[92/100] The finale of *Wonder Man* comes down to two big decisions: Trevor’s choice to save Simon on the one hand and Simon’s choice to save Trevor on the other, and I love both choices.
For Trevor, throwing himself on the PR grenade to save Simon is such a loving sacrifice to make. Trevor screwed up royal. He found this deep friendship that made both his and Simon’s lives infinitely better, because it brought out the best in both of them, and sullied it given the poisoned ground from which it emerged. How could Simon trust him after that? How could he believe it when Trevor said that he genuinely was Simon’s friend, and not just an operative for Damage Control.
Trevor reassuming the mantle of The Mandarin is the perfect solution. On a narrative level, it works. The reemergence of an old villain gives Damage Control a pelt on the wall, and a way for Agent Cleary to show his superiors that he’s doing good work worth keeping around despite budget cuts. For the public, it’s a plausible answer to the explosion on the set of the Wonder Man film, framing it as a terrorist attack from someone supposedly playing the long game to take down the “indoctrination factory.” It absolves Simon from the immediate consequences of his actions in a plausible way that fits what the show’s established so far.
But it works even better on a character level. We know how much a return to acting means to Trevor, how it’s an effort to prove that his mother was right to believe in him. So there is great power in him giving that up because he wants Simon to succeed more than he wants to enjoy success himself.
His speech over the phone to Simon is just so lovely and heart-rending. There is a recognition from Trevor, that he’s made mistakes in his past that have kept him from soaring as high as he could. He doesn't want that for Simon. He wants Simon to succeed where he failed. And the fact that Simon’s blow-up is a direct result of learning about Revor’s betrayal only adds to the sense of responsibility here.
So it’s heartening, then, that Trevor proves himself a true friend to Simon by falling on the sword for him. All he asks in return is that Simon lives his life to the fullest. He doesn’t want forgiveness. He doesn’t ask for appreciation. The only thanks he wants is for Simon to use this opportunity to the fullest, to live the kind of life he’s earned. An old man who’s already screwed up so much wants something better for his dear friend, and will give up everything to help ensure he can get it.
That's the grand poetry in all of this. Trevor is living up to his mother’s hopes for him. He’s using his acting to achieve something magnificent. Only, it’s not interpreting to Bard at the Old Vic. It is, instead,taking on the mantle of a terrorist to save his friend. In a slanted way, it’s the performance of a lifetime. Trevor returns to his Mandarin persona not out of a sense of self-preservation or desperation as he did before, but rather, as a mask from which to do something selfless for once. It is a wonderful conclusion of his arc, and proof of how much Simon means to him.
And then Simon returns the favor.
I appreciate the fact that we get some time to see Simon’s success. It is a vindication of what he was capable of achieving if he could just find some way to balance out his best instincts with his worst impulses. To don the sunglasses that his father admired, have his mother relish seeing her baby on screen, get a genuine compliment from his skeptical brother, see his agent fawn over his success and tell him the world’s his oyster, have Von Kovak himself talk about a sequel, and see a crowd full of adoring fans cheer him on, is the achievement of a dream that Simon Williams held close to his heart so long, after it seemed perpetually out of reach.
None of this was guaranteed. There was so long spent struggling to be an actor with little to show for it. And even for this great opportunity, there were so many points where it almost went wrong. Given how precious and precarious the chance to become Wonder Man was for Simon, it is heartening to see Simon reach the success he’ long reached for. And it vindicates Trevor’s choice to make it all possible.
(Not for nothing, I laughed like hell at the reveal that they digitally replaced Trevor with Joe Pantoliano a la Christopher Plummer in *All the Money the World*. It’s a nice payoff to his interaction with our heroes!)
In the same terms, the achievement means so much not just as the culmination of all of Simon’s hard work and his friend’s sacrifice, but because we know what it means when Simon is willing to give it all up to save his friend right back.
I’ll confess, I suspected what was up pretty quickly into Simon “researching a part” with Chuck Eastman out in Yucca Valley. That's not a knock on the writing. The script stealthily drips information about what’s going on here in a way that, even if you suspect what Simon’s true purpose is, lets the reveal happen gradually and deliberately. It’s good work, likely to prompt knowing smiles as the plan unfolds.
But I also like the measured pace at which the last act of the episodes unspools because it lets the audience see how Simon has changed. Gone is the awkward wannabe who struggled to relate to people. In comes the self-assured talent who can sit at the family’s dinner table and feel like a part of the family.
Gone is the self-obsessed, in-his-own-head actor who cannot see anything but his own way forward. And in his place is someone who genuinely connects with Chuck, helping encourage him to get the exercise his doctor insisted on and building a close enough rapport that Chuck spills his guts about his daughter’s illness and the weight of the hospital bills that came with it.
Simon is a different person now. He’s more at ease. He’s more connected. He’s more open and amenable to other people and thus, able to see beyond himself. Maybe it’s just the material success and level of comfort that comes with it. Maybe it’s the confidence that comes from achieving your dream. But I’d like to think that, for such a lonely person, finding someone he could let in, who proved themselves a true friend, changed Simon for the better.
So instead of researching a role, he too is using his talents to save his friend. Getting in good with Chuck happens honestly, but it’s also a means to get into Damage Control’s new facility, the place where Chuck works and where Trevor is being held. His acting comes in handy there too, with the tension that comes from passing by Agent Cleary and having to quickly come up with a cover story for another guard who almost makes him.
But it works. He arrives at Trevor’s cell a different person, one who realizes the impact that Mr. Slattery made on his life. He’s a more decent person, using his earnings to wipe away Chuck’s medical debt. He is a newly self-assured person, to where his powers are not the product of unwelcome outbursts, but are, instead, a type of emotion he can use, that he’s in control of as much as a superhero as he became as an actor, using the same technique that Trevor taught him in the first place.
And with that, he embraces his friend, blasts off into the sky, and presumably gives up the thing he’d worked all this time for. Trevor and Simon were both honoring their deceased parents’ wishes, showing the person who believed in their dreams what they were capable of when the right chance, and the right ally came along. But having gotten all that, Simon realizes that he cares more about the means than the ends. That is, the person who helped him achieve the dream is more important than the dream itself.
That is true friendship, and the core of what this story has been about the whole time. All the fortune, fame, and success mean less than the bond that was forged by two floundering actors, at different points in their lives and careers, who nevertheless found kindred spirits in one another. Their partnership didn't just make each better, more bankable performers. It spurred both of them to be better people.
I love that the final thought the show leaves us with (aside from a nice musical homage to *Midnight Cowboy*) is that Simon and Trevor, two devoted actors, would both rather honor their friendship than their profession. It is the parting shot of one of Marvel Studios’ very best offerings, one with more complexity, surprises, and earned sentiment than you would believe. WIth two great performers, some stellar writing, and a pair of final choices that show what really matters to our heroes, this series truly became a wonder.
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