Danger Lurks as Creator Haley Z. Boston Details Hostile Finale for Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen

(SeaPRwire) –   Warning: This piece contains spoilers for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.

Initially, it seems like one kind of terrible event is on the horizon. Then another unfolds. By the finale of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, the impending catastrophe is crystal clear—but that doesn’t mean the show’s doomed main characters can do anything to stop it.

Helmed by showrunner Haley Z. Boston (a former writer for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Brand New Cherry Flavor) and executive produced by the Duffer Brothers (creators of Stranger Things), this new Netflix horror series—all eight episodes are now streaming—covers the week leading up to the ill-fated wedding of engaged couple Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone) and Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco). After a disturbingly eventful drive to the Cunninghams’ remote cabin compound, Rachel first suspects her fiancé’s family (whom she’s meeting for the first time) is plotting to sacrifice her in a satanic ritual. But once the Cunninghams’ odd behavior is mostly explained by the revelation that Nicky’s mother, Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), has a terminal brain tumor the family kept secret from Nicky, Rachel must confront the real supernatural danger hanging over her.

“The first half of the show, Rachel believes the threat is external. Then by the midpoint, she realizes it’s coming from within,” Boston says of the initial bait-and-switch. “She thinks this family is out to get her, that there’s some evil in the woods. Then she realizes it’s actually her. It’s her doubt that’s causing all this anxiety. There’s something interesting about wanting to put the blame on other people but ultimately realizing you have to go deeper inside yourself in order to face your fears.”

An irreversible curse

It turns out the Harkin family is cursed: any member of the bloodline who marries someone who isn’t their true soulmate will bleed out gruesomely and die once the sun sets on their wedding day. Rachel learns this from a creepy old man (played by Zlatko Burić) she first encountered staring down at her in a bar bathroom during the drive to the cabin. This man—whom we’ll call the Witness—reveals the curse was passed to Rachel’s family because of his long-ago decision to jilt his bride-to-be at the altar. He tells Rachel the curse originated from a bargain his great-great-great grandmother made with Death to bring her deceased fiancé back to life. Death agreed, on the condition that she truly believed her late groom was her soulmate. To ensure the curse endured, Death also damned all her descendants to carry the same burden. After the Witness got cold feet and left his beloved Marianne, she later married Thomas Harkin—Rachel’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Thus, the curse transferred to the Harkins, and the Witness was punished with immortality for breaking Death’s bargain. Since that fateful day, he’s been forced to attend every wedding in Marianne’s bloodline.

The Witness informs Rachel the rules are simple: she must marry by sundown on her wedding day. If Nicky is her soulmate, she’ll live; if not, she’ll die. Adding to her distress, Rachel also discovers this is exactly how her heavily pregnant mother died on her wedding day to Rachel’s father—who then performed a forced C-section on her mother’s lifeless body to save baby Rachel. Unsurprisingly, she’s not feeling optimistic about the situation.

“I believe there are right people and wrong people. I don’t believe in the fated side of things,” Boston says of her opinion on soulmates. “But when I was figuring out how to answer the question of what makes people soulmates, I didn’t want it to seem like I had some holy answer. I think the right person will see you for who you truly are.”

A blood-soaked finale

Rachel’s belief that Nicky is her soulmate is rooted in their origin story: neither boarded their plane because they couldn’t shake a feeling something bad would happen, so they instead took a four-day drive together to their destination. So when their rehearsal dinner reveals their airport meet-cute was a lie, Rachel starts having serious doubts. By their wedding day, Rachel is ready to undergo a painful, irreversible ritual to ensure she’s Nicky’s soulmate—even if it changes her into a completely different person. But in the end, she decides to trust her connection with Nicky and proceed with the ceremony as her true self.

However, Nicky has also been wrestling with their relationship and ultimately refuses to marry Rachel at the altar. He claims this is what he thinks she wants, but later admits he doesn’t really believe in the curse. Unfortunately, Death’s bargain is all too real. When sundown arrives with no married couple, the curse shifts to Nicky’s bloodline, causing all his relatives present who married non-soulmates to start hemorrhaging. Nicky then tries to reverse the damage by slipping a ring onto Rachel’s finger and saying “I do,” completing the ceremony without her permission to force the marriage. This, in turn, causes Rachel to bleed out and die.

“If Nicky had said yes at the altar, if he had just been even and if he hadn’t grown at all, everything would have been fine,” Boston says. “That’s kind of the great tragedy of the finale. Ultimately, the show is saying that the greatest sin is not believing your person is the right person for you.”

The next morning, Rachel wakes up again—resurrected as the new immortal Witness, who must now attend every wedding involving a member of the Cunningham bloodline. The final sequence of Something Very Bad shows Rachel driving alone away from the cabin before smiling faintly to herself. “The whole story is a breakup story. So Rachel dying is the death of the relationship. It’s the death of her old self. And in order to move on, she had to be reborn,” Boston says. “When you exit a relationship, you leave all that behind and you’re free, though not unscathed.”