It began as a bit of partisan gamesmanship and ended, surprisingly, as illuminating political theater.
We end, surprisingly, with the impersonator in a kind of communion with the Komodo dragon.
Their latest spin of the coaching wheel — which began with Phil Jackson and ended, surprisingly, with Mike D'Antoni — proves they are still masters of the dramatic arts.
And the philosophical conflict dramatized in it ends surprisingly, in a way that provokes new questions about what Stone is up to in his writing.
The plot becomes tortuous, involving pirates and the kidnapping of the king's sons, but ends surprisingly in a song in praise of love sung by two young men.
Yet despite the continued popularity of a few pieces, Elgar's eminence was in the end surprisingly short-lived.
The special's little stocking-stuffer performances add up to something that feels, almost unaccountably, like an instant classic — funny, sweet, and, in the end, surprisingly poignant.
One of the best was Alisa Pomeroy's film about Oxbridge Tories, sharply observant, alert to viewers' potential prejudices and, in the end, surprisingly undermining them.
In Ghazni, a province in the south-east suffering some of the worst violence in the country, the education director sat down with the local Taliban earlier this year to thrash out what should be taught in schools agreeing in the end, surprisingly, to keep the official curriculum unchanged.Some analysts think the killing of Osama bin Laden has opened a window of opportunity.
But it was the winning way and, in the end, surprisingly, not even close.
