THEM: The Scare Ending Explained: Disease that Passes From Generation to Generation

If you have finished watching THEM: The Scare, the second season of the Prime Video horror series, you have certainly understood one thing: that Them is not an anthology series, in the sense that to fully understand the finale of this season 2 you must have also seen the first season. But if even having already seen the season subtitled The Covenant you still have more than one doubt, don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal. Let’s try to make a summary-explanation of the eighth and final episode of THEM: The Scare, in which when necessary we will also do a review of how season 1 ended to highlight references and analogies, while at the end we will express ourselves on all the remaining issues unresolved. If you haven’t seen everything, be aware that from here on out it is full of spoilers. As we explained to you in our review of THEM: The Scare, the second tranche of episodes also has the same objective: to point the finger at a disease that has always afflicted America, namely racism.

To do so, he sets the story a few decades after the previous one, in a Los Angeles of the early nineties in which a black detective, Dawn Reeve, must find the culprit of a series of terrible murders. At the same time as Dawn’s story, we follow that of Edmund, a young actor who would like to make it big but never finds the right part. The boy, who has obvious problems with mental and emotional stability, understands that his big chance could be to play a serial killer, and decides to prepare as best as possible for the audition… In the last episodes of Them: Fear all the knots come to a head and we discover that behind the brutal murders, there is a supernatural entity linked to the past of Dawn herself and to the character of Edmund, their stories intertwine between twists and turns rather unexpected scenes. In the following article we will analyze the conclusion of the series and its ultimate meaning: here is our explanation of the ending of THEM: The Scare, if you have not already finished the series, proceed reading at your own risk.

THEM: The Scare Ending Explained: Brief Summary

The protagonist is LAPD detective Dawn Reeve, played by Deborah Ayorinde who was also the protagonist in the first season as the mother of Lucky Emory. One day in 1991 Reeve is called to detect the murder of a woman named Bernice Mott, a foster mother whose broken-bones corpse is found in the sink cabinet of this house in terrible condition. Reeve, who two years earlier had been suspended for having severely beaten an informant in the case of the South Side killer, is entrusted to the investigation but paired with McKinney, a violent and racist policeman who, as Dawn discovers, is part of a group secret of policemen who follow a “blue code” or “blue wall of silence” by which the officers who are part of it – all white and racist – cover for each other in cases where they exercise their violence on blacks, Asians and other minorities. McKinney is immediately convinced that Mrs. Mott’s killer is the sixteen-year-old who lived with her and reported her death, but from the memories that her little sister brings back to Dawn, we discover that the lady had various paranoias and was convinced that a man wanted to kill her.

The second murder takes place in the same neighborhood (majority black) as the Mott house but seems disconnected from the first case. However, outside the house, Dawn notices Curtis Maynard and chases him when he runs away after saying that “he” will kill them all. At her house, the cops find clues that the man is a drug dealer, and McKinney beats him to obtain a confession. That evening, while Curtis prepares the drugs in front of his child sitting in the high chair, Curtis meets the same horrible end as Bernice and is placed back in the compartment where he hid the goods he was dealing. The case is then passed from McKinney to Diaz, a detective of Mexican origins, while McKinney begins to threaten Kelvin, Dawn’s son. With Diaz, Dawn discovers another double murder, of twins of Asian descent, with the same pattern of broken bones and paranoia about a red-haired “him” spying on them.

Dawn begins to suspect McKinney, who has red hair and a motive for racism towards the victims. And Diaz discovers that there is another strange case, of a Mexican child subjected to exorcism. Reeve and Diaz go to see him and Benny also talks about a red-haired man who looked at him through images reflected in glass and mirrors, thus explaining the blankets on Bernice and Curtis’ mirrors. That night Diaz and Reeve lurk outside the Alvarez house, and shortly thereafter Benny has spasms. Reeve rescues the child from the exorcism and rushes him to the hospital, where however the child arrives dead and with broken bones. Trouble begins for Reeve because he is investigated by Internal Affairs, where he is full of friends from McKinney and from that club of racists, which Reeve recognizes from that stakeout which ended with threats from McKinney. And in fact, they try to frame Dawn by blaming her for Benny’s death.

At this point, we go back to tell the story of Edmund, who would like to be an actor and make ends meet in an entertainment center for children. He has an audition that goes badly and starts following the cameraman who laughs at him, but at first, he seems good when he talks to Rhonda and accompanies her son to the games at his workplace. But then in studying for a role as a killer he gets carried away and first gets himself fired by entering the arcade with a knife, then he scares Rhonda on a date, then he shows up for the audition but is rightly sent away, then he is arrested when he is caught to molest a prostitute after being kicked out of the house of his adoptive parents (white, rich and socially involved), only to be released after they catch him playing the part of a murderer; finally he kidnaps and kills poor Donovan. He returns home and is about to commit suicide with a bag around his head, as we had already seen him do, but is interrupted by a new call from social services, who inform him that they have finally processed his request and can give him his family’s address.

At this point, we immediately understood that the sister was Dawn, but surprisingly we discovered that Edmund’s story takes place two years earlier, in 1989. He finds Reeve still living with her husband Corey, who mistakes Edmund for a new neighbor. But Dawn (who in two years goes from short hair to very long braids) doesn’t take long to understand that the man is lying, and, not suspecting anything of the truth, she chases him away, telling him not to show up again. Two years later, Dawn’s (adoptive) mother, Athena, is haunted by the ghost of Edmund, who urges her to tell her daughter the truth. So, before her Athena confesses to Dawn that she adopted her, sending her daughter into confusion when she discovers from Internal Affairs that she had been fostered by Bernice Mott. And then she discovers that her parents had also adopted Edmund, who however was deeply scarred by the abuse he suffered from Mott, exasperating Athena, who can’t even take that ugly Raggedy Ann Doll away from him. One day Athena goes for a ride with Dawn while Edmund stays at home with his father William, but when they return, they find William dead and Edmund playing with medicines.

At that point, Athena realizes that she can no longer live with Edmund and takes him back to the Mott house, despite knowing what she was condemning the child to. Dawn cried and cried about missing her brother until her mother convinced her that he was just an imaginary friend of hers. But now, in 1991, Detective Reeve has understood that the culprit of the murders is not the racist McKinney, but rather her missing brother. Who in the meantime has targeted his son Kelvin and his mother Athena. The boy and the woman have various hallucinations induced by the monster, and Kel, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, has understood that “one of us will die”. He is attacked during a performance of the school orchestra he is part of, and Dawn intervenes in time to save him, but she can do nothing to save her mother. Athena receives a phone call from a voice who introduces herself as the toy store owner who fired her for throwing Raggedy Ann dolls in the trash, but Athena realizes it’s Edmund. She nevertheless shows up at the shop, where she has a run-in with her former adopted son, who eventually kills her by beheading her, obviously shocking her Reeve when she is summoned to the scene of her crime.

THEM: The Scare Ending Explained: What happens to Detective Ronald McKinney?

After the unhappy encounter with his sister who chased him away without recognizing him, Edmund goes home, records a video message for his sister, and commits suicide on the advice of his devil, just as the police are coming to arrest him, with the promise to “bring her to us”. And here there is already a parallel with the first season, when the Dutch preacher Hiram Epps was convinced by the devil personified by the foundling child Miles to accept the pact (covenant in English) of alliance with evil to live forever and continue to torment people of color. Waking up at home after fainting from Athena’s death, Dawn promises Kel to protect him, and dad Corey also comes to help (remember that Dawn has effectively ended the relationship with the lawyer Reggie, who wanted something more serious than what she wanted). The woman goes to open the black box where Athena had left the memories of Dawn and Edmund’s biological mother, and she finds two letters and two covers. Who knows what’s written in those letters…

Reeve And Diaz Figure Out Who The Killer In The Red Wig Is?

Meanwhile, Diaz arrived at the house to offer his condolences. Dawn isn’t happy to see the one she feels betrayed her, but Diaz still wants to help her. Reasoning together, Dawn realizes that all the murders were Edmund’s attempts to communicate her story to her sister. And she realizes that she has to go back to Bernice Mott’s house to understand more. Here he mentally replays his previous visit to detect Bernice’s murder (while Diaz and McKinney spy on her from outside, and McKinney is convinced that she is the culprit).

And noticing the discrepancies between what was detected and what she sees now about broken glass, stopped clock, and dirty floor she realizes that the time before she had confused the current truth and her memories when she lived there as a child. At home, Kel tries to explain what happened to his father, who is both incredulous and scared when he sees the reflection of the red wig on his son’s head in the mirror. Dawn instead goes to see Diaz, who shows him what she found on Edmund. Together they watch a videotape, the one on which Edmund recorded his last goodbye to his sister, and Dawn recognizes the strange guy she had met two years earlier. At the end of the video, Edmund is wearing the red wig and the two detectives understand everything.

McKinney Gets the end he Deserves?

Above all, Dawn understands that she must return home to save her son, but that disgusting McKinney bursts into the house and proceeds to arrest Reeve, with his usual violent methods. Diaz tries to stop him but gets shot by his colleague, who has no scruples either in spewing his racist hatred or in confessing to having killed that black boy who was a member of a gang, the case that had cost him the resignation honest agent who had disputed McKinney’s false report. At the end of the fight, Dawn kills McKinney, while fortunately Diaz is only injured in the shoulder, and the detective can run home after calling for help. Meanwhile, at the Reeve house, the bad guy has gone into action, wounding Corey and kidnapping Kel just before Dawn arrives and understands that, once again, the showdown will be at the Mott house.

Dawn Finds Out Who Her Mother Was?

Here, Dawn is transported to a sort of world of memories, where she relives the traumas she suffered as a child, with little Edmund who helped her escape from Bernice by hiding under the sink (and this explains Bernice’s end) and putting a straw in her to breathe when the woman locked the child in a wooden crate as punishment. Furthermore, Dawn also relives the moment when her biological mother entrusted her to Bernice. And who is the biological mother? Ruby Lee Emory (played again by Shahadi Wright Joseph), the eldest daughter of the Emory family, the protagonist family of the first season, the one who didn’t want to be black and for this reason saw an imaginary white friend.

“They will be in excellent hands” Bernice assures Ruby, who explains that she has to separate from her children because the children’s father has left and she is still too scarred by what happened to her family (but, by the way, she hasn’t plus the mark on his left cheek from when he cut his face with a piece of mirror). For this reason, she wants her children to grow up elsewhere, breaking the link with the past. But not quite, because she leaves them two Raggedy Ann dolls before tearfully leaving. (And so, little curiosity: Deborah Ayorinde goes from playing Shahadi Wright Joseph’s mother in season 1 to being Shahadi Wright Joseph’s abandoned daughter in season 2: if desired, an explanation of the similarities of the two characters of Lucky and Dawn).

The Final Dawn-Edmund Clash (and references to season 1)

At the end of the amarcord moment, Dawn finds herself in front of the monster version of her brother, while Kel screams locked up who knows where. “You will come with me, don’t resist, it’s our destiny,” says the monster, as he begins to bend the bones of her sister who sees a monstrous version of herself similar to that of her brother appear. But instead of giving up, Dawn reacts by finding the best way to defeat the monster. Which is another throwback to season 1. Just as Lucky had defeated Hiram by telling him to see him for what he is, that is, a presumed man of God who had given himself over to evil and had done terrible actions far from the will of the Lord, similarly Dawn separates her brother from his bad side by telling him that she now remembers how much he protected and loved her, and how she remembered him but Athena convinced her that he was an imaginary friend. In short, Dawn also sees Edmund for who he is, but this time with love rather than hate. And so the monster is defeated, Dawn’s evil soul disappears and the two twins can finally say goodbye and hug each other for the last time, albeit in a completely supernatural way. The danger is over, and Dawn saves her son Kelvin, who is now truly safe.

The Epilogue of THEM: The Scare

And here we are at the end of this season. Dawn is once again in front of the Internal Affairs Committee, where she plays the recording of McKinney confessing his wrongdoings to her while she tries to take out Reeve and Diaz. Dawn is therefore completely exonerated by her reluctant (and disgustingly racist) colleagues, and she can leave. The lieutenant tries to promise her a position in the office when the dust on the Benny Alvarez case has calmed down and asks her if the red-haired man mentioned in various testimonies in the still unsolved murder cases was therefore McKinney. Dawn, to her and ours’ extreme satisfaction, reassures her ex-boss that the killer’s murders are over, without specifying the details, and sends the entire Los Angeles police department into a frenzy. Six months later, Dawn prepares dinner and informs Kel that dad Corey will be there again: the family is happily gathered around the table (and poor Reggie?), and Dawn gets poured a glass of wine even if “tomorrow c ‘it’s school’ (maybe Dawn is a teacher now?).

It seems like a perfect happy ending, but then Dawn goes to repair the black box with her and Edmund’s memories. She finds a photo of that famous birthday, and we can see that while she smilingly embraces her brother and the new black doll given to her by her mother, he is instead angry and keeps away the doll with which Athena would like to replace the racist Raggedy Ann Doll. And stuck under that photo, he finds another much older one: there is the entire Emory family from season 1: together with dad Henry, mom Lucky, and sisters Ruby Lee and Gracie Jean there is also the poor Chester killed by those racist whites in North Carolina from whom the Emorys fled to California.

While Dawn tries to imagine what could have happened that was so bad that it scarred her mother to the point of abandoning her twins (and perhaps Dawn also tries to understand how she can be completely identical to her grandmother), we see another person climbing the stairs character of Them 1: it is Da Tap Dancer Man, that former slave with his face painted black (as he used a century ago to represent blacks in the cinema, often painting the faces of white actors) who in the last season pushed Henry to take revenge of all racists, from his boss to his neighbors. The character arrives in the room where Dawn is and laughingly intones his classic “What are you gonna do?” “What do you want to do now?” with which he urged Henry. Dawn’s terrified expression as she sees him closes this second season, but it doesn’t resolve all the doubts that remain and that we can only hope will be clarified in season 3.

The Meaning of the Raggedy Ann Doll?

In the USA this doll has a long and contested history. In addition to controversies over copyright, plagiarism, and accusations of racism, in 1953 there was a bloody case: a man named Douglas P. Adams brutally killed his wife and daughter, and a doll was found at the scene of the crime Raggedy Ann as big as a real person. In THEM: The Scare, the doll is what probably drives Edmund to madness, who since he was little didn’t want to let go of it and who when he grows up gives life to a monster that seems to be a mix between himself and the doll. Perhaps the fact that Ruby abandoned her children with this puppet is why she hasn’t been able to sever the link between her family and evil.

What Doesn’t Add Up in THEM: The Scare

Already in season 1, there were many elements and narrative threads left unsolved. For example, how does the story of the sheriff killed by Henry end? And what was that corrupt sheriff’s plan to threaten the supposedly non-racist real estate agent? And Betty’s death at the hands of the psychopathic milkman? And why had Betty’s husband drained the family savings by going to gay clubs? Not to mention poor Midge and Dale: did they find the sugar Betty put in the tank of their new car as a lookout against their move from East Compton? And how did they solve the problem with the car and the move? I don’t know… Even in this season the aspects that don’t add up are various and different: how does the story of the secret club of racist cops end, for example? McKinney dies and nothing changes? Does the lieutenant know about this? And again: who is Reggie, how did he meet and how did he get together with Dawn?

Was she still married? And Corey, on the other hand, is on tour, what’s his job as a musician? Sticking to the murders, what’s the point of the candy that Benny Alvarez gives to Dawn when she talks to him through the window? More generally, Edmund’s modus operandi left us perplexed. Ok, he wants to communicate with his sister, but how does he choose his victims? Why do we understand Bernice and Athena but not the others? Were the twins killed just to explain the point about the twins? And Benny to clarify the trauma of the separation? And Curtis instead, what’s the point of his death? Is having him die in front of his son a clue to what happened to Edmund and William?

And by the way, what role did Edmund’s white adoptive parents play in kicking him out? The link between the various murders cannot be the doll, because Curtis’ son is never seen holding a Raggedy Ann. And going back to Curtis, we don’t even understand the connection with the murder that Reeve and McKinney were detecting when they found him out there. Maybe the “South Side Killer” from two years earlier had something to do with it? And on this point, what’s the story of Dawn beating an informant with a truncheon? Is there any connection between those cases and these? And otherwise, why include this detail in the story? In short, there are many unanswered questions in this finale of THEM: The Scare and the only hope is that they will be resumed in the eventual season 3.

What Happens to Detective Ronald McKinney?

Responsibility for the murders is then placed on Ronald McKinney, Dawn’s cruel colleague whom she had killed in self-defense in a firefight. Dawn presents the police commission with a recording in which the man exposed his racism and the fact that he enjoyed being violent (against blacks) and they assume that he is the killer: McKinney also had red hair and his white supremacist ideas make him the ideal culprit. Dawn is cleared of all charges, the woman was in fact under investigation for the death of the Mexican child (killed by the Creature) but she decides not to resume her role in the police. The woman can no longer tolerate the strong racism of the authorities and the disadvantaged position in which she is always relegated for being a woman and black.

The True Meaning of THEM: The Scare

The key to understanding the meaning of this story is explained in its title: “fear”. Fear in the series becomes an entity in itself, a sort of disease that spreads from generation to generation and takes frightening and terrible forms. Both the protagonists of the first season and those of the second carry within themselves traumas that take monstrous and supernatural forms: the author of the series, Little Marvin, tries to tell how the traumas suffered by the black American community, the constant fear of being caught targeted by whites, are passed down from generation to generation, and how it is impossible to get rid of them until the chain of injustices that African Americans still suffer today is finally broken. Despite being set in the past, the series is extremely contemporary and seeks the roots of the dark sides of today’s society in that of yesterday.