At the start of FUBAR Season 2, Luke Brunner (Arnold Schwarzenegger), his family, and the spy team are suffering from serious cabin fever while cooped up in the safe house — but by the season finale, they’ve fought the Swedish mafia, maneuvered submersibles, thwarted attacks on a US Space Force base, befriended a pig, danced tangos, and blown a lot of things up. After all that, relationships have been forever altered, and the team is in a completely different place. If you’ve already seen the whole season, keep reading for a rundown of the FUBAR Season 2 finale.
That’s the big question looming over Season 2. This whole time, Dante Cress has been the shadowy villain intent on taking out the US power grid and starting World War III with Russia, creating total global chaos. We know he’s been giving orders to Greta (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Chips (Guy Burnet) all along, but his identity has remained in the dark.
Well, it’s revealed in Episode 8 that Chips is Dante Cress.
Very well played, FUBAR. Chips was a highly suspicious character from the moment he arrived on the scene. We knew from the beginning that he was a former MI6 agent and turned into a mercenary for Greta — clearly, loyalty has never been his strong suit. In fact, he started out on Luke’s team as a captive. However, as the season progressed, he gave a command performance, convincing everyone — including the audience — that he’s changed.
In the finale, that illusion goes up in flames (literally) when he gives Emma (Monica Barbaro) an epic villain monologue in which he explains his motives for destroying humanity. Long story short: It’s daddy issues. He’s so disillusioned by his celebrated father’s willingness to abandon his son for his career (the very opposite of Luke) that he wants to “shake the Etch-a-sketch” and re-populate the world — with Emma, preferably, which she wants no part of, and she traps him in the rocket’s launchpad.
Chips gets his comeuppance when he is incinerated by the blast of a missile that’s meant to start a war with Russia. “Barbecue Chips,” quips Roo (Fortune Feimster).
Because Greta and Luke are the only ones knowledgeable of the missile’s outdated 1980s control system, one of them must enter the rocket in order to neutralize it. Greta refuses to let Luke into the pod, reminding him that he has too much to live for — this is the moment where Greta finally acknowledges that rekindling a romance with Luke is impossible because his heart is with Tally (Fabiana Udenio) and his family.
“It was sad,” creator Nick Santora says of the moment. “We thought the instrumental version of ‘Buffalo Stance’ would be funny, but it was actually kind of emotional.”
Moss tells Tudum, “It makes sense that she’d make that sacrifice actually … She’s so interesting because she’s always turning on a dime — you never know with her.”
As the missile is neutralized, the pod that Greta was occupying comes hurtling back down to Earth. There’s no way a normal human could survive the impact … but Greta is no normal human. When Luke and Emma visit the crash site in Utah, Greta emerges from the pod with only some cracked ribs, having sprayed the inside with “the stuff that clogs up the turbines at the dam,” a very technical term. Having helped save the world one last time, the moment has come for her to retire from the spy game and say goodbye to Luke for good.
Chips isn’t the only one capable of a brilliant double-cross. The problems that Luke and Tally have been having in their marriage throughout the season were actually a clever ruse, devised by Dr. Pfeffer (Scott Thompson), meant to give Greta a sliver of hope that she and Luke could get back together, which made the entire mission possible.
“The writers room worked so hard Season 2 to come up with twists and turns and such,” says Santora. “It was an amazing group effort — our writers are beyond talented and come up with great ideas every day! We just knew that at the end of the day Tally and Luke couldn’t really break up — so we had to give a misdirect. It worked well.”
In the end, Luke proposes to his ex-wife again.
For the most part, we’re all a little less “FUBAR” than at the end of Season 1, but there are notable exceptions. Here’s a status report on our other key players:
Not only did Hamsteak save Aldon’s life, the pig now has a cozy, cuddly home with Luke and Tally’s granddaughter. So yes, the pig is alright.
However, shooting with the pig actor, Dexter, who played Hamsteak, was a pleasure but a challenge for his co-stars. “He was such a stud,” says Van Winkle. “That pig knew when he was on camera. He must’ve been to a lot of acting classes before this job because he was pretty on point. I feel like he added a lot of levity to set, and when he would squeal, he would squeal. A pig squeal is not a soft squeal. It sounds like he’s dying. But he’s not. If you weren’t used to that sound, it could throw you off a little bit … We really had to navigate when Dexter was on set, everyone had to really just focus on giving him the best environment to crush it.”
FUBAR Season 2 is streaming now, only on Netflix.
