The 'Wolf Hall' Series Finale Grants Cromwell Grace

It seems safe to say this plainly: Wolf Hall is a singular television franchise,  and the gold standard of virtually everything that prestige television can be and do, it is a tale that is richly acted, thoughtfully written, and deftly structured in ways that make sixteenth-century political drama feel as necessary and urgent as anything happening today. Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light is both a tragedy and a triumph, a conclusion that depicts Thomas Cromwell at his highest and lowest points, all while somehow managing to find the man within his legend.

Historically speaking, Cromwell's inner life is essentially a mystery to us. So it's easy to believe he might have resembled this frustrating, fascinating man, who changed England forever and lost himself in the process. It's true that Cromwell is not an especially good person and may well have deserved the fate he meets here — he himself would likely tell you that much — but it's somehow still difficult not to mourn his loss. Or to wonder what he might have done had he lived just a little bit longer.

It's a bit ironic that last week's penultimate episode was titled "Mirror" when so much of this finale is about mirroring and reflecting back the past. From the hour's opening moments, in which Cromwell takes the same journey through the Traitor's Gate that Anne Boleyn once did, "Light" is an hour full of echoes and ghosts, complete with callbacks both visual and thematic. It is, in many ways, Cromwell's farewell: to his life, to his legacy, to the mistakes he's leaving behind. After all, we know from the moment of his arrest that once he walks into the Tower of London, he's unlikely ever to leave it, yet he goes down as the hustler he's always been, fighting for one more day as long as possible.