Warning: Spoilers for Season 2, Episode 8 of Avenue 5 ahead.
Avenue 5, Armando Iannucci’s out of this world HBO comedy, wrapped its second season on November 28. And though the passengers and crew of Avenue 5’s now two ships narrowly escaped death yet again, they’re ending another season in quite the pickle.
Season 2, Episode 8, “That’s Why They Call It a Missile,” picks up on the heels of utter chaos. The season’s penultimate episode saw passengers divide themselves and split the ship in half to avoid being obliterated by a TOTOPOTUS (The Office of The Other President of the United States) missile. So the Season 2 finale shows both halves of the ship fighting to survive, one brave soul risking it all for the greater good, and as always, a delightfully unpredictable outcome.
In true Avenue 5 fashion, the Season 2 finale is 28 minutes of nonstop laughs, sharp one-liners, and quirky characters. A lot goes down in this episode, so we thought you might be in need of a detailed recap. Read on for Decider’s breakdown of Avenue 5‘s Season 2 ending.
Avenue 5 Season 2 Ending Explained: “That’s Why They Call It a Missile” Recap
“That’s Why They Call It a Missile” opens with Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie) and Charles (Jonathan Aris) screaming “Elena!” through the window of the freshly severed Avenue 5 space finger. Ryan made a last-minute decision that he thought saved Elena’s (Leila Farzad) life, but it seems he sent her and the kids to the doomed half of the ship instead. Now, in his own words, all Ryan has is, “Eight years of pure Charles.”
Doug (Kyle Bornheimer), still holding his newborn baby, is screaming for Mia (Jessica St. Clair), who’s also floating away on the other half of the ship. As he’s freaking out over the thought of being a single dad, Mia calls him to share some motherly advice: “Support her head, raise her bilingual, and never let her date a drummer.”
Passengers on both halves of the ship start spiraling as they gradually realize they’re separated from their medications, children, and — in Doug’s case — Mia’s breasts. With help from Iris (Suzy Nakamura), Judd (Josh Gad) attempts to assert a leadership role on his half of the ship, which is officially considered “the dead zone” and will be struck by a missile in under around an hour.
Amidst the panic, each side of the ship takes inventory of their goods. The back half — led by Ryan and Billie (Lenora Crichlow) — has the engines, the thrusters, the ice rink, the bingo machine, some computers, six go karts, all the basketballs, the cannibal, and also Frank (Andy Buckley). But the front half — led by Judd, Iris, and Rav (Nikki Amuka-Bird) — has 90 percent of the cabins, the gym, the bridge, light controls, the basketball court (with no basketballs), the spa, and crucially THE EELS (aka the food). Which side would you choose?
With 55 minutes left until the missile hits, Spike (Ethan Phillips) says he thinks he can help. “I’m dying. I can sacrifice myself to save the ship,” he tells Ryan, explaining that he got a medical machine scan after experiencing some chest pain and learned he has an inoperable prolapsed mitral valve. Since Spike only has about three weeks left to live, he offers to fly the one-man escape pod straight into the missile and save everyone. “This is joyous news!” Ryan says. “Not for you obviously. But joyous! And unbelievably sad…” Bye, Spike! You’ll be missed.
Since Judd and the other half of the ship are unaware of Spike’s forthcoming sacrifice, they brace for death while a desperate Judd reaches out to “Earth assholes” to beg for assistance. A woman’s voice answers his pleas for help and says, “People of Avenue 5, you’re being sent this message to save you.” But before the ship has too much time to celebrate, the message stops skipping and plays in its entirety: “People of Avenue 5, you’re being sent this message to save you…any doubt that this missile will eradicate you in 27 minutes.” Merciless!
With less than a half hour before the missile strikes, Doug helps Mia escape her bathroom prison using an electric toothbrush, and she starts advising him on how to raise their child. Mads (Adam Pålsson) offers to coparent with Doug in her absence, but Mia says no way. Why? He’s too handsome!
The clock ticks down to Spike’s final moments in space, so Ryan calls Judd to “make nice” and says they need to work together to beat the missile. It doesn’t take long for the two to get into an argument about toilet paper and eels, or for Judd to start messing with the lights on Ryan’s half of the ship. (Yes, he’s an idiot. But this particular act of idiocy comes in handy for him later on.) On Judd’s segment of the ship, Elena has an epiphany. She wants to make her “big weird family” official by marrying both Charles (“daddy”) and Ryan (“Captain Daddy”). Before the ceremony, Ryan’s half of the ship bids a poorly organized farewell to their hero, Spike. They send him off in his escape pod of doom and watch him flash a thumbs up while smoking a cigar. Then everyone heads to the chapel to watch Avenue 5’s throuple of the moment get hitched. You know, just normal space things!
Charles and Ryan video chat with Elena and the kids on the other half of the ship, and Matt (Zach Woods) takes a break from fearing his own death to officiate the “joyous/heartbreaking union.” The guys take each other as spouses, but before Elena can say “I do,” the power on her ship goes out and the live feed disconnects. Since she never technically delivered her vows, only Charles, Ryan, and Karen (Rebecca Front) — who sneakily said “I do” in Elena’s absence — are hitched. “If we survive this, I’ll annul you,” a fuming Ryan promises.
So why did Elena’s feed cut? Rav decided to go completely dark so the missile would pass them and latch onto the other half of the ship instead. TWIST! While Judd flickers the lights on Ryan’s ship and asks for the precious resources, Ryan tries to make a deal with Lucas (Arsher Ali) on Earth. Ryan tells him the missile isn’t going to hit them and they’re going to harvest a large amount of lithium from a nearby asteroid, which he wants to trade for a rescue. Before Lucas answers, Ryan puts him on hold to call Spike and read him his eulogy. “Godspeed, old friend. We will honor your brave sacrifice all of our lives,” Ryan says. Wanting to enjoy his last few minutes in comfort, Spike turns on what he believes to be his seat warmer but is really the escape pod’s medical scanner. Within seconds, a voice tells him his cardiac health is “excellent” and he has minor inflammation in the left ventricle that “may flag as mitral valve prolapse if incorrectly scanned.” His suggested treatment? Aspirin. YIKES!
“I’m not doing it! I’m gonna live!” Spike tells Ryan. “So I’m turning the escape pod around.” Ryan and Billie try to change Spike’s mind, but he absolutely does not want to fly directly into a missile with a clean bill of health. And honestly, who could blame him? “Fuck this! I’m not doing it!” he says. “I’m a massive chickenshit, but with the ventricles of a 20 year old.” After some hyping up (hardcore begging) Spike heads for the missile after all. He braces for impact, but swerves at the last minute, causing his escape pod to clip the missile. The aggressive missile tap reroutes the threat and accidentally saves both halves of the ship. Not only that, but it inspires the great titular episode quote, “That’s why they call it a missile! Because it misses!”
With Spike and the ships safe, Ryan hops back on the phone with Lucas and says, “I’m over several moons to inform you that the lithium is on its way. We’ve saved planet Earth!” Turns out he spoke too soon, because although Spike rerouted the missile to avoid killing Avenue 5’s passengers, he sent it straight into the lithium-rich asteroid, which exploded after the collision.
The passengers, who don’t give a flying missile about the Earth-saving lithium asteroid, are celebrating their survival and deciding whether or not they want to feed Judd to the eels for running away from them in their time of need. But Ryan and Billie have to care about the asteroid, since they promised Lucas enough lithium to save the planet.
In the closing scene of Avenue 5‘s Season 2 finale, things look up — and immediately down — as they so often do on this show. We see Ryan and Billie standing next to a giant hunk of lithium they rescued from the crash and video chatting Lucas, who calls the asteroid chunk “impressive.” After Ryan says, “It’s quite the happy ending isn’t it?” Lucas says he’ll make some calls and try to expedite the ship rescue. After he hangs up, however, the Avenue 5 duo walks towards the camera to reveal the asteroid chunk is actually small enough to fit in Ryan’s hand and can only power an electric scooter for about 20 minutes. They fooled Lucas with some good old fashioned movie magic!
In their final depressing exchange, Ryan reflects: “So in addition to destroying almost all the lithium in the galaxy, there’s a good chance I’m married to Karen Kelly.” He looks at the nugget-sized piece of asteroid and asks Billie if she golfs. In a comically sad response, she reminds him, “The golf course is on the other side of the ship.” We need more Avenue 5 shenanigans ASAP, so can we please get some updates on a potential Season 3?
The first two season of Avenue 5 are now streaming on HBO Max.