'Dead to Me' Season 2 Ending Explained: After yet another car accident, is [spoiler] dead?
Spoiler alert for Season 2 of 'Dead to Me'
Did we expect that ending? Probably not. But did we expect creator Liz Feldman to shed her signature storytelling technique? Also no.
With most secrets now out in the open, Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) is ready to surrender to the police for killing Steve Wood (James Marsden) at the end of Season 1.
She takes Detective Ana Perez (Diana Maria Riva) to the spot in the jungle where she and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) buried Steve's body. Elsewhere, Judy pays Nick Prager (Brandon Scott) a visit at the police station and entrusts him with the much-needed evidence against the chief Howard Hastings (Jere Burns) and his complicity in Steve's illicit businesses.
When Detective Ana receives the update that they have the chief with evidence, Jen is lamenting being a bad mother - and having done her children injustice by leaving them like this.
They both connect over motherhood — time they lost with their own mothers and how their presents have betrayed them. Ana is also especially impressionable at this moment because she recently lost a mother figure.
So, she decides to simply drop Jen off at her house and that is the end of it.
At the same time, Judy has now found all the money that was hidden in the frames of her paintings. It is safe to assume that Steve, a money launderer, used the paintings to hide black money (his art gallery was anyway a front for the illegal business).
Judy spent a lot of time waiting on those paintings, asking law authorities to help her with them. At first, you'd assume that she wants them to resell them and get some money. But who would have thunk that the paintings were literally made of money!
With their problems seemingly behind them, the two decide to finally get Charlie (Sam McCarthy) that car he so desperately wanted. And on their way back home, as they're discussing a plan for a holiday, something unforeseen happens.
Might we add that the sheer number of accidents that happen in Laguna Beach — and those that happen to be directly connected to Jen and Judy — are ridiculous?
But Ben, Steve's twin (James Marsden in a very charming portrayal) is overcome by grief upon discovering that his brother Steve is dead, resorts to alcohol to drown his sorrows. He cannot control it and hits Jen and Judy in the new car at an intersection.
Perhaps it all comes in a circle - Ben hits their car at the same intersection where Jen had worked so hard to install the 'stop' sign. Also, a possible indication that despite stop signs, accidents are prone to happen, that despite you being cautious, there is someone else who is not.
In the end, Ben and Steve are after all of the same blood. When Ben gains some understanding of what he has done, he wastes no time in fleeing the scene - not once even trying to find out who he has hit with his car.
But the bigger question is — is Jen dead?
Probably not. Towards the last few seconds of the episode, Judy shakes Jen up, who stirs and lets out something of a murmur. And that's all. It is safe to assume that she might be gravely injured and hasn't perished in the accident.
And that is it. That's the end of Season 2 of 'Dead to Me'. There are fewer questions now than at the end of Season 1 — but just how much Jen and Judy will be affected is unknown. The police may have shut the matter of Ted and Steve's deaths, but now there is a hit and run and Ben is at the centre of it all. Will they return with answers?
'Dead to Me' Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.
