My white boy impulses have given me the sudden desire to break into the Missouri cheese caves and gorge myself on fine aged blue cheese and smoked Gouda.
Deus ex machina is stupid. Just kill off your characters as penance for your lack of foresight. It won't make the narrative better but it will prevent it from getting worse... Unless you fridge the characters rather than giving them a proper death.
One thing that I wonder about from time to time is what the Animorphs cover art models are doing now? Did being immortalized as a fucking animal morphing child give them an advantage in life or did it hinder them? Do any of them even acknowledge that they were a part of a literary dumpster fire?