Beef was a surprise hit for Netflix. It’s binge-worthy entertainment, presenting two highly flawed characters who have a problem with the world. The opening premise introduces our main characters, Amy and Danny, and their conflict—a pretty petty road rage dispute—is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for both of them. I’ve given a breakdown and and recap of each episode, covering all the main plot points.
Beef Season 1 Recap (Episodes 1-10)
Episode 1 – “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain”
Danny is a self-employed contractor who keeps buying and then returning sets of hibachi grills. Amy is a business owner trying to sell her store after putting work ahead of her husband, George, and their daughter, Junie.
To be fair, it’s easy to see why Amy wouldn’t want to spend much time with George, but more on this later.
Why do Danny and Amy have beef?
Danny and Amy almost collide in the parking lot of Forsters. Amy flips him off. He gives chase. Both of them cause a lot of property damage and almost crash, into each other and passers-by. Danny, who has no idea the driver of the vehicle is a woman, notes down the license plate number.
Both Amy and Danny vent about the incident. Danny tells his brother, Paul, who lives with him, irresponsibly makes money on crypto schemes and doesn’t seem especially serious about anything, least of all Danny’s failing contractor business. Danny and Paul’s traditionalist Korean parents remain in Korea, unable to leave thanks to some kind of nebulous illegality involving Danny’s cousin Isaac, who is fresh out of jail.
Amy, meanwhile, tells her husband, who doesn’t care. He’s a patronizing, pampered mommy’s boy, despite his mommy, Fumi, openly resenting his wife. Amy is trying to sell her business to Jordan, the CEO of Forsters, which is incidentally the same chain store where Danny was trying to return those grills.
Why does Danny keep buying and returning grills?
Danny and Amy are both opposites in many ways, particularly socioeconomically, but they’re both close to respective breakdowns. He’s tired of being broke; she’s tired of being successful but alone, even within her big house and among her ostensibly loving family.
Danny keeps buying the grills because he has plans to kill himself via carbon monoxide poisoning. However, he doesn’t commit. (The implication with the buying and returning is that he keeps having this idea but deciding against it.)
Episode 1 Ending Explained
So, Danny and Amy both fixate on the road rage incident. He uses her license plate to find her address and turns up there, offering to fix a potential electrical hazard he spotted while outside. Naturally, he assumes that Amy’s husband was driving the car, but when he discovers Amy was the one driving, he pees all over her hardwood bathroom floor and makes a quick getaway.
As he escapes in his own vehicle, Amy memorizes his license plate, and thus the cycle continues.
Episode 2 – “The Rapture of Being Alive”
So, Amy, incensed after Danny peeing on her floor, looks up his license plate number and finds some of his personal information online. She calls his number and leaves his business negative Yelp reviews.
When George gets home, she tries to explain the best she can, leaving some key details out, and while he thinks she’s overreacting, he agrees to accompany her to Danny’s home address, which she informs him they can acquire for just $80.
The address is the run-down hotel that Danny’s parents used to own, which was shut down due to something illegal being peddled on the premises. This remains a burgeoning subplot, but it’s left mysterious for now.
Nevertheless, Amy’s Yelp reviews are damaging Danny’s already struggling business. Isaac suggests he just starts again under a new name, which is apparently a remarkably easy process. Danny pitches the idea to Paul and offers to set the business up in his name. Their plan is to service the Korean residents of Orange County, but that’s almost certainly a decision based on the fact that Paul’s ex, Veronica, lives there. Her place is where they go first.
Who is Amy catfishing as?
Veronica is now married to a god-fearing man named Edwin, and they’re both incredibly active in the local church, which obviously annoys Danny. So, too, does Paul’s general lack of interest in the business since he spends most of his time on Instagram going back and forth with a woman he thinks he called Kayla.
Kayla is Amy. This isn’t a surprise to the audience, who see her set up the catfish account using pictures of her employee, Mia, who might become even more important down the line since George keeps liking her photos.
Why does Amy keep taking George’s gun?
This is among George’s other favorite activities, which include potentially sabotaging the sale of Amy’s business to Jordan by refusing to sell her a chair made by his artist father. It doesn’t seem like this is intentionally to spite Amy, he’s just so self-centered he doesn’t realize. He is, however, shocked to hear that Amy keeps taking his gun out of his safe because she masturbates with it because George is so “vanilla” in bed.
Episode 2 Ending Explained
All throughout this episode, both Danny and Amy’s personal circumstances and relationships worsen, and so too does that petty rivalry, with each periodically calling the other up to threaten them. This comes to a head in a club where Danny and Paul leave with two women to find that Amy has painted insults all over Danny’s truck.
The incident causes a rift between Danny and Paul, who is still focused almost entirely on women – especially Kayla, who he has no idea is really Amy – and can’t see how much his brother is struggling right under his nose. It also pushes Danny to the next level of his resentment towards Amy, as the episode concludes with him driving to her house for purposes as yet unknown.
Episode 3 – “I Am Inhabited by a Cry”
Why does Danny go to church?
Beef Season 1 (Credit – Netflix)
The previous episode ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, with Danny heading to Amy’s house with a hammer. It’s unclear what he was planning to do, but he’s scared away by the security light. We see him following Amy’s car and attempting to set it alight. However, he stops at the last minute when he sees Junie in the back seat.
The experience panics Danny, who confides in Paul (“I almost set a baby on fire!”). Paul isn’t overly interested, though, as his “relationship” with “Kayla” is progressing, and he’s trying to clean up his act.
So, Danny heads to Veronica’s church, where he breaks down during the service, and Steven Yeun does an extraordinary job of selling this moment. Both Veronica and Edwin ask if he’ll be coming back, but while Danny makes his excuses, Edwin explains that the church needs a handyman for some repairs, giving him a reason to stick around.
Danny is looking for some meaning in his life. Whether that’s to be found in Veronica, helping the church, or God Himself, is anyone’s guess.
What happens with Paul and “Kayla”?
Things continue to decline between Amy and George, helped along by him dopily sending her a screenshot of Mia’s Instagram that he had saved on his phone.
So, Amy continues to essentially therapize herself by catfishing Paul as Kayla, but they develop what seems like a very authentic connection. The show’s editing makes it pretty clear, too. When Paul asks if they can FaceTime, Amy obviously declines, but they talk on the phone, and Amy recognizes the bond forming.
Amy’s attempts at intimacy with George only worsen the situation. It’s a joke, and his openly speculating about what his life might have been like had they never met only rubbed salt in the wound.
Toward the end of the episode, Paul arrives at Amy’s store looking for Kayla. She rushes him outside when he spots Mia, whose pictures she has been using to catfish him, but her confession doesn’t dissuade Paul, who kisses Amy.
Beef Season 1 Episode 3 Ending Explained
Danny has developed a scheme to con Veronica and Edwin’s church into a loan for renovations that he will ultimately pocket and use as a downpayment for a patch of land he’s trying to buy.
In the meantime, Danny “kindly” volunteers to do the repairs on the church pro bono, painting himself as a nice guy to swindle them better.
At the end of the episode, Danny plays guitar at the church and sings, enjoying a new sense of belonging – right before he presumably ruins it all for himself and everyone else.
Episode 4 – “Just Not All at the Same Time”
Beef Season 1 (Credit – Netflix)
“Just Not All At the Same Time” is the most introspective episode of Beef thus far, stripping away a lot of the extraneous stuff to really hone in on the psyche of Amy and even Danny, though admittedly through the prism of Paul.
That’s because most of the episode takes place in Vegas, where Amy is speaking at a conference. After their brief meeting in Episode 3, Amy takes Paul home, tells him she’s married, and explains that she’s going out of town, but once again, he’s not dissuaded.
So, Paul takes matters into his own hands.
With Danny’s plan for the church coming together, he and Isaac steal a bunch of materials necessary for the renovations so that the loan can go straight into Danny’s pocket. They lock it in the back of the truck and go home to celebrate.
Why does Paul steal Danny’s truck?
Paul floats the idea of going to Vegas on a boys’ trip. He claims he and Kayla are seeing each other now, and doesn’t tell the others that it’s really a catfish. Danny offers to pay him handsomely for his help on the big church job, so he can fund his own trip, but time is of the essence, so when everyone passes out from partying a little too hard, Paul steals the truck and heads to Vegas alone – unknowingly taking all the construction materials with him.
Amy is in Vegas alone. Junie didn’t want to leave the house, so George volunteered to stay behind with her. He ends up having a sleepover with his mother like the giant insecure baby that he is.
Amy, meanwhile, spends the evening with Paul. They get high, dance, eat, and discuss their lives. Paul, particularly, opens up about Danny and how he thinks he is depressed. Nothing gets physical, but it’s a close run thing, and Amy is genuinely thankful to Paul for giving her exactly the kind of night she needed.
How do Danny and Isaac find Paul?
Danny and Isaac arrive in Vegas and, still being ghosted by Paul, spend the night in the casino. The next morning at the buffet, they spot Paul leaving, and a hilarious chase scene ensues as they pursue him back up to Amy’s penthouse suite.
Amy just happens to be heading back up to her room at the same time to retrieve her phone, but despite the editing making it seem like they’re going to cross paths, they don’t.
We see a new side to Danny here when he slaps Paul for disrespecting him – and he really means it. Isaac is obviously a bad influence, but the fact Paul can’t see his wrongdoing in this situation (or how much Danny has cared for him over the years) doesn’t say much about his maturity.
But Danny and Isaac leave Paul to it and leave with the truck keys. On the way out, though, they walk past the speech Amy is giving, and can’t help but get involved. Danny asks a question about the road rage incident – which is viral at this point – and Amy has him quickly removed by security.
Episode 4 Ending Explained
Another chase ensues, and this one ends with Danny and Isaac being arrested. Amy arrives just in time to see them being put in cuffs, which only intensifies Danny’s resentment towards her.
All in all, it’s an empowering episode for Amy. She got the night she wanted, she got a great reception during the panel, and she got some revenge on Danny. Empowered, she tells Jordan that she wants to accept her deal to stay on with the company.
Episode 5 – “Such Inward Secret Creatures”
Beef Season 1 (Credit – Netflix)
Every show needs one, so “Such Inward Secret Creatures” is the obligatory morning-after-the-night-before episode.
After the whole Las Vegas debacle in Episode 4, Danny is more obsessed with revenge than ever. His plan ends up going haywire, though, producing even more problems for everyone than they had to begin with. And that’s saying something.
The plan starts with befriending George. Danny invents a persona, calling himself Zane, and strikes up a conversation with George while they’re out cycling. He has figured out that Amy married into art money and that her husband should be an easy mark.
How does Danny plan to rip off George?
And they need one. Isaac is on house arrest for crossing state lines and assaulting a police officer, and he blames Danny – and Paul, to be fair, but he’s basically in hiding at this point – for his potentially imminent return to prison. Isaac and his cronies Bobby and Michael need a score, and George might as well be it.
Danny once again infiltrates George’s house, but this time he’s invited. While he’s there, he creates a leak in the bathroom, which he tells George about. Danny offers to find him a plumber and texts Bobby and Michael a shopping list of things they’ll need to break in and swipe George’s father’s artwork.
However, George’s vulnerability endears him to Danny. He’s just a lonely guy without much of an identity of his own. He has grown up in his father’s shadow and now toils in the long one cast by his wife. His art moves Danny, and he calls the job off.
Is George having an affair?
However, Michael and Bobby won’t take no for an answer, so they try to finesse their way into George’s home by turning up on his doorstep and offering to fix the leak. Even George isn’t stupid enough to fall for that, though, and he sends them on their way. When he fixes the leak himself, he calls someone to gloat, and while it initially seems like Amy, it’s at this point we discover that he’s having an affair (of sorts, more later) with Mia.
Worryingly, they’re on “I love you” terms.
What’s going on with Fumi?
“Such Inward Secret Creatures” also concerns itself with Fumi, who has two problems: She’s broke, and she’s lonely. When Amy takes a rain check on their planned lunch after Fumi catches her taking photos of herself in her underwear, Fumi dines alone, and all of her calls to her friends go unanswered. Her accountant delivers the bad news that she’s in serious financial strife, so she decides to go to George’s house while he’s out of town and select some pieces to sell.
This is poorly timed on multiple levels. For one thing, Amy has invited Paul over while George is out of town, and their assurances of no physical intimacy last all of five seconds before they’re having sex all over the house.
Paul takes the post-coital opportunity to ask her for a loan, though. When he implies that getting to where she is shouldn’t be too difficult, she throws him out, and they end things on bad terms.
Is Fumi alive?
Later, Fumi sneaks in, disabling the alarm system, and while she’s there, Michael and Bobby break in to try to rob the place. She chases them off with a gun, but she ends up falling down the stairs. It isn’t even clear if she’s alive or not at the end of the episode.
Assuming she is, some cursory investigation of the security footage isn’t going to do Amy any favors, even if it was disabled – why would she be disabling the security system when she’s home alone?
More to the point, Naomi is continuing to dig into the road rage incident after having started to suspect Amy in Vegas. She’s quickly putting the pieces together with the help of the determined neighbor whose lawn was destroyed in the chase. Things aren’t looking good for anyone as we close out.
Episode 6 – “We Draw a Magic Circle”
What is Naomi’s theory?
Beef Season 1 (Credit – Netflix)
After the robbery attempt in Episode 5, Fumi is recovering – though she clearly knows more than she’s letting on about Amy and George’s relationship – while Naomi continues to investigate the road rage incident with her newly formed Neighbourhood Watch committee.
As if Fumi isn’t high enough on pills, when Amy gets wind of Naomi’s imminent visit to speak with her about the incident, she has Fumi pop another, which seems to knock her out.
Naomi at least comes clean to Amy and lays out all her suspicions. Her amateur detective work has led her to believe that Amy is having an affair with Danny and that the road rage incident was connected to it. Amy literally laughs this off, even though she is having an affair with Danny’s blood relative, which Naomi doesn’t take kindly to.
Amy and Naomi exchange some bitter words and the latter threatens to sink the deal with Jordan by exposing how much “liability” is surrounding Amy and her business.
How do Danny and Amy come to a truce?
Amy, knowing Naomi is close to the truth, meets with Danny and proposes a deal. She’ll pay him $25,000 – it starts at $10K, but he negotiates – to call up Naomi’s tip line and confess to his involvement in the road rage incident, but convince Naomi it was nothing to do with Amy. Strapped for cash since Isaac has taken control of his business, Danny reluctantly agrees.
However, this ends up being unnecessary, meaning that Danny and Amy aren’t able to uphold their uneasy truce. It turns out Fumi wasn’t really asleep when Naomi confronted Amy and she overheard the whole thing. She takes the blame for the road rage fiasco, and Naomi believes her. But she still thinks Danny was involved because Michael and Bobby worse Chosen Brothers gear during the robbery and were caught on the Ring doorbell. She’s determined to take Danny down.
Amy, at least, tips Danny off about this when she calls to tell him the deal is no longer necessary. She has no idea that he was in the process of masturbating to the photo of her rear that she sent to Paul, but then again, Danny has no idea that “Kayla” is really Amy, so that’s a whole situation that needs to be unpacked at some point.
Nevertheless, Danny is rapidly running out of options. So, he does what any right-minded person would do in the same situation – he takes Isaac out of the picture.
Episode 6 Ending Explained
He does this by calling Naomi’s tip line and blaming Isaac for everything. Given his parole status, he’s immediately facing 5-10 years in prison. And what’s more, Isaac had only recently entrusted Danny with the location of his stash, ill-gotten gains stored in rice cookers that play Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone.”
So, Danny ends up betraying his family. The episode ends with him playing dumb to Isaac during visitation, spliced with scenes from the church basketball game where we see another, more unhinged side of Edwin, who’s on the losing side – seemingly in more ways than one.
Episode 7 – “I Am a Cage”
How is Danny doing?
Things finally look up for Danny; all it takes is to betray his cousin.
Danny has somehow managed to supplant both Isaac and Edwin. After we saw Edwin’s breakdown during the church basketball game, we knew he wasn’t as buttoned up as he seemed, but Danny has managed to assume his role at the church while also using Isaac’s money to live the high life, keeping the construction business running for a veneer of legitimacy.
He’s even dating Esther, the girl Isaac had his eye on.
Paul has his own apartment. Danny has built the home on his parents’ land and is planning to move them back from Korea. And Edwin, who has a baby with Veronica now, is hovering around begging for a job. He knows that there was some illegality involved in whatever Danny did to get his new house and Paul’s apartment, but it’s not like he has anything to use for leverage against Danny since Danny has already taken it all.
What’s going on with Amy and George?
Amy has done okay for herself, too. She has sold her company to Jordan, with George throwing in the Tamago as a sweetener, so she now works whatever hours she chooses while the family relaxes in a swish vacation home.
But things still aren’t great between Amy and George. Their love life still seems vanilla. George also takes the opportunity to confess that he has a spiritual connection with another woman. Amy isn’t thrilled to hear that, though given her own extramarital dalliances, she doesn’t have much room to complain.
Still, George and Mia were admittedly on “I love you” terms, which is a tough pill to swallow, so couples’ therapy comes up again. Amy suggests her going alone, though.
Hilariously, Danny and George have remained close, even though George still knows him as Zane, and when George and Amy throw a party at their home – attended by Jordan and Naomi, who are engaged now! – Danny is invited.
How does Danny figure out who Kayla is?
Of course, Danny and Amy exchanged some words of choice. He wants to know if she’s happy now that all her hard work has paid off, and her answer – “Everything fades” – proves that she isn’t, despite everything. That’s probably something Danny can relate to, but he’s distracted when he spots a familiar tattoo on Amy’s back. Realizing that she’s Kayla – he recognizes the tattoo from the booty pic he almost jerked off to – he storms out.
When Amy follows him, they have a pretty nasty argument; she claims Paul is still a child because Danny stunted his growth as a person, and she brings up his tip, landing Isaac in jail; he counters with the cheating and the lying and everything else she’s been up to.
To put it mildly, they don’t part on good terms.
Episode 7 Ending Explained
Danny tells Paul about Kayla/Amy, mostly to distract him from digging too deep into the construction company’s finances, and Paul flips out. He goes to George and Amy’s house and tells George – Amy isn’t there, but she sees the exchange through the security cameras – about the affair. George leaves with Junie.
The episode ends with Danny picking up his parents from the airport and taking them to their new home… which happens to be on fire.
Episode 8 – “The Drama of Original Choice”
“The Drama of Original Choice” is one of the most introspective episodes of Beef, dividing its time between the present day and flashbacks, exploring how Danny and Amy both came to be the damaged, flawed people we’ve come to know throughout the series.
Where do Amy’s issues stem from?
The episode opens with a younger Amy – there’s little to confirm this is a flashback, but it’s implied by Amy’s mention of being in her twenties and a reference to Yahoo Chess – having weirdly anonymous sex with an older man in a motel.
When she catches a glimpse of herself, she sees the hook-nosed visage of a pallid witch.
We come to learn that this is rooted in parental disinterest when she was a child. Amy’s parents never wanted children, a fact she was well aware of, and they left her to her own devices more often than not. The witch, a character cribbed from a children’s storybook, becomes the manifestation of her darker, baser side, the aspect of herself that she’s ashamed of.
When Amy sees that witch as herself in the motel, it’s the embodiment of her shame at being seemingly unable to have healthy intimate relationships. She has never been loved, certainly not unconditionally. She has sought that in her adult life, but that witch version of herself, the dark side, has thwarted her efforts.
This, in so many words, she confesses to George, who understandably wants a divorce.
Who burned down Danny’s house?
We get more understanding of Danny’s backstory, too, a childhood rooted in bullying and ostracization and, oddly, a kind of dependency on Paul, whom he kept close and deliberately sabotaged – throwing his college applications away – in order to ensure he always had someone around who he could be “better” than.
This is obviously a deeply awful thing and lends credence to Amy’s accusations in Episode 7 that Paul is a stunted man-child because of Danny.
But Danny’s present concern is who burned down the house he built for his parents. He suspects Edwin, but despite his resentment for Danny rooted in Veronica apparently never having gotten over him, he didn’t do it. As it turns out, nobody did. The wiring was faulty. Danny burned down his own house.
Why does Danny frame Amy?
Danny was banking on arson so that he could claim on the insurance. Since the liability is his, he’s out of luck.
But more so than that, accepting that the wiring was at fault also means accepting what Danny has heard through so much of his life – that he’s an idiot, a loser. He can’t accept that. So, he decides to frame Amy instead.
Danny tells Paul a woman’s glove and a gas canister were found at the scene, and he attempts to put a matching glove in the bathroom cabinet at George and Amy’s place. However, after Amy’s confession, George knows now that Danny isn’t “Zane”.
This leads to a confrontation between the men and the reappearance of that gun Amy used as a masturbation aid earlier in the series (a sexual oddity that makes more sense after this episode.) Chekhov’s dramatic principles in full effect, Danny knocks George out and flees, driving away in his car, only to discover that Junie is in the back seat.
Episode 9 – “The Great Fabricator”
Beef Season 1 (Credit – Netflix)
As if things weren’t going badly enough for Danny, the penultimate episode of Beef Season 1, “The Great Fabricator”, opens with Isaac getting out of jail. A call came in claiming it was Danny driving the car, not him. And, to put things mildly, Isaac isn’t happy about Danny’s betrayal.
Isaac arrives at Paul’s place at around the same time Danny does – with Junie, who he accidentally kidnapped in Episode 8. She’s perfectly safe and happy, but he’s understandably panicking, and that’s before Isaac, Michael, and Bobby burst in looking for the rice cooker stash to pay off the Filipinos who want to castrate Isaac.
What is Amy’s plan?
Isaac comes up with an idea. He calls Amy and tells her he’ll return her daughter safely for half a million in cash. But Amy has a counter-proposal. She’s currently at Jordan’s place, where she was making another stop on her confession tour and trying to buy back the Tamago. She tells Isaac that the place is full of art and other trinkets worth upwards of a million dollars.
If he leaves Junie in the car outside, she promises he’ll be able to get in and out without anyone calling the cops.
Isaac and Michael carry out the robbery, leaving Danny, Paul, Bobby, and Junie, who is still having the best night of her life, in the car. Paul manages to choke Bobby unconscious without June realizing it, and the brothers manage to safely put her in the car before they attempt their escape in a stolen Hummer.
Who called the police?
However, the sound of sirens coming over the horizon throws everything into disarray. Earlier, Amy had called George to tell him to come and pick June up but warned him not to contact the police. He obviously did. Hearing the sirens, Isaac angrily reveals that Amy was collaborating with the robbers (“This is who you want to leave me for?” snaps Naomi to Jordan, who by the way seems totally unphased by all of this.)
Michael catches Danny and Paul outside and takes them in at gunpoint. Amy says she’ll tell the police that Danny and Paul committed the robbery if Isaac lets June go and leaves. He likes the plan and locks Danny and Paul in another room.
How does Jordan die?
When they get a chance, Naomi and Jordan bolt for the panic room. Naomi gets there first, though, and rather than risk Michael catching up, she seals the room, trapping Jordan in the closing door, which brutally – and fatally – bisects her.
Is Paul dead?
In probably the episode’s strongest scene, Danny gives Paul a boost over the wall that’s containing them. He can’t reach, however, so to compel Paul to leave without him, he finally opens up to his brother, confessing about burning down their parents’ house with faulty wiring, and throwing away Paul’s college applications to hold him back. For once, he needs Paul to get away from him, not be dragged down with him.
It’s a powerful moment, this, and Steven Yeun sells it again. But when Paul drops down on the other side of the wall, Danny hears the cops confront him and then hears several gunshots. His fate is unknown.
What is the outcome of the robbery?
Michael is shot dead by the police. Isaac and Bobby are arrested. Naomi survives, traumatized, as does Amy, who is distressed to learn that George has already picked Junie up and taken her home, leaving Amy behind.
Episode 9 Ending Explained
Danny manages to escape through a drain in the floor, but he can’t contact Paul or find any evidence of what happened to him. At the same time, Amy receives an emergency child custody order from George, forbidding her from contacting June. As Danny drives past, they lock eyes, and another chase ensues like the one that started all this in the first place.
With everything having been brought full circle in time for the finale, Danny gives Amy the same gesture she gave him way back in the premiere, and they both go barrelling off a hillside.
Episode 10 – “Figures of Light”
Do Amy and Danny survive the car crash?
Beef Season 1 Episode 10 (Credit – Netflix)
The episode begins with Amy and Danny escaping from their cars, but they are bruised, bloodied, and scraped. Amy starts to chase Danny with the gun she still has on her.
It’s nighttime, so Danny hides. He sees Amy holding the gun outward and looking for him. She is standing near the edge of a hill. As soon as her back is turned to him in the distance, he sprints towards her.
Amy hears him and turns around, but it’s too late. Danny knocks her down the hill. He yells at her that she shouldn’t have made him do that.
When morning comes, they are both separated, and both are lost. Amy woke up and hurt her ankle. She tries to call and message George, but it won’t go through. (He may have blocked her since he put an emergency separation and child custody from her the night before).
Danny does not get a reply when he texts his brother to see if he is alright (his brother left the house the night before, and Danny heard the police shoot at him but doesn’t know what happened yet). As they wander, yelling for help, they see each other standing on tall rocks across the way.
They bicker and argue, blaming each other for their predicaments. Amy says she won’t call the cops on him if Danny helps carry her out of the woods because of her bum ankle.
Why are Amy and Danny hallucinating?
Both see the gun sitting on the ground when they fall after he eats the last food in front of her without sharing. Both dive for the gun, and Amy manages to pull it away by hurting Danny’s shoulder with an arm bar.
While holding him at gunpoint, she makes him grab them food. He works to come back with some berries, which causes them to get sick and have delusions. Amy and Danny hallucinate because they have eaten poisonous berries. For instance, the gun she holds is now a broken tree branch that looks like a firearm.
The hallucinogenic fruit has Amy and Danny conclude that they are fighting because they want to be seen, but not for who they really are. They begin to debate who came first: The sponge or the monkey? Who took the first “piss” and used it as a metaphor? It trickles down like trauma from childhood.
Then, Amy coughs up blood. They even go through existential and identity crises, hallucinating a Freaky Friday scenario where Danny says, as Amy, as if he jerked off to her butt photo. Amy, replying as Danny, says he is sorry.
After lying down on top of some sticks, they talk to each other as if they were the other person and understand what went wrong in their lives and how they ended up there. (In essence, this is a version of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy told entertainingly to help each side’s point of view).
Does Paul survive the shooting?
Danny finds out that Paul survived the shooting. Amy and Danny wake up the next day, happy to be alive. When they get up the hill, they have reception, and a couple of dozen text messages pop up on their phones.
Mostly Amy’s are from George and her mother-in-law asking if she got the email from the lawyer. Danny’s statements included friends and family telling him to call his parents. Also, he is on the news. However, the most crucial text is from Paul, who is alive but tells Danny he is blocking his number.
Who shoots Danny?
George shoots Danny with a gun after searching for Amy and thinking she is in danger. However, before this, Amy and Danny begin to try and walk to some house to find help. They come across a bypass tunnel on a hill and walk down.
It’s dark, but they see the bright sun at the other end. Danny is helping Amy walk. She assists him in getting a lawyer, but he declines. Amy needs to take a break because of her bum ankle. She kneels, and Danny helps lower her.
That’s when we hear George yelling for Amy at the other end of the tunnel. He runs up, sees Danny hold Amy’s arm, and cries to let go of her. You know the rest.
Beef Season 1 Ending Explained
The final scene shows Danny on a ventilator. Amy is sitting next to him. She then climbs into bed with him and snuggles up to him. We then see Danny’s arm move upward, indicating he has survived the shooting.
And that completes my recap of Beef Season 1. What was your favorite episode? Comment below.
