The ending of Tales from the Loop season 1 doesn't provide absolute clarity, but it does indeed tease a second installment on Amazon Prime. Developed for television by Nathaniel Halpern, the science fiction series is based on Simon Stålenhag's interactive 2014 art book of the same name. At times, Tales from the Loop season 1 may feel cryptic and confusing, but the storyline is structured by specific themes associated with time and memory.
In Tales from the Loop season 1, the residents of Mercer, Ohio experience strange events while living above the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics aka "The Loop." Jonathan Pryce plays the company founder, Russ, and the primary storyline revolves around his son George (Paul Schneider) and George's wife Loretta (Rebecca Hall), along with the couple's children Jakob (Daniel Zohlgadri) and Cole (Duncan Joiner). The focal narrative involves Russ contemplating his legacy, and how Cole's experiences may be connected. Meanwhile, George grapples with a traumatic memory from the past, and Loretta comes face to face with a younger version of herself. In perhaps the most bizarre twist, Jakob and his friend Danny Jansson (Tyler Barnhardt) swap bodies, unbeknown to everyone else. Tales from the Loop season 1 builds to a moment when young Cole connects all the dots, and tries to understand the bigger picture associated with the Loop.
Tales from the Loop season 1 introduces storylines, but then abandons them in favor of subplots that take up entire episodes. For example, the plot is anchored by the first two episodes, "Loop" and "Transpose," which follows the main group of characters and their conflict to overcome. However, the third episode, "Stasis" features a thinly-connected storyline about two young lovers who willingly trap themselves in time. "Echo Sphere" continues the main storyline, while "Control" and "Parallel" return to stand-alone stories connected to the Loop. Here's how the final two episodes of Tales from the Loop season 1, "Enemies" and "Home," bring the story full circle.
After Russ passes away in "Echo Sphere," Tales from the Loop locks into a storyline about his legacy. Directed by noted horror filmmaker Ti West, the penultimate episode, "Enemies," follows a younger version of George and reveals the context for his mechanical arm. As a teenager, George and his pals row to a local island where a monster is rumored to be living. First, George is left alone as a prank, and then receives a nasty snake bite before navigating the island. While processing his physical trauma, George experiences psychological trauma upon learning that a monster is indeed real. After spotting the robotic beast, he manages to escape. George's arm is amputated, and he never tells his children what happened.
George's backstory connects to his father's legacy. After the monster encounter, Russ tells his son never to speak of what happened, as the monster is actually his first robotic creation that was sent away because of its imperfections. So, when George returns to the island as an adult, he's essentially confronting his father and unresolved feelings. Wearing a mechanical arm, George has inadvertently become part of his father's work, and ultimately bonds with the monster by revealing his most obvious imperfection. For years, George had been hearing the monster's screams; a horrible reminder about the day his life changed forever. By muting noise from the past, George accepts his relationship with Loop, and the narrative then thematically shifts to his son, Cole. The loop has been re-set, in a way.
Klara and Loretta are figuratively the all-seeing eyes of Tales from the Loop. Both women are Loop insiders, and understand how time can shift with the "blink of an eye." The series begins with Loretta meeting a younger version of herself, and offering advice while standing next to the Eclipse, "the beating heart of the Loop." As an adult, she's given control of the Loop by Russ. As for Klara, she sets in motion a recurring photographic motif by snapping a photo of Russ, and later tells Cole that he can "preserve" moments by taking pictures. If Russ is the tech expert of Tales from the Loop season 1, then Klara is the archival expert. Their collective knowledge is transferred over to Loretta, who carries on the Loop's legacy (whatever that may be).
In Mercer, Klara and Loretta restore balance. Due to Russ' death and George's disinterest in Loop-related concepts, Cole becomes the next in line to keep the Loop running. So, when he goes missing in the Tales from the Loop season 1 finale, the family legacy is threatened. Klara passes away, and Loretta becomes an older woman. As for Cole, he hasn't aged at all because he's been trapped IN time, and oddly gains the necessary knowledge that will one day be passed on to others, it seems.
In terms of storytelling, Cole's time travel allows for various points of conflict to be resolved, all the while strengthening his character arc. First, he learns from fake Jakob that his real brother's consciousness is trapped inside a robot after leaving Danny's body. Cole then locates robot Jakob, and they kick a soccer ball together. In the process, however, Jakob crosses a frozen stream - which is later revealed to be the reason he was trapped in time. Robot Jakob dies after a forest battle with another robot, the ice cracks, and Cole is transported back into what appears to be reality.
Cole's time travel connects to the first episode of Tales from the Loop season 1, in which young Loretta looks for her mother, Alma. Now, it's young Cole who looks for his mother at M.C.E.P. He discovers that he'd been away for decades, and that his parents found out the truth about Jakob long ago. Cole returns to school, and learns that a teacher named Sarah (Stefanie Estes) hasn't changed whatsoever. She's revealed to be a robot, the second creation of Russ. Way back when, Russ made an imperfect monster - the one that traumatized George. He followed that up by creating a robot in the image of his wife, Klara (which connects to the image he sees upon passing out, shortly before dying).
Anything is possible in Tales from the Loop. The series begins with Loretta meeting a younger version of herself, so it's entirely plausible that Cole is somehow a younger version of Russ. In "Echo Square," Cole appears to touch the Eclipse in the exact same spot where Loretta once met herself. He later returns to a circular structure labeled MN-7700, which - according to Russ - will allow him to see how long his life will be. Cole sees his future, and seems to know that he'll live as long as Russ, perhaps because they're the same person.
Here's a big clue: early in "Echo Square," Klara recalls seeing Dr. Ballard as a little girl, to which Russ snarkily replies with "What's your point?" Later in the episode, after Cole appears to touch the Eclipse, he makes a telling statement by angrily stating "What's the point? Of all of this." Cole's manner of speech mirrors that of Russ from before. This gives new meaning to Russ handing over the Loop to Loretta, and also the moment when young Cole reunites with his aged mother. Of course, this also means that George is Cole's father and son, which adds a religious "Holy Trinity" element: The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
Tales from the Loop season 1 concludes not with an explanation of the Eclipse, but rather with more cryptic everything-is-connected storytelling. When Cole reunites with Loretta, he snaps a photo of her and curiously sees a younger version; a moment that serves as further evidence that he's a time-bending version of Russ. In the final moments, an adult version of Cole visits his childhood home and snaps a photo. When asked about the passing of time, he gives the same response that Russ, Klara and maybe even Loretta had previously given: "Blink of an eye."
By not explaining the Eclipse, Tales from the Loop season 1 raises questions about what's truly important to the characters, and also about what's important in real life. If there's a religious subtext to be found (the aforementioned Holy Trinity theory), then the series seems to be commenting about the importance of faith. Of course, it's possible that Tales from the Loop season 1 is essentially about savoring those special moments that are priceless; memories that are frozen in time though photographs, memories that will forever be ingrained within the subconscious. If Tales from the Loop season 2 will theoretically be an adaption of the book sequel, Things from the Flood, then it seems like a flood of dark memories will rise to the surface in Mercer.
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