Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt series finale recap: Kimmy Says Bye!

It’s the final episode ever of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the city is planning to knock down Titus, Kimmy, and Lillian’s apartments if they aren’t brought up to code.

Also in the previous episode, Kimmy rejected the money from the Giztoob sale but used their algorithm to help sell her book. And Titus finally became a Broadway star when he got on stage during Cats.

“Kimmy Says Bye!” the last episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt‘s last season (sob!) picks up right where the previous one left off — with Lillian, Titus, and Kimmy pondering what to do about their apartments. They’ve got two days to move out and Kimmy’s optimistic. All they need is $3 to $5 million. Titus and Lillian don’t seem quite as confident about their chances.

Titus gets a call from Jacqueline. She got her new client Greg Kinnear into Cats but Titus was fired from the show in the process. Titus is bitter but Jacqueline has good news. The Lion King needs someone to step in to play Rafiki that night and now Titus is available. Titus is thrilled and makes his way down to the theater.

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Meanwhile, Kimmy is still trying to figure out the best way to save their apartments. Lillian is wondering if this is a sign to move on but Kimmy refuses to give up. She runs off to try to figure out what to do.

Lillian has a different idea though. She stops two kids on the street and informs them that she’s going to blow herself up in the apartment and become a ghost to make sure the neighborhood avoids becoming gentrified. The kids run away in horror.

Titus arrives at the theater for The Lion King where he meets the actor he’s understudying for. She’s old and infirm. He’s feeling confident that he can take over for her.

As he’s being escorted around the theater, Mikey calls. He asks Titus to sing at his wedding that Saturday. Titus can’t figure out why Mikey would ask him to do that. Then he realizes: Mikey wants drama at his wedding, the drama of leaving Andrew at the altar and running off with Titus.

At the Giztoob offices, Kimmy finds Jacqueline who’s trying to prevent movers from taking her stuff away. The sale of the company’s gone through and the office is moving so Jacqueline no longer has a place there for her talent agency.

Kimmy reluctantly tells Jacqueline that she needs money quickly to save the apartment so she’s now willing to sell her mole woman story. But Jacqueline tells her the world has moved on. Now that every woman’s telling her story of abuse, Kimmy’s isn’t that interesting anymore.

Kimmy’s desperate. Is there anything else she can do to make money quickly? Jacqueline convinces her to set up a sexy web channel with the other mole women, but it’s weird and they didn’t make any money.

Later, Jacqueline is cleaning up the remainder of her office when Eli, the agent who poached her former client Trip, stops by. He comments on her lack of furniture and she claims it’s the result of a prank war with George Clooney.

They exchange “pleasantries” about how the clients they poached from one another are doing. Eli then drops a bombshell — Greg Kinnear’s signed with him through 2021, so regardless of who gets him jobs, Kinnear must pay a commission to his firm for the next two years.

Jacqueline’s flabbergasted. That’s not fair! Eli tells her she should have her legal team call his. Or she could have dinner with him that evening. Eli claims they’d be great together. It’s unclear if he wants to date her or hire her.

Outside the apartments, Lillian’s plan to blow herself up and haunt the neighborhood have spread. Kimmy arrives and tells Lillian she didn’t get the money they needed. Lillian tells her it’s OK, it’s time to move on anyway.

Lillian refers to her plans and how she’ll become a New York legend. Kimmy doesn’t understand what Lillian is going to do. She just thinks Lillian’s planning to blow up as an actor, not blow up literally, so she’s supportive. Lillian’s surprised. She thought Kimmy would try to talk her out of it.

At The Lion King, the actor Titus is understudying for is insisting on going on that night, but the stage manager anticipates that it will kill her. That means Titus needs to be ready to go on during the matinée the next day. The problem is Titus is supposed to sing at Mikey’s wedding then. To make sure he will still make it to Mikey’s wedding, he does everything in his power to nurse his overstudy back to health.

She’s so impressed with how nice Titus is to her and is feeling so good that she decides to try a city bike. Titus tries to stop her but she rides away… and immediately gets hit by a car. Titus is definitely going to have to be in The Lion King now.

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Kimmy goes to Jacqueline’s place to find Xanthippe there. Xan’s rich so she asks Xan for the money she needs for the apartment. Xan sarcastically tells her no. Kimmy doesn’t know what she’d do without her home. Xan says Kimmy needs to find her passion, but Kimmy doesn’t know what that is anymore.

Titus walks in and shares his tale of woe about having to choose between starring in The Lion King and singing at Mikey’s wedding. The right choice is clear so Kimmy promises to tell Mikey that Titus can’t make his wedding.

Jacqueline walks in looking dirty and defeated. Eli signed her agency up for a softball league and in her first game she had to serve as a one-woman team. Eli’s trying to destroy her. Jacqueline believes he’ll only back off if she sleeps with him and Jacqueline’s feeling hopeless. Kimmy sings her a comforting song.

The next day at the wedding, Kimmy goes to Mikey’s dressing room to inform him about Titus. Mikey’s disappointed but understands what a big dream Titus is fulfilling by being in The Lion King. Still, he seems resigned and unhappy.

Kimmy wants to know what Mikey thought would happen if Titus was there. Mikey confesses that Titus was right, he wanted Titus to do something to stop the wedding. Mikey’d been waiting for Titus to try to win him back but didn’t think he’d done a thing. Kimmy corrects him, she lists all the things Titus did to get him back, but Mikey missed all of it.

Kimmy gets down to the crux of the matter: Does Mikey want to be with Titus? Mikey claims it’s complicated but Kimmy informs him that he needs to actually deal with his emotions.

At the empty Giztoob offices, Jacqueline sits in the middle of the floor as Eli comes in. He informs her that he leased the office for his own company and will be kicking her out. (Sidenote: He also lets slip that he went to Mr. Frumpus’ funeral. The lewd puppet finally met his demise.)

Jacqueline tells him he can go ahead and destroy her life, but she’s never going to sleep with him. Eli’s confused. Jacqueline misunderstood his innuendo. He wanted to take her to dinner to discuss her working for him at his agency at a Junior Agent.

Jacqueline isn’t buying it. She’s known men like him and he’ll only ever see her as an object. Eli corrects her, he doesn’t see her at all — he’s blind. How does he manage to get around as if he’s not? Confidence and he’s mastered the art of echolocation.

So it turns out Eli actually respects Jacqueline for who she is and not what she looks like. Jacqueline kisses him.

Kimmy goes to see Titus, who’s getting ready for his Lion King debut. Kimmy tells him Mikey was fine with him not coming to his wedding. Titus is sad but admits it’s probably best that he didn’t make a fool of himself.

Kimmy brings up Lillian’s plans to become an actor and how Titus must have inspired her. Titus finally clues her in on Lillian’s real plans to get blown up with the apartment and haunt New York.

Kimmy can’t believe it. Why didn’t Titus stop her? He says he respects people’s choices. Plus he thinks Lillian will make an amazing ghost. The explosion is happening in half an hour, so Kimmy races to get to Lillian.

At the apartment, Lillian sneaks in after the workers finish their final inspection only to find the ghost of Artie there. He discourages her from going through with her plan. The ghost of Lillian’s dead husband, Roland, appears next to inform her that it’s not her time. But Lillian’s determined to go through with her plan.

Kimmy arrives just as the building starts exploding. However, the explosions don’t bring the place down. Lillian walks out of the apartment coughing from the dust. She’s alive. One of the workers informs her that they aren’t allowed to use the good explosives anymore. At least Kimmy is thrilled to see her friend.

At the same time, a reporter covering the story has determined that Lillian has just pulled off the most New York thing he’s ever seen. Lillian goes on a rant for the camera about how the old New York was much better than the current version and the gathered crowd applauds.

Kimmy goes back to Jacqueline’s place to inform Xan that she puts everyone before herself and she needs to figure out what to do with her life. To inspire her, Xan quotes a passage from Kimmy’s book to her. Kimmy recognizes the line and asks where Xan got the book. Xan says she got it from her little brother but everyone at Columbia’s reading it.

Kimmy brings the conversation around to how amazing the author must be and Xan quickly realizes it’s Kimmy. Kimmy wants to know how everyone’s getting her book. It turns out the website Zach set up for her is working. It just keeps crashing because of the demand.

Kimmy goes to the empty Giztoob offices to see Jacqueline just as she’s finishing up with Eli. He knows about Kimmy’s book too. All his clients’ kids are reading it. They’ve been trying to track her down for weeks.

Jacqueline and Eli each make impromptu attempts to woo Kimmy into letting them represent her. Jacqueline wins and Eli’s impressed.

After his big number at The Lion King, the stage manager tells Titus he has some time before his next number. So Titus tries to find a way to get to Mikey’s wedding but isn’t successful. He turns around in defeat to find Mikey standing there. He declares his love for Titus and they kiss. Awww.

There’s a montage of Titus singing “Circle of Life” interspersed with flashbacks from the beginning of the series. It’s oddly moving.

The scene flashes forward four years and we get to see where each of the main characters ended up. Lillian is the new voice of the MTA, New York’s public transportation system. People are scared and confused.

Titus has made his feature film debut in Sliding Doors 2: Tokyo Doors and he and Mikey arrive at the premiere with their two babies.

Jacqueline and Eli’s businesses are still going well and apparently so is their relationship.

And in Universal Studios in Florida, Kimmy’s on hand to open a new land inspired by her book. Her roller coaster-obsessed mother is there and very proud. She believes Kimmy did it all for her and that she’s an amazing mother. Kimmy invites her to come to London for the opening of another attraction based on her book.

The camera pulls up over the park and as the roller coaster climbs the hill and starts its rapid ascension, “The End” flashes on the side of the screen.

It’s sad to see Kimmy, Titus, Lillian, and Jacqueline go but it’s nice to see that things worked out for all of them. It feels like a fitting ending for a show that always stayed positive in the face of trauma and the other horrors of life.

It’s possible Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt will return for a movie at some point, but nothing’s been announced yet. So for now, that’s the end of the series as we know it.

If you want to relive the second half of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt‘s final season, you can read all our recaps, starting with the one for episode 7. You can also binge the whole series again and again on Netflix

What did Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt mean to you and what did you think of the series finale? Let us know in the comments.