City On Fire – Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

In The Dark

Episode 8 of City on Fire starts this finale with Charlie taking a leap of faith down to grab the bomb. He wants to disarm it and Detective Parsa has managed to catch up too, standing alongside SG (Lorraine). Lorraine is convinced that it’s the yellow wire, and as Charlie detaches it, the timer hits zero and the bomb doesn’t blow.

What happens to Amory Gould?

With a blackout all along the Eastern seaboard, the police are still on high-alert, classing this as a terrorist attack. Speaking of which, Amory Gould’s plot armour thankfully sees him leave the car accident he was involved in without a single scratch. He walks away purposefully down the street while his driver is a mangled mess, dead and covered in blood.

Speaking of plot armour, William is absolutely fine too. He’s in good spirits despite being stabbed and he’s not really bleeding out either, as the bandages on his stomach are completely dry. Regan is there but she receives a call from Keith, quizzing where the kids are. Apparently they’ve gone missing and they’re not back home either.

Where are Regan and Keith’s kids?

In reality, they’ve gone off on their own and no adults batted an eyelid. They’re on the subway but en-route, during the blackout, the trains just stopped. So instead, they’re ferried out by the other passengers and walk along the Brooklyn bridge to head back home. They do eventually ring their parents, revealing what they’ve been doing and reassuring them that they’ll be home soon. In the middle of all this, Keith and Regan decide to have sex.

The city eventually chalk off terrorism, given the bomb didn’t go off and presumably Parsa didn’t tell anyone. Instead, the officers need to work to get the grid back up again. News of the failed blast reaches Nicky and the gang, who start to doubt the singer’s crafting skills. The team cracks at the seams, especially when the truth is revealed.

Who shot Sam?

Lorraine tells Parsa everything he knows about Nicky and his desires for terrorism, but he’s apparently not a threat for plot reasons. Instead, Parsa learns what happened that night in the park from Lorraine. It turns out Sewer Girl and Sol met Sam but they ended up fighting over Nicky. It was Lorraine who shot Sam, but the first shot missed her face. So who pulled the trigger for the second? It was Sol, who did so to protect Nicky.

After the confession, we cut across to Nicky himself, who learns what happened to Sam and how Sol was part of everything. He’s livid and holds a gun up at his head. When he turns and lets out a guttural roar, Sol turns and runs. Unfortunately, Nicky’s shot is too good and he shoots the guy in the back.

When McFadden shows up to see William, the latter starts to bleed and the detective realizes they need to get him to a hospital. Using a carpet from the rooftop, the gang decide to walk him there. But he’s not the only one holding on. It turns out William too is also hanging by a thread. Thankfully, both he and Sam meet each other in that strange in-between limbo area we’ve been seeing and they both wake up.

How does City on Fire end?

In the middle of this, Charlie is returned to his mother while Sam wakes up. Parsa gives a pep talk to Lorraine about the past, while Regan wakes up and finds the whole family in bed together, but she also wonders what’s going to happen to the child she gave up.

Mercer shows up to see William in hospital, who’s also there with his father. They decide they’re going to try and take down Amory Gould, while Charlie heads into the hospital to see Sam.

The Episode Review

So after 8 long, laborious episodes, City on Fie throws one more cruel joke our way by deciding to end on a cliffhanger. Not one single police office notices Amory Gould wandering down the New York streets, while the distinct lack of conflict in this episode really holds this back from being a better watch.

The fact that, despite seeing a bomb and knowing an attack was imminent, the state decide to reduce the threat level down from terrorism, just seems like a really poor bit of writing in all honesty. The conflict with Regan and Keith’s kids is also a bit nonsensical, unless it was going to tie into Amory kidnapping them and potentially holding the pair at ransom, which of course never happened.

Instead, City on Fire baits for a second season that, in all likelihood, probably won’t come. There’s not even here to warrant that, and it doesn’t look like this has many eyeballs on it. Still, Apple do have a good track record for renewals so we’ll have to wait and see.