Summary
A funny and quietly rather bleak finale takes the passengers of the Avenue 5 out of the frying pan and into several different fires.
This recap of Avenue 5 season 2, episode 8, “That’s Why They Call It a Missile”, contains spoilers, including an open discussion of the Avenue 5 season 2 ending.
There is so much going wrong for the crew and passengers in the Avenue 5 season 2 finale that recapping it feels like being Ryan wheeling back and forth between conversations trying to avoid several crises at once. But that’s this show all over, isn’t it? It isn’t so much out of the frying pan and into the fire as out of several items of cookware and into multiple different fires.
Avenue 5 season 2 ending explained
So, you’ll recall that in Episode 7, the ship was split into two in an effort to fool the missile from TOTOPOTUS (The Office of The Other President of the United States) into only destroying one half. But a last-minute charge from Judd resulted in a great deal of confusion on all sides. The ridiculous system that had been used to organize the passengers fell apart instantly, and it was suddenly unclear, thanks to how many of them had literally jumped ship, which half of the vessel the missile would target.
This separated Ryan and Elena, Doug and Mia, and several other key personnel. The eels are on one side, the engines and toilet rolls are on another, and nobody is in charge. As has been a consistent theme throughout this season, part of the problem is that so many people want to be in charge that nothing actually gets done, which is an especially pressing problem now since the missile is going to strike in just under an hour.
As usual, a potential solution presents itself out of nowhere. Spike reveals that he’s dying of a heart condition and is willing to sacrifice himself to save everyone by piloting an escape pod straight into the missile. “This is joyous news!” Ryan says. “Not for you obviously. But joyous! And unbelievably sad…”
Joyous or not, Ryan keeps this news to himself and continues to negotiate with Judd – who has taken control of the other half of the ship – for eels and with Lucas for safe passage home in exchange for an abundance of planet-saving lithium. At around the same time, Elena decides she wants to marry both Ryan and Charles, much to the confusion of the former and the delight of the latter. Even that goes wrong, though, since Rav has decided that if they completely cut the power on their side of the ship, the missile will target the other half. In a split-second, Ryan seems to have married both Charles and Karen, but not Elena.
Where this episode gets especially bleak, I think, is when Spike realizes that he isn’t actually dying thanks to the escape pod’s medical scanner, and Ryan and Billie try to convince him into sacrificing himself anyway. Ironically, his lack of heroics ends up saving the day, sending the missile veering neatly between both halves of the ship… and directly into the lithium-rich asteroid that was Ryan’s bargaining chip for safe passage home.
Since Ryan had already promised Lucas the precious mineral, this opens up a whole new can of worms for next season. In one of the final scenes, we see Ryan and Billie using a perspective trick to create the impression that they have a giant chunk of lithium to exchange when in reality they’ve got a palm-sized chunk that’ll power an electric scooter for scarcely 20 minutes.
You can catch Avenue 5 season 2, episode 8, “That’s Why They Call It a Missile” exclusively on HBO. What did you think of the Avenue 5 season 2 ending? Let us know in the comments.
