Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 8 Review: Introduction to Chemistry

Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 8, “Introduction to Chemistry,” is a beautiful culmination of the limited series’s recipe to success.

This finale, written by Lee Eisenberg and directed by Tara Miele, contains so many delicious nuggets of reflection and wisdom worthy of writing down that one’s hand is bound to cramp up by the end. Some are more subtle hints than others, but they all pack a flavorful punch to make this episode a memorable end.

“Introduction to Chemistry” ties a bow on outstanding stories with tender care.

Inevitably, this final outing embraces life’s changes that Lessons in Chemistry so delicately explores by positioning the characters in new phases of their lives. As stated, before the series can get to that point and let the credits roll one last time, the episode knows it has loose ends to tie together.

“Introduction to Chemistry” finds no better example of its ability to look backward and see how everything connects than in how it navigates the cliffhanger from Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 7, “Book of Calvin.”

The episode mixes the catalysts of assumption and change to end Mad’s big mystery about her father by reintroducing Mr. Wilson and Avery Parker. The latter’s name takes up residence on the corner of so many letters to Calvin over the years, but Lessons in Chemistry‘s finale is when she becomes a person.

Through honest and painful flashbacks, “Introduction to Chemistry” reveals Mr. Wilson as a confidant and lawyer for Avery, Calvin’s biological mother. Rosemarie DeWitt brings such presence to the character in a single episode. The scene between DeWitt, Brie Larson, and Alice Halsey is one of the show’s very best.

Change becomes a fourth person in the living room — fifth if you count how present Calvin feels in that and most moments — as the family that Elizabeth and Mad created is changing in a way they never thought possible. Lessons in Chemistry utilizes that possibility to comment on how all families look different.

It’s perfect that Harriet and Elizabeth discuss how complicated families are and how they evolve unexpectedly at the same table they first connected after Calvin’s death on Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 3, “Living Dead Things.”

That sentiment comes full circle in a touching ending to the series when everyone Elizabeth and Mad love, including Wilson and Avery, is present for a family gathering. It’s heartwarming to have Elizabeth take a beat, like she vows to do, and take it all in — with Lewis Pullman’s Calvin looking on, too.

“Introduction to Chemistry” does an excellent job of further folding Fran and Walter into Elizabeth’s trusted family while believably expanding their characters. The bit about the flowers in the episode’s opening minutes is a fun way to test the romantic waters between the pair. They fit together so nicely!

Perfectly, Fran gathers the courage to ask Walter out after Elizabeth tells her audience (us included), “But, remember, courage is the root of change. And change is what we are chemically designed for.” Lessons in Chemistry overwhelmingly knows how to thread the needle through its message to its characters.

This finale even manages a much finer focus on Harriet Sloane’s quest to stop the freeway from wrecking Sugar Hill, which is a delightful change after the active shift towards doing so on Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episode 6, “Poirot.”

“Introduction to Chemistry” follows Harriet to places that Lessons in Chemistry Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2, “Little Miss Hastings / Her and Him,” rarely do all in the same episode — her office, home, and the courthouse. Visiting those spheres with her (not only with or because of Elizabeth) strengthens Harriet’s story.

Like Elizabeth with Hastings, Supper at Six, and her home life with Mad and Six Thirty, following Harriet through it all, including those sets, is ideal. Her arc and Aja Naomi King’s performance are more than deserving of that investment.

After all, Naomi King, once again, turns in a fantastic performance as Harriet Sloane. The rollercoaster of emotions she showcases throughout “Introduction to Chemistry” can’t be easy, but her flawless skills make it seem so.

It’s easy to get swept up in the initial relief and thrill that after seven tireless years, Harriet and the larger Sugar Hill community secured the votes to save their neighborhood. But Lessons in Chemistry faces the hard truth that some change is not fast-moving, especially when biased people are in positions of power.

So, it’s exhilarating to see Elizabeth dethrone Phil Lebensmal in this finale.

Rainn Wilson has no right to be this good in a role that despicable. His physical recoiling at the sight of Tampax and the sound of the word “uterus” are so absurd they’re borderline comical. Wilson plays the perfect villain, which may be a delightful shock to those who know him best as The Office‘s Dwight Schrute.

Even so, it’s thrilling that Lessons in Chemistry discusses menstruation on TV.

It’s quite meta, frankly, because it is still rare to hear the words “Tampax,” “menstruation,” and “uterus” used on a TV show that is or isn’t a medical drama, let alone hear the scientific description of menstruation stated so precisely.

So, as revolutionary as it must be for Supper at Six’s fictional 1950s audience, it will surely make those in 2023 lean forward, too. The more that topics like menstruation become less taboo in popular media, the better.

Ultimately, there is plenty to learn from Lessons in Chemistry‘s eight-episode run.

One of the recurring lessons is one Calvin Evans teaches Elizabeth Zott. To paraphrase, rereading a good book is useful because even though the book doesn’t change, the person reading it does. The show’s constant conversation with Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations supports that thesis.

Although, it also extends to Bonnie Garmus’s book on which this show is based.

Even if fans of the source material aren’t entirely pleased with its adaptation to the small screen, the book Lessons in Chemistry remains a reference throughout its readers’ lives — whenever they may need it. The joy of this limited series is that theory now also stands for Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry.

Like a good book, a good show stays the same, even when its viewers change. There will always be new lessons to learn alongside the chemist Elizabeth Zott.

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Lessons in Chemistry is streaming on Apple TV+.

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