The second season of Shining Vale concluded tonight, and boy has it been a crazy ride. Pat scores her second best seller, but it has a fanatical effect on its readers. Terry overcomes a bout of amnesia and sets his sights on the mayoral office. Gaynor fights hard to not follow in her mother’s footsteps, but finds she might be suffering from mental illness as well. Jake tries to have a normal high school life but becomes obsessed with a landline phone. Then, there is also the new bundle of joy on its way for the Phelps family.
How does the season end? Well, we’ll go into seeing where each family member stands after the finale along with some other developments. Allow us to explain Shining Vale’s “Chapter 16 – Redemption.”
Jake Phelps
The youngest Phelps seems the most adjusted at the end of the episode. Last week, he loses interest with the phone, and begins patching up the hole in the wall leading to his previous favorite hang out spot. The action is very symbolic showing how he’s willing to move on with his life and isn’t as obsessive as before. In another sign of progress, Jake is no longer scared of his VR gaming set or the little girl that haunts it. He even asks Daisy to be his girlfriend demonstrating how much he’s progressed and how comfortable he is now.
Gaynor Phelps
Gaynor’s biggest fear involves becoming just like her mother. However, she comes to realize that it might not necessarily be a bad thing. After helping craft her dad’s campaign speeches, she finds that she is a gifted writer. Pat’s agent, Kam, agrees and wants Gaynor to provide a longer sample. Interestingly, Kam brings up the idea that maybe it’s the writing that helped keep Pat together while she battled mental illness.
Mother and daughter have a sweet heart to heart about Gaynor’s career aspirations while the younger Phelps goes full “Pat” and dies her hair black. Though Gaynor is happy to finally have direction in her life, she is still plagued by her own demons as she catches a glimpse of her fabricated priest lover, Enio, in the mirror.
Terry Phelps
Terry is a man on a mission after watching people hit by a bus and die on several occasions. He wants to ensure the safety of the citizens of Shining Vale and runs for mayor. His election gains steam as he puts himself in harms way to rescue a young woman and her baby from yet another bus accident. Through his heroism combined with Gaynor adeptly running his campaign, Terry is successfully elected as the town’s new mayor. Despite his busy schedule, and for better or worse, he still finds time to nurse Pat while she prepares to give birth to the baby.
Pat Phelps
Pat’s journey is the center of things on Shining Vale. Her previous mental history makes her a less than credible in the eyes of all around her. So when she begins to question her friends and family’s motives, they chalk it up to another Pat hysterical episode and try to protect her from herself and the baby.
But it’s not paranoia if you’re right. Everyone is against Pat from her doctor to her neighbors to her very own mother. She has visions of the old asylum her house is built on and learns of its dark history. Nellie Burke, the reporter who went undercover at the asylum, warns Pat of the evil doctor that made a deal with the devil. All the stress causes Pat to go into labor early, and Ruth, the neighbor, helps her give birth. When she comes to, Ruth no longer resembles Rosemary, the spirit that haunted her in season one. In the closing moments, Pat consults the cootie catcher which leads her to the true identity of her husband, Terry.
Who is Dr. Armin Strong?
Dr. Armin Strong was known as the Devil Doctor who fathered children at the asylum with the patients, but none of the babies lived longer than a week. He only had one child that lived, a daughter named Button who he had with his wife. Button is coincidently what he started calling Gaynor in Shining Vale season two. Strong was believed to be killed in the patient uprising but was never confirmed dead. If you take a close look at his picture in The History of Hysterical Women in Southeast Connecticut, he resembles a darker haired Terry.
The revelation makes you see events from throughout the season differently. With all the devil references, he is most likely the deranged goat mascot that first appeared in the season two premiere. That’s probably why Pat remembers the goat and the members of the Shining Vale Ladies Auxiliary Club when she became intimate with Terry after the attempted murder.
Strong has significant influence in Shining Vale as he has devoted followers throughout the town. From Ruth to Dr. Skapoli, Pat’s OBGYN, to the unnamed bus driver that actually stopped for Terry, they all carry his symbol. In the case of the bus driver, it could all be a clever ploy to aid in Terry’s election. What’s more intriguing is whether Terry has been the Devil Doctor this whole time or if he became possessed this season. There is definitely some big unanswered questions that leave us wanting another season.
Watch Shining Vale on Starz.
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