'Central Park' Season 1 Ending Explained: Disgraced Bitsy still wants to replace NYC’s green patch with condos
Spoilers for ‘Central Park’ Season 1 finale, ‘A Fish Called Snakehead’
Season 1 of ‘Central Park’, Apple TV+’s animated musical comedy created by Loren Bouchard of ‘Bob’s Burgers’ fame, along with Josh Gad and Nora Smith, has come to an end. But fans need not worry, it has already been renewed for a second season.
The show focuses on the Tillermans, a New York family that comprises park manager Owen (Leslie Odom Jr.), his journalist wife Paige (Kathryn Hahn), and the couple's biracial children Molly (Kristen Bell) and Cole (Tituss Burgess). The Tillermans, who live in a mini-castle in Central Park at peace, are suddenly pitted against an enemy. Batty old hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham (Stanley Tucci) constantly schemes to drive people away from the park, to discredit the park, so that she can replace the green patch with condos.
In the show’s season 1 finale, we see the Tillermans finally show Bitsy her place. When it’s discovered that there’s a snakehead fish in the park’s pond -- it’s a predatory creature that ruins ecosystems -- Owen comes under fire. And Bitsy decides to cash in during this chaos by pretending that she solved the problem. She did not.
While speaking to the press, she insinuated that the park was mismanaged and that she should be the one taking over its charge. She also managed to soften her image with this move but Paige noticed something was off. She realized that the snakehead Bitsy showed off was not the one from the pond. Rather, it was already dead when they caught it. Together as a family, the Tillermans were able to get the real fish, and restore order.
While Paige was unable to convince her editor to run her investigative piece on Bitsy -- she knew everything about the plans to turn the park into condos but she had no material evidence -- she did manage to get something about Bitsy printed. The story was about how the real snakehead was caught by Owen. And in a way, it proved just as powerful. Bitsy lost her face once again and it would seem that for the time being, at least, Bitsy has no motivation to go after the park because earlier in the episode, the Mayor told her that New Yorkers hated Bitsy and would never allow her to control Central Park.
But, obviously, the story is far from over. Before the finale ended, Bitsy promised to continue with her efforts. And even besides that, there are other stories that need to be explored more. For example, the bromance between Cole and Bitsy’s dog Shampange. Then there is Bitsy’s caretaker Helen (Daveed Diggs) and her hair-brained attempts to get into Bitsy’s will. There’s the budding romance between Molly and Brendan (Eugene Cordero), Bitsy’s great-nephew.
The only difference we’ll see in season 2 is that Kristen Bell won’t return to voice Molly again. The decision to recast the role was announced last month after there was public backlash for casting a white actor as a mixed-race character. The showmakers, in a statement, said that “casting of the character of Molly is an opportunity to get representation right -- to cast a Black or mixed-race actress and give Molly a voice that resonates with all of the nuance and experiences of the character as we’ve drawn her.”
Bell also released her own statement saying that her voicing the character “shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege.” Bell said, “Casting a mixed-race character [with a] white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed-race and Black American experience."
But barring that, I think it’s safe to say that ‘Central Park’ Season 2 will remain just the way it is: wholesome and laidback. Another thing we can be sure of is that it won’t take too long to get a season 2. For one, it’s an animated show. That takes away one of the major hurdles in production right now -- social distancing.
For another, before it was taken up by Apple TV+, the show was caught in a bidding war between Apple, Netflix and Hulu, for a two-season, 26-episode deal. So, the creators have had some time to plan this ahead.
No official date for Season 2 has been announced as of yet. ‘Central Park’ is available for viewing on Apple TV+.