11/22/63 ending (spoilers)

When the the finale began at "the moment" instead of building to "the moment", I guess it hit me that this was really more of a love story between Jake and Sadie than stopping the assassination.

I didn't mind that in resetting the cycle and letting President Kennedy die, he saved a good person instead of working to save someone he didn't even know.

I was actually surprised how much I liked an ending I normally wouldn't have liked.

I also liked how Jake wasn't exactly a cool customer. For what was marketed as a time traveling thriller, you would think our protagonist would be suave badass. Jake was a bumbling English teacher that really wasn't up for this kind of adventure and nearly fricked it all up every step of the way. I kinda liked that.

I also had no knowledge of this story before the show and had never heard of the book.

I learn that JFK would have made the world worse and Lee HArvey Oswald is a god dam hero.

quote:

---

If you think of it that way then you're an idiot.


If JFK survived an assassination attempt by someone linked to Russia, there probably would have been a nuclear war.

The writers didn't not state that this would happen if Oswald was killed before the attempt.

---

Ok, lets get to the premise of the movie as was presented to ME the viewers.

Plot Point 1: Go back in time, prevent JFK assassination. The friend believe that JFK would have made it all better, that America spirit broke that day.

Plot Point 2: Jake prevented JFK assassination and came back to a post Apocalyptic future. We're talking about some real Walking Dead shite.

Everything is destroyed.


So let's review the main plot point. PRevent JFK death, America would have a better future.

Real results? Preventing JFK death is catastrophic and his death was needed.

Lee Harvey Oswald was vilified in real life for killing JFK.

IN the show? He was pretty much vindicated and proven right on what he had to do.

Forget all the romance and crap in between, I watched this show to see what happen in a world with JFK. What was presented to me was not pretty.

As a book reader...I'm glad the series stayed true to the book. I know they strayed away from the book in many places, but at least they stayed true to the ending. If you didn't read the book and like the show...READ THE BOOK. Cannot say this enough. You will enjoy the story even more.



The story IS primarily a love story, that happens to take place alongside a guy time traveling to save JFK. While of course I would have loved for the book to end where Sadie and Jack live happily ever after, I'm content that Sadie and Jack both end up happy...just not with each other. As a chick I teared up a lil at the end of the show when he's dancing with older Sadie and they show younger Sadie...to show that he still sees the girl he loved in the older version.

Also...if you are a fan of the book IT, in the book Jake goes to Derry, Maine and actually encounters some of the children from IT. People in town are very distrustful of strangers and won't interact with Jake much....because there had just been all the child murders(Pennywise...evil clown in IT).

quote:

---

While the first episode established the "time pushing back" rule out the gate, I felt like it didn't really come up again until the end.

---

It happened pretty frequently and explicitly quite a few times.

I don't remember the exact episodes but -

-Jake trying to call his father and a car crashes into the phone booth and the driver dies or is badly injured.

-Jake sneaking into the Kennedy fundraiser to spy on George de Mohrenschildt and getting detained by the secret service so he misses who George is meeting with.

-When Jake goes to the Mexican restaurant to try and spy on George de Mohrenschildt meeting with the CIA a bunch of stuff happens - a has to avoid a fight outside the restaurant, a fire, a chandelier almost falls on him, a loud conversation and music keeps him from hearing them, and a couple of other things from that scene.

-The boarding house he initially stays at has a fire and the son is killed and Jake's notes/information/betting book are destroyed.

-On the morning he saves Harry Dunning's family, Jake wakes up with food poisoning and as you mentioned, Bill shows up and almost ruins the whole thing.

-When Jake and Bill are bugging Oswald's future apartment, Marina and Lee show up early and while Bill hides in the attic he gets covered in spiders and almost gets them caught.

-That shady neighbor breaks in and beats up Bill, steals all their bugging equipment, and destroys it.

-Miss MiMi discovers Jake is not really who he says he is but he talks his way out of it with his hybrid witness protection/"The Godfather" story.

-Jake and Bill get arrested in a brothel after following George de Mohrenschildt to try and spy on him meeting with the CIA.

-The Yellow Card man leaves the tapes on Lee and Marina having sex and speaking Russian in Jake's basement in Jodie for Sadie to find.

-While spying on the Governor Walker assassination attempt, Bill gets distracted by "his sister" at just the right moment to miss LHO take the shot.

-Jake finds Bill at a party at LHO's and Jake and Bill fight, causing them to break a lamp which leads to LHO finding their bug.

-During Sadie's final plastic surgery Jake spots The Yellow Card Man and realizes he has done something to put Sadie in danger, the wrong gas was almost used and would have killed her but Jake stopped it.

-Bill is now LHO's BFF and Jake realizes the past may have pushed Bill into being an accomplice for LHO.

-As you mentioned, the bookies beat up Jake and he loses his memory.

-Bill kills himself.

-And then all the roadblocks the past throws at Jake and Sadie in the finale.

Those are just off the top of my head but if I wasn't too lazy to go look up some recaps, I could probably find more.

quote:

---

IN the show? He was pretty much vindicated and proven right on what he had to do.

---

when? at what point did the show vindicate or support lee's attempted assassination?

Thanks for correcting me. Guess I should say.....Bill doesn't help Jake like in the show. I read the book couple years ago fwiw. It was one of those books you just gobbled up and were sad once you realized you were almost finished with the book.


The book also shows Jake resetting many times. Jake learns that anytime he does something to save someone's life in the past.....it results in someone else dying that wasn't supposed to.

quote:

---

Does the show include him going back to save the school janitor's family on Halloween night? That part was the most compelling part of the book to me.

---

It does.....but not as much as it did in the book. Jake doesn't reset a few times trying to get things right for the janitor like he did in the book. And the janitor is from some town not in Maine in the show. Where in the book, the janitor lived in Derry, Maine and Jake encounters kids from IT while trying to save janitor's family.