“Echoes” hooks you from the beginning. If you think you can guess what’s happening from the start, you’re wrong. It was equal parts intriguing, disturbing, and confusing. It’s hard when writers forget about the last episode or that it’s a limited series with no promises of a second season. It needed ten more minutes to wrap it up in a pretty chaotic bow. The ending gave us flashbacks to the cliff that the writers of When a Stranger Calls left me on decades ago.
Between you and me, no one knows how it ends. Not even Gina and Leni.
Here are play-by-play reactions to us watching the mini-series unfold:
The mini-series begins pleasantly cliche, how you’d expect a thriller mystery to start: gray skies and a woman going for a jog long before most people press snooze for the first time.
Then they really start to lean into the mystery aspect of it all.
Squid Game-esque music enters chat. It’s uncalled for.
On episode 5 Gina briefly gives you some answers.
But then quickly.
And then we’re back to this. A constant state of this.
Should you watch it? Responsibly, we don’t know if we can tell you to stream it. The concept is bizarre. But we also can’t bring ourselves to tell you to skip it. There’s a reason it has a hype. We can tell you one thing: that last scene is living rent-free in people’s heads across the nation. That last scene once lived on a storyboard, then separate people wrote, directed, and produced it. A collective group of people gave the green light to an ending whose sole purpose was to mess with our vulnerable minds. A part of us hopes they step on a Lego.
If you watch it, make a friend watch it with you. You’re going to need to talk to someone about it.
If you don’t watch it, we’re really proud of you.
Alternate endings for Echoes:
SPOILERS AHEAD
Do not read ahead if you haven’t seen Echoes, and there’s even a 3% chance you might be interested in watching it.
Before we dive in, according to Wikipedia “limited series” means:
Limited series (television), a television show with a predetermined number of episodes telling a complete story arc, usually longer than a miniseries.
Pretty straightforward, right? Naively, I went into this limited series thinking it was a limited series with a complete story arc because Netflix said it was a limited series. How presumptuous of me. Despite the Hallmark dialogue and twisted plot, Echoes was relatively good. They really kept us guessing the whole way through. For a brief episode, we were finally getting some answers. Then there was the last episode. Ending it with “So many scores to settle, Charlie,” really ruffled my feathers. Gina/Leni, you should have settled said scores episodes ago. Turns out, the greatest plot twist of this limited series, everyone forgot it was a limited series that should have an ending.
So, how should it have ended? With an ending. It’s the little things.
That’s it. Mattie and Jack are thriving without a twin in sight. Gina’s at peace in any town, in any place, with the smallest glimmer of peace. And Charlie and Leni are wherever evil step sisters go.
Here’s a couple ideas on how it could have ended:
Jack lost me when he couldn’t tell them apart. But he and Mattie deserve happiness nonetheless. Their farm becomes successful and all is well with not a twin in sight.
Charlie gave me weird vibes, he and Leni deserve each other.
Gina starts a new life anywhere else. Anywhere, in any town, in any place, with the smallest glimmer of peace and contentment.
