“We Are Gone” is the tenth and last episode of the TV show “The Terror”, an adapatation of a novel by Dan Simmons with the same title, and follows “The C, the C, the Open C“.
Note. This article contains spoilers about “We Are Gone”.
Captain Francis Crozier (Jared Harris) tries to undermine the control that Cornelius Hickey (Adam Nagaitis) has on the mutineers in the hope of ending the conflict among the survivors of Franklin’s expedition and the acts of cannibalism. The showdown can’t leave the Tuunbaq creature out.
“We Are Gone” shows the tragic conclusion of Franklin’s expedition, inevitable but not less painful to watch. The show began with Sir James Ross (Richard Sutton) being able to find some information on the fate of the crews of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror from an Inuit man, a scene that is repeated in this final episode with an addition that adds a twist.
“The Terror” had a slow development but was marked by the presence of many interactions among the characters and this allowed to develop them considerably during the episodes. In “We Are Gone” this feature left in part room to scenes based more on style than substance, until the final one. Of course, at that point there were just a few surviving characters so some interactions are with an Inuit group but being pedantic perhaps in this last episode they could do more.
In particular, Captain Francis Crozier’s final choices were left at least in part to the images, with just a few words of explanations. He’s character who was part of Franklin’s expedition for the wrong reasons and at least tries to bring the survivors to salvation but in vain. After ordering the sailors still loyal to him to head south and after the showdown he can only keep the memory of the fallen crews.
Memory is a crucial element in this ending. Various characters on the verge of death have some memories of the past, in some cases before the beginning of the expedition, in others connected to the expedition such as the toast between Captain Crozier and Hickey. However, the memories are also the ones connected to the many deaths and consequently also to the atrocities of a part of tehm so for Crozier they also are a burden in the ending.
The show was developed diverging at various points from the novel from which it’s adapted and in the last episode most of all in the events connected to the Tuunbaq creature and Lady Silence (Nive Nielsen), whose name we discover being Silna. Dan Simmons is one of the show’s executive producers so one can guess that he participated in those decisions.
Overall, “We Are Gone” represents a striking finale for a great show. The protagonists still alive have their farewell moments and the story comes to a conclusion. There are rumors of a possible second season about a completely different story that would make “The Terror” an anthology show. I confess I got interested in it because I read Dan Simmons’ novel but if those are such production values and such good actors are involved, keeping executive producers such as Ridley Scott, I’d certainly keep on watching it.
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