The End of the F***ing World season 2 review: A survivor’s story

The End of the F***ing World season 2 premiered on Netflix on Tuesday, November 5 and brought everything full circle, showing us that this really isn’t a love story after all.

Major spoilers for The End of the F***ing World to follow! Don’t continue unless you’ve finished the new season!

I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t too sure how to feel about a second season for The End of the F***ing World, especially after that cliffhanger ending. Everything was left up for interpretation and left us alone to fill in the gaps and form our own ideas about what happened… Until we met Bonnie.

The introduction of Bonnie to the series threw a huge wrench in what fans were probably expecting right from the first episode. We learned through a tweet about the season announcement that a new character named Bonnie would be introduced to the series who was “an outsider with a troubled past and a mysterious connection to Alyssa”. What we didn’t know was how deep that “connection” would truly be.

We learn that Bonnie ended up feeling a connection with Professor Clive Koch, the man who James killed when he was caught attempting to sexually assault Alyssa. Bonnie believed they were truly in love and longed to be with him, not knowing what his true intentions were.

When the episode began telling Bonnie’s back story, I was afraid this would be a simple “exposition” story and an “easy way out” so to speak. However, I found myself dropping my jaw multiple times as more and more connections were made.

Suddenly, we all really learned about the weight Bonnie was carrying and the gravity of the impact it would have on Alyssa. Somehow, this opening episode of The End of the F***ing World was still The End of the F***ing World without Alyssa or James on-screen.

This second season is quite different from the first. It’s no longer about Alyssa and James’ crimes; it’s about Bonnie’s. In fact, this season probably has one of my most favorite scenes or moments from the series. Bonnie has Alyssa alone at the cafe she works at, and we’re expecting this to be the end for Alyssa. The two sort of “dance” around each other silently and the tension is built up even more as a police officer enters and is cautious, yet unaware of how truly dangerous the situation is.

The whole scene at the cafe is one of the most intense “action” sequences in the whole series and there’s not even one bullet fired (well there is, but in Bonnie’s imagination). I think that’s what makes it so gruesome. Bonnie was going to pull the trigger.

After Alyssa and James talked to Bonnie about what really happened with Clive, she was understandably in denial. She didn’t want to believe that he would do something like that and denied his intentions. When she went and held the gun to herself, Alyssa and James pushed her to the ground and saved her. They saved someone who wanted to kill them, and somehow undid every crime they had done before.

We were all shocked by that haunting promo of Alyssa at a diner with an urn, thinking that it was James inside. As it turns out, it was his dad’s ashes (because neither of these kids can catch a break). But this season isn’t about James. It’s about Alyssa. It’s about her having to relive that day at Clive’s house every day. It’s about her having to live with herself after that day. The end of The End of the F***ing World is the only kind of ending that would work for a pair like Alyssa and James. They do love each other, but Alyssa needs some time, and that’s okay.

What did you think of season 2 of The End of the F***ing World? Let us know in the comments and keep an eye out for any more TEOTFW news!