Audiences have much to take in while watching Them: The Scare unfold, so here’s a deeper explanation to fully understand what The Scare is.
The horror show follows Deborah Ayorinde’s Dawn Reeves, an LAPD officer in 1991, who is thrust into solving one of the most disturbing murder cases the department has ever seen. Little does she know how deeply it connects to her past, hidden behind secrets she hasn’t yet discovered.
Audiences also follow Luke James’ Edmund Gaines, a failed actor who slowly descends into madness.
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What Exactly Is the Titular Scare?
Them Season 2 does not hold the audience’s hands when explaining its titular terror. Instead, viewers must focus on what’s presented on screen, with little added details to explain its more supernatural happenings.
To that end, the show never fully explains The Scare, leaving audiences to make their own conclusions about what they are seeing. Season 2 does confirm that The Scare is a supernatural entity that preys on the vulnerable, scared, and weak.
That’s exactly what happened to Edmund Gains, a man with an all but shattered psyche made for easy pickings for the terrifying entity. It is what convinced him to finally go through with killing someone, which then led to The Scare telling Edmund to kill himself so it could take over.
After the takeover, The Scare’s more monstrous appearance and red hair played on Edmund’s obsession with being a horror movie killer and his deeper connection to the Raggedy Andy doll, the only tie to his original birth family.
It’s unclear how much of Edmund was left after The Scare took over, but there was still part of Dawn’s twin brother along for the ride.
Edmund Is More Than Just The Scare
While The Scare is Edmund, Gaines is more than a horrifying supernatural threat for Dawn Reeves to one day go up against.
Edmund has his own tragic story, one that saw him grow up in an abusive foster home alongside his twin sister. Tragically, the two were separated, and Dawn left to start a new life. This new life began with her being convinced by her new mother that Edmund was nothing more than an imaginary friend she used to have.
While she forgot about him, Edmund always remembered his lost twin sister. He tried to be a successful actor (which he failed to do) and worked at a local kids' arcade, always trying to figure out her new identity and whereabouts.
At the same time, audiences witness Edmund’s mental health deteriorate throughout the series as his behavior becomes more psychopathic. This leads to him eventually murdering a man named Donovan, who once laughed at him during an audition.
After being denied by his twin sister, who never got the chance to learn his true identity, and following the murder of Donovan, Edmund Gaines’ downward spiral somehow got even worse. This led him to suicide and into the hands of The Scare.
For the first third of Season 2, unbeknownst to audiences, Edmund’s story takes place a few years earlier than Dawn’s investigation. By the time the Red-Haired Man murders happen, Edmund has been dead for years.
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Is The Scare Gone for Good?
The plot of the final episode involves Dawn Reeves facing off against the Red-Haired Man, aka Edmund Gaines, who is controlled by The Scare.
While the entity tries to taunt and intimidate Dawn, it ultimately fails. Instead, Dawn can reach Edmund on an emotional level, bypassing the demonic creature at the wheel.
Dawn calls Edmund her brother, admits she loves him, and is sorry for forgetting about him. This moment of affection and love breaks The Scare's hold over its victim.
Dawn and Edmund are given a brief moment together before his body is bent and broken like his victims. Edmund is gone, and so is The Scare, but nothing says the supernatural threat is gone for good.
Despite Dawn’s seeming victory over The Scare, the final moments reveal she’s not out of the woods yet. After freshly uncovering her generational trauma and rediscovering her family roots, she meets a terrifying familiar face: Da Tap Dance Man.
For those who watched Season 1, that creepy and horrifying supernatural instigator is someone who terrorized the Emory family back in 1953–aka Dawn Reeve's parents and grandparents.
The personification of generational trauma from racism has arrived at her doorstep, and it is unclear what Dawn's next steps might be.
Hopefully, Amazon Studios will renew Them for Season 3 and continue the story.
Them: The Scare is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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