Skylines – Season 1 Episode 6 “Angel or Devil” (The Finale) Recap & Review

An Abrupt End

The Season 1 finale of Skylines leaves a lot of plot threads unresolved by the end. While the drama itself is fine and the characterisation continues right through to the final minutes, there’s also an underwhelming feel to the way this one wraps up.

We begin with Sara heading downstairs and brandishing a gun, making her way past two guards as she comes face to face with Ardan. Unfortunately the guards walk back in and knock her out as a golden heroin wrapper floats down beside her head. Ardan gets on top of her and tells her he’s going to pump her full of heroin and then get the others to gang bang her daughter. As she’s finally let go, Sara returns home rattled and scared. Returning to work the next day, she struggles to get back into a routine as Ardan’s words hang heavily over her.

It’s here she enters the interview room and comes face to face with Jinn. He tells her he makes rap songs for Kalifa before dancing around the questions asked, lying about being alone when he produced music. Meanwhile Kalifa is confronted by Celine over his brash way of dealing with a prospective deal for Skylines, unable to let go of the past.

Heading back into the interview alone, Sara tells Jinn he can make some calls and find a lawyer if he wants. However, before he does she shows him the footage of his Father and it’s here he finds out that Kroos was blackmailing him. If he doesn’t cooperate, his Dad will be given a harsh punishment too. Unmoving, he tells her he wants to speak to his lawyer instead. After a fruitless call, he speaks to Sara out in the hallway and it’s enough for him to finally make his decision.

Out at a bar, Lily runs into Tonik again whose found himself a new record deal and things appear to be much more promising for his career. Unfortunately their conversation is short-lived as she spots one of her friends David and hurries over to speak to him instead. As she returns home, she finds Jinn passed out on his bed.

Drowning his sorrows in alcohol, Kalifa speaks to his wife about the future before falling into his swimming pool. She follows him in, helping him to the surface before telling him he needs to stay hungry and never give in to the demons. It’s a strong message and something that certainly sparks a fire in Kalifa.

The next day he arrives at the studio where he makes his scheduled appearance and greets the press. With an audience applauding his name and an MTV rep asking him questions, he does a great job answering everything and after discussing his past and how he got into the rap game, he’s asked one final question – homies or success? After a short pause he tells them it’s all about recognition.

After the interview, he learns the board have agreed to his contract and as he struggles to join in with the celebrations, Sara says goodbye to Ri and her partner as she decides to finish what she started with Ardan. From here chaos breaks out as the warring gangs make their moves and, caught in the middle, Jinn is called downstairs and forced into a car to head to Skyline.

Breathing heavily and accompanied by a guard, he heads into the red studio where he finds Semir and Kalifa waiting for him. Here, Kalifa tells Jinn he wants him to produce his next album and after some deliberation he agrees to work with him. Kalifa calls him a genius and they share a drink together as the series ends with many questions left unanswered.

Will Ardan have his comeuppance? What does the future hold for Sara? What will happen with the gangs? Will Jinn decide to turn his back on fame and go back to Tonik? There are so many unresolved questions here and it puts a black cloud over an otherwise decent and well written series. While the pacing has been pretty slow for large stretches of the season, Skylines has always felt like it’s building up to something and seeing the anticlimactic way this one comes to a halt is a bit disappointing.

Still, despite all that Skylines is a decent little character-driven show and certainly warrants a second season based on this showing. I’ve certainly enjoyed watching this one and while it’s nowhere near perfect, there’s enough here to make for an entertaining watch nonetheless. It just would have been nice to have some resolution at the end.