Tamal Kundu
Created by Sean Hayes, Michael Schur, and Gabe Liedman, ‘Q-Force’ is an unabashed and wonderful celebration of queer life, neatly packaged as an adult-animated spy series. It revolves around Steve Maryweather or Agent Mary (Hayes) and his elite team of spies who work for the fictional American Intelligence Agency (AIA). Despite graduating from the academy with top scores, Mary has spent a decade on the sidelines because of the agency’s anti-LGBTQ policies. He eventually decides to take the initiative and go after a case to show the agency what he and his team are capable of. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Q-Force.’ SPOILERS AHEAD.
Q-Force Season 1 Recap
In 2011, Steve Maryweather is by far the best student at the AIA academy. As the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been just repelled, he decides to come out to the AIA on the day of his graduation during his valedictorian speech. It doesn’t go well. After his announcement, AIA Director Dirk Chunley (Gary Cole) hastily declares that there has been a mistake. The valedictorian is actually Rick Buck (David Harbour), a straight student from Steve’s class. Buck deprecatingly calls Steve Mary, and that name gets stuck.
After the debacle, Mary’s mentor, V (Laurie Metcalf), consoles him by saying that he will run the agency in the next 10 years. His hope to get a good posting is soon dashed when he discovers that he has been made the divisional chief in West Hollywood. For the next 10 years, one of the most talented spies in the agency wastes away in arguably the safest area in the world. Mary assembles a talented team, even though he is forced to operate out of his own garage.
Deb (Wanda Sykes) is a Navy veteran and brilliant mechanic. She is married to Pam, a child psychologist. Stat (Patti Harrison) is a gothic hacker whom Mary got released so she would work for him. Twink (Matt Rogers) is a drag queen and master of disguises. The team is called Queer Force or “Q-Force” for short as an insult, but Mary and the others come to embrace it.
After learning that his teammates are considering other job offers as they don’t get assignments from the agency (and then spotting the first gray strand in his hair), Mary decides to act. Twink brings information about a Kazakh national, which leads the team to discover a “possible black-market nuclear deal” that has ties to the federal government. V, who is now the Deputy Director, forces Chunley to recognize the Q-Force’s work. They are subsequently given a new office and access to state-of-the-art technology.
However, Chunley puts Buck, who has now become a veteran field officer, in charge of the division, and even V can’t do anything about it as Mary doesn’t have much field experience of his own. Despite this, Mary quickly proves how incredibly competent he is, outshining Buck, and he gets back the command of his team. Q-Force begins to thrive. Their hunt for stolen uranium takes them from WeHo to Wyoming to the fictional European country of Gyenorvya, the princess of which, Mira Popadopolous, turns out to be an AIA asset.
V discovers that the agency wiped out her memory to hide information about her former work partner, Caryn. She goes rogue to find out the truth and asks Mary for help. Initially, Mary is reluctant. Although V is a mother figure to him, Mary has spent his entire career desperately wanting the respect he receives now from older operatives, and he is unwilling to give it up. But he eventually comes to realize what that exclusive group of misogynistic men truly is. The team discovers that Chunley was actively involved in making V forget about her past. In the season finale, after state secrets fall into the wrong hands, the Q-Force must travel back to Gyenorvya to set things right.
Q-Force Season 1 Ending: Who Is Mira Popadopolous? Why Does She Steal State Secrets from the AIA?
Modeled after Mia Thermopolis from ‘The Princess Diaries,’ Mira was brought up by her single mother. One day, she was told that her father, who was a member of the royal family of Gyenorvya and in the line of succession, had died. She had a stunning makeover and then traveled to Gyenorvya. V used to be part of her security detail. Mira is introduced in the show in episode 4, titled ‘EuropeVision.’ After arriving in Reneé, the capital of Gyenorvya, the team discovers that V’s contact is actually the princess of the country. She helps them with their mission of getting Pam back from the abductors. She also seems to develop a passionate relationship with Buck.
In the following episodes, the Q-Force considers her a valued ally. When they have all become fugitives and are looking for information on the whereabouts of other queer agents whose memories have been wiped out with Project Greyscale, they reach out to Mira for help. She gives them her private jet, on which the group travels to an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. However, they upload all the information that the supercomputer Coeur de la Mer contains to the server on Mira’s plane. This includes nuclear codes, information about active operations, and locations of various operatives, not realizing that Mira has an ulterior motive for helping them.
She brings the plane back to her country with Buck on board and intends to use the information stolen from the AIA to establish her country as a global power and wage war. But to do that, she must first marry someone, as according to the misogynistic laws of Gyenorvya, a princess is only a figurehead without any power. After marriage, she becomes a queen with a husband. Only then can she change laws or declare war.
The team discovers that the princess wants to marry Buck to gain complete control over her country. She has no intention to keep being married to Buck. The moment he puts the ring on her finger, she plans to get rid of him. Mary is Perplexed by this sudden development. Since Buck joined the Q-Force, he has spent most of the time undermining Mary’s authority, and now his old rival has committed treason. However, Mary later realizes that Buck’s mind is being controlled with Greyscale technology.
At the World Pride event in Gyenorvya, the team infiltrates the country to stop Mira and save Buck. Twink disguises himself as Mira to create confusion. And it works. Buck chooses Twink over Mira, prompting the infuriated princess to control the minds of all the queer people who have gathered there to attack the Q-Force and their friends. Ultimately, with the help of V, Caryn, and other veteran officers, the Q-Force frees everyone, including Buck, from Greyscale’s influence and foils Mira’s plan. She is subsequently arrested, and the team returns to America with the intel that Mira stole.
What Is Project Greyscale?
Project Greyscale was created by a scientist named Dr. Hammond for the AIA to change its queer operatives fundamentally. It was essentially a high-tech form of conversion therapy. They realized that they couldn’t turn those operatives straight, so they simply wiped their memory. Greyscale was used on several older queer operatives. It was also used on V to make her forget about Caryn.
When she starts to get her memories back, V goes rogue to find the truth about herself. Caryn, who both V and the AIA thought was dead, is revealed to be very much alive. With the help of Q-Force, the two veteran spies unravel the conspiracy within the AIA. However, the team makes a horrible mistake by trusting Mira, and she steals all the information they got from the AIA supercomputer.
Do Mary and Benji End Up Together?
Yes, Mary and Benji (Gabe Liedman) end up together in ‘Q-Force’ season 1. Benji is the owner of the business adjacent to Mary’s office. Not long after they meet, they begin dating. However, as Mary can’t tell him that he works for the AIA, he says he is an interior designer. Their relationship starts to develop over the course of the series. But while visiting Benji’s parents’ home for a funeral, Mary realizes that he has put Benji in harm’s way. Mary then breaks up with him and goes back to West Hollywood.
They meet each other again at the Pride celebration in Gyenorvya. While he is under mind-control, Benji beats up Mary. When he comes to his senses, Benji evidently feels horrible and leaves. In the final scenes of the season, Mary meets Benji outside the latter’s business and reveals who he truly is. It is heavily implied that they start dating again.
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