(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season 1 of “The End of the F***ing World”)
The second season of Netflix’s “The End of the F***ing World” hits Netflix on Nov. 5, and TheWrap is here to give you a quick refresher on where the teen-murder dramedy series left off.
It’s been the better part of two years since we last saw James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden), and things weren’t looking too good for our heroes when things went black at the end of Season 1. James was shot as he ran away from the police while Alyssa screamed after him, struggling in the grips of the police.
In case you forgot, the two teenagers are wanted for the murder of a man named Clive (Jonathan Aris), whose house they broke into while he was out of town. Well, Clive turned out to be a serial abuser (and possibly a murderer too — there was a lot of unexplained bleach), and wouldn’t you know it, he comes home to find Alyssa sleeping in his bed. He tries to assault her, but is thwarted when James, who was under the bed the whole time, jumps out and stabs him in the neck. Clive bleeds out all over Alyssa, who is know traumatized, and she and James end up leaving the polaroid pictures he kept of his victims in a circle around his body, in the hopes that police would see that he had it coming to him.
As fate would have it, Clive’s mother finds his body first and burns the pictures. However, she later changes her mind and shows the cops the video footage her son kept of his crimes, which helps Eunice (Gemma Whelan) — the good cop whose emotionally charged flirtation-ship with her partner Teri (Wunmi Mosaku) is an exciting side plot — to put the pieces together that the kids murdered Clive in self defense. Still, things aren’t looking too optimistic for Alyssa and James, who soon realize that their best hope is to try and swing a manslaughter charge.
In the Season 1 finale, James and Alyssa spend a few blissful hours on the beach behind Alyssa’s dad’s camper. They finally see eye to eye — first, that they love each other, and second, that Alyssa’s dad Leslie (Barry Ward) is the worst. In the previous episode, he drives off in a panic when Alyssa finds out about his other child, accidentally running over a dog which Alyssa and James then have to mercy-kill and bury on the beach.
It’s also important to remember that Alyssa and James have come a long way in terms of their relationship from where it started in episode one. Let’s not forget that James’ original intention was murder Alyssa, though it’s no big surprise that he actually isn’t a psychopath and indeed does have feelings.
But things get sticky again when Leslie figures out that his daughter and her strange new boyfriend are wanted for murder, and that there’s a cash reward for their capture. So, of course, Leslie calls the cops on them while pretending to make a cup of tea. But James sees right through him and alerts Alyssa to the betrayal, and suddenly she stabs her fatherin the leg with a knife. Eunice, who has been listening outside the entire time, bursts through the door and tries to convince the kids to turn themselves in, and for Leslie to leave the knife in his leg to stem the bleeding. But James, who is having none of it, insists on blaming the whole thing on himself so Alyssa can walk away a free woman. Of course, she’s too madly in love with James to take that deal, so she hits Eunice in the face with the butt of her dad’s rifle and they make a break for it. Leslie, like an idiot, pulls the knife out anyway and passes out from the sight of blood. That’s where Teri finds him and Eunice, and she and the rest of the cops rush to the beach in pursuit of James and Alyssa.
Cut to the sound of a gunshot ringing out in James’ direction as he sprints down the beach — and we fade to black.
Could James have survived? Will either of them serve time? Will Clive’s victims be avenged? Is this the end of Eunice and Teri? Will Tony, Alyssa’s dick wad of a step-dad, ever get what’s coming to him? Will Alyssa’s mom ever put her foot down? Is there more to the story of why James hates his dad?
Some of these questions are hinted at in the Season 2 trailer, released Wednesday. We get a shot of Alyssa crying over James’ body as he appears to bleed out on the beach. Then we get a shot of Alyssa in a wedding dress, but no sign of the groom. We learn that she’s working at a diner now. Plus, there’s a new character named Bonnie (Naomi Ackie), described as someone with a “troubled past” and a “mysterious connection to Alyssa.” We’re left with a close up on a bullet with James’ name carved into it. What does it all mean?
We’ll find out what’s really going on when “The End of the F***ing World” returns Tuesday, Nov. 5, on Netflix.
