Season finales are supposed to hit hard. Common Side Effects doesn’t just hit—it kicks down the door and burns the lab. Episode 10, titled “Raid,” throws every character into chaos and every theme into full bloom. It’s messy, brutal, and exactly what this twisted story needed.
The Forest Falls
Let’s not ease into it. The FBI raids Marshall’s mushroom compound. Guns drawn, boots stomping, orders yelled. It’s not a quiet operation.
Agents storm the site under the pretense of public safety. But make no mistake—it’s about control. And it’s a slaughter.
Blue Angel mushrooms? Trampled. Torched. Destroyed.
People who came looking for healing? Shoved to the ground. Arrested. Beaten. One even dies during the chaos. That death hangs over the episode like smoke.
You can feel the fear. You can feel the rage. This isn’t just a raid—it’s a declaration.
Frances and Marshall Reunite
Somehow, amidst the carnage, there’s still hope. Marshall and Frances find each other again—this time at Joshua Tree.
They’ve both been through the wringer. Betrayals. Loss. Public humiliation. Prison. Death threats. Tortoise theft.
But now, finally, they’re aligned.
They decide something big: no more secrets, no more patents, no more selling miracles to the highest bidder. The mushroom belongs to everyone. It’s a cure, not a commodity. They’ll spread it freely. Together.
Jonas Goes Too Far
Of course, not everyone gets a happy epiphany.
Jonas, Reutical’s dying puppet master, goes all in. He eats a massive dose of Blue Angel mushrooms, hoping for salvation.
What he gets instead is one of the most disturbing hallucinations the show’s ever dropped. His body regenerates and decays in a never-ending loop. Flesh melts. Bones reappear. It’s psychedelic horror at its finest.
By the time it’s over, Jonas is a vegetable. Alive, technically. But gone.
Greed, meet your cautionary tale.
The Agents Take Sides
Copano and Harrington finally see things for what they are.
During the raid, Copano takes a bullet trying to protect innocent people. Harrington doesn’t freeze—he acts. He gives Copano a mushroom.
Moments later, the wound’s gone. Just like that.
Their worldview shifts. They’ve seen the power. And now they know what the government’s trying to erase.
They’re no longer just agents. They’re witnesses. Maybe even allies.
A Few More Shocks Before the Credits
If you thought that was it, you underestimated this show.
- Rusty dies. He sacrifices himself trying to defend the compound. His death hits hard, especially because he believed.
- Amelia and Wyatt escape. Barely. But they slip past the feds and disappear into the shadows.
- Rick finds a new hustle. He launches “Sparkl,” a mushroom-based food additive. Of course he does. Capitalism never dies.
- Hildy goes rogue. She secretly doses an entire town’s water supply with a liquid form of the mushroom. No warning. No consent.
She’s not healing the world—she’s testing it.
Everything Burns, But Something Grows
“Raid” pulls no punches. It’s the show at its most raw.
The government looks monstrous. The corporations look worse. And the people who tried to make things better? Most of them end up bleeding or buried.
But something’s shifting. Frances and Marshall have a new plan. The agents are starting to question orders. Even the mushroom, resilient as ever, still has a chance to thrive.
So where does that leave us?
The old world’s cracking. The new one hasn’t formed yet. But the spores are in the air.
Season Two? Bring it on.
