Review: ‘The Curse’ Episode 10
It Can Only Go Up From Here
… That was the most bizarre hour of television I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
Before I get to the obvious stuff that I’m sure has captivated everyone’s attention, it’s worth addressing the first half hour of the episode. The opening reality TV segment is painfully accurate in its recreation, from the barely-concealed frustration from Vincent Pastore to the desperate attempts from the host to inject some wine-mom humour whenever possible.
When the cameras stop rolling, the characters get to unwind and stop performing. Except for Asher, who’s still playing the role of the passionate, caring person to appease Whitney. It’s always easy to tell whenever Asher adopts this tone since he sounds like Patrick Bateman whenever he waxes philosophical about social issues. His speeches are so painfully performative that it’s clear he’s rehearsed them countless time over in his head and aloud.
Clearly, he didn’t spend any time refining that meandering reflection on the meaning of art.
Yet in these moments, Asher seems to almost believe this new personality he’s adopted. He gets to perform in his relationship with Whitney the same way Whitney gets to perform with her good deeds. Initially, I couldn’t tell whether Whitney understood just how destructive she is beneath her persona. Now, I’m certain she has no idea. Even with their series concluding its first season, she hasn’t abandoned her philanthropic goals as I suspected she might. It’s telling that when Asher and Whitney talk to Abshir, they treat him as if the cameras are still rolling and he’s a guest on their documentary series.
Even if it also added elements of horror to the series, it makes so much sense now why there are so many distant shots framing the show’s characters in an almost voyeuristic way. It perfectly ties into what the show has to say about how we distort ourselves through media to become more likable. Whitney’s unwavering progressive values feel like she’s ticking off a checklist, as if people are going to hunt her down for having the wrong opinion or saying the wrong thing. For Whitney and Asher, it’s as if the cameras never stop rolling, and as depressing as that concept is, it seems to give meaning to their lives. Even if I hoped Asher would have enough self respect to cut his losses and move on from Whitney and their documentary series, the pair seem genuinely happy.
And then it happens.
I was so invested in whatever this bizarre plot thread was as Asher found himself stuck to the ceiling that I barely even considered just how seamless the scene is. At no point did I ever question how Nathan Fielder was able to imitate the physical dynamics of that experience, nor do I understand how the show was directed in such a way as to make it look realistic and feel so anxiety-inducing. And then it keeps going. And keeps going.
When I was watching this episode I would occasionally pause to scribble down a quick note about how its scenes were progressing. After a certain point I had to stop because I was too busy immersed in open-mouthed shock and awe at what I was witnessing, but I did get a chance to quickly write this down:
At one point I fully expected Asher to continue forward and fall upwards into the sun
I wrote that as a joke. I thought it could make for a mildly humourous comment to convey just how well Green Queen takes such a funny premise and makes it feel genuinely tense and grounded.
And these madmen, Benny Safdie and Nathan Fielder, actually did it. They fully committed to the most out of left field, bizarre ending the show could have possibly gone for.
Long after the credits rolled, I found myself staring at my computer screen, mouth agape, unable to comprehend what I’d just watched. It was as if I had been born in 1908 and someone played me a 100 gecs song. Even though I’d been anxiously anticipating this finale, thinking about all the possible ways it could wrap up its storylines and tie them into its themes, I felt as if I’d just stumbled onto a new cinematic language, unlike anything I’d ever seen before in my entire life.
But that’s not entirely true, as there is one piece of media that directly relates to the ending of The Curse. When I first watched 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was 15, I didn’t know if I liked the ending, or even the movie, but I knew that I was transfixed. I felt as if my mind was slowly expanding in that moment to collect information that I didn’t even think could exist.
In both works, a man dies and a baby is born, and the two events are inextricably linked. Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t catch that the curse would continue with Asher. After all, there’s no bigger staple in horror movies than cursed characters being given a brief moment of reprieve to make them think that their waking nightmare is over, only for it to come racing back at them at the last second, confirming their darkest fears And what is Asher’s darkest fear? To know that Whitney doesn’t need him anymore. But in order for it to work, there can’t be a single person who really needs him.
Dougie arrives, but only to use him for his show in typical Dougie fashion. Abshir is likely going to sell his new property the first chance he gets, and it’s entirely possible his friend was already in the process of strip-mining it of materials before the two absconded for good. And just before the insane sequence begins, Whitney looks disgusted with Asher again, retreating into herself instead of opening up. When she wakes, the nightmare begins.
The doula tries to calm Asher by getting him to inhale and exhale deeply, just as one would instruct a pregnant woman before going into labour, before he’s sent flying upwards, ever closer to his demise. This is easily Asher at his most resourceful throughout the entire series, as he desperately tries to escape being sucked up and spat out into an atmosphere he could never have envisioned being a part of. As the tree branch is being ripped apart by a chainsaw, he cries out like a baby would, desperate not to be dragged out of the only home he’s ever known. He also imitates a baby’s cries as Whitney leaves him to go the hospital (not for the first time in this series, it’s worth noting).
Even in the scene precipitating his demise he tells Whitney that ‘there’s a little me inside you.’ This is the exact moment that Whitney realises she no longer needs Asher. She’s always felt like he’s been weighing her down, but up to this point she still found herself craving his adoration. But if she’s not looking for an equal, but someone who she can adore just as much as they adore her, whose entire identity can be moulded to her liking, what better candidate could there be than her newborn child? After all, when she finally has the baby, she tells the doctors that they don’t need to send her doula in to comfort her. doesn’t need anyone else except her baby.
The documentary series was already called Green Queen, and she was clearly the charismatic star. Now she has a child and a tragic life event to exploit for millions of viewers that will eagerly want to hear from the woman who just had her husband inexplicably sucked up into the sky. Dougie is left more broken than ever, certain that he caused this, even if it’s unlikely that he will ever change his ways. Cara quits art, but that in itself becomes its own piece of abstract art. The world moves on so seamlessly that it seems like it was always destined to turn out this way. And Asher is simply gone, forever, his greatest fears finally realised.
When I finished Green Queen, I was just… confounded. I truly didn’t know what to think. Even though it’s only been an hour since I’ve let this finale rest in my mind, I truly think it’s one of the greatest endings to a TV show that I’ve ever watched. I’ve been scouring through the subreddit for the series (which I will link below) and I’ve already come across countless clues and Easter Eggs setting up the finale’s ending.
I feel as though someone could easily write an essay in itself analysing this ending, and I’m confident that I’ll get around to it soon, but I’ve already spent the better part of an hour writing this review and listening to Alice Coltrane’s hypnotic ‘Jai Ramachandra’, so I think I’ll leave it give it a rest for now.
