Warning: this article contains MAJOR spoilers for One of Them Days

One of Them Days is a buddy comedy that hearkens back to the glory days of the genre, telling the story of Alyssa (SZA), and Dreux (Keke Palmer), who have to race against the clock to come up with rent money when the former’s boyfriend, Keshawn, wastes it all. The film presents them with obstacle after obstacle, from Keshawn’s insane new girl hunting the duo to exploding bags of blood at the blood bank. While Alyssa and Dreux aren’t exactly a heartwarming movie duo, their adventures in One of Them Days are surely to get some laughs.

One of Them Days ends with the gangster in question, King Lolo, holding the duo at gunpoint for their theft of his shoes, demanding that Alyssa and Dreux give him $5000 or be killed. The pair manage to elude him, but eventually, he catches up to them and comes very close to executing them on the spot. However, he is eventually knocked out and taken into custody, leaving One of Them Days’ story very open and shut, albeit with plenty of themes and morals to dig through afterward.

How King Lolo Is Defeated In One Of Them Days’ Ending

The Universe And Some Solid Planning Brought About His End

King Lolo isn’t a threat throughout the whole movie, seeing as he only personally shows up during the third act, but he is mentioned enough times throughout the film that his arrival as the movie’s ultimate villain seems very natural. King Lolo’s final defeat comes at the hands of Alyssa in particular, as she makes an actual plan, in an act that shows how much she has grown as a character throughout the film, relying on her own intelligence and instincts as opposed to hoping everything turns out for the best.

Alyssa and Dreux manage to initially escape by hitting him with a fridge door and hiding under a truck, but he is eventually able to catch up with them in their apartment. As he gets ready to deliver the killing sH๏τ, he slams the door closed, and a piece of the roof falls down and knocks him out. While this seems more random than anything else, the roof falling down was set up earlier in the film, and that tidbit coming back at the end of the film is a classic case of Chekhov’s Gun.

However, that is still not the end for Lolo, as the girls obviously don’t want to kill him, which would leave a big problem for them. it is revealed that Alyssa called the loan agency that they visited before, because she remembered seeing Lolo’s face on their wanted list, leading to the company taking Lolo away, seemingly for good. On top of being a hilariously hyperbolic representation of scummy loan agencies, Alyssa being the one to think up and execute the plan is a natural endpoint for her character, as she is finally able to think ahead rationally.

How The Fire Started At The End Of One Of Them Days

Keshawn’s Apology Didn’t Go Exactly As Expected

One of the big moments from One of Them Days comes when Alyssa and Dreux’s apartment is set on fire during King Lolo’s attack. Prior to the fire actually starting, Keshawn lit all of Alyssa’s candles all over the floor, in an attempt to be romantic and win her back after essentially ruining her life. This obviously doesn’t work, but Lolo interrupts before the candles can be snuffed out. When he is knocked out, he knocks one of them over, and the fire starts spreading throughout the building.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the end for our protagonists, as, while the fire was raging, they were rescued by a group of firefighters, led by Maniac, as they hid in an adjacent room. Obviously, they weren’t going to burn to death in their apartment, but it was still a tense scene that was also able to resolve the Dreux and Maniac romance that had been slowly building, by revealing that he was the lead firefighter to rescue them, and wasn’t some sort of murderer, much to Dreux’s relief.

Why Alyssa Rejects Keshawn During The Ending Of One Of Them Days

Alyssa Didn’t Need Someone Like Keshawn Anymore

One of the major plot points throughout One of Them Days is the evolving relationship between Alyssa and her boyfriend Keshawn. At the beginning of the film, she knows that Keshawn is a bad guy, but she is comfortable with him and doesn’t have the will or self-respect to do what is best for herself and break ties with him. After he steals the rent money and runs off with Berniece, they break up, but they still keep in contact, and eventually, Alyssa accidentally reveals her location to Berniece.

By the end of One of Them Days, Keshawn wants Alyssa back, saying that he has changed and wants to try and make things work between them. By this point in the movie, however, Alyssa is already fully aware that he doesn’t actually care about her or respect her, telling him that to his face. While she does repeat what Dreux told her earlier in the movie, it is clear that, in going through her journey throughout One of Them Days, she has finally learned to love herself enough to say no to him.

What Happens To Dreux And Alyssa After One Of Them Days

All The Pair’s Dreams Are Finally Realized

Finally, after everything is said and done, Dreux and Alyssa get everything they want and continue to live their lives to the fullest. Immediately after the events of the film, the first thing that happens is that the central duo temporarily move into Mama Ruth’s apartment while theirs is being repaired, before moving back into their own, refurbished apartment, which had been made to look and work as nicely as Bethany’s. Obviously, however, it doesn’t stop there, as both characters earn a new lease on life.

The movie spells out what happens to the main characters very explicitly, with Dreux becoming a franchise manager and forming a relationship with Maniac. However, these things only happened because of the changes that the character went through, namely Dreux becoming more confident in herself, following Alyssa’s advice during their fight to not relying entirely on other people propping her up. In the further future, the movie implies that she will likely follow a similar career path to Shayla, as she explains how similar her career and upbringing were to Dreux’s.

Alyssa’s future is equally spelled out, with her finally managing to make a living as an artist, eventually selling pieces for thousands of dollars. Similarly to her best friend, Alyssa was only able to achieve this goal because of the lessons she learned throughout One of Them Days‘ story about actually taking control of her own life. Throughout the film, she just goes along with whatever she thinks the universe wants, but by the end of One of Them Days, Alyssa is actually making decisions and plans to further her personal goals.

The Real Meaning Of One Of Them Days’ Ending

The Comedy Film Manages To Have Some Solid Themes

The ending of the critically-acclaimed One of Them Days paints a pretty clear picture of what it wants the viewer to take away from the movie, managing to tie both the main characters’ arc together with the central themes of the bonds of friendship and community. There are important lessons to learn from both Dreux and Alyssa’s arcs individually, but the most important idea that the film presents is that the only reason they were able to make these changes is because they had each other to help.

While the film does have plenty to say about being able to rely on yourself, it makes the important distinction of explaining that you don’t only have to rely on yourself for everything. Yes, Dreux did need to believe in herself instead of just having Alyssa believe in her, but Alyssa absolutely helped to bring about Dreux’s arc, and vice versa. One of Them Days underscores the importance of these strong bonds to help you grow, but also the idea that they can’t be used as a crutch.