There’s a lot to unpack in the ending of Amazon Studios’ Them Season 2 and what it means for its leading hero and killer.
Not only does the newest season of the Prime Video series have plenty of twists and turns, but it works out a unique, terrifying scenario for its story to exist in while also organically connecting it to what came before.
[ Them Season 2 Cast, Characters & Actors (Photos) ]
Who Is the Killer In Them: The Scare?
When Them Season 2 starts, audiences have no idea who's doing the killing. What many don’t realize is how Edmund’s entire storyline is revealing how he became the very threat that Dawn is looking into.
The killer situation in Them: The Scare is an interesting one after Edmund only killed one person in life. Not long after, he died via suicide before he could be arrested by the police.
It's here where Edmund’s ascension into terror begins. Before dying, he comes face to face with the supernatural demonic entity called The Scare.
The broken, failed actor gives in entirely, letting his trauma win. In doing so, he is given over to this entity, creating the supernatural red-headed killer who terrorizes Los Angeles.
As for why and how all of these brutal murders entered Dawn’s sphere of existence, it turns out that both she and Edmund are long-separated twins.
While Dawn was eventually spared from the system, Edmund was not, ending up back in an abusive situation she previously escaped.
When he finally finds Dawn as an adult, she viciously denies him before he can tell her who he is, telling Edmund she'll arrest him if he ever shows up in that neighborhood again.
The anger he develops from this is something he takes to the grave and tells his supernatural killer persona.
All of the victims throughout the series have a unique connection to Edmund’s personal experience and trauma, all of which have an extra association with Dawn.
Dawn and Edmund’s old abusive foster mom, Bernice Mott, was stuffed underneath the kitchen sink where the two used to hide from her. The drug dealer used his children to hide his illicit activities, just like Edmund’s foster mother.
The murdered twins represented how close Edmund and Dawn once were before Dawn was convinced by her adopted mom that Edmund was nothing but an imaginary friend.
Then there was Benny, whose connection to Edmund lies in how they were both sent back to where they came from (Benny to Mexico and Edmund to Bernice Mott).
How is Edmund, the Red-Haired Man, Defeated?
The finale finally sees Dawn pitted against Edmund as he tries to kill her son to hurt her. As the two confront each other, which includes some shared reliving of past experiences, Dawn is left remembering more and more about her late twin.
Eventually, The Scare version of Edmund tries to tempt Dawn to join him. Luckily, Dawn doesn't give in.
Instead, she does something unexpected: Dawn leans into passion. She tells Edmund that she loves him and is sorry for forgetting him.
Somehow, that's enough to get The Scare entity to skedaddle, leaving Edmund to start dying—twisting and breaking like his previous victims.
As a bonus note, when it comes to the storyline with Detective McKinney, his plot ends with him getting shot by Dawn and dying. Later, Dawn presents evidence to Internal Affairs about his corruption, which gets her off scot-free.
How Them Season 2 Connects to Season 1
Season 2 of Them was advertised as an anthology, meaning it was a completely different story and cast of characters from the first season. However, the final episode reveals that’s not entirely the case because there is a massive link between both seasons.
As it turns out, Shahadi Wright Joseph’s Ruby Lee Emory, the eldest daughter in Season 1, is the biological mother of Dawn Reeve and Edmund Gaines.
Not long after Dawn realizes the connection between her and that family, she sees the Da Tap Dance Man in all his horrifying glory. This is the evil persona that haunted Henry Emory (Ashley Thomas) from Season 1, which has now seemingly made its way to Dawn in 1991.
The supernatural entity embodied the frustration that people had with the struggles of being a black person in America in 1953—a frustration that's alive and well within Dawn due to her experiences in the LAPD.
Her family is cursed, and she doesn't seem to be out of the woods just yet, despite triumphing over Edmund’s demonic entity.
So, for those who maybe had no idea what those reveals meant as they unfolded, perhaps it's wise to go back and watch the first season, despite the anthology label.
Them: The Scare is now streaming on Prime Video.
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