I am the Night series finale recap: The Hodels have their final meeting

In the series finale of I am the Night, Fauna shares one final meeting with her grandfather, Dr. George Hodel, and Jay makes a choice to save Fauna.

Being a fictionalized version of a true story, there was no guessing how I am the Night would end. However, in the final wrap-up, they managed to give the series a personal ending without stretching too far off base.

Fauna and Jay are given peaceful conclusions and Dr. Hodel’s name is permanently tarnished. Anyone who never heard of him before will only know him as the sick rapist who painted ugly portraits in a torture chamber.

Starting in a flashback to 1917, the episode shows a young George Hodel playing the piano strategically perfect, but without emotion. His instructor informs George’s mother that George plays like a machine incapable of understanding the emotion behind the art. What he’s describing is a young psychopath and the root of George’s carefully tailored identity.

Back in present time, Fauna gets a call from the hospital and discovers what happened to Jimmy Lee. At the same time, the race war that’s been gradually becoming more heated throughout the series has come to a head and the streets are under siege. This makes it impossible to go anywhere alone so Fauna pleads for Terrance to drive her to Corinna’s house.

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Terrance and Fauna weren’t given a lot of screentime together, but I guess we’re supposed to believe they fell in love or developed strong feelings for each other because Fauna gives him a longing kiss before they part. Feels kinda random and out-of-place. They knew each other for what? Two days, and didn’t she already have a boyfriend she wanted to marry in the pilot episode?

So anyway, Fauna goes to Corinna’s house to ask for bus money, but it’s an odd choice given their strained relationship. Corinna is so shady she’d be the last person anyone should ask favors from, but thanks to the riots, she’s the last person available at a moment’s notice.

Things escalate quickly after that. They have a brief conversation about Tamar before Corinna drugs Fauna with a laced drink and warns her against eating any food Dr. Hodel offers before she passes out.

Creepy grandfather at his worst

Fauna wakes up in Dr. Hodel’s house while he’s pulling an Edward Cullen, watching her sleep in her nightgown, meaning someone undressed her. Her grandfather is all bright smiles and cheerful disposition, but he’s a little too nice if you know what I mean. The way he looks at Fauna is discomforting. Like she’s a frog in biology class that he’s anxious to dissect.

While in the bedroom, Fauna sees the chess set matching the lone piece Sepp had on him when he died. Though I feel like she probably already suspected, now she knows for sure that Sepp worked for her grandfather.

Hodel tells Fauna not to believe whatever Jay or Tamar told her, disregarding Jay as a damaged alcoholic and Tamar as insane, complimenting himself on being a very generous man. Not believing a word of it, Fauna tries faking a headache and announces her desire to lie down in an attempt to flee the house, but Hodel is on to her and halts any chance of escape.

Hodel shows Fauna a painting which resembles a window, something that he thinks she’d appreciate because of her double identity. He rambles on about the window and art and how nice Fauna fits in the house acting like she’s a pretty doll made for decoration, while poor Fauna just stands there terrified.

Jay takes a fall as Billis comes to his senses

Jay got arrested, from the previous episode, and is getting beaten by Hodel’s dirty cops. They’re beating him just for the hell of it, no reason behind it, but are giving Jay a chance of relief if only he’d stop talking about George Hodel.

At this point, the cop with the facial scar, Billis, starts coming off as a misunderstood individual. He appears to work for Hodel against his will because the doctor owns the entire city, men more powerful than him also protect Hodel.

Recognizing Billis as a cop rather than a heartless goon for hire, Jay does all he can to reason with Billis and convince him that Hodel will murder his granddaughter if given the chance. Despite all signs at Billis being a dirty cop that has shown no redeemable qualities up till this point, he doesn’t appear comfortable with the thought of a 16-year-old girl being murdered. He pays a visit to Hodel and sees Fauna there, looking small and nervous.

She quietly pleads Billis to help her escape before Hodel appears like a cat slinking up behind everyone and takes her away. The encounter is enough to worry Billis and he takes a look at Jay’s alleged evidence.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough to get a conviction and they make a deal instead; Jay will confess to Janice Brewster’s murder if Billis conveniently loses Jay for a few hours, giving him enough time to kill Hodel. Jay, finally accepting the path his life was already headed down, gives up his freedom for Fauna, but Billis has a change of heart and lets him escape in the chaos of the street wars.

Hodel vs Hodel

Back at the Hodel house, Fauna and George sit down for dinner. George’s wife (not Corinna but a new wife) is there but she acts like a maid and says nothing before leaving them in peace. Heeding Corinna’s warning, Fauna eats nothing. Even when Hodel makes a toast and eagerly watches Fauna hold up her glass, but she defiantly puts the glass down without drinking from it. Persephone would be proud.

This disappoints the man very, very much and he drags Fauna downstairs into a medical torture room filled with canvases, he orders her to change into a nightgown and pose for a portrait.

Judging by the dirty walls, medical instruments, pictures of dead bodies and numerous paintings littering the place, it’s easy to assume the horrible medical basement is the very room where Short and Brewster spent their living last moments. You almost want to cry for Fauna. All she wanted was to find her biological parents. She didn’t sign up for this ugly spectacle.

A whole lot of weirdness happens, and George says a whole bunch of nonsense that gets boring after about the second sentence. He’s the same old song and dance we’ve seen a million times, a sicko who thinks he’s creating art with murder. Nothing but a cliché.

Fauna sees how pathetic he is about his precious “art” and his cliché life and begins ridiculing him. She hits it where it hurts, right in his painting skills. Digging the knife deep by praising Corinna’s skills as an artist instead of his own, effectively pissing him off! He looks like an animated rat squeaking because someone stole his cheese. Even if he wasn’t a killer, she had a point, his artwork wasn’t very good and he was an egotistical snob.

Fauna secretly took a marble paperweight before they went downstairs and as he prepares to shoot her, she smacks him over the head with it. After getting the upper hand by stealing his gun and throwing more satisfying insults at the man’s face, she asks him the final question: is she his daughter?

However, Fauna decides the answer doesn’t matter and makes her own choice by denouncing any blood ties they share and names herself as Jimmy Lee’s daughter, not his. She has the opportunity to shoot him but doesn’t; probably a mistake but Fauna’s no killer.

Final moments

Jay arrives at the house and embraces Fauna. He goes to kill Hodel, but the doctor has escaped, much to Jay’s dismay. Hand-in-hand the duo walk out into the ravaged streets still smoking from the riots and say their goodbyes. It’s a fitting setting, both the street and they look tired, exhausted and moments from collapsing.

Fauna walks past the armed police force in her bloody, tattered clothing. The final moments of a war when the survivors walk home.

In the final moments, Fauna and Terrance go to see Jimmy Lee in the hospital, who will make a full recovery and Dr. Hodel has fled the country (as he did in real life).

Jay is last seen on a beach in an unnamed location, I’m guessing Korea, and reads a letter from Fauna. As he faces his ghosts, he looks out at the sunset and on the other side of the world Fauna watches the sunrise just moments later. A satisfying conclusion to a slightly uneven series.

Did you enjoy the end of I am the Night? Were you as unsatisfied with George surviving as I was? Please share