Peacock took a chance on Ian McCulloch’s compelling adaptation of Robert McCammon’s sci-fi novel Stinger, and the cast and the creative team of Teacup more than delivered. Season 1 of the sci-fi drama follows two extraterrestrial visitors—the good Harbinger and the bad Assassin—who have infiltrated a tiny farming community in Georgia and trapped its members with a mysterious blue line. If they cross the blue line, they will die.
The show focuses on estranged married couple Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) and James (Scott Speedman) Chenowith, who, along with their teen daughter Meryl (Emilie Bierre) and James’ mother Ellen (Kathy Baker), fight to protect their son Arlo (Caleb Dolden) whom Harbinger has inhabited. Neighboring farmers Reuben Shanley (Chaske Spencer), Valeria (Diany Rodriguez), their teen son Nicholas (Luciano Leroux), and Donald Kelly (Boris McGiver) fight right alongside them.
Helping these alien resisters is the masked McNab (Rob Morgan) who lost his daughter years earlier when another Harbinger possessed her. They were both killed by a different Assassin. The first 7 episodes delivered twists, turns, and gruesome deaths, but also created moving backstories and meaningful connections between these characters. A master of tone, McCulloch has crafted a complex story of family interactions and the sacrifices that are sometimes required. With so many moving parts, viewers might have had trouble deciphering the show’s gripping season finale. Luckily, Decider is here to help. Read on for our breakdown of the Teacup ending.
After the reveal in the penultimate episode that Assassin was hiding in Valeria but managed to jump into Nicholas’ body, and then swiftly kill his former host, the season finale begins on a calmer, but eerie note. As Maggie makes a cup a tea, the camera jumps to a woman we’ve never seen before—Carol (Juliene Joyner)—as she digs up a backpack in the woods near her home. She gets a phone call and says to the caller , “just tell me where McNab is.”
Back at the Navarros’ farm, McNab, Reuben and Donald work to get more of the substance from the extraterrestrial tree Assassin planted to allow the group to cross over the blue line safely. At home, Maggie and James think about how many lives have been lost in the last 48 hours—6, that they know of—and James shares that he thought he was going to die back in the Navarros’ basement. “All I kept thinking, praying, was I hope Maggie knows how sorry I am,” he confesses to Maggie, alluding to his affair with Valeria. As James begs for another chance, Maggie gives him a sliver of hope. “Could we ever make sense again?” asks James. “I don’t know. Maybe,” says Maggie. “Maybe is all I can give you right now.”
Back in Arlo’s room, Harbinger as Arlo tries to explain to Meryl that they need to trap the host of Assassin , but Meryl is distracted by Assassin as Nicholas throwing pebbles at the window. Assassin as Nicholas signals he needs help, and the unsuspecting Meryl goes down to meet him. Soon, Assassin leaves Nicholas and possesses Meryl, knocking the confused Nicholas unconscious. Harbinger as Arlo watches all this from an upstairs window. He quickly alerts Maggie and James and unfortunately they know what they must do: drown Meryl to make the visitor leave her corpse and then bring her back to life. They must wear gas masks stop Assassin from taking over their own bodies.
James sneaks Arlo to safety as Maggie confronts Assassin as Meryl at gunpoint. “If only you knew what was coming,” says Assassin as Meryl. “You’d realize just how utterly insignificant you all are.” As Assassin as Meryl turns to leave, a masked James pops out of the bathroom where he has filled the bathtub with water. Maggie pulls on her own gas mask and the two work together to submerge the struggling Assassin as Meryl into the water and drown her, but not before James’ mask is ripped off his face in the battle.
In a moving scene, Maggie revive Meryls, but unfortunately, Assassin has successfully entered James’ body. Elsewhere on the farm, Ellen, Nicholas and Harbinger as Arlo meet Reuben, Donald and McNab with the substance. Now that they can cross over the blue line, the group moves to find Valeria and the Chenoweths. When they stumble on Valeria’s corpse, Reuben and Nicholas are despondent but quickly rally.
As Assassin as James evades his pursuers, he finds Harbinger as Arlo waiting for him in the barn. “None of this will make any difference,” says Assassin as James. “You’re wrong. It will,” replies Harbinger as Arlo. “We both know what’s going to happen now,” says Assassin as James. Suddenly, Maggie sneaks up behind Assassin as James and sticks him with a needle full of tranquilizer. As Maggie and Harbinger as Arlo run down the stairs, Harbinger as Arlo points to the steel freezer in the barn. “Remember the wasp and the teacup?” asks Arlo, back to his old self. Quickly, Maggie realizes what she must do.
Soon, the subdued Assassin as James lumbers down the barn stairs towards Maggie. As he lunges at Maggie, she spins around and knocks him into the freezer. “You can’t win,” says Assassin as James. “We don’t have to win. We just have to trap you,” cries Maggie. As Maggie closes the lid, Reuben helps her place sandbags on top of the freezer, making it impossible for Assassin as James to escape. A heartbroken Maggie knows she had no other choice.
Leaving Ellen behind to tend to the farm’s animals and keep an eye on Assassin as James, the rest of the survivors drink the substance and safely cross over the blue line. As they load into Maggie’s van, the group decides to head to the fire station in New Hope to get help. In the back of the van, Arlo surfaces again and tells Meryl: “Harbinger says we need to go to Belknap Mountain. Harbinger has to turn on the machine.” Suddenly, they see Carol and a man standing in the road. They get out of the van, guns drawn, when Carol asks: “Who here is McNab?” As McNab steps forward, Carol exclaims, “I’m Carol and this is Milo.” “You found me,” McNab says happily. “It’s okay. They know what’s going on. They’re here to help.”
“I got worried when you stopped posting in the chatroom and then stopped answering texts,” says Carol. “I figured you wouldn’t be far from your last location.” “We have people who are hurt; we’re trying to get the fire station,” interrupts Maggie. “We’ll follow you,” says Carol as she starts to reach into her backpack. “Let me get this one thing out of my bag.”
Suddenly, a car roars down the street. Its passengers are Hayden, McNab and Olsen’s old partner who went rogue. They slam into Carol and Milo, sending their bodies flying off the road. As the group looks on shocked, a gas mask-wearing Hayden and his megaphone-wielding sidekick, Izzy (Alice Kremelberg), step out of the vehicle. “I’m going to need you to just listen. Listen and look,” commands Izzy as Hayden goes to Carol’s backpack and pulls out zip ties, ketamine and a thermos of the substance. “These people, they were not your friends,” explains Izzy.
“This is real. The bastards are waking up,” says Izzy. “They are everywhere.” The group looks at her in horror, but Izzy keeps going: “Now, you can go it alone. In which case I can pretty much guarantee that you’re fucked, or you can follow us. And maybe, just maybe you might survive.” As the survivors look to Maggie to make a choice, Izzy asks, “so what’s it gonna be?” Steely, Maggie looks right at her and says: “We’re not going anywhere until you tell us what the fuck is going on.”
Surely, a cliffhanger like that will have viewers hankering for the next chapter in this story! Decider spoke to actor Boris McGiver, who personally would love to be part of a second season of the Peacock show. “I can’t imagine what Ian [McCulloch] is going to come up with,” said McGiver. “We’re heading out somewhere. Are we going to spring back? Are we going to be blocked again?” McGiver did offer up an idea of his own: “Maybe we’re locked in a discarded train car somewhere in the middle of the woods.” If Peacock gives McCulloch the green light for another installment of Peacock, Season 2 promises to be just as compelling as its inaugural season.