Animal Kingdom 6×12 Review: “Exodus”

Animal Kingdom season 6 episode 12, titled ‘Exodus’, made one thing very clear: the Cody men should never have trusted Joshua. Also, Julia finally pushed Janine over the edge.

I was provided with an advanced screener of ‘Exodus‘ for review. The opinions I have shared are my own.

The penultimate episode of the final season of Animal Kingdom was all about Deran and Craig finalizing their plan to break Andrew out of prison while Joshua worked on his own scheme. I don’t know about you, but I think he’s strategizing the death of all three of his uncles. With only one more episode left, I will be very surprised if every Cody is able to make it to the finish line.

‘Exodus’ opened with Joshua paying a visit to the graves of the late Codys. Even though he’s a cold-hearted murderer, I kind of felt sorry for Joshua during that scene. Janine wanted the entire family to be buried next to each other regardless of the role she played in Julia’s downfall and Baz’s murder. The Codys were supposed to remain in Oceanside until death.

However, that wasn’t possible anymore due to Andrew being put behind bars. The remaining Codys had no other choice but to run and that meant leaving behind the family business that Joshua did a lot to keep afloat after Smurf’s death. Being forced to abandon his plans because of an uncle he disliked does work to justify what Joshua decided to do to his uncles as the episode progressed.

After being visited by Baz’s hallucination in the previous episode, we got to see Andrew striking a deal with the DA. I’m not sure, but I think the Colby guy that Andrew mentioned was supposed to be the same guy that Deran murdered all the way back in season 4 to save Adrian’s life, right? Talk about a callback, if that’s true. Anyway, Andrew got the deal he was looking for and being transported to a safer facility by the end of the episode afforded the rest of the Codys the chance to rescue him during transit. The finale is going to be so intense! I can’t wait!

Adrian also came up after Craig and Deran surfed together in Oceanside one last time. With only a single episode left, I still have my fingers crossed that we will get to see Deran reuniting with Adrian in Indonesia. Even though Deran’s hesitant about reaching out to Adrian, Craig indeed stated a fact when he mentioned that the happiest Deran’s ever been was when he was with Adrian. Those two are supposed to be endgame even with a bunch of issues present in their relationship.

According to Deran’s current plan, he will take Andrew with him to Indonesia. So, I’m here for Deran and Adrian going back to basically being husbands again while keeping an eye on Andrew. But for all of that to happen, we need to first see which Cody gets to survive their last job.

If Joshua had his way, I think he would let out a sigh of relief after getting his uncles killed. I think his scheme involves messing with the cars and weapons his uncles were supposed to use to rescue Andrew and hoping that they get shot during the police altercation. The way he stole millions of dollars from his uncles, without them suspecting a thing, was just vile. But not unexpected. Joshua will always look out for himself.

In a sense, one could argue that Joshua’s doing all of this as revenge for how the Codys treated his mother. However, I do feel that his uncles did what they could to mend their relationship with Joshua after Smurf’s death. Smurf had such a tight grip on her sons that I can’t 100% blame them for not being able to help Julia. I especially don’t fully blame Craig and Deran because they were too young when Julia got kicked out of the house by Smurf.

But then again, this is Joshua we are talking about. I think remembering how he and his mother were treated got compounded with being forced to leave his future plans after Andrew’s arrest. So, he’s ready to go full scorched earth against his uncles.

There is a fan theory that Julia’s still alive and she sent Joshua to orchestrate the downfall of the Cody family. However, I think that that’s very unlikely. Joshua’s doing all of this himself. That’s not to say I would be against Julia popping up and revealing she’s behind everything that happened in the present.

We also got to see why Joshua’s been so into Penny. Turns out, he needed someone with Penny’s access to change official paperwork to take full control of the Cody family assets. He gained Penny’s sympathy by lying about how his uncles wanted to kill him and take all of the money. At this point, all I can say is that Penny needs to run. If necessary, Joshua could easily kill her to save himself.

With the Codys looking at their inevitable exodus from Oceanside in the present, the flashback sequences showed Julia being cut out of the family. We all knew that Julia stealing from Smurf was a step too far. Janine provides for her kids and having them steal from her is a big no-no in her book. That’s what got Baz murdered years down the line. So, it was expected that Janine wasn’t going to let Julia’s betrayal slide.

Even though the audience knew about Julia’s fate all the way back from season one, seeing Janine drag Julia out of her house and leave her on the street with no money was still hard to watch. Janine also didn’t show any kindness toward her only daughter when someone who knew Julia phoned the Cody residence to share that Julia needed help after taking too many drugs.

Janine’s clearly done with Julia. From what I could remember, Janine will continue to keep an eye on Julia’s whereabouts and help with certain expenses on occasion. But Julia will never become part of the Cody family again. She always stood against Janine, and pushing her out of the house into a life of drug abuse was the best option for Janine as she worked on building her criminal empire with her obedient boys.

Some other thoughts and questions:

• I got worried the moment Craig asked Renn to marry him. At this point, Andrew and Craig are the most likely to die on my list. Joshua will likely go to jail with Deran being able to run away to Indonesia to be with his hubby Adrian.
• After having Andrew reveal he had romantic feelings for Julia in the previous episode, it kind of felt weird such a heavy topic wasn’t talked about again. I think even the writers didn’t feel comfortable addressing it. And you know what? Good!
• Do you think we will ever get to learn the identity of Joshua’s biological father?
• Of course, Janine suspected Baz was working with Julia to steal from her. While Janine kept Baz around, she never considered him a real Cody.

What did you think of ‘Exodus’? Which Cody will survive the finale?

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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