User blog:Johno1995/Season 3 Finale: In Retrospect

Merry Christmas! Left you an Eden-shaped present under the tree if you haven't noticed already...

The reason for the creation of this blog is that there is a lot to cover in lieu of season 3's end. It's been a wild ride for me so far, and as readers, I figured I owed you guys a crap ton of explanation and a bit of insight into the author's thought process, for one of the finale's big events.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.

'If you have not caught up on Eden Rising'', but plan to, proceed with caution. If you do not care about spoilers, then be my guest and continue...'''

'''Also, any comments on the blog post, please respectfully avoid spoiling things in the first few lines. Discussion is welcome, but not at the expense of others' enjoyment of the show. Thank you.'''

Eden Rising opened as the story of Tom and his daughter Darla, and even in their death 30 episodes later, the same will ring true.

Tom was a character designed straight from the beginning to be flawed. When designing his character, I kept looking at his first scenes, written to perfection by series co-creator Steven Herrera. We open on Tom rushing his wife Annie to the hospital, as she's in labor. He manages to get her there, but she passes away - the baby, however, survives. Then we jump years in the future, Darla is a growing young girl who is petite and has a good relationship with her father. We still sense this sadness in Tom's character, however, just from these scenes alone.

So in designing an arc around Tom, I wanted the death of his wife and his inability to get over it to be one of his major flaws. I also wanted this subtle mixture of feelings from Tom - placing a ridiculous blame on Annie's death to Darla, while also loving this girl to death because she is all that's left of his relationship with his wife.

Which is why, from the beginning, I always devised that to truly bring everything full circle: Tom would have to lose Darla.

From writing episode 1, I knew... Darla had to die. And I also knew that with her, Tom would die too. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally...

Why?
"Why kill your protagonist, when you still plan on three more seasons?"

"Is this all for shock value?"

“Did you do this to appease the Tom haters?”

I sincerely expect these questions in every reader's mind right now. I do not blame anyone for being confused or maybe even feel led on or cheated by this.

However, when looking back, retrospectively at the show, I hope you all realize that this was planned from day one. Whether people responded to Tom positively or not (and there has been quite a mixed reception to his character, and for good reason), he was always planned to die so do not think any negative opinions of him swayed me. I know every character has their haters and their fans. In fact, there have been quite a few hints and build-up to this moment...

Coming Full-Circle with Ash's Revolver Scene
This was a prime example for me. That scene in the season one finale, with Ash playing Russian Roulette on himself and Tom encouraging him to live, was always planned to echo on later. I didn't always know the exact details, but I always felt this intense need to revisit this scene, because of how pivotal it was to both characters and their development. Especially in terms of planning that Tom will eventually die, I wanted to revisit this it was just a matter of when and how.

Then in planning Tom's final arc, seeing his self-destruction, the destruction he brings on his own family and his friends -- it only felt natural to turn the tables and for Tom to spin that revolver chamber, telling Ash why he needs to do this... but I wanted to put a spin on it. I wanted Ash to do for Tom what Tom didn't do for him; I wanted Ash to want to care enough about Tom to see how shattered he is and allow him to let go, move on, and find peace - but to encourage him to find a better solution.

So encouraging Tom to do something good in his final moments, and those final infected coming in and nearly killing Tamsin – Tom sees the despair in Ash’s face. He sees the happiness that Tamsin represents for Ash, and he buys her time. He plows into that group, knowing it’s his final stand. He did something good, he bought Tamsin time to escape, to make sure that Ash didn’t lose the happiness that Tom felt he deserved. Tom's final "thank you" as he faded into his death, brought that all full circle. And then Ash pulling the trigger on the revolver Tom flipped the chamber of earlier, and firing the bullet into Tom's brain to prevent reanimation, just put some nice wrapping paper and a pretty little bow on the package.

John Smith & The Last Chance Society
As an example of post-apocalyptic organized religion, The Last Chance Society represented the crumbled last bits of humanity. But, on a deeper scale, each of its major inhabitants represented an exaggerated part of Tom, his personality, and characterization:
 * Benedict represented repressed vulnerability
 * Ivy represented determination
 * Father Warden represented confidence and persuasiveness
 * Libby represented Tom's parental side in her maternal nature, and the masquerading of secrets under an attractive and charismatic appearance

But the most intriguing of the bunch was John Smith, who represented all of the above, essentially making him a similar, tragic character to Tom. In fact, John Smith's speedy arc in ways can be looked at as a quick representation of what was to come for Tom. John Smith, in his anger, took out Bray with a gunshot to the face, the same as Tom did to Griggs in his burst of anger a few episodes prior. In a more in-your-face example, John Smith's deceased wife was named Annie, the same name as Tom's first wife. Both men's inability to get over their Annie led to their downfall. The loss of John's infected child Adam led to his suicide, just like the death of Tom's child led to his.

In many ways, John Smith was the flawed individual that Tom looked at as an example of who not to become. Tom allowed John Smith's failsafe bomb, that was timed to take out the entire community to tick until it exploded, knowing full well he could have stopped. It was in this moment that Tom started down the same path John Smith went down; unwittingly, but essentially, leading into him becoming the very man he promised himself he wouldn't become.

The Future
Tom and Darla's deaths were written as a set up to bring about a change in the world of Eden Rising. This was a guy who devoted a lot of his life to protect them, and went down – after falling down a path of darkness – with that sense of purpose and trying to protect those people renewed once again.

Now with Tom gone, Ash has a template.

He knows what he has to do to take on the good qualities of Tom in his reign of leadership, and to avoid the bad qualities of Tom.

Even during the rough patch they suffered at the beginning of season 3 and with the revelations of what Tom did to Rory and Gareth, I’m sure it will scathe Ash’s opinion of him of course, but in the end: Tom was always Ash’s role model and father figure. Tom was there for him in his time of need, and like how Kitty found a way to recognize Tom’s importance in her life and all the things he did for her even after he took away her happiness, Ash will find a way to forgive him too.

But the purpose of Tom’s arc has now been fulfilled:

Ash has a blueprint now. His role model is dead, and he has an example left in his wake.

How will Ash follow in Tom’s footsteps?

How will Tom’s death and his decisions in season 3 affect the survivors for season 4 and beyond?

Tom and Darla’s deaths will have unimaginable repercussions on the cast.

I just hope, no matter what the opinion you had of Tom was, everyone realizes what a big moment this was for the show and recognizes the tragedy in his ending.

Okay, let me step off my high horse and stop talking about myself and my story. Just figured I owed my readers an explanation.

It’s been three full seasons and thirty episodes! Excited to start a new era in “Eden Rising” come January and thanks to everyone who's been along for the ride; without your support and love, I wouldn't have gotten this far.

Merry Christmas, everyone!