‘The Madness’ Ending, Explained: What Happens To Muncie?

The dramatic ending to Netflix’s The Madness will keep fans talking, theorizing, and hoping for a second season.

If you need to catch up, we’ve broken down the final episode.

The Madness is about CNN pundit Muncie Daniels (Colman Domingo) who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation after he finds a dead, dismembered body while vacationing in The Poconos. The series follows Muncie’s efforts to uncover the person responsible while understanding just how much his punditry has played into his fate and the state of the world.

What happened during the final episode of ‘The Madness’ Season 1?

Muncie Daniels’ life, which is already in shambles because of a conspiracy that has put him in the target sights of a white nationalist group, gets even worse as his wife Elena (Marsha Stephanie Blake) is shot by Julia Jayne, a gun for hire. She’s revealed to have been the killer of several other bad guys throughout the series, but her benefactor remains at large.

Thankfully, Elena is OK. Also great–Muncie and his lawyer Kwesi (Deon Cole) are able to get more incriminating evidence from Jayne on tape, but not before they learn from the FBI that Julia was getting ready to use a nerve agent that makes its victim appear as if they had a heart attack.

Muncie prepares for war

With this new evidence and his own exoneration in sight, Muncie starts preparing for war after he realizes Rodney Kraintz (Neal Huff), Revitalize silent majority owner and the top of the white supremacist group The Forge, is making it look like Julia is the mastermind behind it all. Revitalize is supposed to be about sustainability, but in actuality, it’s a front that allows Kraintz to kill for profit.

Kraintz’s lawyer tries to get Muncie to agree to a multi-million dollar payoff as long as he signs an NDA, to which Daniel initially disagrees. But Kwesi talks him into it, saying he can sign the agreement and still address Kraintz through his CNN show. He does follow through and out Kraintz, but also declares he’s done with CNN, not wanting to contribute to “the madness” of twisting the truth for sensationalism.

However, the troubles are not over. Muncie’s son Demetrius (Thaddeus J. Mixon) has been angry at him for days after his mother was shot. He felt Daniel didn’t do enough to protect her, even after she killed Julia for him. As far as Demetrius is concerned, his father still hasn’t changed, even with Elena’s desire to separate until Daniel becomes a better husband. Demetrius tries to take things into his own hands by showing up at an abandoned building–Kraintz’s secret headquarters–with a gun, but Muncie is able to coax him out of doing anything stupid. However, that leaves Daniel to do something potentially stupid, which is to infiltrate the building by himself.

Kraintz gets his karma

Kraintz and Muncie have a one-on-one, with Muncie ultimately realizing that he didn’t want to become a killer. But while Kraintz thinks he’s gotten off scot-free, his karma quickly comes for him as well as The Forge. The FBI raid the white supremacist group’s hideout, and one of them who escapes finds Kraintz and kills him. However, one thing Kraintz did tell Muncie in their conversation was that there are plenty more like him out there, white men at the top who buy elections and rework the systems in their favor.

Despite these issues, Muncie has found his new calling–teaching the new generation of Black leaders and reconnecting with his family, including Elena. It’s a new start for Muncie and also sets up a potential second season.

What does Colman Domingo say about The Madness?

A major theme of the series is how disinformation has become commonplace, creating a generation of less-informed citizens and the ability for shadowy figures to run amok. Domingo talked with Blavity’s Shadow and Act about how Muncie comes to realize his part in the news cycle circus.

“I think that Muncie started out as a, a journalist, but I think journalism has changed so much,” Domingo said in the interview. “Back when I was in school at Temple University and I was a journalism major, I thought news was news. I and my news writing classes, it wasn’t about opinion. It wasn’t about coloring what the truth was. And so now Muncie is standing in a place [in which] it’s… not about news, actually, and he doesn’t realize it. I think that he believes he’s got a platform and whatever he says, it will affect change. He thinks he has a microphone now and this will do it and this will do the work and [the guest on his show played by Eisa Davis] says, ‘Yeah, but…who signs your checks and what narrative [are you] pushing out?’”