Where Is The Cube?
Well here we are, after 3 episodes we finally reach the season 1 finale of Twice Upon A Time. It’s been a rocky road to reach this point and although the episode does a pretty good job typing things together, it does so at the expense of pulling the strings on those neatly-tied bows to set things up for a second season that may or may not arrive. After a brief flashback montage of Louise and Vincent’s moments together, we begin the season 1 finale of Twice Upon A Time with Vincent in hospital and Nadege picking him up and taking him home, lamenting his stupidity for rushing into a burning house. She goes on to tell him that they can finally live together now that her and Stephanie are breaking up. He firmly asks her to leave though and as she does, comes face to face with the charred cube in the basement. It seems untouched but unfortunately the magic appears to be gone. As Jordan explains, the cube runs on photons and the Master of Light sent him a warning. In a flashback, we see Louise and Vincent discussing their time together and how it was an accident they came across one another. However, this leads us back to the therapy session where she asks Vincent what he would have done to save her. Given he has no way of getting back to the past, he finally acknowledges that she’s dead but at the end of the session, is asked to come back twice a week instead. With Vincent back in his house and lazing about, he thinks over Jordan’s comments about light and decides to place the cube under a solitary lightbulb in the basement. Taking a deep breath, he climbs into the cube and manages to make it to the other side. In the past-timeline, Vincent sneaks into Louise’s apartment block and rings repeatedly, pleading with Louise to speak. It turns out its been a week since he’s been there and she’s none too happy with him because of that. When he awakens in the morning however, they fight over his absence until she mentions her headache again. Together, they sit by the lake and discuss the past, including the mysterious woman who jumped infront of the train those years ago. This, as it so happens, is the same woman Louise scratched the face off in the graveyard. Still in the past, Louise discusses the woman with James before returning to Louise and Vincent, who head home together. Out of the blue, she asks to see the cube and it’s here she crawls inside and through to the other side. Vincent watches her go and as he follows her in, finds her gone and nowhere in sight. Stepping back through, he finds her passed out on the floor of the past-timeline. The next day, Vincent leaves Stanley with Andre while in the past, Vincent follows Louise and ruins her first interview. As we jump back to the present, the delivery man speaks to him about the cube at work, going on to comment in awe that Vincent kept the mysterious artifact. Unfortunately in his bid to change the past and save Louise, Vincent also inadvertently made them drift apart. You can’t change the past, as we’ve learnt from countless other time travel shows, and Vincent realizes he needs to break up with her to save Louise’s life. This would explain why he can’t remember breaking up with her in the past as this has always been his timeline. As we cut back, we see Vincent was there the moment Louise was hit, as well as being inside the hospital to tell her what happened. He goes on to tell her the truth about the brain haemorrhage and pleads with her not to leave. If she does, she’ll die. Some time later, we see Vincent partying and getting intimate with a girl while out at the wind farm, a bomb detonates and seemingly explodes. As it does, Vincent learns that Louise died again, leading to him vowing to spend his life trying to save Louise. In the middle of the night, two men whom we’ve mysterious seen crop up throughout the series await his arrival. They ask where the cube is before one of them turns the gun on his associate and fires, returning the gun to Vincent. “Where is the cube?” He asks again, as our protagonist tells him it’s in the basement. Thus ends the series and episode. Twice Upon A Time has been a weird and oftentimes confusing series, one that feels in such desperate need to show all these timelines that it oftentimes forgets to craft a compelling and exciting series along the way. It’s a shame too because there’s certainly some good material here, including some genuinely nice stylistic ticks too. The three timelines are generally easy to distinguish but some of the editing is a little tough to follow at times. The cliffhanger ending is the real kicker though and this, for me, completely ruined the series. I’m in no hurry to jump back into this one in the future and given this streaming malarkey is a numbers game, I just can’t see the vast numbers reaching the finale and craving more. The slow pacing and lackadaisical plotting is enough to alienate some people but there’s certainly scope to expand from here. Whether anyone will want more of this though remains to be seen but for now, the series bows out with a pretty acceptable but ultimately uninspiring finale.
