MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for the series finale of NBC's Superstore.
The Superstore series finale has officially aired on NBC, marking the not-so-heavenly day that fans have to say goodbye to the motley crew of Cloud 9 employees who have been delivering laughs for the past six years. The good news about the end of the series is that Superstore didn't end on unhappy fates for the characters. In fact, it's hard to argue that any of them got an unhappy ending, even if those endings meant that many of them had to go in separate directions. Ben Feldman and more stars of Superstore have revealed their thoughts on their characters' endings.
The endings for the major characters were revealed in the final moments of the episode via a montage, with a voiceover courtesy of an uncharacteristically emotional Garrett delivering his final announcement over the Cloud 9 speaker system. Read on for how the cast members felt in saying goodbye to their characters, and what they think their characters did first after leaving Cloud 9 for the last time.
Lauren Ash - Dina
The Cloud 9 closing didn't mean Dina leaving the larger Zephra company, as she stayed on to become manager of the fulfillment center that was taking the store's place. She was only able to keep five employees out of the whole Cloud 9 staff and had a hard time choosing, but she ultimately came to see who to keep (with some help from Sandra), and she ended the series a Zephra manager professionally. Lauren Ash explained her outlook on Dina's new job:
I really liked that Dina gets to be the manager of the new distribution center. Earlier in the seasons of the show, there was kind of a storyline about like, you know, Dina decided she didn't want to be manager. And that was a hard storyline for me because I never 100% bought it. I think we played it well at the time. But I was very happy when this season, she did become a co-manager, and then she's continued on that kind of track. I think that that makes sense for her.
Dina didn't shoot up the Cloud 9 ranks quite like Amy did, but becoming co-manager in Season 6 opened the door for her to become a full manager for Zephra. She grew a lot over the years, and not just professionally, even though that clearly worked out for her. On the personal front, the montage revealed that she got her happily-ever-after with Garrett, and Lauren Ash was a fan of that as well:
I love that her and Garrett are together. I think there was a really great moment in the All-iday Party episode, where Dina accidentally gets high and she wants to hide it from her boyfriend, Brian. But then when she sees Garrett, the first thing she wants to say to him is like, 'Oh, no, no, I got to tell Garrett.' And that for me actually was the moment, watching. Like, I can get teared up about it now. I was just like, everybody knows those people in your life, maybe if it's not even your own experience, but you see those people where you're just like, 'Oh, those two are meant to be together. Oh, it's just ridiculous. It doesn't make sense. So it makes sense.' And I just thought that that was like, such a realistic situation for her specifically.
At the end of the day, Dina wound up in a good place in her life, even if she didn't reach any groundbreaking heights or hit any improbable goals. Lauren Ash explained why Dina moving on and living her life while still keeping in close enough contact with everybody to party at a barbecue at the end worked for the character:
So I really like where it ended for Dina and I think that she keeps on keeping on. Sometimes we get asked in interviews, like, what's your character's ultimate goals? And I'm like, I think some of these characters' ultimate goals are to, like, keep living the way they're living. And that's a great thing. I don't know that Dina has necessarily like a huge, overarching dream. I think that her dream is to keep working the job she does, do good work. You know, go on some fun sex vacations with Garrett and live a good life. You know what I mean? And I say that earnestly. I think that that's like at the end of the day, there doesn't have to be some huge payoff, if that makes sense for her, for example.
Sex vacations with Garrett and a managerial position sounds like a pretty ideal ending for Dina, although I like to think that she also has some birds in her happy ending. But what about Ben Feldman's ending as Jonah?
Ben Feldman - Jonah
Jonah had to deal with heartbreak over the end of his relationship early in Season 6 and then professional frustration later in Season 6 when he discovered that he wasn't even up for a job that he thought he was applying for. His romance with Hannah seemed to be good for him, but he was single again by the time Amy returned. Superstore didn't disappoint fans hoping that Jonah and Amy would get back together by the end. The ending montage also revealed that he runs for city council, and Ben Feldman weighed in:
On the other end of the spectrum, I end up running for government. Look, there's the Jonah and Amy stuff that to some degree, we can sort of anticipate with the announcement that America [Ferrera]'s returning to the show in the first place. But the added element of Jonah kind of following his dreams and actually leaning into what he really sort of feels like inside, which is a leader for a cause. It has been something that's sort of been brewing for years on the show. So it was really nice, just that little tiny moment in the montage in the end. It choked me up when I read it, and it choked me up every time I watched it, which was a lot because there were way too many cuts.
Jonah not only wound up happily married to Amy, but they seemingly have a son named Carter together, and Jonah seems close with Emma as well. As Amy said, life is so much better since Jonah came to Cloud 9, and I for one wanted him to have as happy an ending as possible after how Amy left. She was ready to make a grand gesture to make amends, and everything was uphill from there. Plus, stars on the ceiling of their kids' room! What better callback could there have been?
Colton Dunn - Garrett
Colton Dunn's Garrett finally showed some emotion about the Cloud 9 closing, although not so much that his two decades of making customer service announcements were over. He remembered the good times that outshone the bad, and reflected on the friendships. He did end up with Dina and looked perfectly happy barbecuing it up with his former Cloud 9 pals at the end, and Dunn shared his thoughts on that conclusion:
I mean, character-wise, I think it was probably that Garrett really did have friendship, you know. We kind of deal with that in the episode, he almost calls it out. Like, these are just my work friends, we don't really need to hang out with these people. But through the course of the episode, just the last couple episodes, you do see those people that he does connect to. And obviously Dina, he has a connection to, and they have clearly a complicated relationship throughout the series. [laughs] So it's cool to see that that's still existing. We don't exactly know where it is or what it is. But we do know that it's still there. I think the first thing that Garrett did [after leaving the store] is take off that ridiculous vest.
Just because Garrett showed that he has a sentimental streak for Cloud 9 after all doesn't mean he was going to wear that vest an instant longer than necessary! It's not clear where exactly Garrett ended up professionally, but he certainly looked happy in the montage with Dina.
Nico Santos - Mateo
Mateo has been one of the funniest Superstore characters over the years, but also at the center of arguably the show's most serious storyline. As an undocumented immigrant, Mateo had to deal with the all but constant uncertainty whether he'd be able to stay in the United States, not to mention the complications of holding a job without official paperwork. Glenn turned out to be an ally there, even if he couldn't make the problems go away, and the finale revealed that Mateo has joined Glenn at the reopened Sturgis & Sons hardware store with his relationship going strong. Nico Santos commented on how Superstore handled Mateo's situation:
I'm really happy with the fact that I think it would have been really easy to sort of just like, wave this magic TV wand and fix everything for Mateo. But we really wanted to stay true and honor what undocumented immigrants go through in this country. There is no quick fix for somebody like Mateo, who's in that position. Mateo just doesn't have a path for citizenship. That's just the reality of it. And as easy as it would have been to just [say] like, you know, 'Poof! President Biden gave you citizenship, and now everything's fixed.'... I love the fact that we did really sort of wrap up his story and gave him a conclusion that is what somebody in his position in the real world would have to go through. And also like the fact that he had, you know, sort of like a win with this relationship, his life still goes on even though he's undocumented, and he's still worthy of love and relationships and stuff like that. And I think the first thing he would have done when he left would probably just go to his boyfriend, and have a little cry.
Mateo didn't get quite as clean and neat of a happily-ever-after as some of the other characters, but the finale made it clear that Mateo has found happiness in his own way despite all of the challenges. And he still gets to work with Glenn and Cheyenne, so congratulations to Mateo!
Nichole Sakura - Cheyenne
Speaking of Cheyenne, her journey in Superstore was arguably the most remarkable after Amy's. The pregnant teen who didn't seem to have much of a promising professional future ahead of her in the first season was floor supervisor by the series finale, and she's the one who brought Amy back into the mix. Like Mateo, she joined Glenn at Sturgis & Sons, and may even wind up with her own spinoff. Nichole Sakura had a humorous take on what Cheyenne would have done after Cloud 9 closed:
Raid the store like we actually did in real life as actors. Free stuff! I got a nice little step stool, I've been getting a lot of use out of that.
Who doesn't love a good step stool? Although it's not the most sentimental image, it's fun to picture the Cloud 9 employees raiding what was left of the store, avoiding raccoons one last time and hopefully not finding any more severed feet. Who knows how many other severed limbs Elias was holding on to?
Mark McKinney - Glenn
Glenn initially intended to simply retire when Cloud 9 closed, but the prospect of puzzles and free time just didn't appeal to him. So, he decided to reopen Sturgis & Sons, giving the hardware store a second shot after the original had to be closed down when Cloud 9 moved into the area. He has Mateo and Cheyenne on board, and the barbecue at the end revealed that he and Jerusha are doing just fine. As for what he did after leaving Cloud 9 for the last time, here's what Mark McKinney thinks could have happened:
He would have gone to Jerusha. Jerusha would have fed him a treat, something he's probably not allowed to have. So he probably went home and Jerusha brought a, I don't know, pecan pie with whipped cream and ice cream to him in the garage and just said, 'Have you got your med alert bracelet on? Okay. You just take your time, come in when you're ready. There's a toilet bucket in the corner.’
True love in the Sturgis marriage is Jerusha supplying Glenn with forbidden sweets and giving him time in the garage with a toilet bucket. Theirs had been an odd relationship during Superstore's run, but always worth some laughs! And that brings us to...
Kaliko Kauahi - Sandra
Sandra may have been pretty meek and quiet for a lot of Superstore, but she got married, survived years of working with a vengeful Carol, and got an epic mic drop moment in the finale when she informed Dina that she would be staying on as Dina's assistant manager. Sure, she kind of ruined her own mic drop moment by picking up what she dropped and making sure it was okay with Dina, but it was a far cry from Season 1 Sandra! Actress Kaliko Kauahi is happy about how things wrapped for Sandra:
I was really happy with how it ended actually for all of us. But yeah, for Sandra too, just because she's been on a journey towards happiness and fulfillment and I think she finally gets there. So that was what's happening for Sandra.
The major Superstore characters got some happy endings despite the closure of their Cloud 9, but fans might not be too happy facing a future without Superstore coming back. The end was arguably nigh for the comedy as soon as news broke that America Ferrera was leaving as Amy, and the pandemic complications surely didn't help anything, but I would say that the show rolled with the punches and delivered something that worked emotionally, and what more could fans ask for from a finale?
If the end of Superstore has made you nostalgic for the earlier days of the show, you can always rewatch the series streaming on Hulu, and check out our 2021 spring premiere schedule for some viewing options now that Superstore is finished on NBC.
