Beef – Season 1 Episode 10 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Figures of Light

What is up with the crows?

Episode 9 ended with a closeup of a crow looking at the accident. Given the show is A24 bred, there was no way the crow was random. One is instantly reminded of a story Danny told about his childhood. He nursed a crow back to health after its leg broke and fed it for the entire duration. Well, the crow is actually the same one that Danny helped out. What are the odds of that happening?

He converses with another crow, who mentions that Amy scared its uncle once. They decide to help Danny out if he is in trouble… and that actually materialises! When Danny gets out of his car, Amy stands over him pointing her gun at him. She wants Danny to stay put while she phones the police, but the crows attack her and Danny is able to escape. He creates a ploy to throw Amy down the slope. It works and Amy badly injures herself.

Amy and Danny work together… wait, what?

When Amy wakes up, she is barely able to walk. She also cannot find her gun. Neither Amy nor Danny can get reception at the place, even though their phones are functional. Despite going in separate directions, they end up on adjacent rocks. They exchange a few curse words until Danny mentions Paul. Since Amy actually cared for him, she is concerned and steps toward Danny with compassion.

She tries to comfort him. Danny asks if she knows the way and she says yes, but cannot walk and Danny has to help her. He carries her on his shoulders. When he refuses to offer her Skittles (that he keeps in his pockets because of a sweet tooth), Amy pinches his head. He drops her and they spot a gun nearby. Both latch for it but Amy gets to it and breaks Danny’s shoulder.

Even in their situation, Danny mocks Amy by saying George wouldn’t check on her after all she put him through.

Amy is calling the “shots” and the wild Elderberries

Amy instructs Danny to find Elderberries. They are edible and will keep them going. Amy confirms the stuff Danny finds and they both eat. However, they regret it a little later. They puke constantly and sense that they have been poisoned. Amy is not a plant expert after all and admits that she Googles stuff to sound smart (don’t we all). Danny says he will go look for help but Amy points her gun and asks him not to leave her alone.

But the gun is actually just a wooden stick, and Danny is not even there. “What are chemicals?”, “How are all Asians lactose intolerant?”, and a few other pointless questions float around in Amy and Danny’s wicked and hilarious conversation.

The Hallucinatory Dance Under the Moonlight Explained

No help arrives and it is already night. Danny and Amy are still together but thankfully she was only hallucinating, struggling to make sense of time. It was not like the movie Fall where the hallucinations were about a dead person. Danny still hasn’t thrown up and Amy says he will feel better if he does. Danny goes off talking about how their parents passed on the byproduct of their struggles – trauma and pain – to them. Danny hears the leaves rustle and sees it is only Amy. They are both hallucinating under the moonlight!

Now that they have a better sense of time and reality, Amy and Danny talk about how the 80’s generation served as the guinea pig of technology. They had it the worst in terms of addiction and also opportunities. Amy seems to agree.

When Amy brings up Paul, Danny expresses his guilt for not being open with him. All he did was try to bring Paul down and keep him at his level. Amy says “In a way, we all want to be seen,” and continues by establishing the bottom line of all human existence, adding “but not who they really are.” We all want our ugly parts to be hidden from the world that makes us rot inside and give us immeasurable suffering.

Amy and Danny are just two instances of that inherent brokenness. Amy accepts she does not like George’s vases. She even broke one on purpose and blamed it on June. Her existential dread surfaces when she says she does not know if “George and June mean home” to her anymore. It is the most visceral display of depression we have seen in the series until now. It has come at a time when they know living on is not certain.

Amy finally confesses she felt June would make her whole but she did not, and neither did the business or George’s companionship. She even feels that June does not love her unconditionally as Amy loves her, prompting Danny to call all babies “monsters who cannot do anything to get what they want.”

Do Amy and Danny finally find compassion for each other?

Amy and Danny’s conversation makes it difficult for us to know what is real and what is not. They have truly crossed the bridge when we see them talking as each other. It is almost like they have subrogated themselves into each other’s shoes, like Jennifer’s Body. This is representative of the fact they were finally able to find each other’s brokenness and understood it. Watching the scene is surreal and props to the makers for creating this compelling imagery.

In that moment, Amy and Danny saw each other for who they really were and accepted those ugly parts. The world did not and for a long time, they felt angry at themselves for that reality… but not anymore. They narrate incidents from each other’s lives, confirming the above again. Amy and Danny call themselves “not normal” and wonder why God would make them like this and others normally. Their conversation is quite intense, philosophical, and formless. But it doesn’t matter anymore because they would be dead by the morning anyway.

For one last time, they find compassion for each other and realize all they wanted was never to be alone. They were angry at each other because they hated themselves. It is a beautiful moment when they apologize and say that they should not hide who they really are anymore.

Beef Ending Explained: Does Danny survive? Do Danny and Amy end up together?

Come morning, they are still alive. They celebrate before Danny begins carrying Amy again. They are nearing the roads and in their newfound acceptance of life, they also admire the beautiful wilderness of LA… until they find reception and the ugliness spills over to their phones.

Paul is alive but vows never to talk to Danny again. George is actually concerned about Amy and Fumi is concerned if Amy got the email from George’s lawyer.

Amy and Danny walk shoulder to shoulder toward civilization. They have resolved their “beef” and have found respect and admiration for one another. She offers to pay for his lawyer. Suddenly, we see George rush in. He has a gun and from his point of view, it is looking like Danny is hitting Amy. He fires the gun and the screen goes blank. Danny is still alive but barely. He is on life support and Amy is by his side, looking on concerned.

Her mind goes back to the day she showed him a middle finger and the moment of hesitance right before it. She breaks down looking at him and climbs into bed with Danny. She embraces him and the lights around them change, indicating the passage of time. The series finally ends with Danny putting his arm around Amy. From that, it does seem that they might have ended up together. That is what we would like to think as well.

In the end, Amy and Danny did what we wanted them to do on many occasions in the series: see each other. We knew how alike they were and the makers did a tremendous job of pushing the story in that direction. All is well that ends well and Beef ends in the best possible way.

The Episode Review

Beef is arguably the best series on Netflix this year. The last two episodes have elevated it beyond normal storytelling while still remaining grounded in very real, humane emotions.

The human condition is at Beef’s core and episode 10 touched upon that with panache. The entire episode was Amy and Danny trying to understand each other and figuring out that they share the same brokenness that makes them so bitter. It is a beautiful end and we will share more thoughts in a full season review to follow this.