‘Sense8’ Saved Its Best Orgy For Last

When Netflix cancelled Sense8 after its second season aired — on a cliffhanger, no less — and loyal fans of the show raised such a fuss that Netflix brought it back for a two-and-a-half-hour finale movie which premiered last week. And what a good thing that they did. The Sense8 finale was not just an energetic and adventurous climax to the story that Lana Wachowski and Michael Straczynski had been telling for two seasons — about a cluster of 8 “sensates” connected to each other psychically and emotionally, who must elude a sinister conspiracy out to destroy and enslave them — but also a fitting and deeply felt coda to this story that, for many, was far more about the connections between the characters than the death-defying action scenes (impressively choreographed and filmed though they were).

Those connections were psychic and emotional, yes, but the show never shied away from the fact that these connections were physical as well. The eight sensates at the center of the show were from every corner of the globe and covered a multitude of sexual identities. And with 8 gorgeous, sexually fluid characters who could all feel what each other was feeling, the showrunners leapt right to the most obvious conclusion: there should be orgies.

The sex scenes in Sense8 could be over-the-top but they were never silly; American audiences still haven’t figured out how to deal with sex in a way that celebrates and acknowledges actual pleasure. But that’s what Sense8 was all about, the exhilaration and openness of feeling through the body of another. The intimacy of those shared experiences was an end in itself. It wasn’t the only point of the show, but it was a major point of the show. So once the finale movie settled everything with Whispers and BPO and the Chairman and Lila, it was only right that they ended this series with their biggest, best, and most meaningful orgy yet.

SPOILERS for the Sense8 finale movie and the Sense8 finale orgy ahead.

So after the action part of the finale concludes, we cut to the Eiffel Tower, where Nomi (Jaime Clayton) and Amanita (Freema Agyeman) get married, and everybody gets to celebrate, and it’s lovely. And then after some really lovely scenes with friends and family, bonding and dancing and enjoying the stunning scenery, everybody pairs (or triples) off and they celebrate Nomi’s wedding night in their own way.

There’s Nomi and Amanita, Riley and Will, Lito, Hernando and Daniela, Sun and Detective Mun, Capheus and Zakia, and most intriguingly, Kala, her husband Rajan and the other man she loves, Wolfgang. It’s that last trio that feels most meaningful here, with Kala and Wolfgang welcoming Rajan into this weird, wild, undeniably hot threesome action that eventually becomes a 14-some.

That this is how Sense8 handled its biggest love triangle felt significant. 99% of shows would milk a will-they-or-won’t-they storyline until it reaches breaking point, ultimately choosing one direction and disappointing half their fans. Sense8 cuts that gordian knot by not requiring Kala to choose, and to bring Wolfgang and Rajan into hot, sexy contact with one another. All things being equal, opt for what brings you connection and pleasure, that seemed to be the Sense8 motto, and they surely delivered. “I didn’t think such things were possible,” Rajan says when it’s over. And, yeah, that seems like the correct reaction to just having done it with this many smoking hot people at once.

Also props to Nomi and Amanita for breaking out the rainbow-colored strap-on for Pride Month.

And that’s not even getting into the orgy’s big emotional crescendo, as the music (Ludovico Einaudi’s “Experience,” last heard during another time-spanning montage, in Xavier Dolan’s Mommy) kicks into high gear and the psychically-connected bodies really start intermingling together, the show cuts to mini-montages of each sensate and their partner(s) and their history. Lito and Hernando and their bathtub sex scene and Daniela up on the roof and everything that is hot and sexy and bonded about the three of them. Then to Riley and Will, and their whole history. Each cut touching on something meaningful about these characters’ shared history as their bodies and senses continue to writhe up against each other.

It’s like the Six Feet Under finale, except instead of characters bound by family winding inexorably towards their individual deaths, it’s bodies bound by a strange sense connection moving inexorable towards sexual climax. It’s genuinely beautiful and super hot.

And then it all ends with a soft fade-out on that rainbow strap-on, wet and glistening and practically alive with all that shared desire. A proudly, defiantly queer symbol for a show that practiced what it preached.

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Stream the Sense8 series finale on Netflix