If you’re a massive fan of all things Tyler Perry, you may have been sitting on pins and needles while waiting for The Oval‘s thrilling season six premiere. Even still, the series contains so many off-the-wall twists and turns, that you may have trouble recalling exactly where we left the sprawling cast of characters back in season five. Luckily, we’ve got you covered, with a comprehensive guide to The Oval‘s most recent finale, which should jog your memory and give you everything you need to barrel into the newest installment with confidence.
When we last saw President Hunter Franklin and his ensemble of friends, family and staff, the major players were embroiled in a shocking shootout, closing the season with the show’s most tense nail-biting cliffhanger so far. With no further preamble, let’s parse through the important details, and deliver a full recap of Tyler Perry’s The Oval season five finale.
What Happens in ‘Wild Wild West’?
The Oval‘s season five finale is fittingly titled “Wild Wild West,” and delivers some truly surprising twists right from the first scene. The episode opens with White House butler Richard as he prepares to cater a massive soiree in the West Wing. While donning his dapper work clothes, he becomes frustrated by his wife Nancy, who asks him to hold her. Long-time fans of the show will note that Nancy has been on thin ice with Richard for some time, and it looks like the events of season five were just what the latter needed to finally go over the edge. Richard informs his wife that he wants a divorce, and remains steadfast as she protests. Before storming out of the room, Richard explains that her love is no longer enough to make him stay.
While the butler’s marriage may seem like a minor detail to the overall show, this is actually one of the most significant character moments in the entire episode. For now, there’s no way of knowing if the divorce talk will stick, though Richard seems to be finally fed up enough to cut Nancy off for good. Meanwhile, Priscilla and the rest of the White House staff arrive after Vice President Eli Winter calls an emergency meeting. Nobody seems to know what the meeting is about, though many characters have surmised that Eli and the First Lady Victoria are preparing to mount the final act of their long-planned coup against the president. In the episodes leading up to the finale, Eli has already cut most of the Secret Service and replaced them with his loyalists, while Victoria has worked on rounding up her children to prevent them from interfering.
Victoria and Eli’s Plan Explained
Ever since Eli came aboard President Franklin’s team in season three, he and Victoria have been engaged in an on-again off-again fling, which includes both a romantic tryst and a plot to depose or even kill the president. Earlier in season five, the pair finally put all their cards on the table, exposing themselves to Hunter after poisoning him with drugs. As “Wild Wild West” kicks off, Hunter is still wheelchair-bound, and in the process of insulating himself from the growing list of traitors siding with his wife. At this point, Victoria is ready to hand Hunter over to her father and let him take the president out violently, though Eli insists that he can be committed to a mental institution using the 25th Amendment. As a last-ditch effort, Victoria agrees to meet with Hunter privately and demands that he step down before calling in the cavalry.
Before she can make it upstairs to the Oval Office, however, Victoria is shocked to see that her son Jason is safe and sound, being transported to President Franklin’s quarters by Isaac. She pretends to be surprised and plays up her motherly act, but Jason knows that she was responsible for kidnapping him. After a brief exchange, Jason panics and shakes free from Isaac’s grasp. He kicks his mother directly in the gut and makes a break for it, only to be swiftly tackled by Isaac just moments later. Having lost all control over who he can and can’t trust, Jason resigns himself to his fate and is brought in to speak with his father. Once Jason sits down with Hunter, the pair are both shocked to learn of Victoria’s evil behavior, as they have both been on the receiving end of her wrath in recent days.
The Season Ends With a Shootout
Hunter promises to protect his son and sends him down to the bunker with a trusted detail of Secret Service agents. Meanwhile, Victoria reveals to Eli that her plan to convince Hunter to step down has failed, and that their discussion only escalated the tension. In a fit of rage, Victoria rallies her troops and takes nearly every major character up to the Oval Office. With Donald, Kyle, Eli, Sam, Bobby, Simone, Max, Priscilla and even Richard in tow, Victoria storms back into Hunter’s quarters to reveal that she’s having him committed. Luckily, Hunter has prepared for this outcome, and has staffed the room with several special ops soldiers willing to kill on command. Eli’s Secret Service detail draw their guns, the special ops team responds in kind. Bullets begin to fly right as the season cuts to the closing credits.
What Can We Expect Going Into Season 6?
Season 6 of The Oval is expected to be the darkest installment in the series yet, as the relationship between the President and the First Lady continues to deteriorate exponentially. That is – if they both survive the shootout in the Oval Office. Clearly, The Oval is loaded with high-stakes tension, which is only expected to get more chaotic before the series winds down to its final conclusion. The season six premiere, which aired on Jan. 7, showcases exactly who survived the explosive encounter and who didn’t, so you should be sure to stream the episode on BET Plus quickly before the reveal is spoiled!
No matter how things shake out, this moment is sure to be a traumatic experience for the entire White House staff, as well as the first and second families. This means that season six will see each of the key players taking the gloves off and tackling their goals with a newfound no-holds-barred approach.
Why Did Barry Leave ‘The Oval’?
One last plot line that sees its ultimate conclusion in season five is that of Vaughn W. Hebron’s Barry, who has been missing and presumed dead for a long time at this point. The character was technically written out of the show back in season four, though his death wasn’t 100 percent confirmed until the season five episode “Breaking News.” Barry was on a long and arduous search for his daughter when he faced serious pushback from organized criminals in the Washington D.C. area, eventually resulting in his untimely demise. Though Vaughn W. Hebron was undoubtedly sad to leave The Oval behind, he shared an Instagram post detailing one of his favorite behind-the-scenes moments after the episode aired, and even thanked Tyler Perry for “Giving me my first shot and helping launch my career.” Hebron concluded his social media post by exclaiming “I will always be grateful.”
