This article discusses the ending of the Apple TV+ film The Beanie Bubble and will contain spoilers.
The Beanie Bubble was written by Kristen Gore, who directed the film with Damian Kulash. Gore based her script on the nonfiction book, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette. The story follows Ty Warner, a peculiar and possibly magical yet insecure little man.
He starts a toy company with his friend Robbie, a woman beaten down by life and not getting what she deserves. Their lives change when Ty sells all his late father’s antiques to fund their business venture, Ty Inc., starting a successful stuffed animal toy line. The company eventually developed a product line called Beanie Babies, which became a worldwide sensation.
The Beanie Bubble Ending Explained
Who is Robbie?
Robbie is the former girlfriend of Ty Warner and had a crucial hand in running Ty Inc. during the company’s inception. Initially, they met after Ty’s father’s passing. Robbie has been working at an auto repair shop and provider to her husband, who’s in a wheelchair. Robbie is a fictional name based on a real-life woman named Patricia Roche, who ran the company’s UK division.
Why does Ty reduce Robbie’s role in the company?
Ty moves Robbie into a different position without her knowledge after boasting to Ty she is the one running the company after he refuses her idea to expand into the UK. You’ll notice the theme that Ty is insecure and frequently make changes after others take credit for their own work. Ty moves her into a position without commissions, reducing her salary by 75% and her role.
Robbie discovers Ty is recording her conversations with a device under her desk. As a setup, she pretends to discuss how to utilize marketing in the UK with Jehovah’s Witnesses before ultimately quitting. Later, Ty returns, seeking her help with his UK problem, but Robbie agrees only if her new company becomes the exclusive distributor of Ty’s products in the UK.
Who is Sheila?
Sheila is Ty’s fiance. She’s a designer who Ty kept waiting for hours at his home. He’s immediately attracted to her after she tells him off, but Sheila rebuffs him because she cannot date until her daughters grow up. They eventually date, fall in love and become engaged. Sheila is based on a real-life woman named Faith McGowan, Warners’s longtime girlfriend who had a hand in operations.
Why does Ty have 48 boxes of the Beanie Baby Spooky returned to his home?
Ty returns the unsold Spooky Beanie Babies with tags credited “Created by Ava” after a media profile sparked Ty’s jealousy. This is important because Ava designed Spooky, the biggest seller of the Beanie Baby’s lineup. Ava finds the new tags, now crediting Ty, and faces ostracization by friends due to the change.
At the company holiday party, Sheila wants to confront Ty but learns from Maya that the retired Beanie Baby Spooky is valuable in secondary markets. She catches Ty cheating with Robbie, leading to their breakup. Sheila sells the remaining Spooky toys, affording her a beachfront home and her daughter’s college education.
Who is Maya?
Maya, initially hired as the company’s receptionist, becomes instrumental in selling Beanie Babies as collectibles at toy fairs. She creates a Ty Inc. website and discovers eBay, an auction site for retired miniature toys, directly contributing to Ty’s success by marketing limited runs and tracking sales in secondary markets. Maya is based on Lina Trivedi, a college student earning $12.00 an hour at Ty Inc. She was responsible for Warner’s billion-dollar success.
Why does Maya quit Ty, Inc.?
Maya quits the company after being passed over, not just once but twice, for Ty Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer position. Instead, Ty hires a man from a different company, with no experience in online retail, as the administrative officer. Maya thought she had the inside track after impressing Japanese investors with her knowledge of internet sales and secondary markets like eBay.
However, Ty makes his official choice at the holiday party, a middle-aged man named Blaine. As a consolation prize, Ty offers her a raise to $20.00 an hour. After telling Ty she is quitting, the Japanese investors approach her about a job in their company marketing something called Pokémon. Maya started her consulting firm and is considered a pioneer of online marketing.
What happened to Ty Warner?
Ty Warner never married or had children and was convicted of tax evasion in 2014. However, the sentence was reduced to two years of probation, community service, and a 53 million-dollar fine. The details are interesting, as Warner kept a secret offshore account in Switzerland, hiding 107 million dollars.
Why did The Beanie Bubble burst?
The collapse happens because Ty refuses to listen to Maya’s ideas about hedging the issue by tracking secondary markets. Since Ty overproduced the product lines to meet popular demand, the strength of Beanie Babies was a shortage. The Beanie Baby market crashed spectacularly, and the twenty million dollars’ worth of “Beanie” wealth evaporated.
What did you think of the ending of The Beanie Bubble? Comment below.
You can watch this film with a subscription to Apple TV+.
