Finale Girls

Rachel Rippetoe and Mallika Mitra
  • 5.0 (7)
  • TV & Film
  • Updated Biweekly

On Finale Girls, writers Rachel and Mallika zero in on the end of TV shows — or at least, the end of seasons. A finale can be a thesis statement, a jaw-dropping twist, a cathartic goodbye or a total flop. With this lens, we examine storytelling, TV's evolution as a medium and our own relationship to the shows we love (and hate).

  1. Jul 17

    "GET OUT! BANISHED!": The End of Gossip Girl's 3rd Season

    This episode contains spoilers for Gossip Girl, Love Island (up to the finale) and a tiny bit for Industry. Gossip Girl aired on The CW for six seasons from 2007 to 2012 and skyrocketed into the zeitgeist amid the rise of blogging and texting culture. From the duo behind The OC, the show followed the scandalous lives up Upper East Siders, and made household games of Blake Lively, Penn Badgley and Leighton Meester. In this episode of Finale Girls, Mallika and Rachel discuss the third season finale, "Last Tango, Then Paris." They also discuss Emmy nominations, Love Island (pre finale), Ashley Tisdale writing a series about toxic moms, the upcoming Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging series and much more.

  2. Jul 3

    "Sorkin Part II (Derogatory)": The End of The Newsroom’s First Season

    This episode contains spoilers for The Newsroom, The West Wing, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Love Island (from weeks ago).  The Newsroom premiered in 2012 on HBO and ran for three seasons. It was created by Aaron Sorkin, who the girls were really nice to in the last episode, but now it’s time to get real. In this episode of Finale Girls, Mallika and Rachel dive into the season one finale of The Newsroom, "The Greater Fool." They also discuss Love Island, the upcoming Legally Blonde spin-off series, the next season of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the Knicks and much more.

  3. Jun 19

    "Sorkin Part I (Complimentary)": The End of The West Wing's Second Season

    This episode contains spoilers for The West Wing. The West Wing premiered in 1999 on NBC and ran until 2005. It was created by Aaron Sorkin, who the girls love to dunk on (but they're nice to him in this ep!). The show followed a Democratic president, Martin Sheen’s Jed Bartlett, and his staff in the West Wing. It was perceived as a smart and witty antidote to the buffoonery of a looming Bush presidency. In this episode of Finale Girls, Mallika and Rachel dive into the season two finale, "Two Cathedrals." They also discuss Love Island , Hacks, the passing of Anthony Stewart Head and more. For more on The West Wing, check out Rachel's essay: https://yeswerestillwatching.substack.com/p/we-reported-the-news And for more on Harlan Coben, check out Mallika's: https://yeswerestillwatching.substack.com/p/the-harlan-coben-formula

  4. Jun 6

    "Sticky, Micky, Stucky": The End of Law & Order: SVU’s 10th Season

    This episode contains spoiler alerts for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU).  SVU premiered in 1999 as the first spinoff of the original Law and Order franchise, which aired from 1990 to 2010 and then returned in 2021. SVU originally starred Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Benson, who solved especially heinous crimes with the NYPD. In the show’s heyday, basically every actor you could name had been on Law & Order.  In this episode of Finale Girls, Mallika and Rachel dive into the season 10 finale “Zebras” and discuss the franchise more broadly.  For more on the franchise being copaganda, see this segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNy6F7ZwX8I For more on Elliot Stabler being the ultimate TV husband and why Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the ultimate comfort show, see these previous issues of our newsletter Yes, We’re Still Watching:  https://yeswerestillwatching.substack.com/p/from-white-boys-of-the-month-to-linda?utm_source=publication-search https://yeswerestillwatching.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-comfort-show-needs-to?utm_source=publication-search

  5. May 22

    "We're Going to Solve Men. We're Going to Get to the Bottom of It": The End of DTF St. Louis

    This episode contains spoiler alerts for DTF St. Louis, The Better Sister and the 2003 film Mystic River.  DTF St. Louis, which premiered in March on HBO, is a dark comedy starring Jason Bateman and David Harbour as friends, co-workers and neighbors Clark Forrest and Floyd Smernitch who are both looking for more in their marriages. What exactly they’re looking for, they don’t seem to fully know. Linda Cardellini plays Floyd’s wife Carol Love-Smernitch.  The story is somewhat a murder mystery with time jumps, with Richard Jenkins playing Detective Donoghue Homer, a county detective who is trying his absolute best to keep up with all the kinks and sexual fantasies explained in this show, and really failing. He teams up with Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday), a special crimes officer from the Twyla police department.  In this episode of Finale Girls, Rachel and Mallika dive into the whole wacky show and especially the finale: "No One's Normal. It Just Looks That Way From Across the Street." For more thoughts on this show, read the accompanying essay on the Substack: https://yeswerestillwatching.substack.com/p/so-we-cure-male-loneliness-then-what.

  6. May 8

    "When Your Situationship Is a Married Farmboy Who's Actually From Chicago": The End of Gilmore Girls’ 4th Season

    This episode contains spoiler alerts for Gilmore Girls.  Gilmore Girls premiered on the WB in October 2000 and ran for seven seasons, concluding in 2007 on the CW network. The beloved series followed single-mother-and-daughter duo Lorelai (played by Lauren Graham) and Rory (played by Alexis Bledel) who live in the eccentric New England small town Stars Hollow. Genre-wise, the show teetered from family drama to teen soap to full out comedy, especially with its kooky cast of “townies.” Created by Amy-Sherman Palladino, Gilmore Girls was billed as your typical WB family teen drama in line with shows like Everwood and Seventh Heaven, but in reality it was anything but. It later became lauded for its fast paced dialogue, dense with layered references that spanned history, contemporary pop culture, deep cut news items, classic literature, broadway, borscht belt comedy, pre-code cinema and more. In this episode of Finale Girls Rachel and Mallika discuss the pivotal season four finale.

  7. Apr 24

    "What's the Status on Baby Jane Doe?": The End of the Pitt's 2nd Season

    The Pitt aired in January 2025 on HBO, bringing us to a Pittsburgh emergency room where health care professionals are savings lives, doing risky procedures that truly no one should be doing in an emergency room and grappling with their own demons. In this episode, Rachel and Mallika discuss the recent season two finale with a very special guest: Moises Mendez II! Moises has been a staff writer for TIME Magazine and Out Magazine and his work has been featured in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Business Insider and more. He's an expert on all things online (and he was in the trenches with Rachel and Mallika in journalism school). _ 30 Sec: Our life this week as a season finale  4 Min: What we’re watching this week (Euphoria, DTF St. Louis) 10 Min: Lena Dunham’s new memoir, American Horror Story Coven’s revival 15 Min: Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson punch, Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott Baby 18 Min: Introducing our guest, Moises Mendez II!  30 Min: Introducing The Pitt  37 Min: One-minute season one and two recap  42 Min: Major plot points of the season finale  48 Min The Pitt season 2 finale  1 Hour 9 Min: The Pitt’s fandom  1 Hour 16 Min: The last scene  1 Hour 21 Min: Favorite and least favorite lines  1 Hour 29 Min: Who is the hot one? 1 Hour 38 Min: Our finale rankings

  8. Apr 10

    "She's Right, Oklahoma Is Not a Play You Read": The End of Euphoria’s 2nd Season

    ***This episode contains spoilers for Euphoria (seasons one and two) and Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette. -- Euphoria aired on HBO in June 2019. Starring Zendaya as Rue Bennett, a 17-year-old struggling with addiction in the aftermath of her father’s death, the show was one of the first to spotlight Gen Z’s aesthetic and dig into what it means to grow up as digital natives. Since the second season aired four years ago, the cast has become who’s who of young Hollywood: Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, Maude Apatow and more.   Ahead of the show’s third and likely final season, Mallika and Rachel dig into the second season finale — a.k.a. “Lexi’s play” — plus as many Euphoria controversies as they can fit into an hour and a half, which is not all of them.  – 30 Sec: Our life this week as a season finale  4 Min: What we’re watching this week (Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette, The Pitt, The Drama, Love on the Spectrum) 18 Min: Summer House drama and Alex Cooper’s new reality show  25 Min: HBO’s Harry Potter trailer, Brian Cox talking about Jeremy Strong (again), Connor Storie to be on Criminal Minds 30 Min: Introducing Euphoria  47 Min: One-minute season one and two recap  49 Min: Season two overview  53 Min: The season two finale  1 Hour 30 Min: Favorite and least favorite lines  1 Hour 33 Min: Our finale rankings

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About

On Finale Girls, writers Rachel and Mallika zero in on the end of TV shows — or at least, the end of seasons. A finale can be a thesis statement, a jaw-dropping twist, a cathartic goodbye or a total flop. With this lens, we examine storytelling, TV's evolution as a medium and our own relationship to the shows we love (and hate).

Information

  • Creator
    Rachel Rippetoe and Mallika Mitra
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Rachel Rippetoe and Mallika Mitra
  • Show Website
    Finale Girls

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