For all the time spent spooling out this story; they never actually did the character work necessary to make the ending seem natural, much less inevitable. If the ending is David putting a final cap on the argument that Cliff doesn't understand either what he has or what David is going through; then that is the debate that should have run through the story. It wasn't. What ran through the story was David wanting what Cliff had, not David wanting Cliff to understand his pain and Cliff's privilege. Throwing Cliff out the airlock and pretending to be him to take over his life? That would have been a natural progression of this story. But what actually happened just doesn't have the foundation to support it; and with the run time present it really should have.
No criticism of the actors here; they were great. It was the way the piece chose to spend it's time that let down the ending. The lack of wildness or danger to David, the lack of flashes between Cliff and David that signals the real issue brewing, most of all the lack of time to show how being cut off again effects David.
No criticism of the actors here; they were great. It was the way the piece chose to spend it's time that let down the ending. The lack of wildness or danger to David, the lack of flashes between Cliff and David that signals the real issue brewing, most of all the lack of time to show how being cut off again effects David.