Long ago, a college professor told me that when rain is introduced in a narrative, it connotes change. It’s something that has stuck with me over the years. While I don’t think it’s a hard-and-fast truism, I do think there’s a fuck ton of rain at the beginning of the Bad Monkey finale, and it sure does usher in some serious change for all our quirky characters in the form of acceptance, death, and just plain letting go.
The episode opens with an absolute gut punch. Last week’s cliffhanger had us expecting a vicious showdown between the powerful Dragon Queen and the rage-filled Eve, but the altercation ends all too quickly. As the storm rages, Eve reels from Gracie’s betrayal. The queen demands that Eve leave the island and give back the land she stole. Eve agrees, admitting she feels there are too many “blacks†on the island (we all knew a bitch was racist). However, lightning flashes, crashing into the “mad†tree that Ya-Ya and Lulu chatted about in the previous episode, and a sharp limb falls behind Gracie. Eve takes the opportunity to shove her frenemy into the branch, impaling her midsection and leaving her to a slow, painful death. The island gets its sacrifice.
It’s an unexpected and heartbreaking twist. The first time I watched this episode, I sobbed uncontrollably as I watched Gracie’s spirit visit Ya-Ya, Egg, and Lulu like in some kind of reverse Christmas Carol as she lay dying in the graveyard: Ya-Ya was her past, Egg was her present, and Lulu is the future of the island. Even while dying, Gracie communicates that she’s at peace, knowing her sacrifice was what it took to make things right on her island. Her magic was real. And if there were any lingering doubts about that, her last words solidify her power. She croaks, “I hope you choke on your lies.†And that’s just what Eve does … later in the episode.
Aside from Gracie’s death, Andros begins to pick up the pieces after the hurricane passes. Yancy tries to come up with a plan with Neville, and this includes lots of delightful bantering between the two. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Ronald Peet has been a really fantastic foil for Vince Vaughn’s motormouthed antics. Peet plays a wonderful straight man, but he also reliably delivers one-line zingers that stop Vaughn in his tracks, countering loquaciousness with brevity. If there’s a second season of the show (please, Apple?!), I truly hope that they find a way to write Neville into the story.
With the help of Charles and Claspers, Neville and Yancy find the gun that Rosa tossed after shooting Egg. Yancy calls in a favor to the Feds and gets Director Rhodes to call in a false warning to the Striplings that their assets will be frozen by the end of the day. Rhodes also lies and says Yancy is with her in Miami so that Eve and Nick aren’t worried about his snooping around. Nick instructs Eve to go to the bank to get cash so they can escape to Nassau and then London (the city has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but okay). Eve does, and Yancy and Neville are there to nab her when she walks out with her cash.
Unfortunately, Claspers and his fritter addiction blow the whole operation as Egg spies him at the fritter joint, which, if we’re keeping score, is the second time he has unintentionally ruined Yancy’s plan to nab the Striplings. Tipped off by Claspers, Egg and Eve have the local cops surround the bank as she comes out, arresting Yancy for shooting Egg and impaling Nick with the fishing rod — both things he technically didn’t do but was definitely a party to. There’s a wild, almost slapstick vibe to the way Neville charges into the fray with Dawnie’s red convertible only to unceremoniously smash into another car. In the chaos, Yancy scrambles to steal a police cruiser as an alternate getaway car and Neville flails to hop in, giving a finger to the corrupt cops as they escape.
As Yancy and Neville regroup, Eve heads back home. Before going to the bank, she had assessed Nick’s stab wound and found it was definitely infected. His mobility was also rapidly failing. Ironically, he’s now making use of one of the scooters he used to scam insurance companies for — presumably the one Ya-Ya returned to them — and he’s certainly looking at a lifetime spinal injury. When Eve optimistically trills that they’re going to fix Nick up in London, Egg wryly retorts, “Yeah, that’s how it usually works with spine injuries. They get a little better each day.†This gets Eve thinking.
So when Eve returns from the bank and realizes Nick is no longer capable of taking care of her and is just going to slow her down while she escapes, she does what any major sociopath would do. She pretends to roll her husband to the getaway yacht only to change course at the last minute. The two scheming lovers have a few final words, and Rob Delaney gives an affecting performance as a man whose life is flashing in front of his eyes and he’s finding he doesn’t like what he sees. His furious tone isn’t really pointed at Eve; it’s pointed at himself for allowing this to happen. He chose a piece of ass over his daughter, and now he’s paying the price. An unfeeling Eve unceremoniously dumps her now-useless husband over the edge, his single working limb bobbing in the surf as he drowns. In the end, Nick is eaten by a shark after all.
Eve hops on the yacht and sees Egg cradling her little Tilly. She seems to have no lingering reaction to what she’s just done and instead coos over the image of the giant Egg holding her precious, poof-y pup. When Egg asks where Nick is — how this violent man does not even suspect Eve of killing her husband after all he’s seen is beyond me — she tells him it was too hot for her to push him. With a wad of cash and a smile, she instructs Egg to give her the keys and go get Nick. She figures out how to get the yacht moving just in time. As Neville and Yancy arrive just to watch her escape, Yancy dives into the water, grabbing on to one of the docking ropes Eve didn’t bother to secure. He holds on, his plan unclear, but he seems to be refusing to let go, even if it kills him. As he starts to take in water, he hears Neville shouting at him to “let go,†which echoes the sentiment so many others, including his father, Rogelio, and Rosa, have tried to drill into him for so long. So he does. With no way to stop Eve, Yancy lets go and the bad guy gets away.
But there’s a happy ending, the narrator promises. In fact, there are a whole bunch of happy endings as the season draws to a close. Neville “catches†his biggest catch yet — a 200-pound asshole. When we see the overhead of Nick’s bloated body, he’s not wearing his bougie watch, but later, Neville and Driggs reveal it to Dawnie. They’ll sell it and rebuild his house on his land. Aww. Meanwhile, Dawnie’s daughter Lulu is proving to be a constant companion for Ya-Ya, and while Ya-Ya still mourns her granddaughter, she knows her soul is still on the island.
As for Eve? Well, she got everything she wanted. After her escape from Andros, we see she has made it to some sort of penthouse in Portugal. Tilly is by her side, and she’s decked out in a puffy red top, tight black pants, and jeweled platform heels, surveying the world below like a true supervillain. But she doesn’t get to enjoy her spoils for long: As she bites into one of her beloved baby carrots, she chokes, just as the Dragon Queen predicted. With no one to help her, she stumbles to the edge. Or perhaps she was pulled to the edge by a mystical force? She tumbles down, falling several stories and dying on impact. It’s a fitting end for such an evil person, but the sadist in me does wish she had suffered more. The woman was responsible for the murders of five people! I guess her little dog prancing in her blood does add a bloody cherry on top of the situation, though.
It’s unclear whether any of the gang finds out about Eve’s demise, but it feels as though the universe has restored balance and order. As the episode draws to a close, we get a series of codas as we check in on Yancy’s various relationships. Madeline and Petrov move in next door, determined to rip down Evan Shook’s mansion monstrosity and build a tiny house. Bonnie calls from some tropical locale, and Rosa stops by for one last booty call. It feels kind of like a magic trick that each of these interactions would feel satisfying if this were the last episode of the show, while they also leave room for more if the show is renewed for a second season. (Again, Apple, I beg you.)
In the final moments, there definitely seems to be room for more. Rogelio and Yancy enjoy some booze and take in the view from Yancy’s backyard. They talk about how everyone except Yancy seems destined to move on, with Yancy as a catalyst for change in everyone but himself. This does seem to be true — even though he did eventually give up on Eve, the man has a harder time letting go than Elsa — but for the sake of entertainment, do we really want the man to change? When Rogelio asks Yancy if he wants to take a look at something in his car, it’s only a matter of moments before Yancy takes the bait. And, friends, when Yancy said, “What’s in the car, man,†and the credits rolled, I swear to you I jumped out of my seat and clapped. I clapped!
Let’s all hope Apple does what’s right and renews Bad Monkey for another season. We all deserve joy in our lives, and I think we can agree that this show is a dose of much-needed fun for everyone. Thanks for following along with me this season, and I hope to meet you back on Yancy’s teal Adirondack chairs by the ocean someday in the future. I’ll bring extra glasses.
Monkeying Around
• It feels almost perverse that this hurricane-themed finale will air on the eve of Hurricane Milton hitting the western coast of Florida. At the time I’m writing this, Milton is strengthening, so I wish all you Floridians health and safety as the storm approaches.
• I’m not sure Gracie would really have died from the diminutive Eve shoving her into a felled branch, no matter how sharp, but okay. The island demanded a sacrifice, I guess?
• Was Neville and Yancy’s whole conversation about Vegas an homage to Swingers? I’d like to think so.
• Tom Petty Cover Watch: There are three covers in this episode, and we get a Petty song (!) at the very end. “The Waiting,†by Marcus King, is a soulful cover that underscores the emotional montage of Gracie’s spirit saying her final good-byes as she dies. A slow, almost dirgelike cover of “Breakdown,†by Waz, plays as Eve pushes Nick to his death, and Sharon Van Etten’s pensive cover of “I Won’t Back Down†catches Yancy in the act of letting go as he tries to catch Eve. And we get a blast of pure Petty at the end as his jubilant “Learning to Fly†plays over a montage of the ancillary characters finding peace. Donald is in the FBI now! Mel and Claspers find love! This show is just too good, y’all.