Young Rock End of Season Recap & Review

 


If anybody has been following along with these recaps we’ve finally reached the end of the road here with the final 3 episodes of the freshman season of Young Rock. The adventure starts in 2032 with The Rock heading into the Universal Backlot for his first Presidential debate against funnily enough President William Henry Taft’s descendant. The tongue-in-cheek rivalry between the two aside, The Rock takes the time in answering a question about his potential presidency by sharing a story in true Young Rock fashion. 

 


 

The story flashes back to 1982 Hawaii where Young Rock’s mom gets the chance to audition for Star Search for the possibility of becoming a famous singer who will go on tour while Young Rock deals with a bully gang that steals his boogie board while his mother is away. His dad, Rocky, reinforces to him that standing up for yourself is important and when the fight is too big he will always be there to help him. Meanwhile his mom decides to postpone her singing career in order to focus on family and be a steady presence for her son. “A Lady named Star Search”, concludes with The Rock in 2032 emphasizing that he learned the value of family in the early 80s which he will bring to his Presidency with his opponent Taft dismayed by The Rock’s “short story” which ran “what 20 minutes over your allotted time?” 

 


 

“Good vs. Great” delves back into the early 90s Miami football storyline with Young Rock training and dedicating himself hard to the intention of becoming an NFL football player able to support his family but decidedly not getting to play in the actual game as much as he would like to. Young Rock’s humanity is excellently portrayed here as he is undermined by sports agents and his own coach in his viability to becoming an NFL star despite his inhuman work ethic. The thematic end-note of this episode is similar to the previous one with Young Rock realizing that no matter where he goes in life, family will be an important constant. 

 


 

 Finally, the season one finale of Young Rock, “Election Day", brings things full circle back to the pilot episode which saw all three timelines on display and the same is at play here. The episode kicks off with 2032 Rock finishing off his election coverage with Randall Park on election day. I have to say I’m a little bit surprised that they have progressed the Presidential Campaign of The Rock so quickly as I would have thought that maybe this was something they could have dragged out over the course of a few seasons at least. However, I think in the end it will be a good thing as it will prevent the show from becoming static and relying on the same trappings over time. Anyways, The Rock conveys how in early 80s Hawaii at the age of 10 he learned to step up as a man and be there for his family, and the story branches off into 1988 Pennsylvania picking up one year after the events of the previous Young Rock Pennsylvania adventures. Young Rock, now 16 years old and a junior in high school is in full gear with his high school football career and still reeling from the events of his breakup with Karen the year previous. His football career prospects don’t look so great as no recruiters have yet sought him out. So he decides to take matters into his own hands and reaches out to Miami University to ask them why they haven’t tried to recruit him yet. Impressed by his guts the recruiter takes the trip out to Pennsylvania to see what this kid is all about. Meanwhile he confronts Karen asking her to go to prom with him. She balks at him, telling him she is dating someone else. He vindicates himself owning up to his deceptive practices the year previous but asserting that he will become an NFL star one day and will be rich and that if she should ever change her mind she knows where to find him. Karen, clearly impressed, watches as Young Rock takes his leave. The final segment of the episode fast forwards the timeline to 1995 Florida. Surprisingly Young Rock has skipped past the rest of his college years and gone right for his NFL drafting days. However his and his family’s eager anticipation is squashed by his failure to be drafted into the NFL. His family stands by him though and his mother gives him an eloquent small guitar to keep as a keepsake no matter the rough travels in his life. Sure enough he gets a call, though its not from the NFL but Professional Canadian Football. Young Rock takes it, as in 2032 he tells Randall Park if they were going to pay him to play football he was going to do it. Randall Park catches on that the extent of The Rock’s professional Canadian football career is a story for another time as The Rock gears up for the monumental events of election day yet to come. 

 


 

What comes next, is a true and authentic moment as the Randall Park news coverage of The Rock shuts down with the cameras being turned off and The Rock expressing real pain and thoughtfulness in his eyes going beyond the act he puts on for the public. The next scene is a moment that feels like a true sequel to all of Young Rock’s multiple timelines with The Rock seated on a park bench feeding birds who is joined by his wise mother. They reflect on how far he has come in life and The Rock wishing his father was there is reminded by his mother that he is there in spirit. After some quick bantering the final season of the first season of Young Rock finds the presidential candidate in an elevator with his mother headed for the election night events to come, as The Rock contemplates, "Mom I think I might just win this thing", and we see the mirror reflections of the two in the elevator artfully transformed into their younger counterparts with 10-year-old Young Rock and the younger version of his mom present in the Young Rock timelines bringing all the timelines full circle into this one historic moment. The doors open and they head into the foray. 

 


 

Young Rock’s first season has certainly been a roller-coaster with a lot of of good laughs and a penchant for exploring the humanity of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson who is too often dismissed as a flexing pretty boy. Young Rock has officially been renewed for a second season so it will be interesting to see how the the storyline progresses in both the future and the past for sure. My guess is that 2032 Rock will win the presidency and the future segments will see The Rock acclimating to his duties as President and in a variety of ways he will find time to share stories of his youth including anything from sharing a long-winded story with his White House Staff during an urgent meeting to him simply
recording a presidential video diary for future generations. The past timelines I’m not sure exactly how they will unfold with the late 80s Pennsylvania storyline nearing the early 90s time-frame of the Miami football years, and their is still room to tell stories there but not a lot if they continue to move through their stories as quickly as they have with the early 90s Miami Young Rock who has progressed into a mid 90s Young Rock playing football professionally for the Canadians. This makes me wonder just how far the story of Young Rock will go? Will we see a version of Young Rock in the 2000s exploring his wrestling career and eventual turn to acting? Those moments and storylines would certainly be very interesting to explore and I’m sure we will see all of that but I’m not sure exactly how they will be paced moving forward. Regardless Young Rock so far has been an entertaining delight full of humanizing and inspirational tales based on the life of The Rock. 

 


 

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