The following story contains spoilers for Beef on Netflix.
NETFLIX HAS had a lot of success, in the years since it has been making its own original content, in the genre space. The network’s most popular scripted series have always tended toward the more fantastical: shows like Stranger Things, shows like The Haunting of Hill House, and shows like The Umbrella Academy have always seemed to be the most popular. And while there have been other successes in other genres, that history is what makes Beef, the streaming giant’s new, A24-produced hit that’s fantastical in a whole different way, feel like such a new, exciting, breath of fresh air.
No one has superpowers in Beef. There’s no massive, globe-spanning journey to uncover; there’s no conspiracy afoot, and there’s no surprise cameo that changes everything waiting at the end of the show. Beef is just a show about two people in our world, coming from very different backgrounds and in very different places in life, who, for one reason or another, become obsessed with each other after both suck each other into a wild road rage incident—and in an extremely toxic and unhealthy way.
But Beef isn’t about those two people (Danny, played by Steven Yeun and Amy, played by Ali Wong) explicitly hating the other. On the surface, it certainly seems like that; both have every opportunity to just move on with their life, but as one thing after the other pops up, keep on being drawn back to each other.
In reality, Beef is about these two people seeing in the other person something they want to be (in Danny’s case, he strives for both the financial and social stability that Amy has, while Amy is seemingly jealous of the mobility and lack of responsibility that Danny has), and, at the end of the day, being far more similar than they ever imagined.
Why did Amy and Danny’s feud escalate so far in Beef?
There was no reason for Amy and Danny’s beef to ever get to the point that it did in Beef, but there was also never any one person who would be “to blame” for the way everything played out; both parties are equally responsible, and at the end of the day, both parties are probably happy with the way things played out. Amy and Danny, by the end of the series, both seem to have grown as people and gained someone who can see them like no one else can. They seem to get one another on a level that goes far beneath with each projects on the surface.
But, man, did it take a lot to get there. At a certain point, as much as Amy seems to have inner turmoil, you’d have to think it would’ve just been in her best interest to just let it go. Yes, Danny and Isaac (David Choe) embarrassed her during her panel in Las Vegas. But did she really have to continue after that, when she had the upper hand and he was at his lowest point? Likewise, if Danny didn’t seek Amy out as “Zane” (after becoming George’s friend under his fake identity), the conflict would have been dead and buried as well.
But it’s the domino effects of the season that really ultimately pushed things to the extremes they ultimately reached. The way Danny handled his sketchy and dangerous cousin Isaac (by framing him for the road rage incident) set up the eventual attempted heist (and deadly police shootout) at Jordan’s house. And Amy’s frustration with Jordan’s (Maria Bello) continued microaggressions and general out-of-touch-rich-white-ladyness ultimately made her home much easier to give up to Isaac and his cronies when her daughter’s life was on the line.
By the end of the ordeal—which started [deep breath] with Danny peeing on a rug, evolved to Amy catfishing and eventually having an affair with Danny’s brother (Young Mazino), before evolving into Danny’s business taking off with some highly illegally obtained money, before evolving into Danny befriending George and accidentally kidnapping June, evolving into a heist on Jordan’s house and eventually Jordan being cut in half by her own panic room door, evolving into Isaac and his associates being either killed or arrested—Amy and Danny still cannot stand each other. And at the end of Episode 9, they drive each other off a cliff.
Almost the entirety of Episode 10 feels inspired, at least a bit, by this year’s winner of the Best Picture Oscar: Everything Everywhere All At Once. Just as one example: the episode opens with a conversation between crows, whom we learn via subtitled conversation remember Amy. They prefer Danny, and, as Amy’s pointing her gun at him, save his life.
The rest of the episode goes far deeper, capturing the whimsical and funny yet heartfelt and deep-reaching nature of the Oscar-winning film (albeit with a fairly more cynical lens): Amy and Danny are stuck, in an absurd, unimaginable fashion, in the woods, unknown where they actually are, possibly even dead. Possibly in limbo. Unknown if anyone will find them at all. Both succumb to different injuries. Both still hate each other.
At least to start. Eventually, they share some moments, foraging for berries and things to eat; they begin to bond. They begin to get on the same page. They begin to see things the same way. And, through a few hallucinogenic berry-fueled moments, even begin to see things quite literally through the others’ eyes.
They think they’re dying, but then both wake up, healthy enough to make their way back towards society. Amy and Danny aren’t enemies anymore, but friends—Amy even offers to help Danny with money, should he need it. But George, who’s come looking for his injured, missing, troubled wife, sees her silhouette with a man whom he only knows as her enemy. And he’s got a gun. And he fires. It’s a tragic consequence that after all the pre-Episode 10 events, kind of felt a bit inevitable.
Do Amy and Danny get together at the end of Beef?
The end of the episode cuts to Danny, stuck in a hospital bed, with Amy sitting beside him. We have no idea if Danny will survive his gunshot wound, as we shift to Amy’s perspective; Amy, after their experience in the woods, clearly thinks differently now. She remembers Danny asking him if he’s got to get where she is to be happy—and she told him everything fades. She realizes that Danny was just a guy trying to make it; she realizes that all their beef was over nothing. And this guy may lose his life because of it.
She climbs into bed with him, just as a sign of support. And as the lights flicker different colors and Smashing Pumpkins’ incredible song “Mayonaise” begins to play, we see Danny’s arm raise. He’s alive. These two made it through their ordeal.
“We were looking for an ending that felt like it had some closure of these two people that briefly got to touch something true in one another, but almost too late,” creator Lee Sung Jin told Elle in an interview, also adding that Ali Wong herself pitched the idea of Amy climbing into bed with Danny. “I leave it open to interpretation how people want to view that moment, but I just knew I wanted to create a mood, and that mood was something that felt very nostalgic and familiar and like home in a lot of ways.”
So how should we view that moment? To say that Amy and Danny now have a romantic connection almost seems to be taking too shallow a look at what they’ve been through. These two were bonded after the road rage incident in a way that neither of them could particularly explain; the more they messed with one another, the more they seemed drawn to one another. This is likely because despite coming from different places—Amy a wealthy artist and Danny a working class contractor—they are, deep down, the same. They struggle with the same things, and through their different life experiences, they’re able to fill in the gaps—and if played correctly, ease—each others’ anxieties.
And after their time injured, and hallucinating, in the woods, they really managed to bond on a deeper level.
“I did want these two characters in the finale to be completely unattached. To see what happens once every single aspect of their life has been stripped away from them,” Lee Sung Jin told Elle in the same interview. “And so the only place to really do that is out in the middle of nowhere, and there is…almost like a vision quest or a ‘psychedelic trip in Joshua Tree’ sort of feeling to being out in the middle of nowhere.”
Jin has mentioned that he has plans for two more seasons of Beef, so there’s a decent chance that we eventually see what happens next for Danny and Amy. But now that Danny is woken up, it doesn’t seem likely that they’d pursue a romantic relationship; Yes, Danny is single, but Amy has a child with George and it seems likely that they would reconcile.
What Danny and Amy seems to go deeper than that; they may not even be friendly once the ordeal is all settled and over with. But they will always know that they could confide and come back to the other. It’s a shared experience they both have that evolved into a shared trauma they now both have. Beef explored that in a masterful way—and in a way that can be dissected over and over again.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
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