'Trying' Ending Explained: Montage of kids in finale hints Nikki and Jason will adopt angry child in Season 2
In the last episode of season 1 of 'Trying', everybody's favorite couple, Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall), gets the green light for adopting a kid. It is the end of one long arduous process and the show pauses the story before the next part of the adoption process plays out.
But the last few minutes of the show's finale does give a taste of things to come as a montage shows kids across London waiting to be adopted. They are all cute and super adorable but the camera finally stops at the last kid, sitting alone with his back to us. Then he turns. He is an older kid, already alienated and angry, as he shows us the finger.
In Episode 6, 'Show me the Love', in one of the funnier sequences on the show, Nikki and Jason attend a mandatory parenting class. It is about the sort of behavioral difficulties the kids being adopted may exhibit since they all come from difficult backgrounds and have experienced a lot of trauma and pain during their young lives. In a bit of role-playing, the counselor acts as a troubled child who has just punched a kid in school. As soon as Nikki touches him on the shoulder, he lets out a primal "P**s off!!"
The counselor switching between his roles as a guidance counselor and his "abrasive kid acting up" persona is played for laughs. But the show's end reveals that Nikki and Jason might not have any of those adorable little munchkins shown in the montage in their future but rather the damaged one prone to showing his middle finger and saying "P**s off!!"
Gearing up for season 2, we have Penny (Imelda Staunton) tell Nikki and Jason and their extended circle of family and friends that now is the "fun part" of getting to meet the kids. The in-laws in light of the news try to bond because they will be the support structure the couple will need. They have shown earlier that they might criticize and bellyache and snipe at one another, but they are reliable people that the couple can turn to when they need help.
How they react to a kid who is not only "second hand" as Jason's mother puts it, but also damaged is another matter. In addition, the marriage of Erica (Ophelia Lovibond) and Freddy (Oliver Chris) is floundering after Freddy told Erica he had cheated on her. His confession comes after Nikki threatens him with dire consequences for cheating on her friend. The end result is that Erica is managing their two kids alone while Freddie shacks up with Nikki and Jason, playing video games with Jason and asking Nikki for soy milk. His presence in the house is a destabilizing and chaotic influence, which is precisely what Nikki and Jason, who want to "grow up" before they adopt, do not need at the moment.
Freddy is also angling for residence rights to the spare room till the new kid comes, a prospect that horrifies Nikki but she is too polite to object to his plans. A newly adopted child is a big responsibility. But a child and Freddy might be too much to handle but that may well be the case in season 2 because Erica does not look like she is forgiving Freddy anytime soon.
Karen, who has settled for Scott who is a boring, unemployed windbag, knows what she is getting into. She is exchanging long-term loneliness waiting for "the One" to settling for someone she can have lunch with and who occasionally wraps her in his muffler when she's feeling cold. It is a strange bargain that she might reconsider in season 2.
The show premiered worldwide on Friday, May 1 on Apple TV+.
