Are you ready for season finale week? On Sunday, the not-serious offspring of Logan Roy will be delivered their just deserts. On Monday, the people of Alberta will be served up with the same. And on Wednesday, to make us all feel better, Ted Lasso’s decency and humanity will surely be rewarded.
So, prediction time!
Succession is a tragedy. The protagonists’ fatal flaws will bring about their own downfall. There are no happy endings. None of Logan Roy’s children will succeed him, but they’ll all repeat some version of his tragic flaws for the rest of their lives. (Can we somehow rescue Shiv and Tom’s baby?)
Ted Lasso is a comedy, so the protagonists will find a happy ending. Ted will find happiness reunited with his son, and the Greyhounds will go on to success in the Premier League with Coach Nate at the helm. The Believe sign will go back up above his door. Rebecca’s happy ending? Maybe it’s the freedom to be herself without a man to complicate things.
It’s harder to predict how things will turn out for Alberta. After all, it’s a tragi-comedy, so the plot lines are less predictable. I sketched out some possibilities in this flowchart-polooza over on CBC.
I’m still in a bit of a muddle about how to make sense of the polls, but at this point they do appear to be pointing in a single direction: ‘Berta’s gonna ‘Berta. I suspect I’m going to have some things to say about this next week.
But for now, let me just give a shout out to my single favorite character in the drama of Alberta politics this month: Jeromy Farkas. I met Jeromy for the first time last fall at a UCalgary Grad College event, and spent an interesting evening talking to him about his journey (literal and figurative). I told him that night that he was a writer trapped in a politician’s body, and should write a book about his experience. (Any publishers reading this??)
Since then, I’ve followed his journey and have been impressed, over and over, by his courage. Over the past several weeks, motivated by concern about democracy and the well-being of trans kids, he has spoken his truth. Listen to this.
Over the next few weeks, I suspect we’re all going to be talking about the way forward for Alberta after an exceptionally intense election. Jeromy’s journey gives me hope for what that might look like.
Jeromy is a hero of this election, however it turns out.
Over at your CBC flow chart … your best plot twist ever!