Kyle XY gets sent back to his pod

ABC Family recently decided to end the TV series, Kyle XY.

I distinctively remember the summer Kyle XY first premiered in 2006. Of course, I remember everything: names, faces, phone numbers, birthdays, dialogue, etc. The promotion was brilliant, intriguing, but admittedly a bit over-done. The teaser trailers had me at the snip of a gentleman’s hiked up shirt revealing his navel. Ah but wait, his lack of navel! The teasers contained nothing more than a shot of a male’s wet, extended hand, a curious lack of a belly button, a boy’s face, the aforementioned boy laying wet, and naked on the floor of what appeared to be a forest, and then.. “Who is Kyle XY?” It was the question of the summer. My close friend Katee and I, casually and frequently made this the punch line of many of our dry-humored jokes, but as much as I was poking fun at the promotional tools, I was sincerely interested in watching it.

The show’s cast, plot, odd humor, and artistic angle gave me everything I felt I had been emotionally lacking from television. At that point, television was oddly unsatisfying. It was much like in elementary school when you were expecting the next day to be Macaroni Monday in the cafeteria, but when you got to school, you realize that you had forgotten that this week it was Mashed Potato Monday. You hate mashed potatoes. You hate the way they are trying to impersonate real potatoes; manly potatoes. You hate the way they remind you of dinner at your grandma’s. You hate mashed potatoes. Let the disappointment ensue. Kyle XY was the first show since CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (the only legit one out of all three series) that got me to follow it religiously. And though Kyle’s identity is not revealed to us until the second season, the show did not skip a beat. I was compelled from beginning to end, almost like when you are given a mix tape where the track listing has been omitted, but you’ve come to find that with every song, you are unconsciously shifting further and further towards the edge of your filthy futon with anticipation and butterflies. Kyle XY does that.

I have come to think of Kyle XY as an extension to myself, to my personality. When I meet someone new, I never fail to use Kyle XY as an ice breaker. Works like a charm. I don’t do this purposely of course, I’ve got pod juice on the brain. Nothing some grapefruit couldn’t cure. My freshmen year of high school, I was enrolled in Honors English I. Good class, bad time. Well this particular day, the class had just been assigned a new seating chart. I was seated in the back next to Brian Bergsagel. I referred to him as Brain. I slay myself too. In the back of the class room, there was a black speckled bathtub. It was filled with pillows and other appropriate comforting accoutrements. I figured it was set up for sporadic reading purposes, though no one ever verbally discussed the existence of said tub. I swear I turned to Brian, and the first thing I said to him was, “You know what that tub reminds me of? Kyle XY!” And much to my surprise, he followed the sci-fi series closely as well. You would not be wrong in guessing that our friendship budded at that exact moment. Not true, but that’s not going to stop me from using one of my cleverly crafted human gestation pick-up lines at my local café.

Kyle XY isn’t just sci-fi fantasy; it isn’t just a drama; it isn’t just a comedy, and it isn’t just a romance. Kyle XY addresses the human condition; it tests viewers with each episode. It is the multi-faceted dynamic behind a revolution. Kids are getting into sci-fi! It was the ticket in. It is like hearing Judas Priest for the first time, and then the very next day going out to by your very first Priest album. Soon your CD collection is full of Iron Maiden, Van Halen, and Black Sabbath. Kyle XY has become that medium for many people. They’re starting to realize that, “Hey, science fiction is where it’s at.”

I just watched the series finale earlier tonight, and to my surprise, the episode ended abruptly like any other season finale would. It was no series finale. There was no real ending, questions were left unanswered, and viewers were left unfulfilled. I was under the impression that this would be the episode that summed it all up: Kyle would resolve ongoing conflicts with Latnok, Josh and Andy would miraculously end up together, and Jessi would rip out Amanda’s trachea. Frankly, there’s only one way to put it: Kyle XY is really boss.