Warning: This article contains some spoilers for Channel Zero.

“The Hollow Girl,” the closing episode of Channel Zero‘s second season, starts off on a strong, compellingly unnerving note and grows in promise from there. Capitalizing on all of the show’s strongest notes to date, it provides a deeply unsettling, moving, complicated, and ultimately resoundingly enjoyable final chapter.

The jump forward in time that makes the episode work, to be fair, may not be everyone’s cup of tea. On my end, however, I think it’s a smart way for “No-End House” in particular to really sink its teeth into the aftermath of the kind of trauma by which it’s so compelled without getting bogged down. After all, the nature of memory and the loss, theft, or corruption thereof is something felt as much in the future (if not more) as in the present.

Spending time with Margot this much further ahead in the story puts a lot of the previous episodes’ moving parts into perspective. It also lends them a direction and gravitas that I was, at times, struggling to find. Allowing the episode to both draw on the most unnerving aspects of its central conceit and to lead them to a fruitful conclusion is a real strength. I’m relieved to say the season was able to find its way there in the end.

This leap ahead, also significantly brings forward some intriguing and unnerving turns for characters that had previously felt a little one-note, to the season’s great benefit. Indeed, this might be the most strongly-acted episode of the season, too. It introduces some real complexity and depth of emotion or terror that lets the cast really show off what they’re capable of.

Aisha Dee (Jules) and Jeff Ward (Seth) were particularly striking and I’m glad the writing really gave these actors room to shine. I’m also glad it gave the characters a solid, meaningful, and cohesive sense of identity to round the season off.

There have been some logical leaps this season that look like they might have been the product of cut scenes, or just things that were understood in the writing room but never quite became explicit enough to an outside audience. By and large, though, this finale ties them up satisfyingly enough that I can be both disturbed by the revelations and breathe a sigh of relief that they’ve convinced me.

The only note that seems to be missing is the nature of the entity haranguing Jules. It almost has the air of a really fantastic piece of creature design that the team behind the season desperately wanted to include but never quite established an explanation for. By episode end, Jules’ final confrontation with it is messy, terrifying, and satisfying enough that I was largely willing to let it slide.

“The Hollow Girl” moved from unnerving, to terrifying, then to a profoundly grief-filled yet hopeful conclusion. Between deeply unsettling, well-crafted visuals, striking acting, depth of character, and a commitment to really grappling with the season’s central themes head-on; it’s very much a worthy and effective crowning episode. This finale, I’m pleased to say, powerfully ties together what could have been a deeply intriguing but somewhat meandering season.

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Channel Zero

0.00

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Great visuals
• Wonderful acting
• Solid pacing
• Strong conclusion

Cons

• Jules' creature remains mostly unexplained