Clipped Finale Recap: In This Game, Everyone Loses — Grade It!

The finale of Hulu’s basketball docudrama Clipped didn’t provide much of a happy ending for anyone, from Clippers owners Donald and Shelly Sterling all the way down to coach Doc Rivers and his players.

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Let’s start with Doc and the team, who are facing a big playoff series against Oklahoma City, but the players are distracted by Donald’s disastrous TV interview with Anderson Cooper. (He tells Anderson, “I think you’re more of a racist than I am,” and scoffs at the mention of Magic Johnson: “Well, he’s got AIDS!”) Donald claims his players still love him, too, even though they’re screaming at the TV, “We literally hate you!” They drop the next game thanks to a questionable foul call, and soon enough, they’re eliminated from the playoffs, with Doc reminding his players of how much they overcame just to get there. He calls them together for one final huddle… but they’re not exactly pumped up.

As for Donald, he’s annoyed that Shelly is trying to line up buyers for his team, and after his on-air meltdown, Shelly starts thinking about invoking a clause in their trust where she can remove him if he’s deemed incompetent. She has Donald meet with a neurologist, and he doesn’t do great on the test, with the neurologist suggesting he may have Alzheimer’s. But Donald shrugs it off, and when Shelly brings him the hyper-enthusiastic tech mogul Steve Ballmer, who offers to buy the Clippers for $2 billion, Donald dismisses him: “He’s not the guy.” Shelly screams at him that if he doesn’t sell, the players will leave and the sponsors will drop out, but Donald threatens to go scorched-earth: “I have dirt on the whole world!”

Left with no other options, Shelly uses the neurologist’s evaluation to get Donald removed from the trust, and Donald is incensed. “You’re not making good choices,” she tells him, but he shoots back: “Your slice of heaven was built on my choices, sweetie.” He takes her to court, where Donald declares that he runs the team while Shelly just “throws parties.” Shelly testifies to Donald’s failing mental faculties, and he gets belligerent, yelling at the judge and calling Shelly a “pig” when she tries to approach him. The judge rules in Shelly’s favor, clearing the way for her to sell the team to Ballmer. When asked for comment outside the courtroom, Donald sadly says: “I thought I knew her.”

Shelly doesn’t exactly end up smelling like roses, either. Even her best friend Justine turns on her after she stays with Donald following the sale: “You two were made for each other. You both think you own everybody.” And after a heart-to-heart with LeVar Burton helps him get in touch with his anger, Doc Rivers tells Shelly off, too. Even though she sold the team, she and Donald still own their practice facility, and she’d still get a ring if they won a title, and “that absolutely fills me with rage,” he flatly tells her.

But the saddest ending of all has to be V. Stiviano’s, with her lawyer reminding her that Shelly is still suing her for the duplex, just as her finances are drying up. She sells her Ferrari — but keeps the vanity plates — and goes to court to face Shelly, telling her that Donald would have taken her side. But then Donald enters the courthouse and takes Shelly’s hand, leaving V. devastated.

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On the witness stand, V. says she was Donald’s “right-hand arm,” even though she had no official employment record, and that he wanted to take care of her. But in Donald’s sworn testimony, he says that the cars he gave her were his, and he only put them in her name because of her “criminal record.” V. loses in court, and we see her taking a sad walk through her empty duplex before moving out, carving “STERLING PROPERTIES” into the wall with her keys. She has a drink with Deja to commiserate, but even there, a couple of drunk jerks make fun of her and call her a whore. When she stands up for herself, they break out the N-word… and when V. angrily confronts them, she gets punched right in the face.

Bruised and battered (literally), V. turns back to what she knows best: working for Donald, fetching his coffee and medications and signing for his deliveries. Donald sunbathes nude, somehow coming out of this scandal with a billion-dollar windfall. The Clippers players are befuddled by new owner Steve Ballmer’s rabid enthusiasm, but they bond by playing a midnight game of street basketball, far away from the cameras. As for Doc, he hits the Clippers court with Elgin Baylor, shooting hoops and talking about their legacies. Doc wants to be remembered as a winner… but he admits his fanatical drive to win led to his wife just filing for divorce. Elgin isn’t worried about his legacy, though; he just enjoys the sound of a basketball swishing through the net.

The ball is in your court: Give the Clipped finale — and the season as a whole — a grade in our polls, and then hit the comments to share your post-finale thoughts.

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