Each episode of Interior Chinatown pulls layers of the series back, culminating in a mind-bending engine for both its central set of characters and audiences at home watching.
Based on Charles Yu's hit novel of the same name, the hit Hulu series tells the story of Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang), a self-proclaimed "generic Asian man" who starts to become self-aware that he may be a background character in someone else's story.
After pairing up with a new detective in town, Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet), Willis starts to pick apart the very reality he finds himself seemingly trapped in.
Interior Chinatown Ending Explained
Much like the novel it is based on, the Interior Chinatown series features an ending that will have fans talking.
As the series protagonist Willis is pulled from his workaday life as (how he describes it) a background character in someone else's story, he becomes aware of some greater powers at play.
Willis joins Detective Lana Lee on a case to uncover the mystery of some concerning murders taking place in the Chinatown that Willis and his family call home.
This culminates in Willis' suspicions becoming reality. It turns out that Willis and the other characters in his life have been living in a false reality in the form of a TV police procedural called Black and White created by a nefarious corporation known as the HBWC Company.
Willis realizes that he and his family have had no real agency in their lives, meant to only serve the other (predominantly white) main characters in the series and nothing more.
With the help of Lana, Willis attempts to break free of this predetermined narrative, actively going against the decisions being made to keep him and those close to him in the background.
In one final act of defiance, Willis and Lana jump from the top of a roof, to, hopefully, snap the cycle they remain stuck in; however, things do not go as planned.
Interior Chinatown ends with Lana and Willis waking up in another fabricated reality, serving as a metaphor for the real world. Even though Willis and Lana have been able to escape one narrative, they remain trapped in a system of systematic racism and societal constraints.
The series is trying to say that even though people like Willis (who are historically underrepresented in traditional media) may try to redefine themselves, the system will do its best to force them to fit into a particular - usually stereotypical - box.
How Interior Chinatown's Book Ending Differs From the TV Show?
This cyclical sort of reveal at the end of the Interior Chinatown TV series is not exactly how Charles Yu's original book closes.
In the book, Willis and co. come to the same realization, discovering they have been living their lives in a predetermined narrative meant to service other (more "desirable") hero characters.
Willis and Lana (named Karen in the book) do exactly as they do in the series, making one final act of protest to hopefully break free of the role set out for them by society.
This, in the book, is down however during a final kung fu stand-off in a courtroom in which Willis sacrifices himself.
Where this differs from the TV show is instead of Willis definitively waking up in another staged reality, he awakens to have seemingly broken free of his life in Black and White.
The book's ending features a bit more resolution than the show's, insinuating Willis has 100% snapped his societal chains and is now free to "move freely between worlds" without the baggage of the system weighing him down.
Interior Chinatown is now streaming on Hulu.
