Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom brings the Cody family's story to an emotional conclusion as the boys embark on their largest, and final heist.

[Animal Kingdom doesn't provide an update on Deran](https://gamerant.com/animal-kingdom-deran-pope-best-development/) and where he ends up, though he does mutter a final promise to Craig: to take care of Nick and Renn. It's up for debate on whether this last Cody heist can be considered a success, but "Fubar" is [the finale Animal Kingdom needed to have](https://gamerant.com/animal-kingdom-season-6-episode-12-review/). [J's journey also takes a heartbreaking twist](https://gamerant.com/finn-cole-animal-kingdom-peaky-blinders-characters-comparison/) in the Animal Kingdom finale. It's a gut-wrenching exchange between the three men and the audience, as everyone's aware of what's to come, though no one wants to say it. The suffocating atmosphere that Animal Kingdom has created in so many of the Cody family's previous heists has led up to this one. One of the Animal Kingdom finale's most striking moments is Pope's final act. [Animal Kingdom's colorful cast](https://gamerant.com/animal-kingdom-season-6-episode-9-review/), Pope has undoubtedly had the most treacherous journey. Pope's guilt has played a fundamental role in his journey [throughout Animal Kingdom's final season](https://gamerant.com/animal-kingdom-season-6-premiere-review/). After establishing these characters for six seasons, it's impossible for there to be an ending for each of them that feels adequate, but Animal Kingdom challenges that notion to its absolute limit. Despite weeks of buildup that aimed to get the four Cody men on the same page, "Fubar" couldn't pull them further apart. This review contains spoilers for the series finale of Animal Kingdom. The past is heartbreakingly relevant in Animal Kingdom's series finale.

On Animal Kingdom Season 6 Episode 13, The Cody boys embark on their most dangerous job; Andrew commits a sin that destroyed the family....

Catch up on all your favorite shows and reviews and join in the conversations with other fanatics who love TV as much as you. With everything on the table, it was time to find out whether there was a way to keep everyone alive. As their lives were on the line, it was down to make a big decision about the future.

"Fubar" concluded with J's big betrayal. Not only did the plan make little sense, but it also turned him into Animal Kingdom's biggest hypocrite.

J's quest for vengeance became misdirected, and using his uncles as he did made him no better than Smurf -- the person he hated most. One can debate whether the Codys boys had it coming or if J's revenge would have been sweeter if Smurf were around to see it, but the fact remains that Julia wouldn't have wanted J to seek vengeance the way he did. He hated what Smurf did to his mother, yet he didn't afford his uncles the same sympathy. Her negligence and disregard for Julia sent her daughter on a deadly path of drug use, and, as a result, J became another one of Smurf's victims. Perhaps the worst part of J's revenge plot was that Deran, Craig and Pope didn't really deserve it. J's thirst for revenge had been hinted at throughout Animal Kingdom's earlier seasons, with him even promising to destroy everything Smurf (Ellen Barkin) ever loved and cared about back in Season 3.

The Animal Kingdom season 6 finale marked the end of the road for the Cody clan as the fate of brothers Pope (Shawn Hatosy), Craig (Ben Robson) and Deran (Jake ...

Craig had just proposed to the mother of his son and promised to meet them overseas where he’d set them up for when he fled the country. Whenever the Cody boys finished a job they offered up a toast: "may we get what we want, but not what we deserve." He managed to avenge his mother’s death, but it came at the cost of betraying the only living relatives he had. Craig and Deran managed to escape, but when they tried to steal a car from a liquor store clerk, the clerk’s son shot Craig at close range. They were damaged and often unable to make decisions for themselves. Smurf kicked Julia out toward the end of the season because she’d been skimming money from their jobs, but when Julia turns up pregnant with Baz’s child it becomes clear how evil Smurf really was. Pope told Deran and Craig to run and save themselves; Pope ended up drawing their fire so his siblings could escape, getting wounded in the process. He barely knew his uncles Pope, Craig and Deran, and adopted uncle Baz (Scott Speedman), who turned out to be J’s father. The Codys were putting the final touches on their plan to break Pope out of jail and flee the country, leaving their lives in Oceanside behind. Amid flashbacks to his tumultuous past with his twin and J’s mom, Julia, Pope sets fire to the Cody house, leaving everything to go up in flames. What the brothers didn’t know, however, is that J used girlfriend Penny’s (Stevie Lynn Jones) help to transfer all of their money into his account. It didn’t take long for the truth to be revealed.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Sunday's series finale of Animal Kingdom. If you've yet to watch, you may want to put off weighing in on this ...

6, we knew all too well that J had it in him to poison his significant other in the series finale. If these deaths were ranked on the basis of how heartbreaking they were, Andrew’s would be No. Threatening to put Adrian on Pope’s hit list as a stool pigeon in Season 4, Episode 6, got the lowlife fatally shot by the surfer’s boyfriend, Deran. 2 on this list offed, it was a much smaller surprise when she hired the Trujillos to blow away his cunning lover in Season 3’s finale. Now that the series has aired its finale — and added three more major casualties to the list — TVLine is counting down the 11 most shocking murders in the show’s entire history. But of course, not all of the TNT drama’s deaths were truly, ahem, killer.

Animal Kingdom season 6 episode 13, 'Fubar', brought the long-running series to a close. Also, not delivering for Adrian and Deran fans was disappointing.

‘Fubar’ even had a scene where a young Craig was mean to Julia while a younger Deran played in the pool. She was over Julia and the power she had over Andrew. From a narrative standpoint, I think the reason Deran survived Joshua’s betrayal was that he was too young to understand what was happening when Janine kicked Julia out of the family. And now, even while running away from the US, he was going to find a way to care for Nick and Renn. In a sense, Deran and Adrian shippers stuck with the series, hoping to see the two characters finding their way to each other somehow. And while I was okay with Penny being part of the final season, I just couldn’t believe the love story the writers tried to tell between her and Joshua. I could have never expected Craig to get shot by a random kid at a local store he and Deran tried to rob while being on the run from the police. He was trying to get rid of the Cody family’s dark past and, I guess, trying to seek forgiveness by taking his final breath near the pool. Andrew trying to rid himself of a lot of guilt had been the main part of his character arc. I don’t know about you, but I really thought Andrew was going to die while making his last stand against the cops as he bought time for his brothers to escape. He allowed Deran and Craig to rescue Andrew and then proceeded to call the cops on them as the runaway Codys made their way to the safe house. Deran was on the verge of breaking down because he trusted Joshua the most.

While Animal Kingdom took an unflinching look at characters who lived their lives defined by crime, fans are still processing that gut punch of a final ...

[u/ladfrombrad](https://www.reddit.com/r/animalkingdom/comments/x0b9g6/s06e13_discussion_fubar/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) kicked off the series finale discussion thread. Redditor [u/ronindog](https://www.reddit.com/r/animalkingdom/comments/x0b9g6/comment/im7i6rc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) commented, "J gets his revenge, but as others say, ultimately he is now alone, having betrayed his brothers and murdered Penny." [Yahoo News](https://www.yahoo.com/news/animal-kingdom-boss-reveals-why-021521452.html), showrunner Daniele Nathanson revealed, "You don't get away with it [Pope's crimes]. As in all the [best TV crime dramas](https://www.looper.com/824650/50-best-crime-shows-of-all-time-ranked/), the Cody family's misdeeds as they struggled to hold onto their illegal enterprise against both law enforcement and rivals unfolded with plotlines from earlier seasons coming back to haunt the criminals. "Animal Kingdom" was a show that took an unflinching look at characters who chose to live their lives defined by crime. [Season 6](https://www.looper.com/645775/animal-kingdom-season-6-release-date-cast-plot/) was expected to bring the drama and certainly delivered on that, as the main characters' fates reached some unexpected conclusions.

Following the events of the Animal Kingdom series finale, it does feel 100% clear that this is it. We're at the end of the road.

There is a world where Deran does get arrested almost immediately and spends the rest of his life in prison. We are left with a ton of questions and really, not all that much in the way of answers. We’re at the end of the road, and there’s not going to be much else out there.