And I certainly know people who hated it, continue to hate it, and refuse to take my advice to watch it again and take it on its own terms. I liked it the first time, but it was off-putting. I’m reminded of the experience of watching Part 18 of Twin Peaks: The Return. And when I watched the episode for a second time, I started to think that it was brilliant. I wanted a continuation, and resolution, of the story that Dispatches from Elsewhere has offered us over the course of the season, not to exit that story and start feeling like everything had just been in a snowglobe.īut of course, Dispatches from Elsewhere has portrayed a self-awareness of itself as an entertainment from the very beginning, so this meta move here at the end perhaps should not have been as surprising to me as it was. This is a bold move, and I have to say that it rubbed me wrong on my first viewing. But even they aren’t the same characters, and the story is no longer the same story. Eve Lindley is still Simone, Sally Field is still Janice, and I presume that Andre Benjamin is still Fredwynn, if we’re talking about their names. It’s Jason Segel as Jason Segel, of course, and not straightforwardly Jason Segel. And this is not Peter, it’s Jason-we get that right away. Instead, after we see Clown Boy’s rise to fame and his exploitation at the hands of one Octavio Coleman, Esq (not that one), Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 jumps to Jason Segel at an AA meeting. There is a direct connection to the previous episode, to be sure, and I have noted the significance of this character and the questions around him for some time, but it’s hard not to wonder when we will get back to the story of our four friends.

Instead, the first quarter of the hour is completely about Clown Boy. Last week’s episode ended with Peter, Simone, Janice, and Fredwynn following Clown Boy to discover whether Lee/Clara had redeemed herself through the game, so one might expect the finale to pick up with that question. Dispatches from Elsewhere S1E10 “The Boy” is nothing if not risky.

Dispatches from elsewhere cast