Everything Now is a sensitive, nuanced Netflix teen drama about a young girl named Mia Polanco who returns to school after a 7-month stint in a facility for eating disorders to discover that her friends seem to have grown up without her. In an effort to catch up, Mia draws up a bucket list, or “F*ck It Bucket”, of things she feels she needs to do sooner rather than later, and her close-knit group of friends, who all have problems of their own, offer to help. But do they succeed? We break down the ending of Everything Now to see, but be warned that there are major spoilers to follow.
Throughout the eight-episode first season, Mia experiences various ups and downs. She gets drunk and embarrasses herself at a party. She turns up for a “date” with the cutest boy in school and discovers he has invited all his friends. She falls for new Mancunian girl Carli, tries to hide her past from her, and subsequently distances herself from her new beau when she finds out about the eating disorder anyway.
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In the meanwhile, Mia’s friends are busy with their own subplots and dynamics. Becca and Cameron are in a sexual relationship which they’re keeping secret from everyone, including Mia. Will has been lying about hooking up with his boss, and Mia’s parents are getting a divorce.
As we approach the end of Everything Now Season 1, things are going badly, to say the least. At Mia’s 17th birthday bash organized by her it-girl girlfriend Alison, Mia gets very drunk and kisses Carli, who has been seeing Cameron. Cameron witnesses this and tells Alison.
Everything Now Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
Tragic News Leads to Mia’s Lowest Point
With everything going wrong, Mia is rapidly approaching her lowest ebb, and she reaches it when she finds out her friend Jenna, another patient at the recovery facility, has committed suicide.
After returning home and discovering that Mia has been skipping crucial aspects of her recovery, such as her meal plan, Viv confronts her about it, leading to Mia sneaking out and running away to spend the day with Carli.
This leads Viv to recruit Mia’s friends, whose dynamic has been completely upended by recent efforts, to search for her.
Mia’s friends repair their relationships
While it’s Carli who ultimately helps Mia to understand that she has to reach out for help when she needs it, the search for her helps to bring her friends back together.
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Becca, for instance, tells Cameron about her pregnancy and abortion, and he apologizes for acting in such a way that she didn’t feel comfortable sharing it with him until now. Likewise, after Theo tries to comfort Will when he gets overwhelmed about Mia, Will admits that he tried to self-sabotage as a response to the attention he was getting from Theo.
Things also come to a head between Viv and Rick. Their fractious relationship has been obvious since the beginning, but with the recent revelation that Rick has met someone else – who turns out to be Jenna’s mother – there’s a little more nastiness involved. Rick has a point, though – he met another woman at a parents’ support group because Viv wasn’t there, and has subsequently missed the signs of Mia’s relapse at home because of her lack of presence and consistency.
Everything Now Season 1 Ending Explained
Do Mia and Carli end up together?
Carli is finally able to convince Mia that she needs to make the effort in her recovery, and takes her to see Dr. Nell. In a major step, Mia accepts that she needs help, and her recovery process doesn’t begin anew but takes a turn in a new, more accepting direction.
As part of her healing process, Mia apologizes to her friends, including Alison, promising to be a better friend to them in return. Her eating disorders and mental health woes haven’t gone anywhere, but she has taken a vital step in learning to live with them.
On the subject of Mia’s friends, Theo and Will end up together, Cameron and Becca do not, though the former does confess that he’s in love with the latter before hooking up with Alison in his grief, and Carli tells Mia that they both have some emotional growth ahead of them before they’re ready to be together.
