This article contains spoilers for Netflix’s ‘The Comeback: 2004 Red Sox’.

Everyone knows how it ends. The Red Sox, perennial also-rans, doomed to a life of heartbreaking Game 7s, damned by the 1920 sale of a formidable slugger, never quite David enough to defeat the Goliath-like Yankees, came back in the 2004 American League Championship Series. In a way no team ever had before, and none have done since.

It’s the greatest story in Boston sports history, but it’s been told and retold several times over these last 20 years: MLB’s official World Series film, ESPN’s iconic ‘Four Days in October,’ the Farrelly Brothers’ romcom, ‘Fever Pitch.’ Was another retelling truly necessary?

Yet Netflix’s ‘The Comeback: 2004 Red Sox’ finds several ways to make this classic tale new again. Game clips are complemented by footage sourced from the ‘04 players’ handheld camcorders, giving the story a fresh, behind-the-scenes look into those glory days. There are new interviews with over a dozen current and former Red Sox faces, including Theo Epstein, Joe Castiglione, Dave Roberts (in full Dodgers gear), Terry Francona, Jason Varitek, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, and a lot of Kevin Millar. More surprising appearances include then-Yankees skipper Joe Torre, Roger Clemens, and the controversial Curt Schilling.

Directed by Colin Barnicle – former Red Sox intern and the son of award-winning journalist Mike Barnicle – the three-episode miniseries opens with the Yankees leading 19-8 in Game 3 of the ‘04 ALCS, and then hits rewind. Episode 1 reminds viewers of the dominance of the early 1900s Red Sox, then lays out the various torments throughout the subsequent 86 years. It’s a perfectly painful contrast to the Yankees’ 26 championships. “World Champions! Team of the decade! Most successful franchise of this century,” shouts Bob Costas in footage of New York winning yet another World Series.

It makes sense that the Yankees declined to participate in the show on the grounds that they don’t have any rivals; these two franchises may have hated each other, and their fans certainly did, but until 2004, New York was way out of Boston’s league. (Or perhaps the Yankees just didn’t want to field questions about the recording device Sox players found hidden in the ceiling of the visitors’ clubhouse at old Yankee Stadium.)

The first episode lays the important groundwork for 2004, focusing primarily on the early changes under then-new owners John Henry, Tom Werner, and Larry Lucchino, and the “Cowboy Up!” ‘03 Sox. Grady Little, the analytics-averse manager on borrowed time when Epstein becomes GM, has some of the most interesting soundbites.

Episode 2 picks up after Aaron Boone blasts the Red Sox into an early offseason in the ‘03 ALCS. The front office shifts into overdrive for an offseason race with the Yankees to bulk up their respective rosters: both teams want Schilling, the Yankees sign Gary Sheffield, and of course, the whole Alex Rodriguez saga and ensuing Nomar Garciaparra complications.

Speaking of Schilling, the show definitively proves the bloody sock was no ketchup-y hoax. The clip of his bare foot, after what Epstein describes as a “barbaric” procedure, is not for the faint of heart. That’s in Episode 3, which spans the entire ‘04 postseason. It’s a lot of ground to cover in an hour and change.

The passage of time inevitably gives several moments new meaning. It’s even more heartbreaking watching the late, great Tim Wakefield giving up the year-ending walk-off home run to Boone in the ‘03 ALCS, because this is the first time the story is being told without him.

Schilling, meanwhile, is retelling his same old stories about wanting to make 50,000 Yankees fans shut up, but now with his hero status corroded beyond repair. He became the team pariah last fall, when he revealed Wakefield’s cancer diagnosis against his express wishes, days before his passing.

It’s also hard to envision the team’s principal owner happily soaked in beer and champagne in the clubhouse these days. Red Sox fans can only sigh or rage-laugh when present-day Henry says, “The prior ownership just didn’t really focus on: ‘What does it take to win?’”

One of the show’s best moments is its’ quietest. Most sports are defined by noise: the shouted command of the quarterback, the puck ricocheting between sticks on the ice like live pinball, the staccato of a basketball on the parquet. There’s noise in baseball, too, of course; there are few sounds sweeter in this world than a perfectly-executed pitch slamming into a catcher’s mitt, or the crack of a ball leaving the bat, the ballpark, and sometimes, the earth’s atmosphere. And the roar of a thrilled, passionate crowd is universal.

But of the four major U.S. sports, baseball is the only one that’s equally defined by the quiet moments. The stillness and waiting, punctuated by unexpected bursts of fiery action, make something beautiful and unique. In the titular moment, ‘The Comeback’ utilizes both. Game 7 of the ‘04 ALCS ends on a Rubén Sierra groundout, a half-hearted Hail Mary by a Yankees team that had looked defeated for the better part of the last four days.

“A ground-ball to second base, Pokey Reese throws to first…” The majestic voice of Red Sox radio legend Joe Castiglione fades out.

Cut to present-day Millar. Then Epstein, Ortiz, Martinez. None of them say a word. In this sequence, they’re only on screen for approximately two seconds apiece. But as the music – deemed “ethereal” by Netflix’s subtitles – plays, their expressions say everything. Millar and Epstein nod, Ortiz slightly shakes his head as he looks up toward the heavens the way he did after each of his 558 career home runs, Martinez beams warmer than the sun. All four are smiling.

It’s all in their eyes, some glistening with tears; they’re right back there, at that ballpark that no longer exists, reliving that historic triumph, that one-of-a-kind vanquishing of their greatest enemy, that, as Millar famously said, shocked the world.

It’s an entire story without a single word. The greatest story this sports town has ever seen.

Cut to Babe Ruth, smiling in black and white, totally unaware of the 86 years of torment he inadvertently wrought on a place he once called home.

Cut to the Red Sox exploding out of the visitor’s dugout and Jason Varitek leaping into Alan Embree’s waiting arms as Castiglione’s voice fades back in: “The Red Sox have won the American League pennant!”

Everyone knows how it ends, but this new ride is still enjoyable. It could’ve been even longer; the final episode has to cover a ton of ground, and feels rushed at times.

But of all the sports moments to relive, this is the one. It will never get old. But ‘The Comeback’ finds ways to make it feel new, too.