**Warning – contains full spoilers for the DTF St Louis finale.**
All seven episodes of DTF St Louis are available to watch on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic and NOW, with the cathartic conclusion of Steven Conrad’s American dark comedy miniseries now revealed.
The show follows the lives of three adults, Clark (Jason Bateman), Carol (Linda Cardellini) and Floyd (David Harbour), who find themselves embroiled in a love triangle in an attempt to escape suburban discontent through a dating app named DTF St Louis.
Following many tense twists and turns, Floyd is found dead in a pool locker room.
And after six episodes of pinballing viewers between different theories and suspects, the show lands on a more quietly painful note as it is revealed that there was in fact no killer – Floyd died by suicide after purposely ingesting the lethal Bloody Mary.
The grubbiness of romantic jealousy on which the show centres here seems to fade away as a deeper emotional truth emerges, with creator Conrad telling Variety: “I would hope that the audience has come to know him over the seven hours, and that this event feels sad, obviously, but foreseeable due to the conditions of this one summer where the only bright spot was this singular friendship that didn’t amount to ultimately be enough for him.
“To have a condition of an adult life where you can’t tell anybody what is really hurting; you can only pretend like some trivial things might help.”
In Floyd’s final moment by the pool, after drinking the fatal cocktail, he signs ‘I love you’ to his stepson, Richard (Arlan Ruf).
The delicately crafted scene marks a tragic ending to their tender relationship, which viewers see peak and trough through the course of the series as rash decisions prevail, lost in Floyd’s fear that his stepson’s life will amount to the same as his – getting “grown-up Cs”.
Breaking down their dynamic, Conrad added: “[Floyd] has some deficiencies in terms of being a caretaker of a family. I think that he just happens to have a spirit that is more attuned to the sweetness of life… I knew that there would be this sweetness that could help Richard immensely.”
Alas, he added that “all the sweetness in the world can’t save Floyd”.
Elaborating on the show’s ending, Conrad called back to the almost childlike friendship between Floyd and local weatherman Clark. Despite the romantic messiness their friendship remains strong, seen most plainly as they dance in the pool house – which of course later becomes a more sinister reminder of the place Floyd comes to die.
Conrad gifts the show’s final moment to Clark, with a closing shot of him allowing their friendship and subsequent grief to linger.
The writer added to Variety: “If [Floyd] had only been able to maybe say more to Clark, who knows how they might have chosen to spend that last week. It would have been different, I’m sure.”
Read more:
- Steve Carell’s “heartfelt” new comedy Rooster gets future confirmed after first episodes air
- The Madison future confirmed ahead of Taylor Sheridan drama’s season 2 premiere
Want to see this content?
This page contains content provided by Google reCAPTCHA. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Google reCAPTCHA may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose ‘Accept and continue’ to allow Google reCAPTCHA and its required purposes.
DTF St Louis is available to watch in the UK on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic and NOW.
Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
