Loot (Season 1) Review, Recap & Ending Explained: Created by Alan Yang, Loot is an Apple TV+ series that just finished its first season. Starring Maya Rudolph in the central role of Molly Novak, it presents an amusing satire on philanthropy. After divorcing her husband of 20 years (John Novak, a billionaire played by Adam Scott), she needs to figure out what to do with her $87 billion settlement. Over the years, her sense of identity derived from being John’s wife and from the glowing showcase of wealth. As a result, she amounted to very little on her own. So the further journey for her does not remain to be just about money but also about self-discovery. She decides to use her wealth to reengage with her very own charitable foundation.
Loot (Season 1) Recap:
Loot (Season 1) starts with Molly Novak (Maya Rudolph) on a boat ride with her husband, John (Adam Scott). From the lavish lifestyle they seem to enjoy, it becomes clear pretty soon that this couple has several billion in their bank accounts. Through their party celebration, we get a hint of dissatisfaction from Molly’s face until we get to see something that tears her married life apart. She finds Hailey (Dylan Gelula) near John’s wardrobe and learns about their affair. Devastated by the loss of her married life, she goes partying with Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster) since she doesn’t understand how to process this loss.
Afterward, she decides to start working for her charitable foundation and be more active in philanthropic practices. Over there, she meets their entire staff, from Howard (Ron Funches), who works as their IT guy, Arthur (Nat Faxon), who works as the accountant, to Sofia Salinas (MJ Rodriguez), who runs the foundation. She learns about a ribbon-cutting ceremony happening the next day and, as per her habit, decides to make a grand showcase of her wealth without realizing how tone-deaf it is – considering the ceremony is related to unhoused people.
After Sofia mentions the same, she goes back by just her car and shares the ride with Arthur. At the ceremony, she decides to give those people some items she thinks are necessities and makes a fool of herself on national television. While she tries to cover this mess-up, Sofia does not care about her first-world problems. The duel between both these characters begins.
Despite Sofia disliking Molly’s ignorance, Molly continues to be a part of the foundation. She tries to mingle with the employees and later gets sent a bunch of documents by Sofia to read to understand more about the work that the foundation does seriously. Since that bores Molly, she decides to take all the staff on a bonding retreat to Miami– the way she was used to just going to random expensive places on a whim. Sofia does not like this since it hinders her working schedule for the upcoming meeting with a council member. Yet she goes along with it since it makes the staff happy. Due to a weather-related issue, they need to make an emergency landing somewhere where Sofia does not have a good network to connect online for her meeting, angers her. She rushes out, and all the staff follows her. Molly goes back alone since her attempt at bonding fails. During dinner with her girlfriends, she observes their entitled behavior and realizes how she was used to being just like them. The meeting gets postponed to the next day, and while Sofia conducts it, Molly barges in and somehow makes the meeting a success. She asks the staff to join her later at a local bar, and to her surprise, everyone shows up one by one. In her pursuit to win Sofia’s trust, she takes her first step by expressing her gratitude and her intention to learn from her.
After the divorce, John gets interviewed with Hailey, who boasts about himself like always and shows zero remorse for his behavior. He even makes fun of Molly and mentions her attitude towards working beside the domestic cocktail parties. Angered by this, Molly decides to do anything she can to prove him wrong, and Sofia wholeheartedly supports her. In order to give erudite responses in those interviews, she needs to understand more than a thing or two about the foundation. However, despite Sofia giving all the material required to understand the foundation’s background, she decides to bail on it – out of fear and procrastination. Later, she goes on a popular YouTube interview show and makes a fool. Meanwhile, an unlikely friendship starts brewing between Howard and Nicholas at the office, who share wisdom in work and relationships with a sincere wish to help one another.
On another day, in a theme park in the Philippines, people remain stuck on a roller coaster upside down. This creates a sensational piece of news, and the blame falls on Molly since the theme park belongs to a company owned by her. In the effort to work on this issue, she seeks Arthur’s help, with whom she decides to go out to discuss the same. While they go together merely as colleagues, rumor goes around about them being in a relationship. While that happens, Howard finds an audition scene draft in the xerox machine from the office and asks Nicholas about it. While Nicholas seems uninterested in pursuing this acting role, Howard decides to motivate him to make him see his own potential. At a meeting with the city council, Sofia initially struggles with her appeal but successfully gains their trust due to Molly’s involvement in the foundation, which, to her surprise, the council finds admirable for a woman in her position. Later, she mentions the same to Molly yet advises her to be more responsible about her words and actions. While the rumor goes around in the news, Molly and Arthur keep it professional and mention to one another how they should not pay heed to the media buzz. But there begin the sparks of their interest in one another, which they choose to suppress for their own reasons.
The next day, Arthur and Molly become awkward during their interactions but decide to keep their relationship professional. Due to some mess-up, Sofia gets angry at Rhonda (Meagan Fay) and Ainsley (Stephanie Styles). To destress from the same, Molly plans to make it a mental health day and to take Sofia and these two employees to a spa boutique as a form of self-care. While the pretentious place does not sit right with Sofia in the beginning, she gives in after experiencing the relaxation it brings. Over there, Molly meets one of her old friends, Jacinda (Caitlin Reilly), who mentions bringing Hailey instead of her on one of their outings. This bothers Molly, and she decides to take out her anger. Unfortunately, that outburst results in her membership at the spa getting permanently revoked. The female office employees tag along with Molly and show their emotional support. While old friends are leaving her, she gets a new set of friends who are kind, compassionate, and more loving than the ones from before. Meanwhile, at the office, Arthur goes out with Howard and Nicholas, who decide to help him get a date. They help to fill in his dating bio, which they think will help Arthur win in the dating pool. But to their surprise, Arthur manages to impress a woman at the bar with a casual, mundane conversation. The old-school way of impressing someone puts both Nicholas and Howard in awe of him.
Episode 6 of Loot starts off with several people from local organizations cheering with joy after suddenly receiving a generous donation from Molly. This little activity puts her back in the discussion, and that too is for charity. Later, she learns that she is about to receive a prestigious award at a gala, and she attends it with the foundation’s staff. While she is over the moon for getting this praise, she finds John also attending the gala, that too with Hailey. That sours her mood and lowers her self-worth. Meanwhile, Howard & Arthur speak with the rich, white people from the gala, where Howard seems to impress them with very little effort. While having a discussion on their own, Arthur praises him for this quality, which rather puts him in existential angst about where he’s at in his life.
Later, when Molly meets John in a room that was specifically reserved for him, where they used to meet before the divorce, he discloses that she is receiving this award on his recommendation and says how she’s nothing without him. They have a soul-stirring conversation where Molly seems to introspect on her self-worth and whether she deserves the award or not. In the end, when she is called upon the stage, she goes and brings her staff up there and mentions how they deserve the award more than her for all the hard work and sincere efforts they put in. During the gala, she meets Jean-Pierre (Olivier Martinez), a French billionaire philanthropist, and gets smitten by him. While leaving, he asks her if they can do a project together in the future, to which, of course, agrees.
In the 7th episode of Season 1 of Loot, Molly is seen opening up a community center in Cerritos when Jean-Pierre drops by to ask her to dinner at his vineyard. The foundation staff tries to convince her that Jean-Pierre is doing it out of interest in her. Later, Arthur walks in on Molly when she’s trying to pick an outfit for her meeting with Jean-Pierre. While he’s jealous, he assures her she’ll look great no matter how she dresses. Unlike her employees, she is confident that Jean-Pierre is not romantically interested in her. During dinner, he tells her about his childhood and how he rejected his family’s wealth until his grandfather asked him to carry on his family’s legacy. He thought helping people would give his life meaning, which impressed her since it was unlike the rich people she had met otherwise.
Meanwhile, Nicholas joins Howard and his girlfriend for dinner. While Howard goes to the washroom, the girlfriend mentions to Nicholas how uninterested she is in Howard. Yet when he returns from the loo, she maintains her act of being in love with him. Later, Nicholas decides to warn him about her lack of romantic involvement, which backfires on him for the time being. On the vineyard, Molly is going back and forth thinking about whether it is a date or not. Yet, in the end, Jean-Pierre confesses his love and the deep connection he feels with her, and then they kiss.
After this romantic day together, they meet again when Jean-Pierre expresses his desire to meet Molly’s family, which triggers her unpleasant memories. She mentions that she is not on good terms with them. Later, Molly speaks with Howard about their family, particularly cousin Renee, who hasn’t spoken to her since Molly missed her wedding. Howard mentions that an upcoming Spades night can be a great way for them to reconnect. Meanwhile, at the office, Sofia is visited by a man named Tony while another man named Jaylin sends a bouquet for her. Nicholas and Arthur spy on her. Later, when they speak with her about him, she mentions that she has two men in her life and is unsure of being with which one of them. Due to his own experiences and his feeling of losing Molly to Jean-Pierre, Arthur mentions how guys with grand gestures tend to win. On the other hand, Nicholas feels that the thoughtful one would win since he cared enough to show up.
On the Spades night, things do not start on a warm note since Renee welcomes Molly with an icy greeting. Molly tries to stir up Renee’s memories of the dance they used to do together. This loosens Renee up when they finally share some moments of mutual pleasure. Yet, she gets mad seeing an expensive table purchased by Molly since it appears to be a way for Molly to showcase her wealth. The same issue kept them apart for all these years. Later, Howard tries to convince Renee that Molly’s a good person, unlike her impression of her. Then, Molly enters the room and confesses the actual, embarrassing reason why she couldn’t attend Renee’s wedding. That ends their meeting after several years on a sweet note. Meanwhile, after the conversation about Jaylin & Tony, Sofia tells Arthur that it is not always the guys with the big gestures, but sometimes dependable guys like him who win.
In the next episode, Sofia seems elated by the news of approval for the team’s proposal. Molly shares the information with the staff about a brand water filtration unit she is about to present with Jean-Pierre. After this announcement, she attends a board meeting with Sofia, where she gets bombarded with questions by people who criticize her for her wealth. Once it gets over, she gets attacked with a pie by a group of people when Arthur decides to swoop in and save her from the attack. While he does it out of good-heartedness, this doesn’t help him win her over.
Meanwhile, Nicholas gets a chance to play the lead in one of the plays, and Howard congratulates him. However, Nicholas is apprehensive about playing this meatier role. Howard decides to help him get in touch with his feelings so that he would be able to perform the character better. Before the performance, Howard receives a call from his girlfriend, whom he ignores throughout the day while helping out Nicholas. Getting frustrated with his girlfriend’s entitled behavior towards his kindness, he breaks up with her.
Loot (Season 1) Review: An Amusing Satire that misses the mark
Loot (Season 1) uses a humanist lens to navigate Molly’s journey after divorce while critiquing the habit of feeling holier than thou while living a lavish lifestyle. While criticizing wealthy people and their façade of generosity, the script still strikes a chord due to the character development of Molly on an emotional level. Working for the foundation is Molly’s way of reconnecting with the real world that she had distanced herself from over the years. Her learnings through the process humanize her character. The unlikely love triangle between Jean-Pierre and Nicholas represents more than what meets the eye. As mentioned by the creator Alan Yang during an interview, this puts the choice in front of her between a life of meaning and that of luxury.
The way Loot tackles Molly’s emotional upheavals is where it shines. It elevates the dramatic impact because the skill involved in the sustained takes its clever direction. There are also bits of quiet introspection where the execution shines for the way it holds on to the drama of the moment without rushing for comic relief or being anxious to lose out its audience. There’s one of Molly’s conversations with Jon regarding her worth. There’s another one where she tries to connect with Jean-Pierre, trying to reassure herself that her life has a meaning, that it is not made of just some superficial showcase of artifice but a compassionate longing akin to that of Sophie.
Yet something about Loot leaves you wanting more. When you think of the great satires on television, you think of Veep, you think of Succession. These shows excel because they fire with all cylinders while mocking the lives they portray on the screen and sharing an unabashed critique. Loot feels the limited part is its unwillingness to go to that level. The series does not go full throttle in its satire. And while it is fairly evocative, the script does not delve much deeper in terms of the drama of her self-exploration either. While there’s nothing wrong with a mix of humanism and cynicism, the series appears like an awkward mishmash that keeps it from being a clear winner.
Despite that, Loot (Season 1) has its share of strengths. Probably the finest part about the series is its narrative carefully weaves the relationship between its characters. Be it between the pair of Sofia & Molly or Howard & Nicholas, the endearing nature of their journey towards closeness is too wholesome to handle. Of course, this credit goes to the incredible supporting cast of MJ Rodriguez, Ron Funches, Joel Kim Booster, and Nat Faxon. There’s so much to say about each of them and why they make this season an irresistible dramatic affair.
And while Maya Rudolph is exceedingly good (like always) with what she is given to operate with, the writing does not do justice to the level she is capable of in terms of comedy and drama. It has the charm of American sitcoms where you care for its characters and want them to get want in their lives. Yet the good-heartedness alone isn’t sufficient for the series to be exemplary.
Loot (Season 1) Ending, Explained:
In the last episode of Loot (Season 1), we encounter the grand showcase of the water filtration model that Molly and Jean-Pierre worked on as their mutual project. All the Foundation employees to Corsica, along with Nicholas, to whom she apologizes for not being able to attend the play. Before the Summit, Molly seemed stressed about the aspects of her presentation that hardly mattered. Since it is a mere showcase and not the actual work of charity, Sofia advises her rather go back and help people in LA. With this new project, Molly seems swayed by a rich guy like before, which worries Sofia. That angers Molly, who stresses how it’s her vision just as much as his.
Arthur admits to Nicholas and Howard that he broke up with the woman he met at the bar. He later discloses that he’s in love with Molly and is unsure what to do with it. The two mention how, instead of Jean-Pierre, Arthur can be good for her. At the Summit presentation, Molly presents the water purification machine. She takes the water out of the machine, a muddy brown. Despite how it looked, she assures that it was perfectly safe and goes to drink the entire glass. The reason for this act is the billions of dollars she invested in designing this machine. After this disastrous display of their project, Jean-Pierre decides to cut ties with her to stay out of the public eye. Afterward, Molly hands in her resignation to Sofia, who declines it, stating that her involvement in the foundation’s team-building is crucial. She also mentions how Molly isn’t the problem, but her money is.
The next day, Molly returns to the panel discussion and mentions how the products being spoken about on that stage, just like hers, aren’t solutions but distractions. She mentions how they cannot change the world, coming from the worst likely people – billionaires like her. She even says that “Billionaires shouldn’t exist,” followed up with “I shouldn’t exist.” With this impassioned speech, her self-realization becomes apparent.
Later, she is greeted by the foundation employees with a warm embrace. She announces that she will donate all her money, which bothers Nicholas. But she assures him that it wouldn’t matter and also mentions that she will always attend his performances after that. Then, Arthur says that he has something important to speak with her. But we don’t hear their conversation. Cut to, we see Molly waking up in a bed – not beside Arthur but John. On one side, this ending can be taken as a result of Molly’s confused state of mind after such a sudden decision. On the other hand, it can be viewed with a cynical lens – affirming her speech about the selfish nature of billionaires.
