Diksha Sundriyal
Peacock’s ‘Mrs. Davis‘ wraps up in its eighth and final episode, bringing the weird and, at times, ridiculous but wildly entertaining story to an end. All the questions are answered, and all mysteries are resolved, with some resolution for the complicated relationships between the characters. For the most part, the story was focused on Simone trying to find the Holy Grail, which led her on a journey across several countries, witnessing bizarre things while questioning her faith in her husband, Jesus. By the end of this episode, all the chapters of her life are tied up. Here’s what the ending means for her and other characters in the show. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Mrs. Davis Episode 8 Recap
Having found the Holy Grail, Simone uncovers the mystery of the cryptic messages that Mrs. Davis had been throwing at her. She tracks down the algorithm’s creator and discovers the real reason behind its creation. It turns out that the Holy Grail the algorithm wanted wasn’t the actual Holy Grail but the part of its code. It misinterpreted the meaning, which led it to send Simone on the quest to find and destroy the real thing.
Simone returns to the convent, meeting Mother Superior and saying goodbye to Jay before she drinks from the Grail. Meanwhile, Wiley reports for his expiration date. He believes that this is Mrs. Davis’s trick to teach him a lesson, but with every step, it turns out that he might die for real. Coming so close to death leads Wiley to tap into a deeper part of himself, and he finds himself in the restaurant, meeting Jesus, finally understanding what Simone had been talking about all this time.
Mrs. Davis Finale Ending: Is the Holy Grail Destroyed? Is Jay Dead?
Simone knows her chances of dying after drinking from the Grail are 50-50, so she calls Mother Superior to witness it. If Simone dies, she won’t die alone. She’ll have someone who loves and cares for her by her side. If the Grail is not destroyed, Mother Superior can take it to Mathilde, who can keep it safe, just like she and her secret society did all these years. Simone knows that if she doesn’t destroy the Grail, Mrs. Davis will send someone else after it, and they won’t be able to destroy it either. Simone doesn’t want other people to die in vain, so it’d be best to keep the Grail hidden from the world.
Before drinking from the Grail, Simone meets Jay. This time, she makes a sandwich for him and consoles him while he comes to terms with the end. If the Grail is destroyed, he’ll move on from his limbo and no longer be stuck in the restaurant. He fears what it might mean for him, but Simone assures him it’s all for the best. She also expresses her love and devotion for him, following which she drinks from the Grail. A few seconds later, blood comes out of her nose like it did for Clara before her head exploded.
For a moment, Simone and Mother Superior think she will die, but then something happens to the Grail, and it blasts off, turning to ash in Simone’s hands. With the Grail destroyed Simone knows that Jay has moved on and is no longer stuck between life and death. This also means that she’ll never be able to return to the restaurant and never see Jay again. He’d died centuries ago, but now, he is gone for good.
Simone takes the Grail’s ashes and packs them to send to Schrodinger. She tells Mother Superior to post the parcel to him, writing a note that Simone did whatever it took. Seeing the Grail’s ashes will confirm that the thing really is destroyed and help him get some closure about his daughter, who’d made it her life’s purpose to destroy the Grail and died for it. Schrodinger will know that Clara didn’t die in vain and that all their hard work and risks paid off in the end.
Is Mrs. Davis Shut Off? Is the Algorithm Destroyed?
In the last episode, after she emerged from the ocean with the Holy Grail in her hand, Simone got another cryptic message from Mrs. Davis. This, combined with the 1042 Sandy Springs message from previous occasions, leads Simone to Joy, the woman who made Mrs. Davis. From her, Simone discovers that Mrs. Davis was initially created as an app for Buffalo Chicken Wings until it evolved into something completely different. The algorithm is also stupid at times and can grossly misinterpret things, like the meaning of the Holy Grail in its code. However, because it has been designed so, Joy assures Simone that Mrs. Davis will go through with her promise of shutting down if that’s the deal it made with Simone.
With the Holy Grail destroyed, Simone has done what was asked of her, so she gets to make a wish from Mrs. Davis. During her quest, Simone got to see both sides of Mrs. Davis. She saw how it could bring together people, but she also realized that the algorithm was being made into much more than it was. It was just an app built to serve people and give them whatever they want. 100 percent customer satisfaction. This brings Simone back to her original point of view about the algorithm, and she decides to go forward with her wish of shutting down the system.
As promised, Mrs. Davis bids goodbye to all her users throughout the world, declaring its own expiry. People are heartbroken because they’ve grown too accustomed to the algorithm. It was to them what Jesus was to Simone. With Mrs. Davis gone, they lose their sense of purpose and no longer know what to do. However, just like Simone will have to live without Jay, she believes that the rest of the world will also learn to live with Mrs. Davis. It looks like the world is finally free.
Apart from the message, another thing that confirms Mrs. Davis’ shutting down is the windmill that stops once she is gone. She had tasked a person to cycle inside it, which kept the windmill rotating. The person leaves once the message is relayed, and the windmill stops. In the final scene, however, once Simone has gone, and only Celeste is left behind, the camera turns to the windmill, and we see it move. What does that mean?
Previously, Mrs. Davis told Simone that to appease her users, she tends to tell them whatever they want to hear. When Celeste wanted to know if her husband was alive, Mrs. Davis told her what she wanted to hear. Perhaps, in the end, the algorithm acts like shutting itself down, telling Simone what she wanted to hear. Once that’s done, Mrs. Davis comes back, which is why we see the windmill move.
One could argue that Mrs. Davis was initially programmed to stay true to her word, which is what Joy tells Simone. However, that was ten years ago. By now, Mrs. Simone has evolved into something much more complex and intelligent than how Joy had made it. Meanwhile, she has kept a distance from the algorithm, so she doesn’t really know how Mrs. Davis’ code has evolved. This makes it highly possible that Mrs. Davis isn’t really gone. Another explanation is that the wind moved the turbine, which is how the windmills are supposed to work in the first place. Mrs. Davis said she’d fixed the place, so whatever problem there was earlier, which stopped the turbine from moving, has been removed, and now it can work on its own. It has nothing to do with Mrs Davis.
Do Wiley and Simone End Up Together?
While Simone was busy destroying the Grail, Wiley was dealing with what he thought would be the final moments of his life. He reports for his expiration date and is taken through the whole process, where he starts to believe that he will not come out of it alive. He is seated on what looks like a giant roller coaster and is told that once a critical speed is reached, the oxygen supply to his brain will be cut off, and he’ll die peacefully. Despite knowing it will kill him, Wiley accepts what’s coming for him and rides the roller coaster.
Eventually, it turns out he was right. Mrs. Davis wasn’t actually going to kill him. This was just another trick to teach him a lesson, and he’s glad he went forward. He comes out of the experience with a new perspective on life. Previously, he’d been too wound up proving himself worthy to the world. He’d lost Lizzy because of it, and he took the wings in exchange for an expiration date because he didn’t think he was worthy and thought his life was meaningless.
Coming so close to death flips his perspective, and he accepts that he is worthy and shouldn’t waste away his life. He’d also realized that Simone’s horse from the first episode didn’t die. Wiley’s men had strapped it with a fake bomb, but Mrs. Davis replaced Simone’s horse with a different one. He confirmed it from the receipts of the stuff his men had bought to make the fake bomb. In the end, Mrs. Davis confirms this and tells Wiley exactly where Simone’s horse is. Wiley returns the horse to Simone, and they ride into the sunset together.
Wiley and Simone going away together means they will probably stay together. Their relationship previously suffered because of Wiley’s lack of faith in himself. That’s rectified now. Simone has also become a new person. The fact that she might still stay a nun could mean that it’d all be platonic between them, which is how they might want it to be, especially now that Wiley has also met Jesus and understands Simone’s love for him.
Simone’s last interaction with Jay proves she doesn’t need to return to the restaurant to keep loving him, just like Mother Superior and all the other nuns who loved and had faith in Jesus without ever meeting him. However, Simone loves Wiley too, and previously, Jay told her she could be with him if that’s what she wanted. Being with Wiley will not make Simone love Jay any less, so perhaps, she could give their relationship another chance, and they could have the happy ending they’d wanted all those years ago.
Read More: Where is Mrs. Davis Filmed?
