Airing on SyFy UK, Thursdays at 9pm
Writer: Al Septien & Turi Meyer
Director: David Solomon

Essential Plots Points:

• Fiji and Jeremy arrive back in Midnight. Every animal is dead and the streets are deserted.
• On the bus back to Midnight, Manfred explains that it’s a Blood Moon tonight. And a Full Moon. The perfect environment for Colconnar to rise.
• They bless the weapons Olivia has brought with her (A LOT of them) with water from the mini bar.
• Olivia and Lem chat, as friends, for the first time. Creek pushes Manfred on just how he’s going to kill Colconnar but accepts that he needs to keep it to himself on the condition he doesn’t die this time.
• In Midnight, Fiji tries to reason with Matt but realizes he’s entirely given over to Colconnar. She’s ordered to prepare for him rising that night and, numb, does so.
• The Midnighters arrive and sneak into the town. Olivia, Bobo and Creek are sent to rescue Olivia while the others pick a fight with the Wraiths. The consecrated weapons hurt them but not for long.
• Nonetheless, with Olivia on high ground with a sniper rifle running cover, Bobo and Creek make it to Fiji. She tries to throw them out, even after they tell her Manfred’s alive. She cannot deal with them dying for her. The argument is broken up by Olivia making a run for the house. She doesn’t get there, Jeremy appearing and burning her stomach before Fiji dispels him.
• The boys have made it to the pawnshop where Manfred psychically reads the items. He explains that Catori said in order to fight evil he has to know evil. He asks Lem to look out items that have demonic spirits attached.
• Fiji makes a healing salve for Olivia knowing full well it may not do anything. Manfred calls them and Olivia begs Creek to not tell Manfred about Olivia. She agrees. And then Manfred says ‘I love you’ for the first time. And so does Creek. And AWWWWW!
• Lem finds Manfred the evilest items in the shop. Manfred is in agony, off his pills. Lem gives him a hip flask which he drains. Then Manfred tells him the plan; he’s going to let himself be hijacked by evil. Lem is NOT okay with this but there’s no other choice.
• Olivia is fading and they have no choice but to take her to hospital. Bobo goes to bring the car around.
• At the pawnshop, Lem admits to the Rev that he’s frightened he’s about to lose everything. The Rev points out that Lem and the others came for him and saved his life when he turned. He suggests they use the church as a sanctuary. And he has an idea about how to extend that sanctuary to Lem…
• Creek drives Olivia to hospital. Bobo pushes Fiji about her plan and she admits she’s planning to give herself to Colconnar. She tells Bobo about Jeremy, admitting the truth to someone at last.
• At the pawn shop, Manfred surrounds himself with the evil objects and asks them to join him. The spirits oblige.
• On the road out of town, Olivia is pale and sweaty and almost certainly dying. She asks Creek to give a message to Lem: “I would have come back to him.”
• At the pawnshop, Manfred makes a deal with the evil spirits. Help him defeat Colconnar and they’ll be unfettered from the world once he’s done.
• In the town centre, the wraiths carefully arrange dead animals in a wooden frame.
• At Fiji’s, she explains that she’s planning on killing Colconnar the same way she killed Jeremy. Bobo suggests that instead of giving Colconnar what he wants, she doesn’t.
• Fiji takes a second to get it. And then she really gets it. She and Bobo finally talk about how they really feel and, finally, kiss.
• And then go much, much further.
• In the street, Colconnar rises. Manfred, eyes glowing red, goes toe to toe with him.
• The Wraiths head for Fiji and Joe holds them off. On main street, Colconnar is kicking Manfred’s ass. Lem grabs another artefact for him, Joe stabs Colconnar and is punched out of town.
• Manfred tears the new artifact apart and his eyes and mouth begin bleeding black ichor. He and Colconnar blast energy at each other until Manfred incinerates the demon. He banishes Colconnar and the demons Manfred let into himself and collapses, vomiting the evil out as he does. Joe and Lem pick him up, and Olivia and Fiji arrive.
• It’s over.
• But there’s news about Olivia. None of it good.
• Madonna arrives and comforts Creek with the others not far behind. Lem feeds Olivia a little vampire blood, even though it isn’t good for humans, and heals her.
• Madona, once she gets the news, calls Olivia’s father…
• A week later, The Rev holds a service. Chuy’s back in town, the Midnighters are all healed. Bobo and Fiji are definitely together.
• Oh and Lem and Olivia are getting married! Yaaaaaay!
• Joe and Chuy talk about if the Veil is permanently sealed. Even if it isn’t, they’ve got more time, and that’s all they need. They kiss.
• Fiji and Bobo can’t keep their hands off each other and duck home. On the condition they’re back for the cake…
• Creek finds Manfred staring into the sky and reminds him that none of this would have happened without him. He retorts that he only came back for her so this is actually all down to her. She asks him to dance. She doesn’t take no for an answer.
• The next morning, they’re in bed together. Manfred feels… off. He notices some blood on his ear and the ground begins to shake…
• Manfred and Creek, Joe and Chuy, The Rev, Bobo and Fiji and Olivia all follow the noise to the town’s hotel. It’s been bought. It’s being renovated.
• The town is going to be a tourist destination…

Review:

Love wins! Three times!

Midnight‘s first season finale is straight up adorable with a single espresso shot of horror in the middle of it. It’s not always successful but it’s always got it’s heart on its sleeve and that’s always the right place for it.

Any show where the central plot is resolved at least in part by someone taking full control of their rights and their body is always going to have a feelgood dimension to it and the way the Fiji and Bobo plot is resolved here is just lovely. We especially liked the way that the script took such great pains to have Fiji make the choices herself. It would have been so easy for this to be cheesy or from a male perspective and it was neither. Instead, it was a woman deciding when and with whom she was going to have sex and taking control of her life, her body and the situation all at once. Plus it was really sweet.

Of course, the rise of Colconnar himself was a bit anti-climactic. Manfred got to shoot some fireballs at him, some cars exploded and that was about it. On the upside, the fight gave pretty much everyone besides Creek a chance to shine. Plus, this is a show that’s far more about it’s characters than its plot. This season was about Midnight learning to live with itself. Next season, it seems, will be about the mysterious new owners of the hotel and perhaps the consequences of vampire blood…

The cast all turn in great work, the effects (hilarious cuddly dead dog aside) are great and the episode bubbles with charm. Could it have had more agency? Absolutely. Could it have given more people stuff to do? You bet.

But this is a series that’s brimmed with charm, wit and hope for 10 episodes. It’s never been less than fun, frequently been great and it’s about damn time a show finished with cake and dancing. Thanks, Midnight. We needed you this year. Come back soon, okay?

The Good:

• The bad ass hero walks across the open ground is magnificently impractical. But looks ACES.
• Lem throwing his collar around his face, Count from Sesame Street style is officially one of our favourite things.
• The wedding is just ludicrously sweet. Especially the fact that Lem’s ring is platinum.
• ‘Okay. We save Fiji, kill the demon, close the portal to Hell. And we don’t die. Sound like a plan?’
  ‘My flesh is burning, stop talking.’
• The fact Colconnar just appears is fun. No theatrics, no show business. He’s just there.
• ‘What if I hurt you?’
  ‘You won’t. And if you do, I will die happy.’

The Bad:

• We actually really liked this, but one of the dead animals left in the sacrificial frame is VERY clearly a cuddly toy.
• Creek is a taxi driver this week. Please give her something to do next season?

And The Random:

• David Solomon is an executive producer on the show and has genre TV credits a mile long. He’s produced, written and directed for Dollhouse, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Burn Notice, UnREAL and many others.

Review by Alasdair Stuart

Read all our reviews of Midnight, Texas