The Missing: Till Death

December 30, 2014 9:52 AM - Season 1, Episode 8

Tony and Emily finally find out what happened to their son Oliver in 2006.
posted by jbickers (8 comments total)

This was a devastating end to a very good series. The fact that Ollie was alive and in that house, and what that vile asshole with the van did, literally gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.

Julien is one of the most fascinating and compelling characters I've seen on a TV show in some time, and I'm happy to hear the rumor that season two will focus on him, working a different case.
posted by jbickers at 9:54 AM on December 30, 2014 [3 favorites]

I watched the whole series. I LOVE James Nesbitt. I felt like the characters were very dimensional, almost painfully so sometimes. I never thought I would feel sympathetic to a pedophile, but I did feel that way towards Vincent Bourg at the end. The actors did an amazing job especially in that last episode.

While the characters were well written, the plot itself is very much like first two seasons of the Killing and Broad Church. The very end to me felt rushed, like ok now we suddenly have to present to you a solution, and the fox felt like deus ex machina. (The kid just runs instead of trying to point the fox out to his father first?)

I enjoyed it, but I think True Detectives was a more fully actualized crime drama. The characters were very developed, but the plot was also more compelling to me. It even had a similar "then/now" structure, which suddenly seems to be all the rage: True Detectives, The Affair, and The Missing.

I've always loved Tchéky Karyo. I'm glad to hear the next season will be focused on him.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:35 AM on December 30, 2014

> It even had a similar "then/now" structure, which suddenly seems to be all the rage: True Detectives, The Affair, and The Missing.

FWIW, the writers of The Missing, Jack and Harry Williams, have said that the split timeline of the show was directly inspired by True Detective.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 8:59 PM on December 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just finished binge-watching this. Anyone have thoughts about whether the kid in Russia at the end actually is Ollie? They made it seem likely with the drawing on the window, but then the kid didn't react, and seemed more like a regular kid than the victim of a human trafficking gang.
posted by whir at 8:11 PM on January 5, 2015

The more I think back on it, the more I think the writers are trying to have it both ways. I don't think the kid in Russia was Ollie, because the whole point of the Russia trip, and the beard, and the cops who had had other complaints about Tony, all of that was to show how far obsession can take a person. It's not about Ollie, it's about Tony.

That said, they went out of their way to never show Ollie's body or in any other way confirm that the guy in the garage actually did kill him. So that's a card they could pull out of their sleeve later if they wanted to. Or they could leave it as-is, and it's a pretty satisfying conclusion.
posted by jbickers at 5:42 AM on January 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

I don't think they were trying to have it both ways, but more they were trying to show both the constructive and destructive aspects of Tony's obsession. Tony says "Never give up." If he was given a definitive answer, then he would have to give up. By giving him a tiny reason to hope, they justify his obsession. After all, without Tony's tenacity, they would never have discovered what happened to Ollie. Unfortunately, he's just not able to let go and accept that the confession in the hospital is best answer he is ever going to get about Ollie.

I actually....didn't like the ending. I thought the end with the wedding was perfect. Both characters have grown and changed and suddenly they reversed all of that with the final scenes.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:31 PM on January 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well, that was excruciating. Really good and terribly hard for me to watch.

I understood the ending, with Tony returning to his search, in light of what Julian said to him in the car: that home is wherever you feel less lonely. The wedding was a brief respite, but after that he was again alone in his apartment. The only way for him to feel less lonely was by continuing to believe that Olly was alive somewhere and could be found. That's where his only home was, in the hell of hope.

I think I'm going to need a long Miss Fisher binge now.
posted by sively at 12:34 PM on January 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

Do you think Tony did the drawing in the ice at the end himself? I can't imagine any 13 year old boy would be drawing silly big-eared stick figures. I wish they had made that part more clear or maybe I'm just dense.
posted by the webmistress at 9:09 AM on July 14, 2021