Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Ending Explained: It's Never Too Late To Clean Up A Mess
Do you feel that? The disturbance in the distance, in the general direction of Toronto, Canada? That's a sign that the Scott Pilgrim universe is changing. Fans have known for a while now to expect something slightly different from "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off," as Edgar Wright previously noted (via Empire) that the show "doesn't just expand the universe, but also... well, just watch it." Still, I'm not sure anyone anticipated the show being quite so much of a departure from the original, especially with all those deceptively faithful trailers Netflix dropped.
If you're somehow reading this without having watched the new season in its entirety, this is your sign to stop here and go catch up. Everyone else: let's unpack what we just saw, shall we? This epic reimagining of the Scott Pilgrim story comes straight from original comic author Bryan Lee O'Malley himself, who co-created and co-wrote the new show with BenDavid Grabinski. Essentially Scott Pilgrim 2.0, there's a lot to love here — and nearly all of it is nothing like the story we thought we knew.
What you need to remember about the plot of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" takes a complete detour from the world of Scott Pilgrim we know and love, but the resulting story is as energetic, funny, and adorable as the original comics run — and perhaps even more insightful. The titular character (Michael Cera) actually "takes off" in the first episode, turning into a pile of coins when he's defeated in battle by Ramona's evil ex Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha). Though his friends and family assume he's dead, Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) thinks otherwise, and the show follows her perspective as she tries to get to the bottom of who might have kidnapped Scott.
In the season's penultimate episode, we find out that the kidnapper was none other than an older version of Scott (Will Forte), who says that beating Ramona's evil exes was the worst thing to ever happen to him. He explains that he and Ramona got married but separated after their honeymoon, and that his band also fell apart. Meanwhile, his friends are thriving: Wallace (Kieran Culkin) married a guy who works for Nintendo while Young Neil (Johnny Simmons) wrote a book.
Scott makes it back to the present day after visiting the future, but soon finds out an even older version of himself created a force field to prevent younger Scott and Ramona from even kissing. Meanwhile, Matthew Patel took over supervillain Gideon Graves' (Jason Schwartzman) entertainment empire and cast himself as the lead in a play about Scott's life, which all the characters attend in the finale.
What happened at the end of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off?
The climax of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" features another surprise appearance from the future: an older version of Ramona, who chides Scott for building a time machine and ignoring her for a decade when he could've been actually working on their relationship. Their relationship turns out to be a lot less central to saving the world than Ramona's relationship with herself, though. When the younger version of the cool, hipster girl sees her older self, she decides to quite literally embrace her, and the pair form a golden super-Ramona who breaks Scott's kiss barrier and sends older Scott back to the future to work on himself.
Back in the present day, Matthew's play is a success, but he decides to give Gideon back his empire. In a mid-credit scene, Gideon and his new lover Julie (Aubrey Plaza) taunt us, with Gideon promising that it's "time for the real games to begin." Otherwise, though, the show ends happily – and pretty definitively. Sex Bob-omb is still a band (and a pretty great one), now with rock lover Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) on the keyboard. Envy Adams kept making records, Ramona became a stuntwoman on a movie involving Young Neil, the play Matthew starred in won 27 Tonys, Todd became vegan again with Roxie by his side, Lucas started working at the same coffee shop as Stacey, and Wallace even met a guy who made him feel sparks in Paris.
The show ends with Ramona changing her hair color one more time — it's bright yellow and green this time — and meeting the band to hang out on a sunny day.
Ramona vs. The World
"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" differentiates itself from the original comic run and movie fairly early on, but it takes a while for its perspective shift to become fully clear. In the end, the fate of Scott's future depended not on him, but on Ramona, and it's suddenly obvious that this has been her story all along. With Scott gone, we get to see another side of her, one that's more vulnerable and less like the dream girl Scott wanted her to be. We watch her dye her hair again and again, and depending on the moment, it feels like a disguise, a moment of vulnerability, or a shedding of skin for a girl who's painfully aware that she has a lot of relationship baggage.
When young Ramona meets her older self, seeing the future helps her see the past more clearly — and decide she's done running from relationships. By choosing her future self, she can also choose what will make her happy, which turns out to be "idiot kid" Scott. Super-Ramona leaves the timelines the way they were, meaning that in this show's version of "Scott Pilgrim" canon, Scott didn't ever fight the evil exes after all. If O'Malley's "Scott Pilgrim" comic books are ultimately about Scott becoming a more understanding person (he does end up with the "Power of Understanding" sword, after all), O'Malley's Netflix rewrite of the story expands it to include Ramona's self-reflection and transformation. It's a pretty cool role reversal that never subtracts from the original, instead spinning off in entertaining and rewarding directions.
'How To Redeem Yourself'
"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" also updates its point-of-view on heroes and villains, allowing some of its bad guys as much interiority as its heroes and letting some of them become better people. Super-Ramona tells old Scott he's a "mess," but notes that it's never too late to clean up a mess, indicating that even someone who wasted a decade of their life obsessed with one bad breakup can get better. Villains like Roxie and Lucas didn't turn out to be especially villainous, while even the twins and their robot got a shot at self-improvement, as they can be spotted in the epilogue reading a book called "How To Redeem Yourself."
In keeping with the reflective streak running through this iteration of the series, O'Malley also uses "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" to course correct some of the weaker spots of his original comic book series and in Edgar Wright's movie. Scott's treatment of Knives, for example, is taken seriously. He's not cast as the story's hero, while she outgrows the "high school girlfriend" label to become a more independent character. Ramona was never exactly a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but Scott idolized her like one in Wright's film, and this time around, she's just as important as he is. The show even jokes about some of the discourse that would've surrounded the movie's casting had it been made today, as Wallace is irritated that "a notorious heterosexual" is playing him in the movie version of his life. The real Wallace takes over the role, of course, because this is clearly the best timeline.
What the end of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off could mean for the franchise
The end of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" feels fairly final, but the post-script featuring Gideon Graves — now going by Gordon Goose — hints that he and Julie might have more tricks up their sleeves. After Gideon says it's "time for the real games to begin," Julie chimes in with, "The Goose is loose: honk, honk, f***ers!" A quick shot of a red room with two high-backed chairs and a wall made of dozens of TV screens accompanies their exchange, indicating that the pair might be in control of what is now basically a Scott Pilgrim multiverse.
This likely means that there's a chance an entirely new Scott Pilgrim story will end up being told, one that hopefully won't disturb this timeline's happy ending. Since Scott Pilgrim is now a movie, comic series, animated series, and video game, there's no telling which form of media any additional sequels might take. That being said, "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" has been described as a "series" and not a "limited series" in press materials, so it's possible O'Malley and Grabinski are brainstorming a second season as we speak. If Gideon and Julie's comments turn out to be empty threats and this is the last we see of Scott and Ramona, that's frankly okay too, as this was a near-perfect ending for the duo and all their friends.