The Madness – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

No More Madness

Episode 8 of The Madness begins with Julia breaking into Isiah’s shop. After killing Burt outside, Isiah decides to buy them some time Predictably, Isiah is shot and falls down the basement stairs, but Elena pounces and knocks Julia down, repeatedly smacking her in the head with a trophy. However, Julia manages to get a shot away before she dies and shoots Elena. She lies in a pool of blood and right now, it’s unclear whether she’ll survive or not.

Who is pinned for the murders?

Muncie heads to the hospital with Kwesi and Demetrius. We soon learn that Isiah is okay, but Demetrius is not. He’s pretty rattled over the whole endeavour and he’s also not talking to Muncie either. Whether this is due to Davidson’s retorts last episode or just the entire debacle with his father is up for debate.

For now though, Muncie is called in for questioning. The detectives point out that Julia’s car has been found (both of them) and they’ve also uncovered a nerve agent inside. Using this would basically cause a heart attack in any individual so she’s being pinned for all the murders. It also has the added bonus of getting Muncie completely off the hook, especially what what’s on Julia’s laptop.

Julia is going to take the fall for all of these deaths, but that’s not enough for Muncie. He knows that Kraintz is the one pulling the strings and Julia is not just a lone assassin. Despite handing over the audio evidence, it’s unclear whether it’ll be enough to actually take the guy down.

Does Muncie take the offer?

Muncie places his gun inside a saucepan in the drawer before getting ready to turn in for the night. Only, a news report piques his interest. Remember that Ross Wright character? Well, he’s all over the news as he wants to use this climate crisis as a way of leverage more power for private companies.

This plays before a news report confirming that Julia is the mass murderer and Muncie is not the killer. While that’s good news for Muncie, it doesn’t get him out of the woods. Given Kraintz has him in his crosshairs, this conflict is far from over. And probably because we still gave 45 minutes left of this finale right?

Elena wakes up in hospital and through it all, she’s decided she and Muncie need space and he needs to step back from them. This is something that Muncie finds hard to deal with and as he processes all of this, Kraintz’s lawyer, Bill Johnson, shows up with an offer. He wants to give 5 million dollars to him in exchange for an NDA to silence him from mentioning Kraintz’s involvement. The thing is, even if Muncie takes the money, he explains to Kwesi that he’ll never be able to rest. He’ll constantly be looking over his shoulder until this is resolved once and for all.

What does Muncie find in Quinones’ journal?

Muncie meets with Lucie and explains everything about Kraintz. He’s going to go public with this, and offers Lucie the info to do with what she want. She could feed this over to the Forge so they can avenge her ex husband. The choice is hers. As for Muncie, we know that he’s been running his whole life and some of that stems from the past. 

At Quinona’s wake, Muncie receives a crucial tip-off via the detective’s journal. It turns out there’s an entry here about a cobalt mine in Minnesota which could be just what they need to go after Kraintz. And this, of course, links back to that Sea Gull Lake entry.

While he pores over this newfound info, Muncie is given a platform with CNN to publicly incriminate Kraintz. This is all a ruse of course to bring him out of hiding and show his hand. And it also ties directly into Lucie’s plan, which involves reprimanding the Forge for just sitting on their arses and letting this play out.

What does Muncie say publicly?

On the news, Muncie speaks to the public.  it turns out Sea Gull Lake is a location that Julia and Rodney Kraintz met, and he’s obtained photos of the pair together leaving a plane. This location is also where Revitalize owns one of the only cobalt mines in the US.

Kraintz hired Jayne to get rid of anyone opposed to the deregulation, which ties directly into the climate bill and the elections. Muncie calls out Rodney Kraintz and also throws his own hands up, claiming he’s not entirely innocent here. For now though, Muncie just wants to try and do right and protect his community.

And with that, Muncie up and leaves the broadcast, leaving CNN commentators on both sides to weigh up the validity to his claims. As predicted though, Muncie quickly finds himself paranoid and worried that he’s going to be killed. It also doesn’t help that things between him and Demetrius are still rather tenuous and strained too.

What does Demetrius do?

As for Lucie, she decides to share all the information she has about the Forge’s inner-workings, including all the details of their bombings and assassination plans. She’s sick and tired of just sitting back and doing nothing.

Kraintz is also questioned in the midst of this, and while he does answer the police’s questions, he spins everything in a way that makes it seem like everything has been taken out of context.

While Muncie is out for a run, someone slips an envelope under his door. Demetrius picks it up first and reads it. Turns out he’s trying to go after Kraintz, given Lucie left his private address.

Does Muncie kill Kraintz?

Muncie catches up to his son, who’s not happy and wants to try and resolve this situation before something bad happens. He holds his son and tries to calm him down but Demetrius pulls away and eventually leaves. Muncie decides to finish this. He sneaks into Kraintz’s warehouse where he finds Kraintz at his desk.

Muncie refuses to listen to any of his spiel about the world and the conspiracy at the heart of everything, as Kraintz explains that he’s just one little cog in the machine. He’s completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and he knows that Muncie isn’t going to kill him. Given how involved he’s been in this conspiracy, he’s all too aware of how high up the chain of command everything goes.

Realizing how futile this is, Muncie decides to walk away. At this point, I bet he’s a bit gutted he didn’t take the 5 million for the NDA! As he walks away though, the Forge are arrested for their crimes with a big FBI bust (Discord are still out there though!)

How does The Madness end?

While Kraintz is free to go, this isn’t the end of it. The man is assassinated in broad daylight. Kraintz’s whole spiel about being just a cog in the machine runs true, as Ross Wright looks set to steamroll win the election.

More importantly though, Lucie decides to up and leave with her kids, starting anew, while Muncie hangs with his kids. He manages to bridge the gap between the pair of them and sort things out. And just like that, Elena also shows up to join them. Whether she’s ready to be with him properly or is just there for the barbecue is still up for debate but it definitely seems to be a step in the right direction.

The Episode Review

In the end, all’s well and ends well for Muncie and the family. Personally, I think the ending epilogue with the family was pretty rushed, especially the contrived nature of Demetrius and Muncie bridging the gap between them and becoming a proper father/son duo. I would have liked that explored a bit further but it does the trick to show how Muncie is done running and is actively trying to put his life back together now.

As for the main conspiracy and drama here, there’s a nice feeling of futility hanging over this one, and even though Muncie is completely free of charges, it also sheds some light on how quicky things can turn against you. In a way, we never really get a full low-down on exactly who planted all the evidence inside Muncie’s apartment (unless I missed something, in which case do comment below!) but the insinuation here is that it’s Julia that’s behind it.

It’s clear that Kraintz was just another cog in the system, although finding him was amusingly easier than we were led to believe from Julia in the penultimate chapter. However, that wider conspiracy and the idea of there being puppet masters out of our control harks back to that connection to shows like Rabbit Hole, which was unfortunately cancelled at Paramount after a single season

The has been some contrived drama within this show and a couple of eyebrow raising moments but honestly, stuff like little plot contrivances is easier to overlook when the story and characters are endearing. Lets just hope this gets some good views and a second season is greenlit!