FUBAR was one of the biggest surprises of Spring 2023. It landed on Netflix in May and immediately became the most streamed series of the moment. No bad, for a show that bet on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return as a CIA spy with too many years on his shoulders. The ending introduced a big plot twist, and the final scene has a meaning that may need to be explained. Let’s understand what happened together and how Season 2 could evolve from now.
You can watch the official trailer for FUBAR here on Youtube.
FUBAR series explained, the ending meaning: is Season 2 coming?
The plot of FUBAR follows the secret adventures of Luke Brunner, an old CIA spy ready to retire. However, there is one last important mission for him: he needs to extract another young CIA agent from Boro, a dangerous criminal with a special relationship with Luke: Brunner killed his father when he was a little kid and then supported him like a son while growing up. Luke is shocked to discover that Boro became a gangster like his father after everything he has done for him. But once he arrives in Guyana to extract the other spy, he has a far bigger shock: the other CIA agent is her daughter, Emma.
That’s the beginning of a series of last-minute missions Luke and Emma will accomplish to neutralize Boro. Every episode introduces more action; they all risk their lives continuously. While working together, Emma and Luke slowly recover their father-daughter relationship with new insights, and they both learn a lesson from each other. Meanwhile, both their romantic relationships get complicated: Luke wants to win back his ex-wife, Tally, but Emma’s accusations lead him to step back because he doesn’t want to hurt her again, pushing Tally toward his boyfriend, Donnie; Emma is confused and, fueled by Luke’s comments, fears she will repeat with Carter what her dad did with her mom. This way, FUBAR has explained in its plot that all the things that have meaning in Luke and Emma’s lives are related to what they are learning from each other.
From one mission to another, in the ending episode of FUBAR, we see Emma as a single woman after Carter breaks up with her and Aldon refuses her proposal to “give it a shot.” Boro seems dead after Luke and Emma left him in the hole a few seconds before it blew up. It looks like a happy ending, with the bad guy dead and the Brunner family happy at Tally’s wedding with Donnie.
However, many elements are out of place and need to be explained at the ending of FUBAR. Luke is broken seeing the love of his life, Tally, getting married to Donnie. Emma notices it and suddenly realizes that her dad is the only right man for her mom, inviting him to fight for her. The biggest risk, though, comes from outside: there is an explosion out of the church, and many armed men start shooting at them. The reason is explained by Tina at the end of the series: Luke and Emma’s identities were burned, and now all dangerous criminals worldwide know who they really are. Basically, now they have the worst members of international crime looking for them, knowing their true identities.
We discover that Boro didn’t die in that explosion: he’s back, threatening Luke and Emma to kill Tally unless they shoot at each other. But Luke gives a hint to Tally, she reacts, and Emma and Luke catch the opportunity to finally kill Boro. Boro is finally dead at the ending of FUBAR, but that doesn’t make the Brunner family safe: now many other criminals want them dead, so they will have to run away and hide.
The ending of FUBAR is also the moment where the meaning of the word “FUBAR” can be explained. In the show’s closing sentence, Luke Brunner says, “it’s totally F.U.B.A.R.,” referring to a military expression, “F–ed Up Beyond All Recognition.” Now that their family is forced to run and hide, the situation is truly out of control. And there is a significant meaning in Luke using that expression. As we know from the plot of the series, Luke doesn’t like cursing (we all enjoyed all those moments when he used the word “fluffing” to avoid swearing). Therefore, it’s significant that in the ending scene of FUBAR, when their lives are really blown up, he’s still lucid enough to avoid swearing.
The ending of FUBAR is fully open for a possible Season 2: the protagonists are all alive, and even though Boro is dead, many criminals everywhere want them dead. It will be impossible for Luke Brunner to retire. But what happened will probably allow Luke and Tally to come back together, knowing there won’t be lies anymore. Emma will keep working with her dad, and who knows, maybe she will end up dating Aldon (even though now we know that Roo likes him too). Barry and Tina will still be together? That depends on the meaning of Tina’s sentence pronounced in Russian in the last episode of FUBAR: is she actually a double agent?
All this will be eventually explored in FUBAR Season 2, which still needs to be confirmed. Let’s wait some weeks more; then Netflix will tell us if we’ll see Luke, Emma, and the others again soon.
