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This article contains spoilers for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.
Netflix’s new horror series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen uses its title to let you know right off the bat that something very bad is indeed going to happen in the final episode, which is packed with twists and payoffs.
Camila Morrone (The Night Manager) and Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) star as Rachel Harkin and Nicky Cunningham in the Duffer brothers-produced show as an engaged couple heading to a family cabin in the woods for their nuptials, only to find that death has thrown a spanner in the works: Rachel’s bloodline is cursed, and she has to marry her soulmate or die. But is Nicky really her soulmate, or is Rachel doomed?
Let’s unpack the ending of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen…
What Exactly Was the Curse?
In episode four, we get to see what happened when Rachel’s mom married her dad, thanks to an old home video. The pair apparently weren’t soulmates, so her mom died horribly after tying the knot, but not before having a terrible premonition about Rachel’s wedding. Her dad was then compelled to save Rachel by cutting her out of her mom’s belly, while a young Jules Cunningham (Nicky’s brother) watched from under the bed, smothering his screams. “Tell her it’s real,” her mom had begged a traumatized Jules before fading away.
Rachel’s dad later confronts her, telling her she will die if she marries Nicky. A broken man, he has kept any warnings of the family curse to himself until now, so Rachel has been unaware of her predicament, but those warnings have indeed been passed down from generation to generation until Rachel came along.
Rachel goes back to the bar to squeeze more info from The Witness (Zlatko Buric) whom she had stabbed earlier, but then spotted in her parents’ wedding video. The Witness appears to be immortal—he hasn’t aged a day. He tells her about the curse, which dates back to his great-great-great-grandparents’ time. His great-great-great-grandfather had died in a hunting accident, and his great (x3) grandmother made a bargain with death. He would bring her groom back to life, but only if she believed he was her soulmate. Her children were afflicted with the same challenge, a curse that would extend through the bloodline from the original union, forever: marry your soulmate or pay death what he is owed.
The Witness eventually met a woman called Marianne and fell in love. On the day of the wedding, a mysterious man told him he must marry his soulmate by sundown, or die. After hearing this, The Witness admits he took the cowardly way out and left Marianne at the altar. As a result, the curse spread to Marianne and her new husband, Rachel’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas. That’s how Rachel’s family became cursed. The only way she could have escaped the curse was to never get engaged in the first place, which is the route some of her ancestors took when they found out about it.
Why Didn’t Rachel Die from the Curse?
Rachel appears to be screwed as the wedding ceremony nears. She didn’t really want to marry Nicky when she accepted his proposal; she kind of agreed to it just to make him happy. Not only that, she’s decided to throw caution to the wind and reject the ritual love potion that will ensure she and Nicky are indeed soulmates. Yet she approaches the altar truly believing that she and Nicky will work out, even as Nicky’s belief in marriage crumbles after hearing about his parents’ flawed relationship. Unfortunately, Nicky’s newfound cold feet about marrying Rachel mean the wedding is abandoned, and his family begin to die horribly.
Rachel also appears to die from the curse after Nicky tries to put the ring on her finger and complete the ceremony to save his family, finally believing the curse is real. Since she no longer feels they’re soulmates, Rachel haemorrhages and falls in the snow, covered in blood. After some time, though, she is revealed to be fine. Rachel picks herself up, finds a note next to The Witness’s body that says “Your turn,” and drives away.
We’ve been told that if a bride or groom chickens out of their marriage before sundown, as The Witness did, the curse spreads to the partner’s bloodline, but the original cursed person in the relationship also becomes immortal. This is what happened to The Witness in the past with his beloved Marianne, which is why he has lived for over 200 years. However, with Marianne’s bloodline no longer at the center of death’s focus, The Witness expires, and Rachel becomes the new immortal.
Like The Witness, Rachel has been punished for betraying death’s bargain, even though it wasn’t her fault. Nevertheless, she is now condemned to bear witness to all the weddings in Nicky’s bloodline, which is why she makes sure to tell Jules and Nellie’s young son Jude to be careful picking a partner before she leaves. Rachel will likely live forever, or at least until someone in Nicky’s bloodline experiences “cold feet” before their wedding.
Who Died and Who Was Spared?
Various members of Nicky’s family bleed out profusely at the reception and expire when the curse spreads to them, including his narcissistic mother Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who dies after admitting she was involved with another man when she married Nicky’s dad, even though he loved her unconditionally. Sister Portia (Gus Birney) also kicks the bucket after it emerges she’s been hiding an inadvisable Vegas wedding in her past.
Nicky lives, just as The Witness’s jilted fiancée did, able to witness the carnage that ensues. However, Jules (Jeff Wilbusch) and Nellie (Karla Crome) are also spared from the fatal effects of the curse, much to their surprise.
Wait, Why Didn’t Jules and Nellie Die?
In the third episode of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, we spend some time with Jules and Nellie. Jules is taking a bath when Nellie comes in and starts provoking him while applying makeup. It’s clear that these two are in an acrimonious relationship. “You used to be nicer,” Nellie says pointedly. Jules jokes that if she wanted a nice guy, she should have married ex-boyfriend Nicky, but also says that Nellie doesn’t want a nice guy because she isn’t nice herself. There is a dangerous yet still passionate connection between the couple, who are planning an imminent divorce.
So why didn’t Jules and Nellie die when the curse spread to Nicky’s family? If they’re getting a divorce, surely Jules and Nellie can’t be soulmates, right? Well, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen doesn’t agree with that notion. However messed up and broken their relationship is, they’ve proved to be perfect for each other in some twisted way. The curse skips them, satisfied that they’re soulmates …it’s just that their version of “soulmates” isn’t a cookie-cutter marriage of sweetness and light. “I don’t know what my life looks like without you,” Jules admits when Nellie asks him why he hasn’t signed the divorce papers. Whether they stay married or not doesn’t seem to matter; they’re free.
Something interesting about the curse is also revealed in the bathtub scene: Nellie reveals that Jules has been married before, and it failed. Perhaps it doesn’t matter how many times you wed, as long as you marry your soulmate at some point before the curse hits your bloodline. But as Nellie also says in episode six, “There’s no cosmic assurance that your marriage is going to work out.”
What Does the Song at the End Mean?
When Rachel gets into the truck, she turns on the stereo, and We Will Not Be Lovers by The Waterboys starts playing. The song tells the story of a “doomed from the start” relationship, which is perhaps a little too on-the-nose for Rachel.
Try as she might to skip the track, the same song plays. We then see the injured fox that Nicky couldn’t catch and put out of its misery, leaving the cabin’s grounds at the same time as Rachel does. The symbolism is clear: Nicky couldn’t find, fix or kill any of the broken things in his life because he never did the necessary work to become a whole person. He kept trying to create one “perfect” romantic partnership after another, but his idea of the perfect relationship was built on a house of cards, having relied on his parents’ utterly flawed marriage as a template. As a result, every one of his relationships was doomed from the start.
Rachel tosses her wedding ring from the truck’s window as The Waterboys’ lead singer Mike Scott belts out “People are scrambling like dogs for a share. It’s cruel, and it’s hard, but it’s nothing compared to what we do to each other.” Indeed.
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