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The Union Ending, Erklärt: Wie bekommen Roxanne und Mike das Laufwerk zurück?
In Netflix’s ‘The Union,’ a construction worker named Mike is pulled out of his normal life by his ex from high school, Roxanne, who turns out to be a spy for the eponymous spy agency. From spending his days on construction sites and spending evenings drinking beer at Wilson’s with his friends, Mike goes to being chased after by bad guys and trying to retrieve the thing that could wreak havoc in the wrong hands. With Roxanne, he learns the ins and outs of the Union while also discovering some dark facets of the organization, starting with the man who betrayed it. SPOILERS AHEAD
Is Faraday Dead? Why did He Betray the Union?
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At the beginning of the film, Roxanne leads a group of Union agents who are tasked with securing an ex-CIA agent who was about to leak a drive with highly sensitive information to the enemy. This drive contains the name of all secret agents who have ever worked with a NATO-allied secret agency, from CIA to MI5, and if the wrong people got their hands on it, they could cripple the intelligence system of NATO countries in one fell swoop. The mission is to secure the man and the drive, but it goes awry when the team is caught off guard, and everyone on the mission is killed except Roxanne. Or so everyone thinks.
It is much later that Faraday, who was last seen getting shot and falling from the bridge where he was supposed to have the target extracted, is alive. He reveals that he survived the bullet wound and washed out to shore, where he got help and recuperated. He suspected a mole in the Union, so he decided to keep himself dead to the others so he could find the mole’s identity in the meantime. He also tells Roxanne that the mole is none other than their boss, Brennan.
While Roxanne falls for it the first time, the next morning, it becomes clear to her that this was all a story. Faraday was the real mole who betrayed the agency by having the target killed and the drive stolen. He was the one responsible for the deaths of Union agents that night and faked his death to keep himself from being suspected. His plan was to get the drive, sell it to the highest bidder, and spend the rest of his life in luxury with the money he got from selling the device. He didn’t care that it would mean the death of hundreds of agents throughout the world, including Union agents like his ex-wife Roxanne.
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He was tired of doing all the work and never being appreciated or rewarded for it. When he shared his desire with Roxanne that he wanted more from life and that they should explore other avenues, she refused, which led to their separation. This was the last straw for him, and when he saw the opportunity to have something that could make him rich overnight, he jumped at it. After stealing the drive, he put it up for auction, and the Auctioneer, Juliet Quinn, was in cahoots with him. When Roxanne and Mike find her and try to get the drive, she swaps it with a fake one so that Faraday has the real drive.
To clear his tracks, Faraday frames Brennan and Roxanne by wiring a suspicious amount of money into their accounts. He tips off the CIA, who arrest Brennan and disband the Union. They try to arrest Roxanne, but she runs away, vowing to make Faraday pay for his actions. After a lot of chasing around, she eventually gets her hands on Faraday. When he is trapped, he tries to entice Roxanne into joining him, but she doesn’t fall for it this time. She shoots him, and this time, he dies for real. She and Mike get the drive, once again, to secure the Union’s future and that of every other spy agency connected to them.
What Happens to Juliet?
When Faraday steals the drive, he approaches a woman named Juliet Quinn to have it sold so that he can keep his identity a secret. In the course of doing business with her, he also develops a romantic relationship with her. He and Juliet plan to use the money from the sale to live a life they always dreamed of, but later, it turns out that Juliet is in it for the money.
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After the hitch in the sale caused by Roxanne, Mike, and the Union, Faraday gets the drive back. At this point, he has framed Brennan and Roxanne, which makes it look like the danger has passed, and they can go forward with the sale once again. However, Roxanne escapes the CIA and shows up to get the drive back. This is despite all the hurdles put on her path, and Julie Quinn knows better than to underestimate her. When she sees how far Roxanne has come without any help, she realizes that it would be impossible to keep her away because she would just keep coming back.
This makes things tricky with Faraday because it means that the money will never show up. So, instead of backing Faraday, Julie decides to back down from the fight. She much prefers to be an ally to Roxanne than be her enemy and tells her as much. She tells her bodyguards to back down and let Roxanne and Faraday fight for the drive. It looks like Juliet is sure that Roxanne will emerge victorious, so she tells her that when they meet again (which she is sure they will), she would like to work with Roxanne than against her. She also says goodbye to Faraday, knowing that he will not make it out of this fight.
Juliet’s quick thinking proves that she is highly experienced in such situations and knows a winner when she sees one. Her offer to be Roxanne’s ally when they meet again is a way for her to offer her usefulness to the Union agent, hoping that this would prevent Roxanne from taking the same approach that eventually does with Faraday. This approach also gives Juliet the chance to leverage her knowledge and use it to benefit her, like securing an insurance policy for the future.
Do Roxanne and Mike End Up Together?
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Roxanne and Mike met each other at school and dated before she left for college and wasn’t heard from again. It is clear that they were in love with each other, but things were made complicated, mostly due to the fact that Mike’s father was racist and Roxanne’s father didn’t really like Mike. Whatever spark survived between them was smothered when Roxanne joined the Union and left her life in Paterson behind for good. She wouldn’t have come back home if she didn’t need someone she could blindly trust while fulfilling the mission to save the Union and the world.
Even though they’d spent more than two decades apart, it is clear that Mike and Roxanne still hold a soft spot for each other. Even when Roxanne kidnaps him, tears him away from his life, and throws her into the chaos of hers, there is something palpable between them, which only gets stronger the more time they spend with each other. While Roxanne is proud of the progress Mike makes in a few weeks, she also worries about him, trying to keep him alive throughout the mission because she feels he is her responsibility.
Meanwhile, Mike continues to have feelings he thought he had suppressed a long while back. He is ready to endanger the mission if that’s what it takes to save her, and at one point, Roxanne too becomes more worried about Mike rather than chasing after Faraday, who has the drive. Their concern for each other in the heat of the battle, losing, which could crumble the entire structure of the world, proves that they still have feelings for each other.
In the end, when Mike goes back to Paterson to attend his friend’s wedding, Roxanne shows up. Mike is surprised but happy to see her. It seems that she, too, has felt the tug of home and wants to be with the people she knows and loves. It is clear that despite her work, she is ready to have one foot in Paterson where she can have some semblance of a normal life, meaning that she and Mike can finally be together and make up for lost time.
Does Mike Join the Union?
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When Roxanne brings Mike to the Union, her decision is not taken well by many, including Brennan. Mike seems too normal to learn the ways of espionage and take on a mission that is not as “piece of cake” as initially described. Mike, too, feels he is not fit for the job, but slowly, he starts to get better at things. Roxanne’s point is proven: Mike is the kind of guy they should hire at the Union. Initially, Roxanne had brought him in for just one mission. As soon as they were done, he could go back to his life. However, with each step, Mike proves himself more than capable of handling himself. While he is still rough around the edges, he is clearly spy material, and this time, the Union and Brennan acknowledge it as well.
If it hadn’t been for Mike, it would have become exceptionally difficult for Roxanne to get the drive back, make Faraday pay for his actions, and bring the Union back on track. She needed someone by her side, and Mike happened to be just the guy she and the Union needed, even if Brennan seemed skeptical about it initially. In the end, when he shows up at Paterson with a new mission, it isn’t just to get Roxanne back on the field. He also asks Mike to join them, showing that he has accepted Roxanne’s good judgment and now knows that Mike is, in fact, the Union material. The fact that Mike doesn’t refuse shows that he has found a place for himself in this new life while keeping his ties intact with the old one. He is ready to join the Union and go on missions to save the world, but at the same time, he will keep in touch with his old life and have the best of both worlds.