In Season 2 of Running Point, LA Waves president Isla Gordon (Kate Hudson) is out to win it all. Of course, because this is the hilarious series about a fictional California basketball team written by Mindy Kaling, David Stassen, and Ike Barinholtz, Isla’s quest for the W is a little choppier (and funnier) than she might have planned.
The second season opens with her brother, ex-LA Waves president Cam Gordon (Justin Theroux), making a shocking early return from rehab — a stint that originally led Isla to take his place at the helm of the team in Season 1. He insists he doesn’t want his old job back, and signs on as a humble consultant. But as Isla, Cam, their brothers Sandy (Drew Tarver), Ness (Scott MacArthur), and Jackie (Fabrizio Guido), and chief of staff Ali Lee (Brenda Song) navigate the ups and downs of the LA Waves’ season, it becomes clear that Cam’s history of chaos might not be that far behind him.
And Cam is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems the characters face in Season 2: various money troubles, the LA Waves City Dancers’ strike, a coaching void left by Jay Brown (Jay Ellis), locker room beef between Travis Bugg (Chet Hanks) and Dyson Gibbs (Uche Agada), and star player Marcus Winfield’s (Toby Sandeman) resistance to new coach Norm (Ray Romano). Then there’s Ali, who finally stands up for herself amidst the Gordon–sibling drama and demands a raise, only to get offered a choice opportunity in Canada.
Of course, it’s always been the sibling scheming (and basketballs to the head) that makes Running Point so compulsively watchable and lovable. “I’ve been wanting to do a series,” says Hudson on Skip Intro with Krista Smith. “If I’m gonna spend my time doing something, it’s going to be Running Point.”
With all this action, there are some big questions hanging over the season: Does Cam successfully overthrow Isla? Does Ali return to the LA Waves? What is Cam’s new rival team, the LA Industry? Can you spot all the cameos from the real-life LA legends who pop up throughout the season? And what does the toilet king of Orange County — Al “The Flush Man” Fleischman (Ken Marino) — have to do with it all? Keep reading to break down the end of Running Point Season 2 — with some help from none other than the woman behind the LA Waves president, Hudson herself.
After Cam steals her office, displacing her to a conference room, Ali gets fed up with being taken for granted and asks Isla for a raise (with a self-esteem boost from Miley Cyrus’s empowerment anthem “Flowers”). But with everything going on in the search for a new coach, Cam’s dramatic return, and player drama, Ali’s ask gets denied and forgotten.
The Gordons’ suspect that the Toronto Raptors are trying to sign Dyson when “The Poacher,” general manager Magnus (Tommy Dewey), arrives to town. But over maple syrup-flavored coffee, we learn that Magnus is actually intent on offering the underappreciated Ali an opportunity to maximize her gifts with a promotion and more money. Isla takes Ali’s departure as a collosal betrayal, and the two get into a blow-out fight. An episode later, draped in a dramatic white scarf and coat combo, Isla makes the trek to Toronto to successfully win back her friend.
In real life, Hudson and Song share a similarly close bond. “On a day-to-day basis, it’s me, Brenda, and a bunch of boys. Thank God it’s Brenda because she is just the greatest, funniest, most down, talented woman, and she’s become a really good friend,” says Hudson.
Just for one night! When the dance troupe gets fed up with the team’s mistreatment — the janky locker room, low pay, and remote parking lot are just some of their complaints — Sofia (Marissa Reyes) leads her team on strike, which they announce via TikTok. Their post goes viral and attracts some high-profile attention — including from lawyer Diane Robichaux (Octavia Spencer), who helps Isla and the dancers come to an agreement.
As the cherry on top of their deal, the dancers ask their president to join them for one dance. Isla dons some orange sequins and blue sneakers and busts a move to Ciara’s “Get Up” alongside Sofia and the other dancers. “Isla’s an LA girl. She was probably in dance class growing up,” says Hudson. “They showed me the routine and I looked at Chloe, our choreographer, and was like, ‘When am I supposed to do this?’ I hadn’t danced in like five years. But it was fun and easy and the girls were great. I’m so happy I did it. It got me back into dance!”
This isn’t the first epic musical performance Hudson has taken on as part of a role: She brought Ben Barry (Matthew McConaughey) down a few pegs with Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. In Something Borrowed, she and her onscreen best friend, Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin), recreated their sixth-grade dance to Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It.” She belted and shimmied along to “Cinema Italiano” in the 2009 musical Nine. And most recently, Hudson earned a 2026 Oscar nomination for her turn as a cover band leader in Song Sung Blue. Hudson also released an album in 2024 called Glorious.
As Cam tells it, he procures a loan from the team in order to expedite his release from rehab. Despite what Sandy’s signature on the check would imply, the team’s chief financial officer has no idea about the hefty — and fraudulent — payment to Malibu Nights Treatment Center LLC until the team’s accountant, Aruna (Richa Moorjani), brings it to his attention. Sandy confronts Cam about the “taxable donation to a for-profit company,” and somehow Cam talks his way into Sandy’s sympathy.
Throughout Season 2, plumbing mogul Al badgers the Gordon siblings for better seats at the LA Waves games. Isla has always been hesitant to take the toilet king of Orange County’s money, but when Al brags about his deep pockets, Cam senses an opportunity. With the money from “The Flush Man,” Cam reimburses the LA Waves for the funds he stole and gives Al the coveted seats. And after Sandy barrages Aruna with terms like “diva,” “queen,” and “mama,” she agrees to stay silent about the money — unless, she says, someone specifically asks her.
No. Almost immediately after Cam leaves rehab, he turns to some “friendly, natural, cocoa-based narcotics” to help him get through the pressure of the basketball season. Cam’s issues with sobriety aren’t helped by his sponsor, Leroy (Blake Anderson), who also partakes in the activity. When Isla calls him out, he says he’ll do anything to get sober and stay a part of the team — even go hiking with Rob Lowe.
When Cam returns from rehab at the beginning of Season 2, he insists that Isla is a better fit for the job.
After Isla hires Norm instead of hot-shot Danny Pierce (Adam DiMarco) to fill their empty coaching spot, Cam reveals to Leroy that his bid to hire Danny was all part of his plan to sabotage Isla and show the powers that be that he should be the president. As Cam starts doing drugs again, his schemes to take down his sister become more and more diabolical.
In Episode 8, Al buys the shares of head of the board Stephen Ramirez (Roberto Sanchez) and two other members, earning him 40% of the team. And with Cam’s 12%, the two can control the board, allowing Cam to reclaim his spot as president of the LA Waves.
After coming up short with a few financial solutions, Isla is about ready to admit defeat. She approaches Stephen at a meeting for the committee for the Olympics — a callback to Hudson’s personal promotion for the 2028 LA Summer Olympics — to convince him to sell to her instead. She even stoops to going behind her brother’s back to make a deal with Al.
Concerned about Cam’s relapse, Jackie presents a different solution: He finds a way to record Cam admitting that he’s using Jackie’s pee to pass his drug tests because he’s relapsed. When Sandy alerts Stephen and the rest of the board to Cam’s behavior, the deal with Al is off, Cam’s shares of the LA Waves get redistributed to his siblings, and he’s no longer a part of the franchise.
At the beginning of Season 2, Lev (Max Greenfield) takes Isla back after the ups and downs the engaged couple faced in Season 1. They make it all the way to the night of their rehearsal dinner, when Isla realizes that her loyalty to her team trumps her desire to take her relationship to the next step. The two part ways — for good this time.
Back on the market, Isla enjoys some casual flirtation — including with her arena tenant Luke McShay (Scott Speedman) — only to keep coming back to her Season 1 finale kiss with ex-LA Waves coach Jay. Jay left LA for Boston to be closer to family. When he and Isla run into each other at a Starbucks when he’s back on the West Coast, the two soon start spending a lot of time together. Their relationship is made complicated by the fact that he coaches her biggest rival in the league.
The LA Waves make it all the way through the playoffs to the finals, where they face off against long-time rival Boston. As talk show host Sean Murphy (Jon Glaser) puts it, it’s “the greatest rivalry in all of basketball.” There’s also the not-insignificant factor of the secret romance between Boston and LA’s head coaches that makes this matchup even more complicated.
LA Waves’ star player Marcus hurts his knee, and LA racks up a few losses in the championship round. Isla and Ali change up their approach, taking inspiration from Chicago, the only team that gave Boston a run for its money during the playoffs. Just as the LA Waves have turned things around, catching up to Boston, Marcus returns to the court, healed enough to play after having undergone experimental therapy in China. In the final moments of the game, Marcus hits a momentous three and the LA Waves clinch the championship.
Hungover the morning after they win the championship, Isla, Ness, Sandy, Jackie, and Ali wake up amid a forest of empty bottles. When they flick on their TV, they are immediately faced with a post-win jump scare: Cam, in a partnership with Al, announces that he’s resuscitating the city’s previous team, the LA Industry. “The LA Industry basketball franchise was an integral part of this city, until it moved,” says Al. “But today, the Industry has returned and we’re gonna be the best basketball team in Los Angeles.”
If Cam and Al’s announcement wasn’t jarring enough, the final moments of Season 2 introduce Jay as the head coach of Cam’s Judus-like team. What will this mean for the LA Waves? What will this mean for Isla and Jay’s relationship? Stay tuned to Tudum to find out.
