OTGW #10 - The Unknown

Sorrow and fear are easily forgotten when you submit to the soil of the Earth.

We’re onto the final episode, and Wow is it emotionally charged. Can one ever prepare for it? Not me, apparently.

Greg solving the riddles is great. Not only charming and funny, but creative and intelligent as well. The three answers, spiderweb, honeycomb, and the sun in a china cup all feel very fairytale. Also notable, this might well be the most we’ve heard The Beast talk.

Another detail I love about this episode is how cold and frail everyone looks. The Beast’s haunting line, ‘Just sit there in the cold and wait’ really hammers home that Winter has arrived, and Death along with it.

Beatrice and Wirt are reunited, and we also see the Woodsman again. He’s running out of Edelwood to crush into oil. Come Wayward Souls echoes out through the snowstorm. God, this song is as impressive as it is creepy. It’s really quite haunting. Not as haunting as revealing EdelGreg to the Woodsman. It is in this momentous scene we get the seriously horrific line:

‘You’ve been grinding up lost souls for years.’

What the fuck. And children’s TV is full of this stuff!

The Beast flashes his turtle-addled eyes at us, which raises a hundred questions, and then the Woodsman pursues him with his axe.

Potatus Et Molassus plays as Wirt and Beatrice find Greg - this is a really nice touch, I must say. Greg spitting up leaves is hilarious, but really hits you in the heart. And then Wirt cries. Oh man. Also, I completely forgot that Wirt gives the final and definitive name for the frog, Jason Funderberker (apparently spelt differently to avoid confusion). This is brilliant.

What’s also brilliant is ‘Give me my lantern’. What a spectacular failure from The Beast. Now Wirt knows he has a weakness. Interestingly, a bell-like noise plays as Wirt realises. Might look into that. Anyway, The Beast’s vocal distortion is freaky, and when he sucks the light from the lantern, things genuinely get a little frightening.

‘ARE YOU READY TO SEE TRUE DARKNESS?’

Wirt has had enough and calls the bluff. It works and he’s solidified as a true hero. The fakeout here that the Woodsman’s daughter is dead is poignant, but those rewatching know this is a lie, so it’s fine. What’s less fine is seeing the true form of The Beast, cowering from the light, riddled with holes and gaping mouths and eyes. An amalgam of damned souls. He is extinguished along with the lantern’s light, letting out a monstrous wail as he perishes.

Fucking Hell.

Wirt bids Beatrice goodbye, and then they’re drowning again. Wirt saves Greg, and himself, and then his friends discover them. In the hospital (where I’m just about keeping it together) Greg is revealed to have very smart hair. Weird. Sarah is here, and keen on Wirt, which is lovely. We also catch a glimpse of the bell. This is chilling, and fascinating too.

Back in The Unknown, the Woodsman is reunited with his daughter. This is a really nice scene. But the question has to be asked - was she ever gone? Was she, as one Reddit theory claims, The Beast, having swallowed a black turtle (the very turtle who is fished up just a few scenes after we see her)?

In this coda we see some familiar faces, but most interestingly Lorna, reading the Tome of the Unknown. Nice reference, that. Similarly cool is Enoch, the cat. He, like the frog, Beatrice and her family, and Fred, can speak in a human voice. Odd. Speaking of Beatrice, we see her in human form, back at the mill. This is a nice scene, and funny, and sets a peaceful tone before we drift into the credits.

So, that’s it. Over the Garden Wall, completed again. I will be writing a follow-up on the themes and other stuff, as I feel these reviews have been a rambling mishmash of things I liked, and not nearly enough analysis to satisfy my inner English Literature student. That said, there are a hundred excellent essays out there about this show, and even I wrote one at university (it was crap). I can’t compete with what’s already available, so I may well link some standouts in my final OTGW post. My main goal for these reviews was just to call out all the bits I love, and that’s what I’ve done. Now the dissection can begin.

Anyway, thank you for joining me on this year’s rewatch. Comment your favourite episode below, if you’re so inclined.

And as ever, thanks for reading.

Until next time,

H.E.

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There’s an old black train a’comin’, scraping ‘long the iron,

You don’t need no ticket, boys, it’ll take you when it’s time.