‘Loot’ Season 2 Ending Explained: Co-Creators Alan Yang And Matt Hubbard Break Down That Cliffhanger

In the wise words of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter: “RING THE ALARM.”

Loot just wrapped its sophomore season on Apple TV+, and the Season 2 finale leaves Molly (Maya Rudolph), the rest of her pals at the Wells Foundation, and viewers with some jaw-dropping cliffhangers.

Season 2’s penultimate episode showed Molly and Arthur (Nat Faxon) almost kissing, Sofia (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) and Isaac (O-T Fagbenle) having a massive fight, and John (Adam Scott) emerging from a failed rocket launch unscathed — only for Molly to dump him. (Yes, even though he went to Harvard, has a Presidential Medal of Freedom, flew in a fighter pilot with Tom Cruise, and is the proud owner of Tom’s slick jacket.)

So what exactly went down in Loot Season 2, Episode 10, “We Shouldn’t Exist”? We’re breaking down the Season 2 finale with help from Loot‘s co-creators Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard.

Looking for a Loot Season 2 finale recap? Decider’s Ending Explained article has you covered. Read on for a detailed breakdown of Episode 10’s biggest moments, including behind-the-scenes insight and inspiration from Yang and Hubbard.

Loot Season 2 Ending Explained: Episode 10 “We Shouldn’t Exist” Recap

When Loot‘s finale kicks off, Molly and the Wells Foundation are on the road to success. But we’ve seen her get burned before, so can her ambitious dream to secure fellow billionaire funding and expand Space for Everyone become a reality?

With Grace (Ana Gasteyer) on board and ready to use her money to help fund Molly’s vision, the women do a cover shoot for a Vanity Fair issue boldly titled, “We Shouldn’t Exist: A New Type Of Billionaire.” Their press does the trick and successfully makes waves in the billionaire circle, with Norman Lofton — a man ten times richer than Molly — offering to travel from his home in Wyoming for a tour of a Space for Everyone hotel.

After a turbulent trip on the jet Molly chartered leads to lots of Norman puke, Loot‘s leading lady pulls out all the stops to impress her billionaire guest in hopes of convincing him to invest. But before Norman Palooza starts, Arthur asks Molly to chat about their almost kiss. It’s clear Molly is excited and waiting for Arthur to make another move. Instead, he apologizes and says it was a big mistake, leaving her horrified. Molly scrambles to save face, agreeing that they both got caught up in the moment. She reminds Arthur that she’s his boss and they’re really good friends, then says she’s so cool she’s “Mr. Freeze” before awkwardly excusing herself. UGH!

Ahead of Norman’s tour, Ainsely takes a moment to share her love for Sofia, telling her it’s incredible that she always put others before herself and spends all day helping people only to return “home to a cold, lonely apartment…alone.” Burn! Her words strike a nerve, inspiring an epiphany within Sofia that she fully realizes at the most inopportune time — right in the middle of their Norman meeting. The billionaire is greeted with a tower of his favorite hamburgers made by David Chang, which he can’t eat, of course, because of all the vomiting. (Cue Nicholas telling Loot‘s chef to “Scram! Move, bitch!”) After Sofia excuses herself from the crucial presentation, Molly follows and learns she can’t stop thinking about Isaac. Sofia acknowledges the reasons why a relationship between them wouldn’t work, then admits she loves him, prompting some A+ advice from Molly that she should listen to herself. “Do you love him? Then none of those things matter. If you love someone then you just have to take the leap,” Molly says.

Despite the chaotic plane ride and Sofia’s absence (and with help from a choir of children singing “Highway To The Norman Zone), Norman leaves Space for Everyone very impressed and ready to invest — after he sleeps on the big decision, of course. In an unexpected twist, a successful day leads into a messy, chaotic night.

After getting a voicemail from a woman saying “I’ve been looking for you” in Korean, Nicholas wonders if his birth mother tracked him down after all these years. He decides to get drunk and return the call while hanging out with Howard and many, many unfiltered voicemails later, it’s clear that he’s intrigued — and even happy — at the thought that his biological mom sought him out. When the woman calls back, however, she says there’s been a miscommunication: She’s a casting director in Seoul and wants Nicholas to audition for a new show “like Squid Game but much more violent and sexual.” Oh yeah, and the job would require him to move to Korea for six months! Needless to say, Nicholas feels let down. And he’s not the only one.

Loot Meets Eyes Wide Shut

While Molly’s at home feeding her dogs, she gets a letter from Norman inviting her to his house. Spoiler alert: It’s massive! He’s not such a simple man after all! She’s taken to a creepy red carpeted room where Norman (sitting in a literal throne) and a group of other masked mystery people are waiting to intimidate her into quitting her progressive billionaire talk. “Your activity’s threatened our way! You must cease them immediately. Obey our command or you will face the most dire of consequences,” Norm orders. Molly flicks on the lights, asks WTF is going on, and challenges Norm to face her face-to-face.

He reluctantly accepts, telling her to quit the “bullshit” and explaining the room full of masked billionaires likes the way things work, aka in their favor! Molly declines his invite to join the dark side, saying, “The world is changing. People’s eyes are opening.” She adds that she and Grace will find people to partner with who actually care about humanity, but Grace takes off a mask and reveals Norm bought her loyalty with a news station and a soccer team. Even in the face of a friendship betrayal, Molly stands her ground, says “FUCK THESE OLD WHITE GUYS!” and storms out with her head held high — right before Norm’s pal Ellen DeGeneres arrives. (Yes, Loot burned Ellen!)

If the masked finale scene felt familiar, co-creator Alan Yang says there’s a good reason. “It’s a wild idea. We rewrote the finale a few times. And we came upon this idea that it’s essentially a shot for shot remake of Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick and Tom Cruise walking into that room. So if you watch that movie, you’ll see it’s almost exactly the same,” Yang told Decider over Zoom. “It’s the idea that we had this sort of very ‘down-to-earth billionaire.’ And he drives a Camry, and eats the same hamburger for lunch every day. But really, there’s something more nefarious going on. And we really wanted to set up some obstacles for Molly, and get her to understand that there are forces in this world that are really conspiring against her, and ultimately, are against people who are trying to make it in this world. That was a bigger picture look at it. But it’s pretty scary when you have a cabal of evil billionaires going against you as Molly does.”

Sofia And Molly Take The Leaps

Now, at long last, the romance portion of Loot‘s Season 3 finale. The show checks back in with Sofia, who flew to New Orleans to catch Isaac’s jazz band and make amends. “I was on the verge of accomplishing everything I ever wanted in my life, but once you were gone, none of it meant anything,” she screams to Isaac in an A+ rom-com moment. The two get back together, seal their reunion with a kiss, and text a photo announcing the good news to Molly. As she reads Sofia’s message — “I took the leap. No regrets.” — Molly finally realizes she needs to take a leap herself and rushes to Arthur’s house to confess her true feelings.

In yet another iconic rom-com worthy moment, Molly knocks on Arthur’s door and makes an impassioned speech, saying, “I know we had that conversation earlier, and I know that there’s a million reasons why it would never work out between us, but I know we feel something for each other. And when two people have a connection like that, I think that they owe it to each other to go for it. So here I am. And I can’t believe that I showed up here in the middle of the night like a psycho, but I’m not backing off. In fact, I’m doubling down. And I’m gonna put my hands around you, and I’m gonna lean in, and here we go!” At long last, Molly and Arthur share a kiss, and for a moment, it’s magical. Arthur reciprocates, everything’s perfect, and then, a light turns on and Arthur’s GIRLFRIEND (yeah, remember her?!) asks, “Arthur? What’s going on?!” If you’re thinking now would be a great time for Beyoncé’s “Ring the Alarm” to blare, you’re right. And now, co-creator Matt Hubbard addresses the question on everyone’s mind. “What the heck, Arthur?!”

“…What Arthur now knows about what Molly feels about him, and what he may secretly feel about her will certainly come up pretty quickly,” he says, discussing ideas for Season 3. “They’ll have to make some decisions about what they do with each other. And I think no matter what they do, it will be complicated…They are from vastly different worlds, in some ways, right? Molly has been a billionaire for 25 years. And Arthur has like three pairs of khakis. So there will be issues between them. And that’s really fun to write.”

While it sounds like there may be hope for another shot at romance between Molly and Arthur should Loot continue, this certainly marks the end for them in the Season 2 finale. The next time we see Molly she’s furiously racing to her private jet with suitcase in hand and Nicholas tailing her trying to find out what’s wrong. She hops on the plane, denies his invitation to talk things out, and says, “I want you to get me out of here. As far away as possible. Anywhere! You decide, I give up.” The season ends with Molly ready to drown her sorrows with some alcohol and viewers ready to ask a whole lot of questions. For starters, is the duo headed to Korea now that it’s Nicholas’ choice? Will he audition for that show? Live there for six months? Search for his birth mom?! We need a Season 3 now!

“All those things are on the table,” co-creator Matt Hubbard told Decider. “We love all that stuff. And we are trying to figure out what is the funniest way to start this season? What are things that will allow us — like Nicholas’ birth parents — to explore these characters in a little bit more depth? And how do we keep putting them in conflict with each other? So yeah, we’re excited about all those possibilities.”

While we wait to hear more updates on the future of Loot, check out everything Decider knows about Loot Season 3 here.

Loot Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+.