I have to admit I didn't get the ending straight away. As the symbolic nature of it was out of sync with the rest of the show. However there were subtle clues all the way through that the end was near. Such as The Road to Nowhere posters & that hobbit of death creature chasing them. I'm pretty certain they're dead & that in reality they were shot & buried on the beach. I don't think Mason Verger would go through all that effort (including killing several innocent bystanders in the process) just to let the people he was actually after go. As the hoods were put on it was Baxter's life flashing before his eyes and all their idiotic actions that had brought them to this sorry end. When he looked across & saw himself under the tony Blair mask it was him realising that he had caused his own death. The moment the car fell off the freeway was the moment they were shot. And the unfinished highway was a metaphor for them coming to the end of the road & having nowhere left to run. By showing them dying in the car together it also showed how they were all in it together & there for each other right up until the end.
What a fantastic series ... got a a bit lacking of faith after series 3 but all makes sense now. They were dead, killed in the 1st series or before, probably by Tiny Blair after killing Alvo. But that doesn't explain why Alvo wasn't on the journey too ... so they could have been killed in the 2nd encounter with Tiny, when Alvo was already dead. Just before the road ends, and Woody's journey flashes before his eyes it flickers back to Alvo welcoming them to the villa, so they could have been dead even before that, and the phone ringing at Alvos was to tell him that they had been killed............... or, if you are real smart, you will have gone to the beginning of the 1st series, and realized that the posters are the clue .. and at the journey from the airport to Alvo's, whilst they are trying out hte digi camera's, they drive past the road to nowhere poster .. they were dead all along, and this was there journey to the 2nd stage .. the 1st stage being when you do not know that you are already dead . Despite being a college together Glenister is 10 years older than Warren and Simm ... Warren who is playing a character in his 30's, wher eas Quinn is obviously in his 50's... complex, compelling, crazy and any other word beginning with c, Mad Dogs ticked all the boxes in the end.
You beat me too it!!! I know this has always been 'nuts', but I have to confess it left me more confused than ever after the second episode last night.
Who was the guy in the car who took his mask off? What did the guy in the wheel chair have to do with the end? Did they know they were headed down an unfinished road and would die? Was it all a dream. Clearly none of them was ever going to be able to settle down back home but .....??
I'd not say I couldn't sleep last night because of it, but I have to say I turned it off afterwards thinking 'wot the heck'!!!
Add - So another here has thought that the guy behind the mask was Baxter? As I queried at the time ..... whatever, it was far too clever for me.
@ Effie - thank you for explaining all that ..... makes perfect? sense!!! LOL. I have recorded it, so may well go back (later on!) and take another look at the clues.
There are so many possibilities its bewildering - I watched the whole thing over three days last week - I have read many many answers to this question in an effort to understand the ending and the symbolism throughout. They all make some kind of sense but that's not the point - making no sense was the whole point of the message of the series. So here's my trippy explanation - they all died in Majorca in Series 1 - the rest was purgatory where the mistakes they had made throughout their lives informed the choices they subsequently made in the series and over and over again they took the wrong option with increasingly upsetting consequences for them all. One definition of madness is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result" - their souls in purgatory continued to make the same poor choices until ultimately they were sent to hell for being hopeless cases all round. The zombies, the eyes, the posters, the body snatchers, the Rick death scene in bed in CP, the all pervasive surveillance, the flight to SA, the family reunions confirming their worthless natures as far as their families were concerned, the death of those they loved - the disease of their bad decisions just kept infecting everyone they came in contact with - in the end although they innocently went to Alvo's in Ep1 for a lads holiday - ultimately their life choices to that point informed their decisions and the outcomes from there on out - the flowers on the wheelchair villains shirt have a significance but I will keep that to myself - I have no religious beliefs BTW but the purgatory / hell analogy suits the theory. They died - they had a chance to redeem themselves - they failed - they were damned. ATB. Graham.
Well, I'm sure they all died on the beach. As the last one took his sheet off that was probably the last shot fired. Then it was silent as they all didn't quite realise that they were dead, but of course they did know on some level! I think Baxter seeing himself in the opposite car reflected that it was all his own fault, I would think everyone of them was seeing the same thing of themselves to some degree on that journey. Maybe he saw himself as one of the murderers because that is what he ended up becoming in the end.It was of course the road to nowhere and maybe the falling car depicted hell, though I hope not!!! But as it was said just before they were taken to the beach, 'We aren't bad people, we don't deserve this'………Maybe hell is full of people who don't think they should be there by todays standards. It also takes me back to one of the episodes in the first series, when Quinn, was talking about cereal, and about how we don't think for ourselves! I'm sure following the crowd as we all do is the road to nowhere where seeming good people end up in Hell! Though, I'm not religious and hope this is just a writers take on life and not a literal insight into the cosmos, other wise, its going to be a bit crowded down there!!! Hahaha
What is it they say 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'! Baxter also wore horns in the first series which is demon like, and Rick's one night stand said he (Baxter) looked 'successful'. All traits of the devil and his followers!!!
Great show, and interesting to say the least, and I'm sure as I watch it again, now knowing the ending a few more subtle conversations will point towards Cris Cole's opinions.
Hope you all enjoyed it though.
On Twitter, Max Beesley confirms the episode's ending from another user: The four were indeed executed on the beach, and their souls left to realise their past mistakes. The Baxter behind the Blair mask represents the four as their worst enemies, and the four drive off the bridge to Hell.[
This is what Max Beesley (Woody) said about the ending:
All 4 were shot and killed at the beach.
The last scene is their philosophical drive into hell. Bax seing himself as one of the killers means that they were all responsible for the events that happened including their deaths. Remember the conversation they had about originally going to see Alvo and how nobody was going to go and how there individual choices got them there. It was one bad choice after another and each time they were given an escape, they screwed it up culminating in them returning to Quinn's wife in S.A. where everybody dies.
Other bad choices where they had an exit: Quinn keeping Alvo's villa, Running over but not killing Dominic, Bax taking the money, Woody getting on the wrong boat, Quinn walking over the voodoo lady's protection line.....on and on
I loved it. When they woke up on the empty beach with no signs of anybody or graves I was hoping they were going to be dead. Then I knew it when Bax sees himself as one of the Tiny Blairs. Going over the end of the road (into hell), for me, was absolutely perfect. I even clapped.
Always thought it was male version of Thelma & Louise, but with more goats. They end up running away from their husbands, and get forced into a crime spree. The ending is ending is quite similar ;-)
Baxter wasn't killed. He directed Mason to them and shot his girlfriend and remove all links. He was the weak member and turned to Mason's side as his only option. Seeing him in the other car was him alive whilst the others died.
No answer, just a load of bllx finale after a great series
Can someone please tell me what happenned i cant sleep. Was it all in their head?! Did they go mad hence 'mad dogs'? Help please
Complete waste of two hours of my life when i had enjoyed the previous episodes i found it probably one of the worst finales ever weak & pointless, shame considering the cast.
One theory is that their souls were buried on the beach and their bodies had now plummeted to hell ( road to hell etc ) and the face of Baxter in the other car showed they had sold their souls for money!!! Thats what I read as did not get it either annoying x
Any ending that needs this much justification and explanation surely must be classed as a **** ending to an otherwise brilliant series......
The hobbit like creature is a Tokoloshe.
I'm getting sick to death of these SKY series that end so ridiculously, won't watch any more!
EFFIE
SPOT ON.........same as i thought
