Boss “Choose” Season Finale Review

I just finished watching the Boss season finale “Choose” and all I have to say is…Wow.

After last week’s jaw dropping episode, I was expecting this finale to either hit it big or miss the mark because nothing in between would have done the trick. I am happy to say that it hit the mark big time. From the ultimate revelation of the true betrayer as Ezra Stone to the final scene of Mayor Kane on the floor having a seizure, “Choose” was an episode filled with intense, gripping and undeniably powerful moments that you just can’t help but remember and discuss.

The theme of the episode was clearly “Retribution” as illustrated by Ezra’s monologue and we certainly saw everyone…well almost everyone get what they deserve, justly or not.

Kelsey Grammer deserves every single award that he can possibly get for this role. He took what could have been an interesting character and made him into an iconic one. Tom Kane is the perfect political operative. Heck, he is the Michael Jordan of politics and we are all just watching him fly all over these chumps that want a piece of him. It was an honor to just see him do his thing.

As much as I suspected that it might have been Ezra all along, I was secretly hoping it wasn’t him. Martin Donovan did a masterful job of portraying this ruthless, cunning and astute political operative who, in the end, had some sense of morality that pushed him to draw the line and do what he did. That final monologue was cleverly dispensed with the backdrop of all the final pieces of puzzles being put in place. Even his death is handled subtly with little sound or effect. Kudos to Mario Van Peebles for directing this moment masterfully.

Meredith proving her loyalty by sleeping with the donor was slightly cliche but did lead to one strong moment of emotion in that final scene which was welcome and surprising. Connie Nielsen’s character has some strong potential to step up in the next season and I hope that we get to see that.

Emma’s scenes were unfortunately not as strong although I do think that Hannah Ware did her character justice throughout the season. Yes, her scenes with Darius felt like filler at times but I like Ware’s gravitas. If Emma adopted a bit of her father’s ruthlessness, we might have an even more compelling character in my opinion.

The Zajac-Kitty storyline were good fodder for all the fans of “edgy” scenes (edgy=boinking) but it didn’t capture my imagination as much, especially towards the end where it felt like they both got their proverbial hand slapped by the facts. It was fun to see Zajac’s wife turn out to be almost as cold blooded as Kane; I am thinking that we will surely see more of her in the second season.

What to expect in a second season? A few seeds are planted for us in this finale. Kane is going to have to reconstitute a new team of trusted advisors; Meredith is going to have climb back up in Tom’s good graces; Miller might get the illness scoop to run with and Zajac actually has to become governor now.

All and all, this was a brilliant ending to a brilliant season of a brilliant show. For me, Boss is the revelation of the year. The only question that remains now is how many awards is this show going to get?

What about you? What are your thoughts on the season finale episode of Boss