'Burden of Truth' Season 3 Finale Review: Conclusive ending raises doubts about whether Season 4 will happen
Spoilers for 'Burden of Truth' Season 3 Episode 8 'Shelter from the Storm'
As yet another compelling, drama and action-packed season of 'Burden of Truth' wraps up, revelations are in order with a rather hopeful flash forward. We finally find out why ClearDawn labs is so hell-bent on separating mothers with a tainted past with their kids despite them earnestly working towards being the best they can be. The CEO, Solomon Stone, finally snaps but not before Crawford and Chang weather their own fair share of losses. Kodie Chartrand (Sera Lys McArthur) comes pretty close to losing her kids, but once again it is Luna Spence (Star Slade) saving the day, reminding us of how far she has come and how indispensable the non-protagonist has become in a story that was strictly about Joanna Chang (Kristn Kreuk). Even more than Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney), at times.
For a season finale, Season 3's Episode 8 feels more of a series finale, with a touching ending that sees Luna, Taylor Matheson (Anwen O'Driscoll) and Joanna, all from the current timeline, blissful and happy. But before we can arrive at that happy ending, tribulations must be overcome. It starts with less than 24 hours into Kodie's trial as Joanna tries to craft some opposition against ClearLabs but fails. So she adopts the only strategy left and decides to prepare Kodie for the barrage of questions they are going to hurl at her to defeat their case. Their other hope is Billy's dad shows up and gives his accurate and honest testimony about filing a false complaint against Kodie and while it all seems to be going well, for the most part, things begin to crumble at the end of every witnesses' testimony.
For starters, Kodie's testimony falls apart when the ClearDawn lawyers bring up a credit card fraud related arrest from six years ago. When Billy's father shows up, things get even worse as the court is able to point out that he is drunk and therefore his retracted complaint and honest testimony are completely struck off. This is where Luna's help comes to their rescue. A conversation with her convinces Joanna to dig further into Solomon's past, proving her doubts about his clear bias against Kodie and all the other moms. She even manages to cite that the lab reports showing Kodie's results were actually Solomon's but the CEO is too suave for Joanna's little hits. The smooth talker keeps weaseling his way out of every curveball she throws at him.
In the end, it is only when Luna is able to dig into Solomon's past and find out about his sister Heather's death that the much-needed silver lining appears. When Solomon was 4, his sister died in a house fire originating from his mother's cigarette. Joanna keeps pricking him with the harsh truth of his sister's death, finally causing him to snap and he bursts out claiming mothers like Kodie don't deserve to be parents, let alone raise kids. This is Joanna and Billy's first win as the judge rules the case in Kodie's favor right away. The second gigantic win comes with Kodie getting her kids back and the third one is all 57 apprehensions by Millwood Family Services getting overturned.
Conclusive and emotional, the season finale was your classic melodramatic cheesiness with the initial down and the signature rise at the end. Diane Evans (Nicola Correia-Damude) and Owen Beckbie (Meegwun Fairbrother) manage to work out their differences too, and Taylor gets Constable Sam Mercer (Paul Braunstein) back into lockup. Even Mayor Shepherd (Trish Fagan) gets arrested for her involvement in the ClearDawn and Millwood Family Services conspiracy. The epilogue sees Crawford and Chang bursting with clients and Luna thriving with wins in small claims court. She also finds new love at law school. With Owen's encouragement, Taylor becomes an RCMP cadet and Joanna is about to give birth any moment now!
Brutally honest as ever the episode gets very classic drama when it comes to Joanna's concerns about messing up her soon to be arriving child. In the final moments of the finale, she gives the classic 'talk' - expressing fear about messing up the kid, but also reassuring should that be the case, she and Billy would forever be there for him or her. The fact that it's so conclusive raises some concerns about whether a fourth season will be there at all and currently, with everything going on, it seems unlikely that should there be one, it will come any time this year. For now, viewers will just have to be content with this piece of closure that all worked out in the end for the mothers this season, be it Kodie or even Joanna. Though there will always be a teeny tiny bit of us aching to see what Crawford and Chang will be like as parents to their newborn.