Zoe might have freed Izzy from the Peaches’ clutches, but will she be able to save Alice and herself from the Butcher of Butcher’s Block?
Recap
Joseph and the Peaches are on the hunt for Izzy, and he’s talked Alice into joining on the chase. They slip back “downstairs” into the real world. At Louise’s, she and Luke have just finished severing the heads from Aldous and his goblin children. A knock pounds on the door. Apprehensively, they open it to find Diane outside, with Izzy. She found the little girl in her fort at the park. Diane hands Izzy over, eliciting a promise to keep Izzy safe when “they” come. Zoe isn’t far behind, rejoicing to find that Izzy found her way home as well.
Learning what Zoe knows of the “god” entity that lords over the Peaches, and threatens to take everything away from them if Izzy is not sacrificed soon, Louise decides they should make a run for it. But it’s already too late. Before Zoe can start the car, she finds Alice outside. She wants Izzy, and Zoe can’t make her see reason. Closing the door in Alice’s face, Alice is surprised by a confrontation with the student loan guy—the asshole who has been leaving her harassing messages since season one. She lunges at him, tearing out his throat with her teeth.
The other Peaches aren’t far behind. Louise, Luke, and Zoe barely manage to get the boards of the smuggler’s tunnel off in time. Finding Robert, Aldous, and the goblin children slain and beheaded, Joseph goes full-Butcher. Devolving into some sort of monster, he corners them at the end of the tunnel. Louise fires off shots at him, while Zoe and Luke struggle to fit Izzy through the gap to the other side of the tunnel. But as soon as Izzy is through, she’s grabbed by Joseph’s other goblin children. The whole thing was a trap. Joseph disappears just as quickly as he appeared.
The Peaches prepare their sacrifice on a massive altar in the abandoned playground, where the stairs typically appear. Joseph explains to Alice that when the entity appears, she mustn’t look at it at first. Her mind is “delicate” and the sight of it might snap it. Louise, Luke, and Zoe, with Diane in tow, aren’t far behind. Seeing the ritual about to take place, Zoe runs towards the Peaches just as the stairs appear, with the Red Door at the top. She pleads with Alice to see reason. While they were distracted, Diane snatched Izzy from the altar, fleeing into the park. Joseph sends his goblin child after them, but Luke intervenes. He bashes the goblin child in the skull before he can attack Diane or Izzy.
Joseph condemns Zoe, claiming that she’s killed her own sister. The entity appears. Without a sacrifice to bestow upon it, it parts the folds of its red cloak and reveals a space-like hellscape. The Peaches look upon this vision, and one by one, explode in a rain of gore and blood, leaving Joseph for last. Alice is left unscathed, but her mother sits on the steps to the Peach house now. Alice goes to her, but once she draws near, her mother pulls aside her face to reveal the same vision of a terrible, galactic view. The entity leaves Alice with her mind utterly gone. The altar, the stairs, and the house disappear. Zoe runs to her sister, but it is too late.
A year later, Alice is in the same permanent residence as her mother, being treated for her schizophrenia. In Garrett, Zoe, Luke, and Izzy all seem to be living with Louise. Zoe is still living with her schizophrenia, but all in all, they are doing the best they could have ever hoped for.
Review
What a rollercoaster. I had to ask myself, how was this all going to wrap up, and so quickly? It seemed we had so many loose ends, and not nearly enough time to tie them together. In the end, not everything was resolved, but the season still succeeded in giving us a sense of finality. Do I have questions? Yes, but not the ones that truly matter.
I was not anticipating Diane becoming the “new Luke.” By which I mean, I didn’t expect for her to suddenly become a likeable character. As badly as I felt for her watching her be tormented by Robert Peach, the courage she showed in protecting Izzy was so selfless. I had questions about her character before, and they have only been renewed. Does Diane have a history with the Peaches? Was she too once a victim? One who got away? Or, like Louise, was someone she loved taken by the Peach family? A child, perhaps? She seems, from the very start, to have some sort of knowledge of the family. How has she evaded them in Garrett for so long? As much as I want these answers, I don’t need them, and I appreciate that.
We stuck around for Zoe and Alice’s character arc, and we see that resolved tragically, but brilliantly. Both these girls sought to save themselves from the monsters they were born with. The illness that lives inside their heads. But in watching her mother and then her sister succumb to their illness first, Alice let fear boil within her. A fear she let grow so big, she became willing to let others suffer if it meant her freedom. By choosing herself over Izzy, a child she was literally sworn to protect as a CPS officer, Alice sealed her fate. She closed the doors of her illness around her.
Though I would say this season had flaws that were rooted in pacing, and doesn’t quite compare to No-End House, Butcher’s Block was a fantastic experience. I would highly recommend it to any creepypasta or horror fans looking for a good fix.
