'Homecoming' Season 2 Ending Explained: Geist company begins with clean slate because of Walter's genius move
Spoiler alert for 'Homecoming' Season 2
One of the most powerful dialogues of season 2 of the show comes right towards the end. It is after Walter Cruz (Stephan James) finally finds his way back to the Geist company, trespassing on its premises at night, to get to the main building.
He is stopped by Leonard Geist (Chris Cooper), the reclusive CEO of the company, who has become a mere figurehead in his own company after Audrey Temple (Hong Chau), his subordinate, teams up with a military official and Pentagon representative, Francine Bunda (Joan Cusack).
When Leonard realizes who Walter is -- one of the unfortunate military vets whose minds had been wiped -- he gives him his Geist "treatment file" and explains what is happening with his company. As Leonard rages impotently, saying "they" were going to use his berry extract without his consent because there were "so many of them and only one of me", Walter looks up and says the golden words. "It is because you have a shitty attitude." And then he proves the next day that just one man is enough to take down a corporation. It is a payback on monumental proportions that allows him to also make sure that there will never be another military vet with a hole in their memories like him.
At the Geist offices, everyone is in a party mood because they are celebrating the military contract that Audrey Temple put in place with Francine Bunda. Alex too has found her way to the Geist office, after tailing Audrey Temple. She is still trying to make sense of the revelation that she herself is the mysterious "Alex Eastern", and is also Audrey's girlfriend. By now, she understands that she is the one who attacked Walter Cruz and tried to inject him with the memory-erasing drug but became a blank slate herself when she accidentally injected herself.
She is filled with loathing for her former self and her actions and yet can't shake her attraction to Audrey, even though she doesn't remember her. So when Audrey tells her to come with her to the balloon-filled atrium that resembles a prom setting, she follows her quietly. As Francine toasts Audrey with the punch, Alex spots Walter Cruz in a waiter's uniform, pushing out a cart with empty canisters with some remnants of a red liquid. Alex immediately realizes that the punch is "spiked" with the memory-erasing drug, She puts down her drink and you see her looking torn about whether to stop Audrey from drinking the punch. She decides not to stop her and all the Geist employees, including Audrey, drink deep after Francine completes her toast. A minute later, they have all fallen down, drugged with the extract. Her decision not to stop Audrey is because though she instinctively loves her, she is not okay with the extract being used anymore, having experienced its effects herself, firsthand. And an Audrey who remembers means other people will lose their memories to her ambitions.
Leonard Geist smiles triumphantly rejoicing that his company is his again and he can destroy the extract's formula and the plant from which it is derived forever. As Walter walks back into the atrium to confront Alex, the only one still left standing, he asks her why she is still there. Alex says she wants to stay by Audrey when she wakes up because she knows how it feels to wake up, "lost and alone". In her last moments of lucidity, Audrey tells Alex that Olive was a good name for their child (a name that Alex had picked) -- reversing her earlier decision not to have a child.
By the end, the show has wrapped up the story it began in Season 1, satisfactorily. The Geist company, much to Leonard's joy. is a truly clean slate, all thanks to Walter. And, despite all odds Audrey and Alex are still together.
'Homecoming' Season 2 premiered on May 22 on Amazon Prime Video and is available for streaming.
