HBO Max’s final episodes of Search Party season 4 are now available to watch and give us quite the ending — here it is explained.
Search Party season 4 has come to an end and wow, what a final few episodes. There is a lot to unpack here, and be warned there are major spoilers ahead. If you are confused, I hope this Search Party season 4 ending explained article helps.
Read my Search Party season 4 review.
Warning: Major Spoilers for Search Party Season 4 Ahead
Since Dory was kidnapped at the end of season 3, she has been living in Chip’s basement for months. When her friends start to ask around about her disappearance, his family finds out and decides they need to cover it all up. Chip’s mother/Aunt (yes, they are the same person) has come back in town in order to clean up his mess.
After brainwashing Dory, she takes on the name Stephanie and even goes out in public with Chip. However that is when Elliot, Portia, and Drew spot her in the small town of Babyfoot, Massachusetts. They “save” her but she is still brainwashed and does not want to be saved.
While she is tied up in the hotel room, she sees the Wilma show with Chantal as a guest. When Chantel says “honestly, myself” it triggers her memories and she realizes who she is and what has happened to her. She is clearly out of it, and upset at herself and her actions of the past. She ends up stealing the car, and driving back to Chip — begging him to brainwash her again. He refuses, saying that not only does he not know how to recreate what he did, he did it for friendship, and she clearly wants it for selfish reasons.
Throughout the season we have seen Dory flashing back to when she was kidnapped and thrown in the trunk. Now we see the full flashback and realize that she escaped. However, after thinking about everything she has done, she crawls back in Chip’s trunk, awaiting what she thinks is a fate she deserves.
Chip’s mother/Aunt tells him that he has gone too far past the “pay her off” line, and they must now kill her. She knocks Dory down the stairs and locks her in the basement, then has the house set on fire. Dory gasps for air and she eventually passes out. Elliot, Drew, and Portia have decided this is the last straw with Dory, and opt not to go looking for her.
In the final episode of Search Party season 4 we get Dory’s funeral. It is a very emotional episode as all of her friends and family say goodbye to Dory. Several different versions of herself — one from each season of Search Party, appear at the funeral to watch what others are saying.
When the friends return to Elliot and Portia’s apartment, there is a box and letter from Chip. It has Dory’s hair, as well as a camcorder with the message we see Chip recording in the first episode of the season. Earlier, at the funeral, Portia was approached by a clairvoyant who told her the numbers 5-1-8 will mean something to her. She fast forwards to that time on the camcorder to find a goodbye message from Dory to the three of them. They hold each other crying.
Now, this could have been the end of the series and been one of the best television endings in history. However, it is unknown if there is going to be a fifth season of Search Party and they certainly left it open for that because then we cut to Dory being wheeled out of the burning house. She wakes up yelling that she died, and she had seen it all.
So the explanation here is that she completely imagined her funeral. She was never found dead and so her friends still don’t know that she was just left in the basement to die. What does this mean for a possible season 5? I guess we will have to wait and see.
Watch Search Party on HBO Max!
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.