'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend': Was the sex-cult leader's ending justified?
Spoilers for 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend'
It's funny and slightly outrageous how despite everything her ex-husband, the titular Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm) has done to her and at least three other girls that she knew of, the worst thing Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) can list about him is that he cheats at Clue. But such is the charm of the titular 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'. And as she goes about her quest to confront her past abuser who kept her locked up in a bunker for 15 years, for probably having more such hostages and bunkers across the country, out comes her rigorous need for vengeance with the final step leaving it all for the viewer to decide how she delivers justice in the Netflix interactive special 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend'. There are four choices, but one way out was forgiveness, that said, was forgiving her abuser the ONLY way out? Is that enough for punishment?
When Kimmy finds clues that lead her to deduce there must be another bunker filled with the Reverend's hostages, she goes to confront him directly in prison. The Reverend spills out more than he intends to mid-brag and that is enough for Kimmy to set out on her rescue mission just three days before her wedding. Knowing what she's up to, the Reverend also manages to escape from prison and sets out to retrieve the girls he had left locked up in the bunker before Kimmy can get to them. And after a lot of back and forth detours with Kimmy landing and navigating plots that don't necessarily always lead her to the Reverend, she is finally able to hunt him down and she pins him to the ground with a gun.
At this point, viewers are left with four choices. Shoot him, which leads to Kimmy in prison and her fiance, Frederick marrying Lillian and going off to live their happily ever after. Stomp him, shows the Reverend having a gala time in hell, drinking with his equally amoral and villainous friends - the likes of Aileen Wuornos, happy as a daisy which is somehow just not satisfactory enough. 'Splode him sees Kimmy die in the explosion too, with Frederick then proceeding to clone her into an extremely sex-crazed robot.
That leaves us with the last and fourth option: Spare him, which sees Kimmy tell the Reverend if she kills him she will be no better than him so she lets him go because even though there is no forgiveness for what he did, giving Kimmy the vengeful arc would be taking things way too out of character. And in some ways, a life full of prison torture and being locked up in his cell might just be the most justified aftermath of what the Reverend did and surely the most satisfactory revenge for our ballsy protagonist.
'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend' premieres on May 12, only on Netflix.
