Feud: Capote vs the Swans episode 8, the season finale, takes place entirely in 1984, the year Truman Capote died. It opens with Truman (Tom Hollander), three months clean and sober, taking flowers to Babe's grave. He lays down talking to Babe, telling her he might be joining her soon.
Still lost in thought about Babe, Truman goes to Jack’s (Joe Mantello) apartment and begs to be let in. Jack is there with his young boyfriend, Nick (Jack Reinfeldt). Jack doesn't want to let Truman in, but Nick invites him to have dinner.
Over dinner they discuss Answered Prayers and the nature of forgiveness. Truman is determined to finish Answered Prayers and use it to right the wrongs of his past and get the forgiveness of the remaining Swans. Truman declares the heart wants to forgive, that it's the nature of people to forgive and be forgiven. Nick agrees. Truman tells Jack he doesn't want love, he wants forgiveness for the things he's done.
Truman wants forgiveness
Truman continues working on Answered Prayers. Smoking and drinking instant coffee, he writes chapters for each Swan as his alter ego P. B. Jones, giving them the stories that reflect who they really are, not just the things they've done. He writes about the fictional closing of La Cote Basque, where the characters based on the Swans were gathered in one place so he could create the ending he wanted with them.
Kiki, the character based on CZ (Chloë Sevigny), sits down with P.B. Jones, telling him his real crime wasn't betraying her and the others, it was showing them only as two-dimensional caricatures, not people with feelings and complicated lives.
P.B. takes Kiki on a cross-country driving trip. They drive to Mexico, where Kiki is able to really let her hair down. Wearing a red peasant top and jeans with her hair down, Kiki dances to the jukebox in a Mexican dive bar after selling her Diego Rivera-painted portrait to the bartender for two whiskeys.
Off the wagon
When Truman finishes the chapter rewriting CZ's story he hallucinates his mother (Jessica Lange) in the room with him, critiquing his writing and handing him a drink. Truman drinks it and starts down the path that will ultimately kill him. The hallucination of his mother is brutal to him, picking apart his writing and his motives. He drinks more, then dives into the next chapter.
The next chapter is for Slim (Diane Lane). P.B. follows Lady Ina, the character he based on Slim, on the street. When she sees P.B. she confronts him on the street. Angry, she punches him in the chest, twice. That seems to loosen up her anger, so P.B. follows her home.
She is packing up her expensive furnishings and china as she moves on from yet another failed marriage. She is sad, angry and frustrated. P.B. encourages her to throw the expensive plates against the wall and release her rage. He throws the first plate. She follows. Soon the two of them are lying on the floor amid piles of broken china, laughing.
P.B. throws her a ball where she gets to be the star and meets the love of her life.
The muse
Truman, lost in thought while hallucinating, also remembers when he was a child and his mother would lock him in a hotel room telling him to be quiet while she entertained and tried to charm men for money. Truman's hallucination of his mother is both supportive and cruel, the same way she was in life. She continues to feed Truman booze and pills to fuel his writing.
In the next chapter, P.B. Jones finds Lee (Calista Flockhart) at La Cote with her cheating husband. P.B. writes a memoir for Lee in her voice so she could be a celebrated writer. Then he helps her kill her tiresome husband by poisoning him with nicotine.
After finishing Lee’s chapter Truman wakes up slumped over the typewriter. His mother is back. And she’s angry. She wants Truman to write about her suicide, the death of the Black Swan, but he won't. The hallucination shifts.
Truman is sitting on a sofa with Ann Woodward (Demi Moore), watching his mother commit suicide after her husband leaves her. Ann talks to Truman throughout the vision. Truman asks her if she ever forgave him, and she says never. She tells Truman the other Swans will never forgive him either if he publishes Answered Prayers. He asks what he can do, and Ann tells him he already knows. He has to say goodbye.
Feud: Capote vs The Swans ending explained
When the vision clears, Truman goes to the lake he was at in the opening of the first episode. He watches the swans. Then he gets a box from his car. Inside is the manuscript for Answered Prayers. He pours gas on it, then hesitates. He sees Ann again, who tells him he must choose the book or his soul. After a few seconds he flicks his lit cigarette into the box and the manuscript bursts into flames. He stands and watches it burn.
Without his life's work and without his Swans, Truman is lost. He goes to California to stay with Joann Carson (Molly Ringwald) and start writing something new. But he slips into a spiral of alcohol and pills again and that's where his death scene from the previous episode repeats.
After Truman's death, Joann has him cremated and she keeps the ashes with her until her death. In 2016, after her death, her household items, including Truman's ashes, were auctioned off. Kerry O'Shea (Ella Beatty) shows up at the auction and bids on Truman's ashes, but she is outbid.
The Swans attend the auction as very well-dressed beautiful angels. They share a few memories of Truman, then ascend into white light.
All episodes of Feud: Capote vs the Swans are available to stream on Hulu in the US.
