After six seasons, ANIMAL KINGDOM came to an end. Rebecca covered it in multiple posts:
- other reactions to the end of 'animal kingdom'
- adrian sucked deran down to the hairy root and then ...
- animal kingdom - was smurf killed off too soon?
- the end of 'animal kingdom'
including the one we're highlighting below:
the end of 'animal kingdom'
'animal kingdom' wrapped up last night. if you were
wondering about the flashbacks, it made sense in the final episode. it
was all leading up to what j did and how he did it for julia.
so what happened?
j
screwed them all over. last week, we saw him steal all their money.
now they broke pope free while he was being transported to another
prison. all 3? no, j didn't show. it was deran and craig. he texted
that he had the heat on him. was he telling the truth?
of course not, it's piece of crud j. they ride their dune buggies to where j had stashed the get away cars.
they are there.
with their tires slashed.
meanwhile, j's calling the police to report where they are (remember his idea about a tracker on pope? that's why).
his
girlfriend shows up and then the police do. he says he knows nothing
about the jailbreak and that pope would never come here. he also says
deran and craig moved out sometime ago. he's just 1 lie after another.
he was here all day and turns to his girlfriend who nods.
after the police leave, she starts to grasp what a s**t j really is. she says she can't leave with him after all.
he
pretends it's okay and then goes to the kitchen and get a beer as well
as fix her a drink. he injects something into her drink.
she's dead after she drinks it.
deran, craig and pope are holed up in an empty house when the police start showing up. pope tells them to leave, he'll be okay.
somehow, he is. he has a shoot out with 3 squad cars and he's the only 1 left standing. he takes off in 1 of them.
craig
and deran stop at a gas station and try to steal some car keys. the
store owner's little boy comes out of nowhere and shoots craig in the
stomach. deran wants to shoot him back but, since he's a kid, he
doesn't.
they leave in the gas station owner's car.
he's
taking craig for help. craig tells him to pull over and that they
aren't going to make it. he keeps telling craig not to give up.
craig dies. deran cries by the beach and promises craig he'll make sure his kid is okay.
which
i guess means deran has to put his life on hold yet again because
adrian is in indonesia. so deran doesn't get a happy ending. craig's
dead.
pope?
pope
swaps the squad car for a car he steals and ends up back at smurf's
house. j is inside with a bat destroying everything - apparently trying
to make it look like pope came back and attacked (explaining the dead
woman by the pool).
the
flashbacks throughout all of this are of julia. she came back to rob
smurf. pope locked her in the bathroom. when smurf came back she
wanted julia tossed out. pope pleaded for rehab. she said okay. in
the car to rehab, julia placed pope's hand on her belly so he could feel
her baby. she was going to name him joshua, she explained, and call
him j for short. smurf doesn't take them to rehab. instead she dumps
julia under a highway. when pope argues, she tells him he can stay with
her and that once he leaves there is no coming back. he ends up
staying.
so j planned this all along. not just since smurf's death. he planned to kill all of them for what they did to julia.
deran
and craig were little boys, it's not like they did anything to julia.
pope was a young adult and not capable of standing up for himself. that
leaves smurf. if he was really about revenge, then smurf was his only
real target.
j was a creep
and trash and it was obvious that's what he was all along. a few weeks
back, even deran's father warned him not to trust j. when even dennis
leary is wary of you, you're garbage.
pope
and j fought. pope had him in a sleeper choke hold. when he woke up, j
was tied to a lawn chair by the pool. pope confronted him about
killing the woman. he also confronted him about how he set his uncles
up. that's when j revealed it was always th eplan for him to get back
at them for julia. pope knocked him into the pool. as j was drowning,
pope had the flashback to julia being dumped under the highway.
he
ended up saving j. he cut him free from the chair and told him to
run. then pope set fire to the house and presumable died in it.
so ...
deran
deserved a happy ending. and it really ticks me off that we didn't see
him heading for indonesia and deran. the cody family robbed deran more
than any of the others. craig got to become a dad and had how many
different lovers. pope got to be a dad to baz's kid. pope also got
back with an old girlfriend in the final season.
it was an ending. i didn't like it. and i didn't like craig and pope dying while j got to live.
maybe there will be a spin-off:
Animal Kingdom's finale, "Fubar," ended with J and Deran as the surviving Codys. Deran is last seen promising a dying Craig to take care of his family and
take vengeance against J. And while J manages to make it to safety
thanks to Pope's mercy, he is left alone and emotionally defeated,
confirming the old adage that money can't buy happiness. As such, an Animal Kingdom spinoff
could pick up where Season 6's finale left off by following Deran on
his revenge quest against his nephew. It could also provide some closure
to Renn (Christina Ochoa) and Nick's storyline while perhaps
re-introducing Adrian (Spencer Treat Clark), Deran's former boyfriend,
back into the mix. The only downside to this type of spinoff is it'd be
sans Craig and Pope, with the latter becoming a fan-favorite character
with big shoes to fill. However, there is also the opportunity for a
fake-out, with Pope and Craig managing to survive their wounds despite
their apparent deaths.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'