‘Laid’ on Peacock Ending Explained: Why Did Ruby’s Exes Die?

It’s a frustrating thing when a TV show leaves you asking questions and needing more episodes immediately. Peacock‘s new comedy, Laid, is one of those shows as Season 1 ends with the audience only beginning to understand why Ruby (Stephanie Hsu) is a lethal lover.

The mystery / rom-com hybrid starring Hsu and Zosia Mamet, Michael Angarano, and Tommy Martinez answers a lot of questions in its pilot season but only alludes to the big question on every fan’s mind…

Why do Ruby’s exes die after she sleeps with them?

After watching a series of Ruby’s exes die oddly comical deaths in the order that she slept with them — Jodana (Adeline Rudolph) and Philippe (Simu Liu) stream to death in a locked sauna, Jeffrey (Josh Segarra) gets tossed into the air after getting hit by a car, and John Early becomes the lone victim of a commercial plane crash — the debut season ends with a plot twist and a cliffhanger teasing an interesting Season 2. Shocker, they have to keep us on the edge of our seats!

Throughout Season 1, Ruby and AJ (Mamet) tested out several theories relating to the commonality of the deaths in hopes that they may stumble upon the reason and solution. Is it only people who Ruby fully slept with? Are there exceptions for women? Could it be connected to unresolved issues with each person? Conversely, why is Ruby’s “sex loophole,” Richie (Angarano), the only person who has been able to outlive the issue?

The answers to the above questions? Yes, no, and to be determined. It turns out Ruby’s unresolved daddy issues are the real source of her problems (#relatable).

Up until the final moments of Episode 8, we’re meant to believe that it was Brad (Ryan Pinkston) and the Cinnabon witch (Kate Berlant) who were responsible for Ruby’s uncommonly bad luck, with the pair having placed a hex on the protagonist and cursing her love life. The witch took the blame and even gave Ruby a solution to end the hex, telling her she would have to pass the curse on to another person if she wanted the deaths to end. While Ruby is motivated by the desire to end the deaths, she is all the more inspired by her interest in getting down and dirty with Isaac (Martinez), the client-turned-love prospect who she thinks could be “the one.”

After letting Isaac in on the situation and making amends with AJ for sleeping with her boyfriend, Zach (Andre Hyland), the foursome set out to transfer the hex onto the annoying and elderly upstairs neighbor, Jill (Susan Berger), who they reasoned would not be affected in the same way as Ruby. If the curse, they believed, had the power to kill a person’s exes, it would make sense to set it upon Jill, whose best days and boyfriends are in the ground.

After doing the required steps, literally and figuratively, to transfer the curse to Jill, the group decides to test their theory by waiting a month before Ruby sleeps with Isaac to see if any more of her exes die. Since the longest break between deaths was 18 days, AJ and Ruby figured that waiting a full month would mean that Zach — who is just one person away from death — is in the clear. This would also pave the way for Ruby to sleep with Isaac.

A month after the ceremony to transfer the curse, the group checks in on Isaac (Finneas O’Connell) who had just finished a half-marathon and was next in line to die. Thankfully, they arrive at the finish line to find Jason feeling happy, healthy, and in no immediate danger of death, giving them the certainty that they had broken the curse once and for all. Feeling secure (and probably a little horny at their sense of victory), Isaac and Ruby finally seal the deal after a month of foreplay. Don’t celebrate yet, things are about to get weird.

So what happens after Ruby sleeps with AJ? Does AJ die? Does Finneas die?

Still riding high on their blissful roll in the hay, Ruby is shocked to be disturbed by a knock at the front door from the one person who she really was not expecting: her father (François Chau). We know that when Ruby was 18 and her mother died, her father left and completely abandoned her in a time of need. In fact, we know from her therapy sessions that she harbors a lot of feelings about it and it’s the reason she can’t get too close to anyone.

During the course of her investigation into the deaths, Ruby had to come face to face with “the one who got away,” Aubrey (Alexandra Shipp) while testing out their “make amends” theory. In their short conversation — Aubrey quickly takes a stray bullet to the head from an altercation outside of her tattoo shop — Aubrey tells Ruby that she has to take accountability and work through her issues, not just try to move past them. This includes confronting her father.

In honoring Aubrey’s (albeit unknowing) dying wish, Ruby finally sits down and writes a letter to her dad that she does not intend to send. Knowing, however, that Ruby can only move on by talking with her dad, Richie sends the letter to him without Ruby’s knowledge. We know that Richie is the one who sends the letter because the envelope he holds up on Ruby’s doorstep has the Toyota logo on it. Earlier in the season, believing he was going to die, Richie quit his job as a trivia host and bought a motorcycle he did not know how to drive. After learning that he for some reason is immune to the curse, he took a job at Toyota to pay the bills.

Just seconds after opening the door, AJ chimes in and shares that Jason, who they thought was fine after his half marathon, had died during a post-run celebration. In that, we also discover that the hex they believed to be behind the problem was a red herring, completely. Ultimately, it appears to be a genetic issue that Ruby inherited from her father and that he is the reason for the death of Ruby’s mom. That also seems to be the reason he fled, thinking that he was only going to bring harm to Ruby if he stuck around.

As for why Ruby and her dad have this problem, that’s the one thing we will have to wait to find out about.

Will there be a Laid Season 2 on Peacock?

That said, Peacock has not renewed the lovable comedy for Season 2 yet. We can only hope that that it comes quickly as we have high sex-pectations for what could happen.

You can watch the entire first season of Laid on Peacock now.