Tuesday, September 06, 2022

Rebecca covers the series finale of ANIMAL KINGDOM

After six seasons, ANIMAL KINGDOM came to an end.  Rebecca covered it in multiple posts:


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:'