The finale of the Hulu original series "11.22.63" concluded this week with an episode titled, "The Day In Question." At the start of the episode Jake Amberson, played by James Franco and Sadie Dunhill, played by Sarah Gadon, run towards history in an effort to prevent Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy. Time does everything it can to throw curve balls at the duo, including momentarily presenting dead characters that Jake killed in the process to save JFK. Jake has always believed that his efforts would be for the greater good and the world could be a better place if President Kennedy was saved.
He was an ordinary man who was put in an extraordinary situation, and it's tough to say that Jake could have ever been truly prepared for this mission.
Jake and Sadie find Lee at the book depository
When Jake and Sadie do finally make it to the book depository they run up the stairs to the sixth floor, along the way seeing in spray paint on the wall, "Your the patsy." They get to Oswald after he fires his first shot, which misses Kennedy, and distract him enough that he never gets to fire the fatal shot. Oswald is enraged and begins to hunt whoever just stopped him on the sixth floor, taking shots at them in the process. Eventually there's a struggle with Lee Harvey Oswald and there is a struggle, with Jake ending up with the rifle and shooting and killing Lee.
Sadie is shot in the process and dies on the floor, holding Jake's hand.
Jake changes history
During an intense interrogation, by F.B.I. and local police, Jake discusses information he knows from his historical studies of the case, and it leads up to a quick and awkward phone call from the President at the police station, thanking him for saving his life.
Jake went from a prime suspect in the attempted assassination to a hero in a matter of a few hours. When the F.B.I. agent drops Jake off at the bus station we find out that he's going back to Lisbon, Maine, logically to go back to the spot that will take him back to the future. At the bus stop Jake has a vision of Sadie, who vanishes as quickly as she appeared.
When Jake does go back to the future he discovers that he has entered an alternate 2016 that has been thrown into chaos. It's a dystopian existence where the diner is ruble and the world has turned into a wasteland. Jake comes across his student Harry, who recognizes Jake when he killed his father Frank in 1960. Harry takes Jake back to his underground home in the sewers and finds out the ramifications of saving Kennedy. Jake decides that he needs to return to the past and sets things right again.
Jake resets the timeline
Jake jumps through time and the first thing he sees is Sadie driving down the road with her cousins. He follows the car and finds her in a diner and approaches her. Jake tells Sadie that he knows her and rattles off a list of facts about her.
Even though the situation is a tad awkward, Sadie appears genuinely interested in him. The yellow card man appears and tells Jake he is caught in a loop, and tells him it always ends the same. Jake realizes that he can never have Sadie, which breaks his heart, but he lets her go, knowing it's best for the world and the timeline. Jake goes back to 2016 again and finds that the world is now as he knew it in the past and goes back to teaching. Later, Jake searches for Sadie on the internet and finds out she is being honored in Texas as the Woman of the Year. The news also reports that Sadie's husband John was recently killed in a car crash. Jake goes to Texas and is reunited with Sadie at the award ceremony where they share a dance and Jake gets a moment of resolution for his heartbreak with the knowledge that Sadie had a tremendous life.
