Hulu’s Fresh Ending Explained- Ravenous Men And Their Disgusting Appetites

If you ever felt like your dating life has to be the worst, watch Fresh. The gross-out comedy-thriller is guaranteed to give you some perspective.

Fresh is a fresh take on the horrors of dating. The Hulu original from writer Lauryn Kahn and director Mimi Cave is not for the faint of heart. Think of it as the anti-Raw. It is just as gross but somehow funny, charming, and full of fantastic music. I have never been so grateful to be out of the dating pool that has more than a few floaters in it. Dating is a nightmarescape of dick picks and scarf-wearing beta cucks who need to put women down to feel secure in their masculinity.

Poor Noa, a pitch-perfect Daisy Edgar-Jones(War of the Worlds), has seen a revolving door of the absolute worst men until she meets Sebastian Stan’s Steve, who is everything every girl wants and a little extra. Anyone watching Pam and Tommy on Hulu right now would hardly recognize the chameleonic actor. He is witty, charming, seemingly kind, and exactly what the doctor ordered because he’s one of those too. The pair begin a sweet love affair that ends with a mountain of culinary grotesquerie and blood.

Noa should know better. There are red flags everywhere, but she has had so many terrible dates lately that she ignores everything that doesn’t fit neatly into the romantic fantasy she has created. After just one date, she agrees to go on a secret vacation with him. He also asks a lot of questions about her family and who she told about him. On the way to their remote destination, he finally tells her where they are headed, but there is no cell coverage by then. Noa still doesn’t have cell service at his gorgeous vacation home, and weirder, his wifi is down. Seriously who wouldn’t be panicking by now? Even if you were still convinced Steve wasn’t a rapist, I need to play Wordle.

Steve drugs her and chains her up before detailing his life’s work to her. Steve is a human flesh procurer. He kidnaps and slowly butchers young women for connoisseurs of exotic flesh. Steve further tells her he keeps his victims alive as long as possible to keep the flesh fresh. He evidently missed the lesson that stress makes the meat taste bad. Through the following two acts, Noa meets fellow victims Penny(Andrea Bang) and Melissa(Alina Maris) and begins an elaborate ruse designed to garner Steve’s trust and devise an escape. Here’s everything you need to know about the bloody ending.

The ending of Fresh explained

Steve is a psycho. At least the other men Noa had been dating displayed their horrendous behavior right away. Steve hides his inner killer behind a veil of love bombing, geeky cute dancing, and piles of wealth. He is also one heck of a businessman, and Cave’s direction makes it clear she is poking fun at the whole artisanal food business. He packs his butchered delights with nifty touches like sunglasses and lacy bras to enhance the dining experience. After talking with Penny, Noa learns that Steve might like her despite the whole kidnap and cannibal thing. She asks him for a shower and tries unsuccessfully to escape.

Punishment for her indiscretion comes in the form of a literal ass-chewing. Steve informs her he cut off a portion of her ass meat. While healing from “surgery,” Noa flips through the magazines that Steve gave her and finds a note from a previous victim that tells her that he likes her if she is reading this. Knowing she can use this, Noa begins a campaign of first-class gaslighting. She convinces Steve she is into human flesh and pretends to enjoy the meals he prepares her.

Meanwhile, Noa’s friend Mollie(JoJo T Gibbs) intuitively knows something is wrong when she gets a text back from Noa with a picture of a waterfall. She determines the image is a stock photo and tracks down Steve, who is a married man named Brandon with kids. Before Mollie can leave his house, however, Steve walks in. Mollie gets a 10 for bravery and cleverness but a 0 for self-preservation. She calls Noa on the way out of the house, and it rings in Steve’s pocket. Unfortunately, this prompts Steve’s wife to knock her out. Later we see Steve’s wife in the shower, and she is missing a leg, heavily implying she was a former victim.

Steve takes Mollie as his newest victim, and Noa continues to build trust with him. She eats his meals and flirts relentlessly until he finally trusts her. The two take a shower together, where Noa bends down to give him a blowy and instead chomps down hard on his unit while smashing soap in his eyes. She locks Steve in his bedroom and takes his keys and phone. Then she rescues Mollie and Penny. Steve escapes the bedroom, and the three women attack him and knock him out in the kitchen. Unfortunately, Steve has a gun, and the women struggle with him until Noa gets the gun and shoots him in the head. The three women are stranded with no way off the property, though, because although Paul tracked Mollie’s phone and planned on rescuing her, he heard the gunshots and dipped.

Steve’s wife Ann appears and sees her dead husband. She snaps and she and Noa fight. Mollie eventually kills her with a shovel. The two women hug each other, relieved it is finally over. In one final injustice, Noa gets a text from Chad, the horrible date from the beginning of the movie, asking if she is up. The message is clear, dating sucks.

The after-credits scene

This is where the true genius of Fresh is revealed. A large table of wealthy men sits around a table of raw human flesh. Some of these men are dressed in expensive suits, and others are naked. The gamblers in Netflix’s Squid Games would fit in nicely with this crowd. A box similar to the one Steve used to package his meat closes as the screen goes black. Steve is probably just one of many butchers, and there is no shortage of men willing to exploit women for money or power. There’s a reason Steve’s customers only ask for female flesh.

Side note to Fresh, this is easily one of the most indulgent and perfect soundtracks of all time. Even if you don’t love Fresh, you will love the music. Although Steve is a murderer, he has killer taste in music. Fresh is showing on Hulu right now.