Animal Kingdom 6×13 Review: “Fubar”

Animal Kingdom season 6 episode 13, titled ‘Fubar’, brought the long-running crime/drama series to a close. And while I liked certain aspects of the finale, it did feel rushed. Also, the writers not really delivering for Adrian and Deran fans was disappointing.

I was provided with a free digital screener of ‘Fubar‘ for review. The opinions I have shared are my own.

With Joshua stealing money from his uncles and being up to no good in the previous episode, ‘Fubar’ showed Andrew, Deran, and Craig trying to survive the dangerous situation Joshua put them in. Joshua had thought of everything. He allowed Deran and Craig to rescue Andrew and then proceeded to call the cops on them as the runaway Codys made their way to the safe house. I really enjoyed the tension throughout the chase sequence. Every place the brothers thought was safe proved to be a huge risk because of Joshua.

The realization that Joshua had betrayed them was also handled well, in my opinion. Deran was on the verge of breaking down because he trusted Joshua the most. Even Deran’s father had warned him about relying on Joshua. If only Deran had listened.

I don’t know about you, but I really thought Andrew was going to die while making his last stand against the cops as he bought time for his brothers to escape. However, due to the magic of TV writing (which involved cops who couldn’t hit a human-sized target), Andrew survived and made his way to the Cody residence. I get that the writers likely wanted a confrontation between Joshua and Andrew. But I do feel the entire thing could have been written better instead of Andrew somehow making it out alive after a gunfight with a bunch of cops.

As for Joshua’s intense interaction with an injured Andrew, I could kind of guess how it was going to end. Andrew trying to rid himself of a lot of guilt had been the main part of his character arc. The moment Joshua stated that Andrew and his brother deserved what Joshua had done to them, I knew Andrew was going to break.

Andrew wasn’t strong enough to protect his twin sister in the past, and now, in the present, he was about to kill his nephew. Andrew just couldn’t take it anymore. Having him tell Joshua to leave and then burning the Cody residence made sense for a character like Andrew. He was trying to get rid of the Cody family’s dark past and, I guess, trying to seek forgiveness by taking his final breath near the pool. Religious belief and guilt have played huge parts in Andrew’s narrative. So, the imagery of him being stuck between fire and water felt impactful.

Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if certain fans, after seeing the finale, feel that Andrew might still be alive. Maybe firefighters came to the scene and saved him? But, if you ask me, I think he’s dead. Narratively speaking, his story was supposed to conclude with him being the one to destroy what Smurf spent years building. There’s no Cody family business without Andrew.

Joshua learned that by the end of the episode. ‘Fubar’ concluded with a shot of Joshua being all rich in some country. However, he was all alone. He got his revenge, but he lost his entire family in the process. Due to the type of person he is, Joshua will likely continue stealing money and expanding his empire, but going about it on his own isn’t going to prove easy. He had a level of protection by being a Cody. Despite their differences, Joshua could rely on his uncles to fight his battles.

As for what Joshua did to Penny. I mean, is anyone really surprised? Joshua will always look out for himself. Not only did he use Penny’s professional position to steal money from his uncles, I knew she signed her death warrant the moment she told Joshua she couldn’t leave the country with him. Penny should have been smarter about the entire thing. And while I was okay with Penny being part of the final season, I just couldn’t believe the love story the writers tried to tell between her and Joshua. He was being way too emotional over a woman he just met and whom he also manipulated to achieve his grand plan.

Coming to another death that occurred in the finale, I think a lot of viewers predicted Craig kicking the bucket as soon as he proposed to Renn in the previous episode. The surprising thing was how his death occurred. I could have never expected Craig to get shot by a random kid at a local store he and Deran tried to rob while being on the run from the police. The scene where Deran tried to rush Craig to get patched up was emotional because you knew there was no helping Craig now.

Having Deran take Craig to a cliff to watch the ocean one last time was a nice touch. Both actors did a good job during such an emotionally heavy scene. Deran promising Craig he would look after Renn and Nick made sense. Deran’s character growth was about becoming someone who was all about taking care of his family, in contrast to how he used to stay away from his family when he was younger. Deran had planned to take Andrew with him out of the country. And now, even while running away from the US, he was going to find a way to care for Nick and Renn. Unlike Joshua, Deran still had people in his life.

Now, coming to my biggest gripe. With the final season of Animal Kingdom making it a point to mention Adrian, I was looking forward to the writers giving fans an actual reunion between him and Deran. It’s a fact that the show’s live viewership numbers dropped over the years. In a sense, Deran and Adrian shippers stuck with the series, hoping to see the two characters finding their way to each other somehow. And with Deran telling Billy he knew someone in Indonesia (that someone being Adrian), and Craig also telling Deran he needed to contact Adrian because being with Adrian made Deran happy, the finale not bringing back Deran’s “husband” was disappointing. With how the story wrapped up, apparently, their reunion’s supposed to occur offscreen. And as a fan of Deran/Adrian, who stuck around for six seasons, that’s just sad. I really think writers should be more considerate of the fandom during the final season of a show.

The flashback showed a pregnant Julia breaking into the Cody residence to steal money and other items. Of course, Andrew caught her and we got to see Julia interact with an aloof Baz, a concerned Andrew, and a bored Smurf. I liked seeing Andrew finally taking a stand for his sister and wanting Smurf to send her to rehab. But Smurf wasn’t going to agree. She was over Julia and the power she had over Andrew. Smurf knew that if she helped Julia become clean, Julia would try and drive Andrew away from the family business. And Smurf couldn’t have that.

The flashback sequence helped support what Joshua was doing in the present. The Cody men and Smurf had treated Julia very badly. The Cody men could have done something, anything, to help their sister and a baby Joshua, especially as the men grew older, but they decided not to. They more or less pretended she and baby Joshua didn’t exist. In a sense, Joshua was right when he said his uncles deserved everything he did to them.

From a narrative standpoint, I think the reason Deran survived Joshua’s betrayal was that he was too young to understand what was happening when Janine kicked Julia out of the family. ‘Fubar’ even had a scene where a young Craig was mean to Julia while a younger Deran played in the pool. However, that’s no excuse for Deran to not reach out to his sister and nephew down the line. 

What did you think of ‘Fubar’? Are you happy with how everything ended?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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