Bad Monkey Finale Recap: Was Justice Served? And Did It Make a Case for a Season 2? (Plus, Grade It!)
Bad Monkey gave us plenty of answers in its season finale — but to be honest, we didn’t like all of them.
Wednesday’s finale picks up with Gracie holding Eve at knifepoint in the middle of a fierce storm; she gives Eve back Nick’s watch as she tells her to “get the f–k off my island.” But just then, a lightning bolt hits a tree branch and sends it crashing to the ground, and when Gracie drops the knife, Eve shoves her — and Gracie is fatally impaled on a jagged branch. Nooo! Eve is unmoved, of course, sniffing, “I really thought we were gonna be friends” before escaping. And as she expires, Gracie’s spirit visits Ya-Ya, Egg and Dawnie’s daughter Lulu in visions to say goodbye, assuring Lulu that “one day, they’re gonna call you queen.”
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After the storm clears, Nick wants to get off this island — but because of his spinal injury via fishing rod, he can’t move his legs, only his toes. Eve cheers him up by giving him his watch back, and when Egg shows up, Eve feigns ignorance about Gracie’s whereabouts… but Egg seems to know she’s lying. (That’s always a good bet with Eve.) Yancy calls his FBI contact and pushes for her to arrest Nick and Eve once they land in Miami, getting her to freeze their assets while he’s at it. But that won’t kick in until end of day, so Nick sends Eve to the bank to make a huge withdrawal with plans of fleeing to London instead. But while he is getting around on a scooter, he doesn’t look to be in any shape to travel.
Yancy calls Rosa, eager to patch things up, but she’s still hurt that he ditched her, and when he asks where she tossed her gun, she hangs up on him. So he and Neville, along with Dawnie and the overly friendly airline pilot, search through the swamp for the gun before luckily happening upon it. Their luck is about to run out, though: Egg spots the pilot at the fritter shack, and when Yancy confronts Eve at the bank, a bunch of cops pull up, and Eve accuses Yancy of shooting Egg and stabbing Nick. He didn’t do either, but it’s enough of a distraction to let her slip away while the cops descend on Yancy. Neville rides in to save the day — well, he crashes his car, and they end up escaping in a stolen cop car, but close enough.
The pilot apologizes profusely for giving them up, but he tells Yancy that no planes are coming or going from the island — so Eve and Nick must be taking a boat, Yancy deduces. Sure enough, Eve pushes Nick down to the dock in a wheelchair… and then pushes him into the water to drown so he won’t slow her down. She gets to the boat, where Egg is waiting to hand over Tilly, but oops! She doesn’t know how to drive a boat. She manages to get it moving, though, and Yancy and Neville arrive at the dock just to see her pull away. But Yancy won’t give up. He jumps into the water and grabs a rope attached to the boat, hanging on for dear life as Eve hits the gas. Neville yells at him to let go, and Yancy has visions of his dad and Ro telling him to let go, and he still holds on… until he has a vision of Rosa telling him to let go. That’s enough to convince him, and he drops the rope, watching as Eve speeds away to freedom.
Nick’s dead body washes up on the beach, and Yancy breaks the news to his daughter, assuring her that her dad did love her. We do get a happy ending of sorts, too, with Neville reuniting with his monkey pal after Ya-Ya hands him over. Eve did get away, basking in the sun on a rooftop in Portugal… but remember, Gracie hoped she’d choke on her lies. And indeed, Eve begins choking on one of her beloved baby carrots, and with no one around to help her, she struggles and gasps before faling off the roof to her death. (Poetic justice, we suppose.) Yancy heads home defeated, stripped of his badge for all of his extracurricular activities and stuck being a restaurant inspector. He gets a call from Bonnie, who’s very impressed that he’s actually reading a book — but he hangs up on her when Rosa shows up.
Yancy wants to explain everything to her, but Rosa stops him: “Sex first. Talk after.” Afterwards, though, Yancy senses that their tryst felt “final,” and Rosa tries to tell him “it’s not about you.” She hasn’t been happy for a while, she says, and she wants to make sure she’s OK with herself before jumping into a relationship. They say a heartfelt goodbye — and for the first time this season, instead of a Tom Petty cover, we hear the actual Petty singing “Learning to Fly.” Yancy is back in his favorite chair, sipping a drink and watching the water, but he’s still alone, as we see happy couples like Neville and Dawnie enjoying each other.
Ro joins Yancy for a drink, and Yancy decides he’s at least been a “catalyst” for other people making progress in their lives. He declares that he’s like one of the deer in Key West, adapting to its environment and “never getting upset over injustice.” Ro has a new case for him, though, and something in his car to show him: “Something f–ked-up went down… Want to take a look for me?” Yancy says no, he’s changed, he doesn’t need to chase down cases anymore. They continue to sip their drinks and stare out at the water… but then Yancy gulps the rest of his down so he can ask Ro, “What’s in the car, man?” Sounds like a possible Season 2 to us. (Apple TV+ has yet to renew the series, for the record.)
Now we want to hear from you, the Bad Monkey faithful: Give the finale, and the season as a whole, a grade in our polls, and tell us if you’d watch a Season 2 in the comments.
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