The Council - Ep. 5: Checkmate

You don't need to have watched many television shows to know that finales can be tricky. It's a whole lot easier to lay down a bunch of vague mysteries than it is to reveal all the answers in a satisfying way. That's the tightrope The Council was forced to walk with their fifth and final episode, and I'm happy to say that it mostly sticks the landing. It has the kind of ending that makes me happy I played through the season, but not intrigued enough to demand more episodes. It's a mixed bag.

This has been a rough season for Louis de Richet. He went from being a clueless investigator to learning that he's the son of Lord Mortimer, the millennia-old host of this particular dinner party. And if that wasn't enough, Louis discovered that he possessed super powers, all while navigating a mansion filled with famous world leaders, dangerous twins and daemons that can read your thoughts. He solved puzzles, got himself into trouble and may have accidentally got his mother killed, depending on the choices you make. Like I said, it's been quite a season.

In this finale, we see Louis making a last minute plea to sway enough votes to get his way. While that may not sound all that exciting, Checkmate is one of the more interesting episodes. Not only does it answer most of our questions, but it is the first episode to be playful in its use of the locations. This episode goes from being more of the same to a psychedelic fever dream in a blink of an eye, and it remains interesting until the very end. I have some issues with how the game ends, but I like how different this episode feels. Too bad the rest of the season wasn't as over-the-top and surreal.

As a standalone episode, there isn't a whole lot to Checkmate. The first chapter is mostly heated conversations, which ultimately leads to a couple of painfully easy puzzles. You don't spend much time exploring the mansion or completing side quests, because this episode is leading you down a linear path with a somewhat satisfying conclusion. The story it tells is interesting and I like a few of the set pieces, but this is by far the easiest and shortest episode of the season.

Without getting into massive spoilers, I will say that I found the ending to be a bit anti-climactic. I'm happy that it answered a lot of my questions, but I was surprised by how quickly they wrapped things up. I also don't like how new powers are constantly being introduced at the convenience of the plot. There's a thing that one of the party guests does towards the end that makes him seem impossible to kill, yet the solution is shockingly easy.

It's a neat story full of twists and turns, but the ending undercuts some of what they set up. The Council ultimately squanders these historical figures, never fully justifying why they are part of this story. You would think that some of the more fantastical events that happened in the game would have changed these world leaders, but the outcome is that a few of them form partnerships and trade deals. There's a really good idea in here that gets completely lost as the game tries to explain its own mythology.

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I also don't think the episodic nature helped this series. If you're watching this review, then chances are real high that you've already played the first four episodes (and maybe even this finale), but for those who haven't, I think it would work better as a long binge. The episodic nature breaks up the momentum too much and ends up repeating a lot of the same ideas over and over. It doesn't help that we're largely stuck in the same boring mansion for all five episodes. One thing I like is when episodic games make dramatic changes from one part to the next, and there's nothing like that until this finale.

This is one of those adventure games where the story is just interesting enough to make you overlook some of the imperfections. The problem is that these imperfections keep piling up. It's the crummy performance issues, the white text on white backgrounds and the way objects clip through the character's face in weird ways. And it goes beyond just the technical issues, because I found that the puzzles seemed to get worse with each passing episode. It's the type of game where I'm happy I played through it, but I'm not sure how excited I would be for a second season.

As a season finale, Checkmate is a solid episode of The Council. It has the unenviable task of trying to wrap up a lot of mysteries in a short amount of time and I would argue that it does a mostly satisfying job. The ending is a bit anti-climactic and it's occasionally in a rush to get there, but there's a sense of urgency here that you don't get in other episodes. And while there are certainly some missed opportunities and a bunch of lame puzzles, I find myself willing to give The Council a tepid recommendation.