Thoughts On The Series Finale of Life Unexpected

I'm a huge fan of series finales. Chances are, if a series ends then I will watch their final episode. When NCIS finally ends after its 45th season, I'll probably watch the episode despite never seeing any previous episodes. Last night, The CW aired the final two episodes of Life Unexpected--a show I watched 30 minutes of in two years. Naturally, I didn't bother watching the penultimate episode but the "Previously On..." seemed to provide the broad beats of the major happenings in the episode.

Apparently, Lux (Britt Robertson) dated her teacher for an extended period of time and everyone learned the truth. Her parents, Baze and Cate, told the man to leave town to avoid legal action. Lux feels like an outcast and fears being known as the girl who slept with Mr. Eric, the teacher. Meanwhile, Baze learned that the woman he dates was in an affair with his father at some point in time. Also, Cate became pregnant. It feels like sufficient context for me as well as you, reader, to understand and appreciate what happens in the final episode of Life Unexpected.

I read the Life Unexpected pilot screenplay a few months ago out of curiosity. Apart from being stunned that the production draft was only 41 pages despite its five acts, reading the script was actually beneficial because the final episode returned to certain moments in the pilot to give the series a sense of circularity and completion. The core of the show belonged to 16 year old Lux and her biological parents, Cate and Baze. She spent years in foster care until she found her parents, and she began a life with them in the first season. Throughout the series, Lux battled her sense of normalcy. She felt less than normal because of her years without a nuclear family and without the love and warm that comes from that world. In season two, seemingly, the girl became more rebellious as she committed misdemeanors with her friend Tasha and dated a middle-aged man at the age of 16.

In "Affair Remembered," the writers address the reasons behind Lux's behavior. Lux's problems aren't that much different than other teenagers though she thinks her experiences are singular and inclusive to her only. She feels withdrawn from her mother, unable to communicate honestly and openly with her. Perhaps she acted out because of those communication problems. Her problems are fairly normal among her peers though. Once Lux opens up to her mom and dad, her life becomes more normal, more stable and the tears diminish greatly. She and the nice guy with the seemingly normal life begin to date once Lux learns that he has problems like everyone else doe. Lux apologizes to her father for intentionally hurting him with the Emma/his father news. Lux and Cate finally begin a healthy mother/daughter relationship after Cate realizes she needs to listen to her daughter.

Cate's transformation occurs after she receives the devastating news that she lost her baby and won't be able to have any children. Ryan, Cate's husband, thinks stress contributed to the miscarriage. The show never explains the reason for the miscarriage nor the inability to have children in the future. The lack of explanation has makes sense. From what I gather through the random scenes I've seen from the series, and the pilot script, is that Cate's a woman who constantly looks toward the future and barely appreciates the present. She has a teenage daughter who came back into her life after adoption, and hasn't taken advantage of the opportunity to be a mother. In Lux and Cate's darkest moments, they finally agree to communicate open and honestly. It felt like a moment the show built towards since the pilot but I'd have to ask actual fans of the show whether or not the moment was as significant as the show made it seem.

The finale, obviously, wanted to provide closure for the three main character's series-long personal arcs. Baze, the father, began the series as a screw-up who hadn't shaken his frat boy days and needed his father to bail him out. The arrival of Lux in his life began his transformation from frat boy into mature, responsible adult. The finale completes Baze's personal arc. He longer needs his father's assistance. Baze becomes his own man, separate from father and no longer chasing his shadow. He tells Lux how fortunate he is that she returned to his life. And by series end, the three main characters become a nuclear family without explanation.

From a sole writer's perspective, the final episode succeeded as a series finale because it provided closure and a conclusion to the narrative of the series though the conclusion felt a bit forced, and I had no idea who half the people were in the flash-forward sequence but HEY maybe I needed to watch more than one complete episode.

The series finale didn't make me want to watch the previous 24 episodes though. Life Unexpected isn't my kind of show. Before its premiere, it received comparisons to TheWB shows of old that intrigued me because I enjoyed TheWB. But Life Unexpected is a CW show. It is a series that embraced it's soap-opera elements and it's full of drama that I simply don't care about like love triangles, affairs and so on and so on. But I like series finales and the Classic TV episodes feature has had about as much success as Heidi Montag's musical career so I watched and wrote about this show.

Other Thoughts

-Look, the other thoughts section has returned! Anywho, the Lux/Teacher relationship apparently created controversy. Dan Feinberg of HitFix criticized the writers and the network for their attitude towards the relationship. Rather than focus on the predatory/creepy aspects of the relationship, they played it as a romantic relationship but sources tell me Lux's peers told the girl how gross the relationship was. I have no opinion on what the show did with the relationship because I didn't watch any of those episodes. Apparently, Pretty Little Liars has a similar attitude about statutory rape as well. Additional sources inform me the Lux/Teacher relationship never reached statutory rape but 30-something teacher with 16 year old student is a horrible idea. The point, network execs behind teen dramas can be foolish.

-The episode had a flash-forward to high school graduation and Lux's speech. Naturally, I barely listened to the speech because speeches at graduation (high school AND college) are boring.

-Michael Kramer wrote the episode. Rick Bota directed it.

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