Losing Alice – AppleTV+ Season 1 Episode 8 (Finale) Recap & Review

The End

Episode 8 of Losing Alice begins with Alice getting dressed up in a white dress as Sophie arrives from behind and wraps her arms around the film Director. This is all a hallucination of course, another of Alice’s strange, heady visions that see her struggle to distinguish between what’s real and what’s not.

We then jump forward to moments after the film has been completed. The cast attend interviews with reporters where David is asked exactly what it was like to have Alice as a Director. Given they’ve both separated now, murmurs bubble up among the journalists as they channel their questions toward Alice and David’s relationship.

Alice struggles to control her emotions though as her lip trembles in the wake of a hard-hitting question about sacrifice. Tears begin running down her cheek as the interview ends with one final question – “Was it all worth it?”

We then cut back to the film shoot as the crew are abuzz with good vibes about the final picture. They believe it could be a masterpiece but money is running out, causing some last-minute tensions to ensue when it comes to cutting scenes. The ones chosen to be cut happen to be the hallucinatory moments in a theme park.

That evening Sophie confronts Alice about the cut scenes, imploring her to reconsider given how crucial the scenes at the amusement park are. Sophie questions her integrity, claiming Alice is trying to destroy the film. She even claims Alice is doing all this as some form of revenge.

Alice chuckles incredulously, shaking her head and telling Sophie that this is far from the truth. Still, their conversation is a tense one.

When Alice heads back to her hotel room, we catch up with the moments we saw at the start of episode 1. The little girl with balloons shows up in the hotel room across the hallway. Alice listens from her door quietly before making a decision to head over and check on what’s happening.

It’s too late. A gunshot rings out and Sophie is shot. Paramedics arrive and rush her to hospital but Sophie is in a comatose state when her parents arrive.

We then jump forward again as the finished film wins awards, which Alice and David both graciously accept. Back in the hospital, Ami sits with Sophie, who’s still comatose, and tells her about the awards she’s helped gain. A single tear runs down Sophie’s cheek .

In the wake of the awards, Alice and David both celebrate their success and toast. In fact, after everything they’ve been through the pair decide to patch up their differences and head home together/

We then cut forward slightly to see Alice on the train writing in her notebook. Only, a strange woman catches her attention and tells her she’s watched her and Sophie’s movie. She’s surprised that Sophie used the whole story as it becomes clear that this woman is Naomi, the woman whose short film this was based on. Sitting, Alice  contemplates just what she’s heard as the truth drops like a bombshell.

The final shot of the season cuts us across to the hospital as Sophie awakens from her comatose state.

The Episode Review

Strange, hypnotic and most definitely a slow burn, Losing Alice bows out its final episode with a lot of the loose plot threads wrapped up around a heady 45 minutes of plot reveals and tied narrative threads. This show is definitely not for everyone, and it has, for the most part, been very slow to reach this ending. Still, there’s undeniably something unique about this thriller.

Whether that uniqueness is alienating for the majority of people watching this however is another matter. Unlike Netflix, Hulu or HBO, who all have a plethora of different titles to choose from, Apple’s catalogue is pretty barebones right now which makes a series like this a little subjective.

Having said that, it is good that Apple are giving experimental projects the green-light and there are rumblings in the rumour mill that the tech giants may be dabbling in Korean drama territory in the future which will be interesting.

In the meantime though, Losing Alice ends things on a pretty conclusive note, despite some teasing glimpses of a possible second season. Based on this showing though, I think it’s fair to say we won’t be getting a follow-up season!