Abhiroop Das
Created by Shawn Simmons, ‘Wayne’ follows a hot-blooded teen named Wayne, who goes on an interstate odyssey after the death of his father. All of this is stirred by his father’s recollection of a vintage car he once owned, one that was taken away from him years ago. Determined to bring it back, not just as an homage to his dead father but as a way of affirming his own will, Wayne sets out with nothing but a motorbike and a backpack, but he isn’t alone. Joining him is Del, a neighbor he barely knows, but is nonetheless drawn to. The feeling is also mutual, as Del sees in him a chance to break free of her abusive family, and together they head out on a path completely unknown and untrodden, seeing it all the way to the end. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Wayne Season 1 Plot Recap
‘Wayne’ begins with a peek into the life and shenanigans of the eponymous teenager, who seems to have a propensity for violence and a very high tolerance for pain. After triggering a fight with a group of older boys for no particular reason, Wayne walks home to find the landlord furious about rent, which he promises to pay soon. This entire time, he has been living with his father, who is on his deathbed after a long battle with cancer, and the toll is clearly visible in Wayne’s day-to-day actions. A break comes in his life following a chance encounter with Del, who appears on his doorstep selling cookies. His attempts to talk to her more fail when he is brutally attacked by her father, Bobby. That night, Wayne returns home to find his father longingly gazing at a picture of his old car, a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, which he claims was forcibly taken from him.
Wayne’s father breathes his last not long after this discussion, and it seems to ignite a spark in Wayne’s mind. After collecting all the cash his father left for him, Wayne burns the entire house down, with his father’s remains in it, and rides off with his bike. On his way, he picks up Del as well, assaulting her dad and siblings on his way out. The goal is to make it to Florida, where Wayne can find the car, deal with the person pretending to own it, and reclaim ownership. However, throughout this long journey, he continuously gets chased by two factions: the police, led by Sergeant Geller, and Del’s parents. As the cat-and-mouse chase continues, Wayne and his new friend go through several ups and downs in their dynamic, but each time they end up forging a more personal relationship.
During one of their breaks at a diner, Del gets picked up by an angry teacher who assumes that she is one of his students loitering outside of the school. While awaiting rescue from Wayne, she makes friends with some of the students and gets invited to the prom dance. Though shy at first, Wayne eventually dresses up for the event and joins her in the dance, realizing that he has romantic feelings for her. Soon after, though, Wayne finds his dad’s car by pure luck, only to discover that its current owner is his mother’s new partner, Calvin. The car is intended to be a gift for Calvin’s son, Reggie, and as a messy fight eventually breaks out between him and Wayne, the sergeant gets involved. Though Wayne ultimately wins the fight, it comes at the cost of too many injuries and the risk of getting arrested, prompting him to go on the run with Del, this time in his dad’s car.
Wayne Season 1 Ending: Will Wayne and Del Reunite? Will He Get Out of Prison?
Season 1 of ‘Wayne’ ends in tragedy as Wayne gets separated from Del and finds himself at death’s door, only to wind up being rescued and sent to prison. Though for a moment it seems that he has everything he ever wanted in life, a loving relationship, his father’s prized possession, and the freedom to take whatever path he wanted, all of it is snatched away with a single car crash. On their way to the hospital after the fight with Reggie, Wayne and Del get hit by none other than Bobby, who seems to have been discharged from the hospital early. Filled with a desire for vengeance, Bobby smashes Wayne’s nose and leaves him on the floor, already bleeding profusely from his other injuries. In just the blink of an eye, he loses everything and everyone he had learned to hold on to, especially Del.
Though it seems for a moment that Wayne is about to bite the dust, he manages to use the final ounce of his energy to crawl a few feet ahead and retrieve Del’s necklace, which got left behind as she was taken away. An ambulance arrives not long after, hammering in the idea that Del indeed is his guardian angel. In this case, however, it is more likely that Sergeant Geller anticipated the condition Wayne was in, and decided to call in for an ambulance in advance. This decision just about saves Wayne’s life, as the next time we see him, he’s mostly patched up and able to walk, but with one crucial difference. Instead of being a free young man in Florida, Wayne is now a juvenile prisoner, most likely back in Brockton, MA.
Owing to his reputation, Wayne is put in solitary confinement for what is likely a long while, since the list of crimes attached to his name runs quite long. However, he isn’t necessarily alone in that cell either, as in the final scene we learn that he has managed to smuggle in Del’s necklace, carrying it in his mouth, romantically enough. This indicates that he has a clear goal for when he gets out of the prison, and it is to rescue the love of his life. While this was likely intended as a cliffhanger ending, the show’s cancellation leaves the story on an ambiguous note, possibly for good. By itself, this seems like an incredibly bleak end to his journey, but on some level it also makes sense, as it was a matter of time before his crimes caught up to him. That said, Wayne isn’t going to be behind bars forever, which presents him with a second shot at life.
Does Wayne Get His Dad’s Car Back? Where Does it Go?
With Wayne knocked out, and Del ushered away, the fate of the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is also left hanging in the air. The fact that we cut away from Wayne’s unconscious self and reawaken straight at the hospital is likely an intentional choice, as it allows the writing team to obscure whatever happens to the car, or rather, who has it. Given that the police are implied to have followed Wayne all the way there, it is very likely that they tow away the car right after he is taken to the hospital, but from there, we don’t know whether the car is still at the garage, or has been handed over to someone else. Given that both Reggie and Calvin are now in prison, the only fitting person left on the list is Maureen, Wayne’s mother.
Though the most likely trajectory for the car brings it right back to where it was originally, there is a thematic point for it to be there. Throughout the show, Wayne’s journey to retrieve his father’s car is never about the car itself but rather about the value it holds. For Wayne Sr., the car represented a much happier time in his life, when he wasn’t sick, and his family hadn’t devolved into a dysfunctional state. That same feeling is inherited by Wayne in a way, as he begins associating a car he doesn’t even remember with the few moments of warmth and joy from his childhood. It is also reminiscent of the flashback from when his mother put acetone on his skin, only for him to smile even harder, as it meant spending more time with her.
Over the years, Wayne likely developed a toxic association with pain and pleasure, which means that the hardships of getting that car back have a different meaning for him altogether. On a symbolic level, it stands in for him retaking control of his life, with the people who took the car standing in as the grand antagonists of his life. For that person to ultimately be his own mother, the very person whose validation he sought his entire life, creates an internal contradiction of sorts, one which is resolved with everything going down for Wayne. If there’s anything he’s learned from this interstate journey, though, it’s that there is no need to chase after a car anymore, as there is an actual person, and not just an idea, that he truly cares about.
Where is Del? What Happens to Her?
The last we see of Del is when she is forcibly carried away by her father and brothers, so the logical conclusion is that she is currently at her house in Brockton, likely not even allowed to leave anymore. The possibility that she doesn’t even know for sure whether Wayne’s dead or alive is bound to sting, but for now, there seems to be no way out. While Del has learned quite a lot in the time she has spent with Wayne, rebellious plans only work insofar as they don’t surprise the other. Bobby, though, seems to have had his fair share of run-ins already, and knows what is in store, and when and how to deal with it. Unless Del’s arc changes direction completely in this short while, we truly don’t know what will happen to her.
Though it might be difficult for Del to escape her abusive father’s clutches all by herself, we might expect some assistance from Sergeant Geller, who already has some idea about what she might be going through. While he is tasked with bringing the kids back at the start, he begins to form an understanding with them over time. A large part of that is because Geller truly understands why Wayne and Del ran in the first place and exactly who they are trying to escape from. We already know what he is capable of in terms of physical might, but whether Geller helps Del break free of her father’s control is ultimately a decision that she has to make.
The penultimate episode of the season reveals that Del and Wayne’s relationship didn’t necessarily begin with a chance encounter at the latter’s porch. Rather, Wayne once fought a group of local bullies to retrieve a video recording of Del’s mother struggling after getting high on drugs. Though he didn’t know Del or her mother at that point, the fact that he went all-in to help her creates a strong throughline, one that might symbolically be repeated if and when he leaves the prison behind and sets out to rescue Del, though it is ultimately bound to be a team effort, as it always is.
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