Furious Episode 7 Ending, Explained: How it Sets Up the Season 1 Finale
Ever since the golden age of Game of Thrones, TV fans have become used to expecting fireworks in the penultimate episode of their favourite shows, but Hulu hit crime series Furious has done things a little differently.
Last week, we got the nerve-shredding thrills of "They Make a Noise Like Feathers", the first bottle episode in Furious and the best shock ending in the series so far.
Relatively speaking, and contrary to modern TV trends, this week’s episode felt a touch more inbetweeny. However, there was still plenty of action and plenty to unpack, especially regarding next week’s hotly anticipated and now delicately poised finale. Let’s get to it, and beware: major spoilers follow below.
What Happened In Furious Episode 7?
Having named last week’s banger after a line from Samuel Beckett, of all people, showrunner Elizabeth Meriwether has followed that up by naming Episode 7 after a quote from Meatloaf: “Some Days it Don’t Come Easy”.
The first half hour of this 50-minute episode basically gives us the aftermath of what just happened, with Marshall (Jake Lacy) being rushed to the hospital, having survived the gunshot thanks to Alice’s (Emmy Rossum) intervention, and Catherine (Lola Petticrew) still very much at large.
The choices made by the three characters in that life-or-death moment inform much of this part of the episode, with Nora (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) visiting Alice in her hospital room, where she’s still recovering from the heavy fentanyl dose, to tell her that she’s weak (bit harsh) for choosing to save Marshall over catching Catherine. Meanwhile, back in the office, Danny (Scoot McNairy) is questioned by Ed (Danny McCarthy) after he spots him taking something (we know it’s the incriminating drive) from Alden in a security video.
Clearly starting to get a little nervous about the whole situation (and his own Faustian dealings with Jay Easton in the past), Ed decides to pass the case down to the more trigger-happy NYPD (hello The Wire’s Michael Kostroff) in the hopes that it all can get tidied up and brushed under the rug a little quicker — although that indelicate decision draws a notably suspicious and vaguely disgusted look from the usually career-focused Agent Choi (Rob Yang).
Choi and Nora also share an interesting scene as she effectively enters the early stages of being put out to career pasture — aka, answering a multiple-choice questionnaire about her mental health. It’s a nice move from Meriwether, as the scene allows Choi to balance his growing awareness of what it takes to reach the top with the fate that might await him if he chooses a more morally righteous path. After taking Alice home to recover, we also get a nice little primer of what a relationship between Danny and her might look like if they ever settled down together. This includes the two of them sharing a bed as well as Alice finally expressing her love for him, but it’s left unclear whether the more gentle-souled Danny can get over the images he saw of her from Easton’s files.
Speaking of Easton, the most remarkable sequence in Episode 7 is one that finally shows both his true colours and also, just as damningly, how his daughter Emma (Hope Davis) has been facilitating him. After saying “this is the last time, dad,” we see her take him to a hidden room where a young girl named Lacey is waiting. She does her chilly best to feign some kind of warmth and kindness before retreating to her greenhouse to bury her hands (and her guilt) in the dirt while a cheery older version of 'In The Pines'/'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' plays, although the mind inevitably goes to the more tortured strains of Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged.
In the second half, the tension ramps up considerably, with Alice essentially taking Nora’s tough love to heart and steeling herself to get the job done. First, she basically dumps her half-sister out of her life (I guess that means goodbye to Elise Kibler) before going to pick up a well-oiled and Hawaiian-shirted Nora from a karaoke bar — where, yes, she’s singing Meatloaf. Together, they follow up on what Nora learned about Elena (the girl Catherine has been looking out for) and her pimp, Big Man, from Catherine on last week’s episode and head out to the Bronx motel where she’s been staying for an old school stakeout.
How Does Furious Episode 7 End?
The last 20 minutes of Episode 7 are the meatiest of this instalment by far. In the car, we get Nora's first suspicions that Alice has more skin in this game than she previously admitted, which Nora responds to with a remarkable description of how she coped on previous (and similarly dangerous) jobs. We then see them chase down Elena and Big Man (who Nora, presumably still half-cut, makes impressively short work of) while Alice corners Elena to tell her that Isabel (the girl who died) was not her sister, as Catherine had told her, but her mom. Leaning into her Nora-inspired bad cop mode, she grills the distressed Elena into revealing that Catherine’s been hiding out in the bathroom the whole time.
Alice enters and pins her to the wall before finally going all-in on Nora’s all-or-nothing approach to the job — first by warning the bewildered Catherine that Jay Easton will die comfortably in his bed, that is, unless she decides to drive up there and do something about it. Alice then lets her go before following close behind, shouting to Nora on the way out that they’ll be able to search the property if Catherine is already in there — “Search incident to arrest, Baby!” — a move straight out of the Nora playbook. Unsure whether to be proud or concerned by the monster she’s created, Nora simply says, “Oh my god.”
In the last few scenes, we see Ed attempt to first bribe and then threaten Danny for Alden’s hard drive before Danny kicks him to the curb. Meanwhile, Catherine is shown making her way out to Connecticut with Alice close behind, setting up what will probably be one big showdown (and perhaps shootout) in Easton’s house for the finale. Before we cut, however, there’s another twist in the tale: a call from the coroner whom Danny has visited about Isabel’s body. Danny originally requested that the examiner check if Caleb Easton’s DNA was found on Isabel's body, but the tests come back to show that it was only a 30% match, which means a sibling — aka: Emma.
Of all the reveals in Episode 7, Emma’s unsettling involvement in her father’s horrendous crimes feels the most consequential for the story going forward. Now, the main question going into next week's finale is how active she will be if it comes to protecting him, her family’s legacy, and her inheritance when the chips are really down. There is also the question of whether Alice, in her efforts to impress Nora, is still fully in control.
Onwards to next Monday’s finale.
