It was such a nice surprise. I fully expected much of the ep to be about rescuing Ellen and Deke and hoped that would mean some moments with a concerned Pam watching from the bar, but I did not know we would get this bounty. To make almost the whole ep about them as people and their relationship, the extra length season finale!
I can’t remember if I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: I’m coming to a point, because I guess we’re getting the rep to finally support it, where it’s so valuable to me to see us take up real space (no pun intended) in stories meant for everyone. A lot of my big ships this year were from shows where the characters were central, where their story was important. Juliantina, Atypical, Killjoys (perhaps less so this season but the finale paid off in spades), Domlene, For All Mankind. Oh, and a special mention for Runaways that took a decade and a half old fanon ship and made them one of the core plot points of their entire show. We’re so used to having to read into things that aren’t really there, with subtext ships, and then “graduating” to canon ships with side characters that barely get any screentime, it’s like Disney movie rep, something that could easily be cut out and not make a difference. But when our stories are so important that they can’t be cut out, when everyone has to focus on us. Us! Imagine trying to watch that For All Mankind finale with all references to Ellen and Pam’s relationship cut out.
It’s kind of funny that we actually saw Pam before Ellen, an established presence from early on. I genuinely can’t picture where we’re supposed to see her in nine years for season 2, but I also can’t imagine that they’ve written her out. I’m really glad they gave her that friendship with Karen, both as a way to bring her into the viewing room and create another central dynamic, but also because Karen needed that too. I hope we see that next season too, a friendship of Wayne, Karen, and Pam, the unconventional astronaut significant other trio.