The Dana Delany-starring crime procedural ended
recently, with a case that became crucial to Dr Megan Hunt having her
happily-ever-after, but didn’t quite grab my attention—a disappointing end to
the series…
For the first time in the series, the writers of BODY
OF PROOF dealt with a central story arc that offered high stakes for the
protagonist, personally and professionally. It was good on paper, as a story
that forced Megan Hunt to deal with baggage that she’d been carrying since she
was a child, especially since it involved something that had been established
right in the beginning of the series—her father’s death. During the initial
developments of the season, her father’s death became a mystery that she was
convinced wasn’t explained by what she and her mother had believed—that he had
committed suicide. And it became her mission to uncover the truth. While it was
an apt mystery that we would see unraveling through the season, the complexity
in the case was far from impressive. When ABC
announced that the show would end, I expected the mystery to offer us a
memorable end to the series. It had begun well, with the initial analysis of Megan’s
father’s suicide note, and the other clues that she was following up on.
However, towards the end, things didn’t quite turn out like that.
The outcome of the mystery did make sense, with the
revelation of Chief Martin as the murderer, but the revelation itself seemed a
little too convenient. Firstly, it was too much of a coincidence that the
homicide investigation at hand in the series finale was directly related to the
mystery of Megan’s father’s death. Her absence from that investigation was
justified, as we also got to see another side of Dr Murphy, who was constructing
an image of the victim’s face from the remains found. However, in the end,
things just fell together for Megan when she went to the police station with
the final clues that she had found. It wasn’t a big surprise that Chief Martin
was involved, because for some unknown (to the audience) character to have
turned out to be the killer wouldn’t have been exciting at all. But I feel that
Megan and Tommy should have made the final discovery of the truth on their own,
instead of the chief confessing to the crimes herself, holding Megan at
gunpoint. It was probably kind of poetic that the final confrontation
culminated in the same room where Megan’s father had been found dead, but even
then, the way Martin was shot by that psychiatrist who’d been stalking Megan left
me completely unsatisfied. It was Megan’s fight. She should’ve been the one to
uncover the truth, and she should’ve been the one to finally take Martin down. Instead,
the end of the big mystery kind of just fell flat, for me.
It was nice to see Megan finally making peace with her
mother, and then going to Tommy in the end, which was something that everyone
expected would eventually happen. However, the episode didn’t seem like a
series finale at all. Maybe the writers weren’t prepared to end the series with
this season. There might have been plans to explore Megan and Tommy’s
relationship as they’d continue to solve crimes together. Maybe developments in
other characters were on the cards (like Murphy becoming a congresswoman and Ethan
taking on the role of medico-legal investigator). But that seems like the only
explanation as to why the series didn’t end with a bang. Having said that, the
closure that the writers gave at least Megan, with her mother and with Tommy,
was probably the best way to have ended it, given the limited time they had to
wrap it all up. The final season, in general, didn’t offer all that much in
terms of gripping cases, like the ones we’d seen in season two. The only case
that really stood out for me in season three was the plane crash mystery, with
which the writers worked within the confines of time and space, making for high
drama and mystery. The revamping of the series, after season two, with the new
cops, love interest et al, didn’t quite do very much for the show in terms of
quality and storytelling. And with that, it was probably the best time to end
the show, even if they ended it as unsatisfactorily as they did.
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