The Rainmaker USA finale review: A strange ending

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for The Rainmaker Episode 10.

The Rainmaker hasn’t explicitly been billed as a limited series, but the USA show’s finale feels like it is. It ends with so much finality that it’s hard seeing where the characters could go next. And the interesting thing is that it didn’t have to be this way.

In retrospect, it would have been better to air the two final episodes back-to-back, since Episode 10 is just the rest of the Great Benefit trial. The network could have created an event and let the momentum simmer. It’s not quite as effective on its own — because the big moments the audience has been waiting for all season never quite feel big enough. Some of them don’t even happen at all as the story pivots in other directions. That means while the factual conclusion to The Rainmaker is satisfying, the emotional one isn’t. And it’s in the emotional arc that this show has its best moments.

Rudy Baylor has his final confrontation with Leo Drummond, except instead of Rudy having his “gotcha” moment, Leo runs right over him. John Slattery’s character eventually gets what he deserves when the FBI and local police show up to question him — but just knowing Leo is in trouble is not as rewarding as watching Rudy be the one to do it. The Rainmaker is…