'The Casual Vacancy' Ends In Darkness

Wow. For those who've read the book, you probably already knew that the miniseries adaptation of JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy was going to be a pretty depressing affair. One filled with fascinating character studies, intense moments of familial dysfunction and thought-provoking ideas, but still an overall depressing affair. In Part 3 of HBO's The Casual Vacancy miniseries, the Pagford election finally takes place, and unfortunately for those in favor of keeping the Sweetlove House as a community center, Colin Wall loses by one vote: His own. From there things fall down the rabbit hole of darkness as the aftermath of the election brings out the absolute worst in people in Pagford and the series is bookended with the horrible tragedy of Krystal's death. However, there is a bit of hope at the end of the series however as Krystal's tragic death leads to a small light in the tunnel for the future of Krystal's brother Robbie.

But first for the parts too hard to watch. The election ends and Miles Mollison is crowned the winner. His wife leaves him after telling him she hoped he wouldn't win, and he votes to let the community center get torn down in favor of whatever the Sweetlove's want to do with it (put up a spa). For a time it seems like Miles' parents have not only won their race, but also won over Miles for good. On top of this, Krystal's recovering drug addict mother falls off the wagon and invites some horrible people to stay at their home while they all got high. Also Howard's wife Shirley learned of her husband's affair with his worker Maureen, and Stuart and Andrew break off their friendship over Gaia.

Knowing that Terri would never be able to recuperate, Krystal attempts to slip away in the early morning hours to take refuge in Stuart's help to bring them to his mother so she could look after them. Of course Krystal believed the only way she could get Tessa's help was if she was pregnant so she relays this fake news to Stuart who basically rebuffs her. Meanwhile Krystal loses track of Robbie and believes he's drowned in the river. When she jumps in to look for him, she gets tangled in the wires of the stolen TV Simon threw into the river and drowns.

While the entire town is rocked by the death, Howard suffers a heart attack from hearing the video of his affair online and Shirley almost lets him die. They end up at the hospital as Krystal is being taken to the morgue. But despite all of this Howard lives (yet continues to see visions of death), Andrew and Gaia reconcile and Robbie gets taken into the foster care system which is a huge relief considering his living situations before Krystal's death. Simon also seems to show remorse for his idiotic actions after he sees that his TV wires caused Krystal's death. The town continues on and more people move there every day, but now maybe there's a little sliver of hope that the citizens will actually want to help each other in small, but significant ways.

Images: Steffan Hill/HBO (2)