316: The Last Stand

Synopsis

The episode picks up where 315: Legends Never Die left off, with Denny's Tavern burning and collapsing. Tallahassee lies in the street after his fall from the upper window, still deep in his hallucination of an imperial Japan. He is badly hurt, but his Flesh Ward has absorbed far more damage than he could have survived without it. Major Bakersfield orders Slotty Botfast to dive on the creature charging Tallahassee, and the steed of stars slams into it with raking claws and a snapping beak. The Major then kills it with both barrels of his shotgun at point-blank range ("Sayonara, Smoothie"). Tallahassee pins the creature he is wrestling with his saber, which he imagines to be a katana, while Grant Jameson finishes it with his rifle. Tallahassee scolds him for dishonoring himself by using a firearm.

Inside the tavern, Billy comes to his senses, grabs Dr. Simeon by the forearm and swears to be his man forever. He then runs downstairs to draw the ritual symbol on the forehead of the unconscious Ike Watson. Dr. Simeon sends Ezra off with Delilah and her son and joins Billy. Together they haul Ike out through the smashed back wall, with Dom, Percy, Goodman Gray and his last two men, the limping Ishmael Graves and the old constable Robert Morgan. Behind the tavern, the alpha creature is tearing into the other creatures while the dead light flits among the trees. Then a vehicle full of dynamite and gasoline explodes south of the tavern and knocks everyone flat. The blast breaks Dom's hold on the alpha, the runes on its body flare, and it turns its glare on the group as Denny's collapses behind them.

The group regroups in a heroic flying V formation for what the Major calls their last stand. The alpha is brought back under control, and on command it seizes two of the smaller creatures and tears them apart, but about ten more charge the group. Dom lights a stick of the Major's dynamite on the first flick of his lighter, and Billy drops a wounded adolescent creature with his Colt 1911. Then Tallahassee tells the others to say hi to Mayor Seidel for him, grabs the lit dynamite and charges alone into the pack. The creatures swarm him, and the dynamite explodes, scattering bodies and limbs and leaving the alpha staggering at the edge of the blast. The Major and Dom finish off the survivors. Billy begins the ritual chant over Ike as the alpha, still under command, is sent toward the dead light, and Dr. Simeon runs to retrieve the silver coffer. The dead light pours into the alpha, the original creation of Bernard Corbitt, and burns it to ash. When Billy finishes the chant, the light takes Ike Watson, and this time the others look away.

As the smoke clears, a lone figure in a fedora walks out of the carnage. It is Tallahassee, his clothes shredded but his skin almost untouched thanks to the Flesh Ward, with only a long cut down his cheek. The group comes together in disbelief, having survived the fall of New Jerusalem against all odds. The Keeper closes on whether this was fate, as Percy has been saying, and whether every victory will carry such a cost. Ezra holds Delilah's hand while she keeps her arm around her son, and the group remembers the townsfolk sheltered up at the graveyard. They realize that they saved what they could.

Funny Moments

• Tallahassee, still hallucinating, sees the Major arrive as a dragon rider, then grabs a pickle instead of the dynamite, at least in the table's version.
• The Keeper describes Tallahassee's sword fight with the creature as a Mr. Burns-style slap fight.
• Billy's "I am your man, forever" moment comes with "Unchained Melody" playing on the radio while Dr. Simeon does the ghost maneuver to help him draw the symbol.
• The group adopts the flying V ("the formation that ducks take"), and someone proposes a totem pole assault. The Keeper confirms that the creatures are already charging in a traditional smoothie totem pole.
• No one at the table can throw better than 29%, and nobody trusts the Major with dynamite after the sanatorium.
• Tallahassee strolls out of the explosion: "Damn, it feels good to be a gangster."

Notable Quotes

• "I am your man, forever." —Billy McConnell
• "Sayonara, Smoothie." —Major Bakersfield
• "This is it, gentlemen. This is the last stand." —Major Bakersfield
• "Say hi to Mayor Seidel for me." —Tallahassee Turner
• "There's no other options, fellas. Get yourselves out of here." —Tallahassee Turner