Let’s Talk About the ‘Serial’ Finale

For me, “Serial” peaked two-thirds of the way through the series. It went from a podcast I looked forward to, to one I finished out of obligation. Ultimately, the last episode tried to tie up as many loose ends as possible. We finally heard from Don, we talked through Jay, we heard a smidgen about a new and unrelated potential suspect, but there was no real closure. The most satisfying part of the finale was the learning that this case is not the norm. I feared that it wasn’t unusual for murder trials to have such a lack of hard evidence and such a wealth of unanswered questions, and still result in a conviction. That isn’t to say that the story makes me feel wholly comfortable with the criminal justice system, but at least the pros — the people who deal with murder cases regularly — also agree that this case is a mess.

That the series ended without an answer to who killed Hae Min Lee is not surprising. I did, however, expect some attempt at a clean ending. Something like: The exploration of this case gave us the opportunity to experience what anyone working in the criminal justice system already knows: the system is flawed, truth feels fluid, doubt is constant and the lack of comfort inherent in that feeling is overwhelming. And instead of ignoring those aspects of a justice system Americans are beholden to, it’s an incredibly valuable exercise to be walked through a stunning example of this doubt, to internalize it and recognize the repercussions.

But that ending might be too easy. There’s an impetus to tie those loose ends into a tidy bow, and some stories simply don’t have one. It’s easy enough to manufacture, but in this case it might have cheapened the actual story. From the start Ira Glass told us we’d be working through the story along with Sarah Koenig. And if the real value of the story is experiencing and sitting with these seemingly unanswerable questions, then the series ended just as it should.

What do you think?

Lastly, courtesy of Char, I leave you with Funny or Die’s take on “Serial”: