The end of a (very short) era: O.K. K.O ends with an understanding of how finales work

O.K. K.O.: Let’s Be Heroes was not one of my favorite shows. It never really drew me in; but either way, it’s sad to see a show end before it’s time. I’ve seen the last few episodes, and some parts felt kind of rushed. There was never really any kind of closure to the whole “Venomous is Laserblast who is K.O.’s father” thing.

But, I’m not in a position to criticize that. The show’s final episode, “Thank You for Watching the Show,” is unique and honestly, a really great of ending things. I hope more shows in the future take this route. Rather than focusing the final battle, this episode deals with all the loose strings…Kind of.

The episode, focuses on K.O. who sees his life flash by in small quick snippets; assuming it’s a villain, K.O. goes out to fix the situation but finds out…there’s nothing wrong. He’s just growing up. Each short segment, most of which are only a few seconds long, gets its own title card.

Creator Ian Jone-Quartey has gone on record saying that many of the sequences shown are based on episode ideas they had before CN announced the end of the show. And some of these would work as full episodes, and others wouldn’t. But, it’s very cute to see the way K.O. and his companion’s lives turn out.

Enid ends up recognizing that her witch powers don’t make her less of a ninja, and goes to witch college; Rad opens a cat cafe and spends sometime on his home planet’s military. Carol and Mr. Gar get married (as do other figures). Dendy becomes CEO of the POW Corporation. And K.O.?

He takes over Gar’s bodega and becomes a Level 100 hero, helping his protegees, who look like the offspring of Rad and Enid fighting off Boxmore robots. It’s a nice way of showing the whole “adventure continues” trope, without defaulting to an ambiguous ending or showing off too much of the future. There’s plenty of spaces to fill, but there’s enough to keep a viewer satisfied.

As I’ve gotten older, and I’m not that old, time seems to fly by. I have no idea how it’s already mid-September. This year, went by so fast, and so much happened. The weekends especially seem to go by in a blink. It’s a very relatable episode in that regard, and the visuals of having the title cards from past episodes appear flying away, representing K.O. losing some of the memories.

It’s very accurate as to how those memories of every day life fade away. We don’t get to see K.O. directly in any of these scenes; most of them are from his perspective but there are a few that aren’t like Venomous making up with Boxman. I do wish we had gotten to see how he looked like in the interim stages, but that’s more a desire than a criticism.

Overall, even as a very casual viewer of the series, I felt the O.K. K.O.: Let’s Be Heroes finale managed to hit all the right notes of nostalgia, relatability while still bringing closure to the fans…The show still deserved better though.

And that’s the scoop.

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Score: 7/10

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Length: 11 minutes

Year of release: 2019

Creator: Ian Jones-Quartey

Executive producers: Conrad Montgomery (co-executive, seasons 1-3, episodes 44–112), Jennifer Pelphrey, Tramm Wigzell, Brian A. Miller, Rob Sorcher, Ian Jones-Quartey

Directors: John Pham (art), Toby Jones (supervising, season 1), Geneva Hodgson (supervising, season 2-3), Kimson Albert (animation)

Writers and Storyboarders for episode: Mira Ongchua and Kat Ruzics

Voices: Stephanie Nadolny, Courtenay Taylor, Ashly Burch, Ian Jones-Quartey, David Herman, Kate Flannery, Jim Cummings, Melissa Fahn, Robbie Daymond, Kari Wahlgren