Written by contributor Anna Yesilevskiy
After several delays due to the pandemic, Atypical’s long-awaited fourth and final season finally premiered in July and had fans say one final goodbye to the show. Atypical tells the story of the Gardner family whose oldest son, Sam Gardner is autistic. As previous seasons have focused on Sam navigating his relationships, school, and his journey to independence, this final season has continued to do so, increasingly so as Sam realises and achieves his big dream, which is visiting Antarctica.
It’s no secret that Sam loves Antarctica and penguins. Throughout the show’s run, Sam narrates the show and has consistently compared the relationships between himself, his family members, and his friends to the relationships between penguins, has drawn penguins for fun and for school, has a room that is decorated from top to bottom in penguin merchandise and has adopted a penguin named Stumpy at the local aquarium. So, when Sam is prompted to think about what his big dream is, it’s no surprise that he reveals his dream of going to Antarctica and decides to signs up for an aboard program at his college. However, unluckily for him, halfway through the season, he finds out that the program has been cancelled due to a lack of interest and thus, needs to find another way of getting to Antarctica.
Meanwhile, Sam’s younger sister, Casey Gardner is now trying to figure out her sexuality as she has recently gotten into a relationship with her classmate and friend, Izzy while also trying her best to balance her academic and athletic responsibilities. As she is faced by academic and athletic pressure, Casey shows signs of anxiety as she bites her fingernails so much that they start to bleed and when a scout from UCLA comes to see Casey run during her race, Casey is so stressed out she walks off the field and skips out on the race. Following her anxiety attack, Casey has to figure out what she wants out of school and track while also navigating her relationship with her girlfriend, Izzy, who herself has a rocky relationship with her mother and runs away from home halfway through the season.
While their kids are figuring out their lives, Doug and Elsa are relearning how to navigate their relationship while also dealing with their individual problems. As the season unfolds, Doug’s lifelong coworker and best friend, Chuck retires and then promptly dies from a heart attack in a follow-up episode. As he is reeling from the sudden death of his friend, Doug realises that life is short, that he has 54 vacation days saved up, and decides that he will join Sam on his journey to Antarctica. While Doug is on his self-discovery journey, Elsa is prompted by Izzy’s rocky relationship with her mother to reconnect with her own estranged mother but then discovers that her mother is displaying signs of dementia.
Side plots include Sam’s best friend and coworker, Zahid maturing due to a cancer scare, Sam’s girlfriend, Paige deciding what she wants to do with her future and Casey’s girlfriend, Izzy dealing with her rocky relationship with her mother and running away from home.
In its final season, Atypical is able to explore many of its storylines at length and weaves a brilliant story of independence, identity, and growth. Despite this, some arcs such as Elsa’s mother’s dementia, Izzy running away and Casey’s anxiety attacks are not explored in depth and are mostly glossed over.
Overall, although some storylines are glossed over and are not given as much attention as other storylines, Atypical‘s final season still delivers an emotional ride that focuses on the characters’ growth and identity individually and collectively.
