‘Dying For Sex’ Ending Explained: Does Molly Get to Orgasm Before She Dies?

FX‘s new dramedy series Dying for Sex follows one woman’s crusade to truly live before she dies. When Brooklynite Molly (Michelle Williams) is told that her cancer has returned as Stage Four, meaning she will died from it, she decides to promptly leave her fussy husband Steve (Jay Duplass) so she can “die with” best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) as her caretaker. Molly also sets a very clear and kinky intention. She wants to experience an orgasm with another person for the first time in her life.

**Spoilers for all eight episodes of Dying for Sex, now streaming on Hulu**

Over the course of Dying for Sex‘s eight episodes, Molly explores dating app culture, sex parties, penis humiliation, masturbation, and even urine play. At the same time, Molly also finds herself confronting the root of her sexual intimacy issues: being molested by her mother’s boyfriend as a young child.

Of course, Molly is juggling this sensual journey with the reality of dying. What does it mean to die? How does someone face their own death? And what happens when we die? Dying for Sex tackles all of these questions head on with a spectacular finale that rips the mystique away from the death process.

From your burning questions about Rob Delaney’s nameless Neighbor Guy to whether or not Michelle Williams’s Molly actually dies, here’s everything you need to know about the end of FX on Hulu’s Dying for Sex…

Photo: FX

Dying For Sex Ending Explained: Does Molly Die?

Yes, Molly dies at the end of Dying For Sex. There’s no miraculous moment of healing. Molly dies. However, the way that Dying For Sex tackles Molly’s death is life-affirming in a way that we haven’t seen on TV before.

Instead of tiptoeing around what happens when someone dies, Dying For Sex confronts it head on. A hospice nurse named Amy (Paula Pell) walks Molly, Nikki, and Molly’s mom Gail (Sissy Spacek) step-by-step through the death process in an extraordinary scene in Dying For Sex Episode 8 “It’s Not That Serious.”

“How amazing was Paula Pell?” Executive Producer Liz Meriwether said. “That was like an unbelievable moment.”

“I think it’s incredible that you haven’t seen that on television. I mean, obviously, we all die. Like it’s a universal experience and so it’s amazing to me how little people actually know about it and know about the experience of it,” she said.

Meriwether shared that she and fellow EP Kim Rosenstock threw themselves into research for the final episode, sharing videos with each other, sometimes of people actually dying.

“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never looked at this before,’ but also, if you look at it and you learn about it, it’s less scary,” Rosenstock said. “There was something weirdly comforting about having all of the information.”

Rosenstock gave credit to the original Dying For Sex podcast that inspired the show for allowing its audience to “experience a woman on her deathbed and hear her voice.” It was so “groundbreaking and emotionally moving,” however, that it put pressure on the TV show’s team to get the same storytelling right.

“I was nervous, though,” Meriwether said. “Because it’s a long speech. And I was just like, ‘This is just like one person talking about death for a long time on television.’ But it turned out so well and I feel, I hope, that people take a lot from it.” 

Photo: FX

Does Molly Ever Get Her Orgasm in Dying For Sex?

Molly doesn’t just experience death and sex in Dying For Sex; she also eventually falls in love.

Her repulsion to her neighbor, played by Rob Delaney, evolves first into a kinky sexual relationship that deepens over the course of the season. In Dying For Sex Episode 7 “You’re Killing Me, Ernie,” Molly confesses her love for “Neighbor Guy” and the two share an intimate night in the hospital that crescendos with Molly finally having an orgasm.

“It’s leading up to this moment that Molly has so bravely built herself up for and has opened herself up for and has put out the calling into the universe that she wants this thing,” Michelle Williams told DECIDER. “She may never get it. She may not be able to have the thing that she want before she passes.”

Williams admitted that she, the actress, asked herself if she could “deliver” this orgasm that Molly needs and wants, especially since what Molly was really searching for wasn’t sex, but healing.

“Everybody wants it for her because we’ve all been living with Molly for this number of episodes. It’s not just me and Rob, it’s our boom operator and it’s are two camera operators,” Williams said. “You feel like you’re really all in this together.”

Photo: FX

What is Neighbor Guy’s Real Name in Dying For Sex?

Okay, so Molly falls in love with Neighbor Guy, but she never learns his name? What’s going on with that? Is it for legal reasons, since the show is loosely based on a true story? Thematic ones?

“I think at some point we just couldn’t, we didn’t have a name for him and we were like, ‘Let’s just — like why name him now?” Rosenstock revealed.

“I wonder if I keep adapting real stories because I hate naming characters so much,” Meriwether said, laughing.

The two executive producers could confirm that they purposely excluded Neighbor Guy from Molly’s final moments.

“We knew from the beginning that he was not going to be there at the end,” Meriwether said. “It was important to us that Molly was there with the people that she actually was there with at the end, her mom and Nikki.”

“Yeah, and it’s like the ultimate love story in the show is between these two friends, between Molly and Nikki,” Rosenstock said. “Um, but we both love rom-coms so much. Yeah, it was like we couldn’t help but like want that other element in the show.”

Dying For Sex is now streaming on Hulu.