“Disenchantment” series finale review

The medieval comedy from the
creator of “The Simpsons” gets a
proper sendoff.
From the creator of “The Simpsons” and
“Futurama,” Matt Groening produced a
unique yet historic approach to his sitcoms.
“Disenchantment” is an adult cartoon show
featuring the medieval misadventures of
the drunken tomboy Princess Bean, the na-
ive and optimistic Elfo and the ill-advising
demon Luci. Unlike “The Simpsons” and
“Futurama,” the series is a lot shorter, end-
ing only after five seasons. This is because
“Disenchantment” is a serial show, as it fo-
cuses on the overall plot of the series. The
other two shows were episodic, focusing
on a different story in every episode. Ad-
ditionally, the characters in “Disenchant-
ment” experience character development
and growth as the series progresses. The
show started in 2018, airing exclusively on
Netflix. On Sept. 1, the show’s fifth and fi-
nal 10-episode season came out. With the
recent surge of animated series being pre-
maturely canceled such as “Q-Force,” “In-
side Job” and “Owl House,” it’s reassuring
to know that “Disenchantment” ended on a
proper send-off on the show’s own terms.
Disclaimer: For the rest of this article, I’ll
be discussing spoilers for the show. How-
ever, it’s worth noting that you’ll need con-
text from the show to understand most of
these spoilers.
When we last left off, Bean had decapi-
tated her evil clone, Bad Bean. Right af-
ter, Bean was thrown off her balcony and
into the ocean by her evil mother, Dagmar,
and her new husband, Satan (there’s a lot
of Heaven and Hell involved in this show).
Mora, a mermaid who Bean was infatuated
with, saved her life.
For the first half of the season, Dagmar
and Satan are trying to locate Bad Bean’s
body, then Bad Bean’s head. Meanwhile,
Elfo, Luci, Bean’s Handmaid Bunty and
Mop Girl (a servant who becomes more
important as the series progresses – and
was revealed to be part elf this season) are
trying to hide the body then the head. Of
course, Dagmar succeeds in re-attaching
Bad Bean’s head and body together and the
second half of the season focuses on Bean
defeating her evil clone and her evil mother
with her “gang of loyal, violent friends”
once and for all. The show is also surpris-
ingly gory for a cartoon with decapitations
plenty. The eighth episode specifically en-
tailed a giant battle between forces of good
and evil with stabbing and slicing. The im-
mense gore throughout the show was ex-
cessive.
A lot of new lore for the characters was
revealed and a lot of plot holes were finally
filled this season. Luci is revealed to be
the son of Satan himself, the true nature
of Dagmar’s home country of Maru is re-
vealed, God’s head turns out to be a giant
40-watt lightbulb and Freckles is revealed
to be Bean’s older brother. While being an
important point, it was just quickly touched
on and left audiences questioning if Freck-
les was just lying to Bean. But most satis-
fyingly, one of the biggest plot holes was
filled: Who killed Elfo?
At the end of Season 1, Elfo is suddenly
killed by someone shooting an arrow into
his back. We never knew who the killer was
until now. It was Elfo himself, and you’ll
have to watch the show to understand.
Eventually, Dagmar and her forces are
finally defeated, leaving Dreamland a safe
haven at last. Personally, I find Dagmar’s
defeat disappointing and even comedic
in a corny way after the giant leadup for
multiple seasons over multiple years. The
whole season, Bean was working towards
fighting Dagmar and making sure she
ceased to exist. This was a difficult feat, as
they couldn’t just kill her off or she’d be
sent back to Hell, in which she was made
queen of last season via marrying Satan.
Instead of meeting an ultimately dire fate,
she unlocks the secret to immortality, gets
impaled with a giant crystal rock and Satan
ends up locking her in a tiny metal cage
hanging over the ocean right next to the
Dreamland Castle with Freckles, her evil
puppet son, for what’s presumed to be all
of eternity.
Besides Bean and Mora living out their
happily ever after together on a beach hut,
everyone else also finds their own happily
ever after. Luci ends up in Heaven after a
noble sacrifice in battle. Odval, the three-
eyed royal advisor, marries Sorcerio, a
dim-witted and probably unqualified wiz-
ard. Elfo begins dating Mop Girl, who also
becomes the new queen of Dreamland.
Merkimer, formerly an arrogant prince
who turned into a pig, becomes infatuated
with Miss Moonpence, Odval’s assistant
who lived behind a wall and turned out to
also be a talking pig. Even the laughing
horse found true love with a female laugh-
ing horse and had a laughing foal together.
I highly recommend watching “Disen-
chantment.” I would say that this is the best
season, even if I have some suggestions
on how Dagmar’s defeat could have been
written better. The show makes for a good
and relatively quick binge-watch with lots
of laughs, LGBT+ representation and plot
twists at every turn.