Summary
Season 2 ends on a strong note with impressive action sequences and a satisfactory ending to make audiences want more.
This recap of Netflix’s Black Summer season 2, episode 8, “The Plane” — the ending explained — contains major spoilers.
Read the recap of the previous chapter.
While this season has been hit and miss, the last two chapters have been strong, sealing the justification for a possible third season. We certainly wouldn’t grumble.
The opening of the finale sees Ray, with blood streaming down his face — he’s calling everyone disgusting and claims they would have gotten on the plane if they all listened to him. He asks the person he’s looking at to open the door and claims he has been dead for a long time. The title screen “Arrival” pops up. Rose and Anna make it to the airstrip — the conversation of Spears comes up, and Anna tells Rose she did what her mother couldn’t. She doesn’t want to rot in a place like her father, and her mother tells her to shut her mouth. They can’t argue for long because Boone, the zombie, chases them.
The merging of groups
And then, all the work of season 2 merges, with everyone focusing on the airstrip after a difficult battle against the winter weather.
The title screen “The Airstrip” pops up. A bird-eye view shot shows that Anna and Rose are not alone; every group that has been on this long journey is coming to the airstrip. The title screen “Old Friends” pops up. Mance reunites with the women from his old group and asks them if they are ready. Suddenly gunshots are fired, and one of the women (Natalie) falls — they have to go to her aid. Mance tells Jase that they have to go as it’s too late for Natalie — unfortunately, Jase ends up been eaten by Natalie, the zombie.
It’s getting tense
The title screen “New Friends” pops up. Anna and Rose bump into Ray and Sun, and Rose offers them food. Ray wants their gun, so they drop their weapons. There’s no time to figure each other out as zombies run after them, so they have to merge as a group to help each other. Rose is about to point her gun at Ray, but she’s told by someone else to put her gun down. The title screen “The Deal” pops up. Boone is with another group, and he’s cuffed — he tries telling the group that he was right, and says “a deal is a deal”. However, the leader kills him.
Ray is betrayed by his own
The title screen “Flare” pops up. We are back in the hangar, and the other group leader takes off Rose’s weapons. They hit Ray despite being acquaintances. The other group leader says they can’t all go on the plane, and only the best can come. Ray is beaten by the men he was once leading, and Sun cries watching. Anna is asked to grab the first aid kit, so she gives it to the group and secretly gives Rose a flare gun.
Everything in the finale demonstrates how humans can be so flawed in desperate situations; even when they are close to the plane, they still can’t work together to find freedom.
A plane arrives
A few zombies breach the hangar — Ray, Rose, Anna, and Sun end up outside, and Ray locks the men in. Ray calls them all greedy fucks, and says they turned into animals. He tells them all that they aren’t going anywhere anymore because they fucked up. Suddenly, they see a plane heading their way, so Ray lowers his gun. The plane lands, so Rose uses her flare gun and shoots at a vehicle near Ray, and it explodes. The explosion throws Rose back, and she wails in pain. Anna tells her mother to get up as they need to go, but Rose clearly cannot stand up because of her injured leg. She tells her daughter to go and points a pistol at her head — as Anna runs away, she sobs, but she calms down eventually as she hears the plane.
Sun makes it, and Mance impressively fights off every single zombie
The title screen “The Plane” pops up. The remaining survivors, Sun and Anna, reach the plane — Sun begs Anna to get on, but she hesitates, and the zombies catch up to her. She runs as Sun heads inside, and the plane door shuts and sets off — Sun made it on; she’s free. The title screen “Mance” pops up. Mance sees the plane set off but then sees Anna running away from zombies, so he distracts them and fights them off while running away. In one of the hangars, he fights them all off one by one. The camera shots in this sequence are impressive — he manages to kill them all.
It’s surprising how the best part of this episode was Mance fighting off all the zombies.
The wild west
Mance makes it outside, exhausted, and taking in the fresh air and sunset, and he kills another zombie. The title screen “Departure” pops up. Rose hasn’t killed herself as the episode first implied, and Ray crawls nearby, aiming his weapon at her. She looks to her right and sees her daughter Anna — just like Spears said — “look after your mother”. The mother and daughter look at each other while there’s a wild west situation going on — Ray and Rose pointing their guns squarely at each other like a nuclear deterrent.
The ending of Black Summer season 2, episode 8
Anna runs over to a car and turns it on; Ray finally puts down his gun, so Rose lays down and rests. The title screen “The Pilot” pops up, and we are on the plane with Sun. The pilot speaks to Sun in Korean from the cockpit — she’s surprised that the pilot can speak a little Korean, and she’s overwhelmed with happiness to finally be able to speak to someone. Sun asks about the others, but he tells her that all that matters is what’s ahead — she laughs and looks outside the window before falling asleep.
Let’s reflect
There’s plenty to think about for season 3:
We would hope that the series explores where Sun ends up, especially after all the anticipation of getting on a plane.
What will happen to Rose and Ray? It feels like they have both given up.
Anna waits nearby in a car — is she waiting for Rose to get in? Why was she just sat there?
As for Mance, will he join Rose and Anna?
It feels like Rose will have an integral role in season 3 still, as they did not kill her off in season 2, despite being very close to her demise.
What did you think of the ending of Black Summer season 2, episode 8? Comment below.
