Summary
Against all odds, the finale of Rooster sticks the landing, delivering the emotional payoff that Bill Lawrence shows are known for while also adroitly setting up a second season with a different dynamic.
I will confess to not having enjoyed Rooster as much as I expected to. First impressions were good, of course, but its ideas and characters never really coalesced in the way they did in, say, Shrinking. It was funny and warm-hearted throughout, but I did find myself wondering whether we’d seen the best show had to offer. Thankfully, I was dead wrong. Season 1’s ending sticks the landing so well that I genuinely can’t wait to see what comes next, and I finally feel as if I’ve been in the embrace of that warm hug that Bill Lawrence shows are known for. Only took the whole season, but we got there in the end!
Interestingly – and weirdly, given that it’s May – “Songs for Raisa” is a Christmas episode. It doesn’t feel especially Christmassy, granted, but it has the emotionality of the season, those little moments of celebration and touching character beats that really suit the sweet requirements of a comedy finale. It all just works, while also adroitly setting up an already confirmed Season 2, which sounds like it’s going to have a slightly new dynamic given the resolution of the love triangle and the promotion of Elizabeth. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Greg Is Officially Over Elizabeth
When Elizabeth returned in the previous episode, I assumed it was just to create a bit more conflict in Katie’s relationship with Greg. But that’s what we were supposed to think, since that’s the way that Elizabeth tends to operate. Her only previous appearance this season was because Ludlow was naming a student centre after her, and it becomes obvious during a dinner with Greg and Katie to smooth over the lingering tension around the circumstances of Katie’s hiring that she has ulterior motives once again. She even, as Greg puts it, double-booked a family crisis so she could cosy up to one of Ludlow’s trustees.
Elizabeth isn’t necessarily a villain, per se, but she becomes one the more you think about it. She’s visibly unbothered about how Katie feels. She replaces the picture from their Italian vacation that Greg had hung up in his living room with one of her from Fortune magazine, and then makes a move on him. Greg rebuffing her is the first indication that he has, finally, gotten over their divorce. The proper confirmation comes later, when he tears that photo in half after learning that Elizabeth has unseated Walt and snatched his job.
This kind of positions Elizabeth as the Big Bad for Season 2. There’ll be a transitional period next semester, so Walt will be coming back, but Elizabeth will be in charge. And given how she has conducted herself thus far, there are probably going to be fireworks.
The Love Triangle Collapses
My least favourite part of Rooster has been the Archie/Katie/Sunny love triangle, but I must confess that the ending resolves it in about as satisfying a way as it conceivably could have. I was very worried after Katie’s extremely rash decision to take Archie back, but that proves to be the jumping-off point for the entire dynamic collapsing in a really fun way.
Archie finally builds up the courage to actually make a decision, at least, and inspired by Mikhail Gorbachev, of all people, who apparently loved his wife so much that he released an album when she died titled “Songs for Raisa” – which is also the title of Rooster Episode 10 – he decides to fully commit to Katie. This means finally being up-front with Sunny, which, funnily enough, is the first moment of the finale that oddly moved me. Sunny’s general disinterest in everything has felt like a character flaw all season, but it seems to have been the setup for this exact moment, when she confesses to being much more bothered by the news than she ordinarily is about anything.
Archie finally telling the truth seems like good character development. Correction: It is good character development. But it means little to Katie, who now, having forced him into a decision by taking control of her own life, has realised that it wasn’t the right decision on her own terms. A bit of spinach in Archie’s teeth becomes intolerable to her, and she realises, metaphorically, that he’s always going to have spinach in his teeth to her. He made too many mistakes. He was too unreflective. And she wants a divorce.
To add insult to injury, Archie tries to take the second-best offer of leaving with Sunny, but Mo made sure she got on an earlier flight. She’s free of him. And Archie is, deservedly, alone.
It’s Party Time
As with the penultimate episode, the finale operates on the basis that Greg is due to leave Ludlow. And it commits to the bit so wholeheartedly that I thought for a moment he might leave, even though I was so certain that he wouldn’t. The highlight is a surprise party at Art’s thrown by all of his colleagues and students, which is just a great string of little interactions and emotional payoffs that almost singlehandedly justifies a few of the bumps in the road to get here.
Greg’s thank-you speech, about finally being made to feel like he belonged somewhere for the first time in his life, is a real tear-jerker and feels like just reward for his character having been held in stasis for most of the season. So many of his small, seemingly minor interactions pay off here that you have to imagine Lawrence and co. had much more foresight with this story than most people – including me – gave them credit for. It’s truly great stuff.
And, of course, Greg decides to stay. But it’s a decision he’s making for himself. Tommy’s passing his classes, Katie’s love life is sorted out, and everything that needed to be resolved has been. He’s staying because he wants to stay. It isn’t until he calls Walt to let him know that he realises his ex-wife is going to be his new boss. Should be fun.
