's absolutely no way to prove he had a hand in any of the deaths, Tom runs into a woman who claims the people she works with have been keeping an eye on him and want to recruit him to their group of dreamers who, according to her, want to do good in the world. Her name, you ask? Katrina Boerg! Who does she work with? Jeremy and Ginsberg! Later, he speaks with his daughter who is suddenly not too keen on her father. After revealing that her scholarship has been cancelled, she storms away from him and says she never wants to see him again. Unhappy about this, Tom hops into Taylor's dream to confront her, and she readily admits she took away the scholarship because Woody is still alive. Tom has now had enough of Taylor Bennett. Before bed the next night, Ginsberg informs her over the phone that he will no longer be using her resources to get Tess and James, and once everyone is asleep, Tom influences Taylor's henchman to murder her, which her dog is not too fond of, resulting in the henchman's death as well. Tom smiles at the success of his revenge, but could this also perhaps be Tom's first job with Team Ginsberg? We'll find out next season! Or not.

Verdict
As a season finale, this episode hit all the right notes. The stakes were high, storylines were wrapped up, and there was a huge set-up for the next season. As a way-too-likely series finale, though, it could potentially be very disappointing. I completely understand treating each season like you will have another, but the existence of a second season was a bit of a long shot, so it would have been nice for them to plan the story a bit more self-contained like the first season. The end of the first season would have been fine as the end and not leave any huge questions. This season, however, left us on a pretty significant cliffhanger. Hopefully USA set their standards extremely low for the second season's performance, especially after airing it on Saturdays. If we are graced with a third season, I really hope USA is real with them and says "look, this is it, wrap it up" because the show deserves a proper ending.

What did you think of the finale? Was Taylor's murder purely revenge, or does Tom also happen to be working with Ginsberg now? What do you think the chances of a third season are? Sound off in the comments below!