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- Beef Ending Explained: The Meaning Behind the Netflix Series
Is the titular beef settled at the end of Netflix's Beef? Let's get to the bottom of that finale.
By Alec Bojalad | |
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This article contains spoilers for Beef.
Beef. It’s what’s for dinner. It’s also what’s on Netflix right now. The streamer’s latest series is a 10-episode A24-produced drama about a petty feud that completely consumes the lives of two otherwise average American schmoes.
In the show’s first episode, Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong)’s respective cars nearly collide in a parking lot. Car horns and middle fingers are subsequently exchanged and suddenly Danny and Amy are engaged in a years-long “beef” that ultimately destroys their lives and the lives of everyone around them.
This show, created by Lee Sung Jin (who is next set to write Marvel’s Thunderbolts), is both a creative screwball comedy and a careful meditation on the human capacity for self destruction. With that in mind, Beef has quite a harrowing tight rope to maneuver through in its final two episodes. In the end, Beef definitively ends one chapter of Danny and Amy’s story while also leaving room for more.
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Here is what you need to know about the ending of Beef.
What Happens in Beef Episode 9?
Every good story about conflict must feature a moment in which it all the consequences finally come home to roost. That moment (and those consequences) arrives for Beef in its penultimate ninth episode. This is a half hour of television so stylized and violent that one could be forgiven for thinking it will all be revealed to be a dream. But it’s not a dream. The utterly preposterous events of “The Great Fabricator” actually happen somehow.
It all begins with Danny’s accidental kidnapping of Amy’s daughter June in episode 8. While Danny is preparing to get June back to her parents before going on the run, his convinced felon cousin Isaac (David Choe) and his goons Michael (Andrew Santino) and Bobby (Rekstizzy) arrive. Isaac has beef with Danny (a recurring theme, you see) for allowing Isaac to falsely take the fall on the original vandalism charges that arose from Amy and Danny’s first road rage incident.
Already with another crime under his belt, Isaac needs a substantial amount of money to fund his defense. He decides to blackmail Amy with her kidnapped daughter for said funds but Amy convinces him to rob her new business partner Jordan Foester’s (Maria Bello) opulent home instead.
It’s at Jordan’s home where everything well and truly goes to shit. Danny and his brother Paul (Young Mazino) are able to get little June away from Bobby but are soon re-captured by Michael and Isaac. As the cops bear down on the location, everyone freaks out. Jordan’s wife Naomi (Ashley Park), who she wooed away from her brother weirdly, rushes to the panic room. Jordan tries to follow her there but Naomi prematurely closes the hatch and the stainless steel doors crush Jordan in half, killing her almost instantly.
Once the police arrive Michael is shot and killed and Isaac is taken in to custody. Danny convinces Paul to leave him and escape by telling him that he sabotaged his life by throwing his college acceptance letters away so that they could stay the “same.” And that’s not even to mention the fact that it was Danny who accidentally burned their parents’ home down with a faulty wiring job. Upon escape, however, it sounds as though Paul is shot by some overzealous police (he’s not thankfully, as Danny discovers later). Meanwhile, Amy is guided out of the war zone and delivered the news that her husband George (Joseph Lee) has already taken June home and will be filing an order of protection against her so she may never see her daughter again.
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In the end, what started with a simple traffic dispute has resulted in no fewer than two broken families, countless rounds of ammunition spent, property destruction on an apocalyptic scale, multiple arrests, and two moldering corpses.
What Happens in Beef Episode 10?
While episode 9 depicts the ultimate consequences for everyone in Danny and Amy’s orbit, it does not bring the destructive duo together to fully grapple with each other. That moment finally happens in “Figures of Light,” the 10th and final episode of Beef.
Following the madness at Jordan’s, Amy and Danny have a second incident of road rage as Amy pursues Danny down a dark, winding path at night, hoping to capture him and get the police involved. Instead both Danny and Amy’s cars careen off a cliff and they find themselves injured, lost, and annoyingly together as the sun rises the next day.
At this point in the story, as Danny and Amy have to begrudgingly work together to get back home, you might expect that they come to realize that they have more in common than they thought. You’d be right in that expectation but Beef at least goes about brining them together in a satisfyingly novel way. That’s right: it’s hallucination time.
At gunpoint, Amy instructs Danny to fetch them some elderberries to eat. Unfortunately, she is not a gifted botanist and the berries they find make them extremely sick. The psychedelic effects brought on by the marathon puking sessions really open up Amy and Danny’s third eyes and they come to realize they’re just equally broken people looking for external antagonists to take place of their inner demons.
Eventually the duo powers through their illnesses and make it back to civilization. Once there, however, George sees Danny with his hands on his wife and shoots him. Cut to: Amy visiting a non-responsive Danny in the hospital. Cue Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mayonnaise” and roll credits. Show’s over.
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Is the Beef Eventually Squashed in Beef?
Based on that bittersweet ending, I think it’s fair to say that the titular beef in Beef has been squashed…but maybe not for the reason you think. You see, back in the woods when Danny and Amy are having their hallucination sesh, something rather interesting manifests. Danny and Amy find their words getting mixed up with each other’s and before they know if they are speaking on behalf of the other person. Amy’s “dialogue” comes out of Danny’s mouth while Danny’s “dialogue” comes out of Amy’s.
This is all likely due to the effects of the berries and Amy and Danny haven’t literally swapped bodies – though the supernatural is not completely out of the question. The first scene of the final episode actually indulges in some magical realism and provides closed captioning for a murder of crows as they recognize both Danny and Amy and decide that they favor Danny in this matchup because he fed them before.
Regardless of what’s really going on here, it serves as a surprisingly lovely moment of catharsis and self-forgiveness. It also leads to a rather touching exchanging of words:
“If God is everything. Then we’re God. He’s just like us.”
“I think we’re dying.”
“I think so too.”
“I see your life. You poor thing. All you wanted was to not be alone.”
“You don’t have to be ashamed. It’s ok. I see it all. You don’t have to hide. It’s ok.”
“Wow. There’s really nothing after this.”
“We should have done this more often.”
“What a waste.”
“At least we did it once.”
Who says what in that back and forth? It ultimately doesn’t matter because Amy and Danny are one and the same now. At episode’s end, when Amy crawls into a limp Danny’s hospital bed, there are some romantic overtones. But more than anything the action represents her learning how to forgive herself.
Truly, the beef was inside us all along.
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All 10 episodes of Beef are available to stream on Netflix now.
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Written by
Alec Bojalad|@alecbojalad
TV Editor at Den of Geek and Television Critics Association member. Based in Cleveland, Ohio. Very upset about various sporting events.
Read more from Alec Bojalad
FAQs
What happens at the end of beef? ›
“We wanted people to be projecting whatever they were feeling and going through at the time onto the screen,” he explains. The show ends with Amy in the hospital bed with Danny as he slowly comes to and begins to move his arm — seemingly to go around her — but cuts before the audience can make any concrete conclusions.
How did beef end Netflix? ›Later on, in Beef's final scene, Danny lies in a hospital bed, in critical condition from his gun wounds. Amy sits beside him, checking his vitals. But in the very final shot, Amy crawls into bed with Danny, who wraps his arm around her—he's alive!
What happens to George in beef? ›After Danny's brother Paul informed Amy's husband George of her infidelity, fuelled by his own anger towards her, George walked out of their family home with their daughter June in tow. He later asked for a divorce following Amy's warts-and-all recounting of the whole sorry saga, including the road rage incident.
What happens to Danny and Amy in beef? ›The season ends with Danny and Amy utterly alone, in the hospital, after being strung out on poisonous berries in the deserted Malibu hillside. But, for a brief moment, there's connection and understanding as Amy hugs Danny and he embraces her back to the yearning tones of Smashing Pumpkins' “Mayonaise.”
What is the point of beef? ›The point is attached directly to the rib cage and is a thicker cut with dense meat and large hunks of fat. The flat has some fat but is mostly meat and connective tissue.
Why did beef turn brown? ›After beef has been refrigerated for about five days, it may turn brown. This darkening is due to oxidation, the chemical changes in myoglobin due to the oxygen content. This is a normal change during refrigerator storage.
Will there be a beef 2? ›A second season of Beef hasn't been greenlit yet, but if it follows the same characters, we can expect to see Ali Wong, Steven Yeun, Young Mazino and Joseph George again, as well as Netflix stalwart Ashley Park (who also stars in Emily in Paris).
Will there be a beef series 2? ›Netflix dropped all ten episodes of the thrilling dramedy in early April, and I devoured them all rare like a wild animal. Luckily, we'll have some time to process before an eventual second course—but the meal may be prepared a little differently once it arrives. (Just let me have my meat puns, OK?)
Will there be a season 2 for beef? ›There's no confirmed source or news, as to if there will be a "Beef" season 2, however, speculations say that the comedy thriller is likely to get a second season. Typically, Netflix takes about a month after releasing a new show before making any announcements about future seasons.
Does Danny survive in beef? ›Danny and Amy eventually find common ground, with Lee saying that he “knew that these two characters had to come together at the very end.” With their beef finally squashed, Danny and Amy finally find their way back to civilization. But they're met by Amy's husband George, who shoots Danny.
What does George do in the end? ›
At the end of Of Mice and Men , George spares Lennie from Curley's wrath by shooting Lennie in the back of the head after reciting their shared dream of owning a farm one final time.
What happens to George after she dies? ›George is impaled with a harpoon and dies in Nick's arms, surrounded by her friends. With her final words, George finally returns Nick's sentiment of “I love you”. Nancy, unable to accept her friend's death, breaks into the Historical Society and steals an ancient shroud that brings people back to life.
Who did Danny end up with? ›Danny has also been in love with Riley ever since he was six. Danny and Riley eventually end up together in seasons 5. In the season 5 finale, it is revealed that Riley is pregnant after Danny and Riley become very serious. During Season 6, Danny and Riley get married, and have a son, Puck.
Why did Amy and Danny break up? ›Amy fell for Danny when he had to come in to see the hockey team's shrink. He once tried to get a tattoo of her name to prove his undying love for her, then ended up getting "Riley" tattooed instead. Amy breaks up with Danny, because he was still in love with Riley.
Do Amy and Danny stay together? ›Danny and Amy have been married since 2014 and currently live in Texas where they've started a new church. The couple has two children together, a boy Jedidiah and daughter Anna.
Why is it called beef? ›The word beef is from the Latin word bōs, in contrast to cow which is from Middle English cou (both words have the same Indo-European root *gʷou-). After the Norman Conquest, the French-speaking nobles who ruled England naturally used French words to refer to the meats they were served.
Why does beef taste like farm? ›Cows that forage naturally and consume a diet of grass and wild edibles produce beef with full bodied flavor. To a grass-fed beef newbie, the taste can be described as slightly gamey with undertones of grass or hay.
Why is beef so satisfying? ›The answer, according to scientists, lies in meat's unique mixture of fat and umami (more about this taste later), spiced up in a process called the Maillard reaction — the browning that happens when we cook a piece of meat.
Why did beef turn grey? ›The presence of oxygen, however, eventually turns beef grayish-brown. Myoglobin's chemical compound contains iron, which, after a few days of oxygen exposure, will oxidize. This creates metmyoglobin, which is responsible for the meat turning grayer than your grandpa.
What is meant by freezer burn? ›Freezer burn happens when frozen foods are exposed to cold, dry air, which causes them to dehydrate as the outer layers lose moisture. One of the most commonly recognized signs of freezer burn is the formation of ice crystals on the outside of food, making it appear frost bitten.
What is the brown stuff in beef? ›
Brown patches are not bad and your steaks are still safe to eat as long as there are no other signs of spoilage such as a pungent smell or a slimy texture. The brown patches indicate that the myoglobin in your steaks is reacting with oxygen in the air to form metmyoglobin which is brown in color.
Who first ate beef? ›We've been eating beef since prehistoric times, as evidenced by the earliest cave paintings depiction of the hunt for the aurochs, a primitive bovine. Domestication of cattle happened around 8000 BC, and that is when beef consumption really took off.
Why did beef go up? ›Meat prices are currently 7.5% higher than this time last year. This is due to several factors from general inflation, which in June climbed to 9.1% — the highest since November 1981 – to labor, fuel, supply chain issues and a drought impacting Texas and midwestern states.
Is beef a male or female? ›IS BEEF FROM MALE OR FEMALE COWS? Beef can be made from either male or female cattle. For breeds explicitly raised for beef, like Angus or Herefords, all calves are reared for meat regardless of sex. Increasingly, cows and bulls of the Holstein breed born on dairy farms are inserted into the beef production system.
Will there be more episodes of Beef on Netflix? ›We have already seen their full spectrum, and we can rest easy in the knowledge that the show has done its characters justice in its definitive resolution. We do not need a Season 2 of Beef. All episodes of Beef are now available to stream on Netflix. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
What is Beef in Netflix about? ›Beef is a 2023 American comedy drama miniseries created by Korean director Lee Sung Jin for Netflix. It stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as Danny Cho and Amy Lau, two people whose involvement in a road rage incident pits them against each other.
Is the split series 2 new? ›...
The Split (TV series)
The Split | |
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Original release | 24 April 2018 – 9 May 2022 |
USDA and agriculture executives said that beef production is expected to decline later in 2023, marking a return to higher beef prices.
How old is the beef? ›Most cattle don't get past the age of two. American beef comes mostly from steers and heifers slaughtered between 18 and 24 months old. Young cattle are prized for their tenderness and mild flavor.
How rare is beef? ›Rare (125°-130°F)
A steak cooked to “rare” is very different than a “raw”. The chef will season the steak and place it on the grill. The steak will become brown on the outside, but still remain very soft on the inside. The center will still be cool to the tongue.
What happens at the end of the story a piece of steak? ›
He knows that had he been able to eat a steak before the fight, the outcome would have been different. Because he has already taken out credit on the loser's share of the purse, he leaves the fight penniless and in despair. The story ends with King crying on his two-mile walk home, as he cannot afford a cab ride.
What is the end product of beef? ›Beef processing: the end product is meat.
What happens to beef after slaughter? ›Immediately after slaughter, biochemical processes are released in the meat. The lack of oxygen leads to anaerobic glycolysis, in which glycogen and glucose are degraded. This reduces the pH to about 5.6.
Why is beef hung after slaughter? ›A: Hanging beef in a cooler (at about 38° F) for at least 10 days is recommended to improve tenderness. This process is called aging. This allows the enzymes in the meat to break down the proteins and improve eating quality. The process would also allow the development of flavors associated with the aging process.
What is the significance of the ending of the story? ›The ending is the most important part of a dramatic narrative: The ending is the part of a drama in which the conflict between the story's protagonist and whatever antagonistic force is standing in the way of the protagonist achieving his primary motivating goal comes to a head and is finally resolved.
What is the final end of the story? ›An epilogue is the final segment of a story and effectively serves as one final chapter.
What is the ending of the story or the conclusion of the plot? ›Resolution: (Denouement) Rounds out and concludes the action; struggles are over. The End!
What is the red liquid in beef? ›What is the liquid coming out of steak? Even the rarest and reddest of steaks is actually bloodless. Instead, what you're looking at is a combination of water, which makes up about 75 per cent of meat, and a protein found in muscle tissue called myoglobin.
What is the red chemical in beef? ›Myoglobin is a richly pigmented protein. The more myoglobin there is in the cells, the redder, or darker, the meat. When dark meat is cooked, myoglobin's color changes depending on what the meat's interior temperature is. Rare beef is cooked to 140° F, and myoglobin's red color remains unchanged.
Why is beef tied up? ›Trussing beef before roasting helps retain its shape while it cooks in the oven and stops the meat from spreading. This method can also be used for stuffed and rolled joints of meat to hold them together. The trussing method works by tying a series of interlinked knots to secure the meat in place.
Why is beef held at 4 degrees after slaughter? ›
CHILLING. To prevent or even to reduce the deterioration process, particularly microorganism development, chilling has to be carried out quickly after carcass dousing at the end of the slaughter process and the chilled state has to be maintained until the meat is processed for consumption.
Can you eat a cow right after slaughter? ›Meat is not ready to be eaten right after slaughter. It needs time to become tender, which happens as connective tissues within the muscle break down. Aging is that breakdown process. The ideal aging period is 21 to 24 days.
What are the consequences of beef? ›Red and processed meats do increase health risks.
Hu says that an accumulated body of evidence shows a clear link between high intake of red and processed meats and a higher risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and premature death.
Cow cries before slaughter. They sense their final destiny. Don't be a reason behind their suffering.
Why does beef have to rest? ›When you cut into a very hot piece of meat, all of the liquid is going to come out. If you rest it, it allows everything to relax and redistribute the juices, which creates a more tender, juicier cut," explains Angie Mar, co-owner and executive chef of The Beatrice Inn in New York City.
What happens to all the cow bones after slaughter? ›Waste materials such as bone, lard or tallow, are sent to a rendering plant. Also, lard and tallow can be used for the production of biodiesel or heating oil.