Superstore “All Sales Final” Spoilers Ahead
How do you take a series finale with a plethora of gorgeous scenes and only choose one as the most exquisite? If you’ve been here long enough then you know that a good montage basically owns every single one of us here at Marvelous Geeks. What better way to end a series with than with a montage that shows us where our favorite characters end up and how happy they are? Spoiler: there is no better way. This is the way.
Superstore concluded its six-season run with a series finale that worked beautifully for this show and left us all ugly crying for hours. And just as we had hoped, it ended with a stunning callback to the Pilot that made the episode impeccable.
“Attention shoppers, please bring your final purchases up to checkout, ’cause this store is about to close forever. On behalf of everyone here at Cloud 9, I’d just like to say, BUH-BYE! Sorry, that shouldn’t be the last thing I say. Twenty years of announcements. I mean, I’m not a sentimental guy; that’s not my thing. But it did just occur to me that this is… this is the end. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a job. I mean, if jobs were fun, they wouldn’t pay us to do it, but occasionally there were moments that weren’t so bad. Memories are the only things I can remember right now. You know, most jobs suck ninety-nine percent of the time, so you really… you really gotta enjoy those moments that don’t. Those bits of fun you have during downtime. Or an interesting conversation with a co-worker. Or something happens that you can laugh about later. Or you do something that you’re actually proud of. If you’re lucky, maybe you even get to be friends with a co-worker or two along the way. Not sure what else you could want at a job. At any rate, thank you for shopping with us. Cloud 9 is now closed.”
Garrett said, I’m going to make you all sob and he did. He really, truly did. 20 years of announcements. And again, what a riveting way of using its resources to end the episode with an announcement like this while bringing in a montage in the process.
The thing with a show like Superstore is that to a degree, it glamorizes what it’s actually like working in retail. Not many people actually stay as long as these characters did and not many people keep in touch afterward. But there is some truth to it regardless and that every so often, the 1% is so memorable, you really do end up missing it. I hated 99% of my time at Barnes and Noble when I worked there, but the few coworkers who are still in my life today are people I cherish dearly. (As are the ridiculous memories that would have made for a great TV show. No seriously, ask me about that one time I told Adam Scott how much I loved Ben Wyatt by the registers.)
And thus, sometimes when a show ends, you know that it’s not just tying everything up with a neat little bow, but it’s promising of what’s really ahead for these characters. They all will hang out again. They will stay in each other’s lives.
It’s why Dina couldn’t decide who to keep because she’s genuinely grown to appreciate them all, and for Sandra to be one to decide for her?! Perfect. For both Cheyenne and Mateo to work with Glenn at Sturgis and Sons?! Perfect. Dina making her relationship with Garrett official?! Perfect. Mateo and Eric married?! Perfect. Jonah running for city council?! Perfect.
And finally, the happy reunion with a moment of beauty most of us had been hoping for. Amy and Jonah were the ship we’d been rooting for since the beginning. I stopped watching when Amy left and I’ll fully admit to that—to break up the couple I cared most about didn’t leave me invested anymore. (And especially since I didn’t want to see the pandemic on my screen too.)
So, we had hoped that at the end of it all, the series would resolve everything and it did so in a way that worked. Sometimes you walk away from something thinking it’s the best plan for you and instead you come to realize you’ve made a tremendous mistake. And when Amy firmly admits to that, it’s easy to see just how much she not only still cares for Jonah, but just how much she finally has figured out. Amy has always been the one character who has been our mirror into the world—the one who constantly felt stuck, the one we would see ourselves through. Thus, when Amy finally gets her big break and the guy too, it feels rewarding in the sense that there is a right time for everything. There is a right time for all of us and there is a right time for moments of beauty.
To see them turn off the lights to their kids’ rooms with the toy stars on the ceiling brought all this full circle through the gorgeous reminder that we need to look towards the people who stand beside us. The people who contribute to our moments of beauty and this group of work friends are each other’s. They are the sources of beauty and comfort and hope in dark times.
When you work in retail, there is a lot to complain about. Garrett once mentions the same song playing over and over again, and if that’s not the biggest mood, then I don’t know what is. That’s the reality of it–there is often a lot to complain about. A lot to be frustrated with, and truthfully, you even get frustrated with your coworkers sometimes. (Why is Carol still around, I’ll never understand.) But sometimes you get lucky and you find a home there too. And that’s what happened in Superstore. You meet people that care deeply and you meet people who’ll be around long after the store closes its doors.
You wonder why someone like Jonah who’s capable of running for city council stays in a store that pays minimum wage and then you understand–it’s not the job, it’s the people. The people are worth fighting for. The people are worth bending and breaking for. It’s always the people. And when the 1% are the people, it’s worth every minute of the frustration that comes from the 99%.
They made it–each of them found their way back home, towards the toy stars in the room that serve as a reminder of just how much power humans have to evoke joy into another’s life.
Now streaming on NBC: What are your thoughts on Superstore’s “All Sales Final?”