Ride or Die Ending Explained: Judith and Deborah Find Out Who the Real Villain Is All Along

Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer’s Ride or Die is a surprisingly well-written spy thriller, with a friendship that acts as an emotional core to the story. Waddingham’s Judith Burton, aka Whiptale, is a highly trained assassin, but Octavia Spencer’s Debbie, her friend of 20 years, only finds out about this towards the end of the first episode.

Judith is the least of Debbie’s worries, as her husband also has secrets of his own. He has some criminal ties, unknown to Debbie, that put her in danger. Judith’s secret spy life gets entangled in this, and she goes on the run. In the background, we learn that a woman is causing these events, and her target is Judith.

As the show progresses, we learn that this mysterious woman is Ana, aka Redback, a former operative for the Agency that Judith works for. Ana was presumed to have been killed in a mission where she accompanied Whiptale five years back. However, it is revealed that Judith tried to kill Ana after the latter wanted to kill Debbie, spinning the revenge tale at the center of the story.

The ending comes with a twist. One detail about Judith’s past felt unsettling, and the ending ties it up neatly with a reveal. It exposes the real villain of the series, which is not the psychotic killer Ana, even with all the danger she poses.

What Did Judith Discover About the Director in the Ending?

In the final moments of the seventh episode, Redback gets the perfect revenge on Hannah Waddingham‘s Judith. She not only kills Ed Skrein’s Billy, who was romantically interested in Judith, but also breaks her friendship with Octavia Spencer‘s Debbie in spectacular fashion. Broken, Judith is pushed back into working with the Director again.

Judith’s history with Bill Nighy‘s Director gets brief mentions in previous episodes. Viewers obviously clocked that Judith was too young when the Director recruited her. In the final episode, both Sam and Debbie learn that Judith was only 15 when she was recruited, casting a negative shade on Nighy’s character.

The episode affirms it when Judith goes to her old training academy to get more details on Redback. She finds out that every single child recruit in the academy was adopted and returned just like her, before the Director took them on. It is revealed that the Director used this cruel method to break them mentally and make them loyal to the Agency.

As Judith makes this discovery, Redback comes in and reveals that she had also learned the truth. She gains the upper hand over Judith with the help of a toxin and gets the Director on the phone. She presents him with two choices: leave Judith alone but destroy the Agency, or ask her to kill Judith.

The Director chooses the latter, devastating Ana and Sam, who were listening in. These events make Nighy’s character the real villain of the story, despite him coming off as a sympathetic character earlier. A second season will likely be centered around this Judith vs. Director storyline.

What Happens to Redback in Ride or Die‘s Final Episode?

Sylvia Hoeks as Ana/Redback in Ride or Die | Credits: Prime Video

Redback manages to cause a lot of devastation in the show. While her childhood story is very similar to Judith’s, she doesn’t have Judith’s moral compass. It is her obsession with Judith’s Whiptale that led to her misery. She becomes so jealous of Judith’s friendship with Debbie that she wants to kill the latter.

On her revenge quest, she first hurts the Director by killing Mrs. Williams. She leaves several bodies throughout the show, even slitting Billy’s throat. Instead of killing Debbie in the seventh episode, she causes major trouble in their friendship, which leaves Judith devastated.

However, she doesn’t leave after this revenge mission. She comes back for Judith and locks her inside a dark chamber. Her plans to torture Judith are interrupted by Debbie, who comes back for her and saves her. An enraged Redback follows them in a car and tries to run them off a cliff.

Judith is partly incapacitated, so she needs Debbie’s help to take down Redback. Instead of using a real gun, Debbie uses a hook gun to attach Redback’s car to their car. They jump out of their car, which drags Redback’s car along with it as it falls off the cliff. This time, Debbie wants to make sure that Redback is dead and goes to check on her body.

Why Did Queenie Decide to Help Interpol?

Savannah Steyn and Calam Lynch as Queenie and Sam in Ride or Die | Credits: Prime Video

Queenie’s past is a subplot that the series ties up in the final episode. Earlier in the show, Queenie seeks Sam’s help to find out more about her past. She discovers that her mom, Mrs. Williams, was hiding something from her. On one of her missions to help Judith, she finds out that her mom was an assassin. They have a fight about it.

It is after these events that Redback kills Queenie’s mom. She shouts at the Director, who calmly asks her to undergo training before pursuing Redback. However, she dismisses his initial offer. Later, in the final episode, she comes across photos that reveal that the Director might be her father.

In the next scene, we see the Director introduce her to Sam as the Agency’s new assassin trainee. However, it is a ruse, as Queenie is shown to be working with Interpol. It appears that Queenie could be the one who brings down the Director and the Agency.

Her romance track with Sam is something the series never quite explored fully. A potential second season could feature major development in that aspect, especially since he is her handler.

Who Is Chasing Judith and Debbie on the Train?

Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer in Ride or Die | Credits: Prime Video

After killing Redback and walking away from the Agency, Judith is seen on a train with Debbie. They both have different destinations, but it appears that their friendship is still going strong. However, they don’t get a happily ever after ending, as a man disguised as a server and two women disguised as tourists have targeted them, and they take out their guns before the credits roll.

These could be assassins working for the Agency or an entirely different group. It teases the possibility that Judith and Debbie’s adventures aren’t done yet. As of now, Prime Video hasn’t announced a second season for the show. Waddingham and Spencer deliver great performances in their roles, with strong supporting performances from Nighy, Hoeks, and others.

What are your thoughts on this new Prime Video series? Let us know in the comments below!

All episodes of Ride or Die are now available for streaming on Prime Video.