From the very first moments of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen, viewers are engulfed in a constant sense of dread, mirroring the feelings of the main character, Rachel (Camilla Morrone). While our own anxieties might be sparked by a skipped dose or too much caffeine, Rachel’s premonitions are far darker — and far more terrifying.
Netflix’s Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen has all the makings of a hit thriller, following in the footsteps of shows like Beef and Baby Reindeer. Its star-studded cast includes Morrone, Adam DiMarco, Gus Birney, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Karla Crome, and Jeff Wilbusch.
The series is a mental rollercoaster, blending dark humour with classic horror tropes. Blair Witch-style camera work keeps viewers on edge, while moments of shocking gore — including some truly memorable blood-from-the-eyes scenes — cement its place as a standout in the genre.
After one season of eight episodes, fans are still reeling from the finale. But what exactly happened at the end of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen — and why? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with a proper ending explainer.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead.
What is Nicky's family's secret?
From the moment Rachel meets Nicky’s family, it’s clear something is deeply off. Her dress mysteriously disappears, she finds Victoria disoriented and confused, and then — casually — spots Boris digging a grave. Not exactly reassuring.
It’s no surprise Rachel quickly spirals, convinced she’s about to become some kind of sacrificial offering. The signs all seem to point that way: she’s forced into Victoria’s old wedding dress, discovers tranquillisers, and feels increasingly shut off from any sense of control. When she tries to flee with Nicky, he insists on staying to uncover the truth.
The reality, however, is far less ritualistic and arguably more devastating. There is no human sacrifice. Victoria is dying from a brain tumour, and the “wedding” is intended as a final send-off. The grave Rachel saw being dug is for her. The missing dress was taken by Jude as part of a separate, symbolic offering to the so-called “Sorry Man” (more on that shortly), and the drugs are intended to ease Victoria’s passing. As for Portia, she’s simply, unapologetically unpleasant.
In the aftermath, Rachel does what any reasonable person might: she apologises the only way she knows how, with a cake iced with the words, “I’m sorry I thought you were trying to kill me.”
What happened to Rachel's parents?
Episode four shifts the narrative, taking us into Rachel’s past through camcorder recordings of her parents, Alexandra and Jay. Arriving in the same eerie location years earlier, the couple’s story initially feels like a red herring, particularly when they’re served custard — not ice cream — by a man later we know is a serial killer.
The pair are expecting a baby and planning a rushed wedding. Alexandra confesses to the same creeping sense of dread that haunts her daughter in the present day, while Jay reassures her with the same steady calm Nicky offers Rachel.
As they exchange vows, we don’t see the witness, but we hear a chillingly familiar voice ask, “Are you sure he’s the one?”
What follows is one of the series’s most disturbing sequences. Back at their cabin, as they slow dance in celebration, Alexandra suddenly suffers a severe nosebleed, before blood begins streaming from her eyes. Jay desperately tries to call for help, but she deteriorates rapidly, dying as she attempts to tell him something meant for their unborn daughter. In a final act of desperation, Jay performs an emergency procedure to save baby Rachel.
The trauma of that night casts a long shadow. It helps explain the agoraphobia Rachel later references, as well as the emotional distance between them — a fracture that lingers into her adult life.
Who is the Sorry Man?
We've written a detailed explainer for the Sorry Man, but here’s the essential breakdown.
Jules (Jeff Wilbusch) first encountered what would become the Sorry Man myth as a child. After witnessing a deeply traumatic event and recounting it to his siblings, the story took on a life of its own — evolving into the family’s own version of the bogeyman. As Portia later tells Rachel, the Sorry Man is said to abduct brides and cut them open in search of his wife, apologising all the while.
In episode four, that myth collides with reality in a shocking reveal: Jules comes face to face with the “Sorry Man,” who is, in fact, Rachel’s father.
When Jules ran away as a child, he hid beneath a bed in the cabin rented by Rachel’s parents. From there, he witnessed Alexandra collapse, blood pouring from her nose and eyes, before seeing Jay desperately cut her open in an attempt to save their unborn child. It’s a harrowing sequence — and an unimaginable thing for a child to process.
That moment, filtered through fear and confusion, became distorted into the legend of the Sorry Man. It also helps explain Jules’ cold, emotionally detached demeanour in the present day — a coping mechanism born from trauma.
We didn't see that one coming.
Why is Rachel told not to marry Nicky?
In the first episode, Rachel discovers a piece of mail addressed to her. It's one of their wedding invites, and on the back is scrawled “DON'T MARRY HIM.” How mysterious. Rachel and Nicky try to work out who it could be from, such as one of their exes, but then decide to just leave it.
In episode four, we discover that Rachel's father sent the warning after he received an invite. Rachel confirms she did not invite him.
He shares what happened to her mother and urges her not to marry Nicky due to a curse on her family. If they don't marry their soulmate, they die at sunset, as shown by the insane bleeding situation of Alexandra.
What is the curse?
She confronts the witness from her parents' wedding, played by Zlatko Burić, whom she recognises as the creepy man from the bar that she stabbed in the hand. He stabs her in the leg to get even and then confirms it was him. The Witness appears to be immortal — untouched by time, he hasn’t aged a day. He explains that the curse dates back generations, to his great-great-great-grandparents.
After his great-great-great-grandfather died in a hunting accident, his ancestor struck a desperate bargain with death: her groom would be brought back to life, but only if she truly believed he was her soulmate. The catch? Their descendants would inherit the same impossible test. From that moment on, the bloodline was bound by a chilling condition: marry your soulmate, or repay death what it is owed.
The Witness eventually fell in love with a woman named Marianne. But on the day of their wedding, a mysterious man warned him that he had until sundown to marry his soulmate — or die.
Faced with that impossible choice, he admits he took what he calls the “cowardly” way out, abandoning Marianne at the altar.
In doing so, the curse didn’t end, it simply moved. It passed to Marianne and her eventual husband, Thomas, who becomes Rachel’s ancestor, binding her family to its deadly conditions for generations to come.
From that point on, the rules remained the same: marry your soulmate, or face the consequences. The only real way to avoid triggering the curse was never to get engaged at all, a path some of Rachel’s ancestors chose once they learned the truth. The Witness is forced to live and witness all these marriages.
Rachel is left with an impossible choice: marry Nicky and survive if he’s her soulmate, marry him and risk death if he isn’t, or refuse altogether and pass the curse on to his family instead.
None of the options are exactly reassuring.
Does Rachel get married?
As the wedding approaches, Rachel begins to unravel. In a last-ditch attempt to escape the curse, she tracks down a great-aunt who once survived it, guided there unknowingly by Portia. The advice is clear: perform a ritual.
Rachel gathers the required ingredients: a strand of her mother-in-law’s hair, Nicky’s sperm, one of her own bones, and blood from an enemy (the Witness). But at the final moment, she hesitates. Instead of drinking it, she chooses to trust that Nicky is her soulmate. She puts her faith in love, what a metaphor.
Meanwhile, Nicky’s faith in marriage is faltering. After confronting the reality of his parents’ unhappy relationship, he reaches the altar only to declare they shouldn’t go through with it. The two argue, until his mother intervenes and persuades him to continue. By then, Rachel is done. He didn't trust her and so she's not risking her life for him.
As the sun begins to set, the curse activates. It passes into Nicky’s bloodline, and those already trapped in loveless marriages begin to haemorrhage, echoing the fate of Rachel’s mother. In a desperate attempt to save his family, Nicky forces the ring onto Rachel’s finger and says, “I do.”
But it’s too late. Rachel no longer believes they are soulmates. She collapses, bleeding into the snow. Those already afflicted die, while others appear to be spared.
At the same moment, the Witness is finally claimed by death… and Rachel awakens.
Disoriented but alive, she searches for her lighter, startling Nicky with her sudden return. Nearby, she finds a note beside the Witness’s body: “Your turn.”
If someone backs out of a marriage before sundown, the curse transfers to their partner’s bloodline, but the original cursed individual becomes immortal, forced to “bear witness” to its consequences. That’s what happened when the Witness abandoned Marianne, allowing him to live for centuries. Now that the curse has shifted again, his time is up, and Rachel takes his place.
She is now bound to watch the fallout of the curse within Nicky’s family, potentially for generations. It’s why, before leaving, she quietly warns Jules and Nell’s young son, Jude, to be careful when choosing a partner.
Rachel drives away alone; she is no longer a victim of the curse, but its newest keeper.
Who died in Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen?
As the curse plays out, its consequences become brutally clear. Victoria dies — likely as a result of her affair with Beau — while Portia meets a similar fate after her impulsive Las Vegas marriage to a stranger. Around them, other unhappy unions unravel with equally fatal consequences.
Nicky, however, survives — much like the Witness’s jilted fiancée before him — left to bear witness to the devastation that follows.
Interestingly, Jules remains unharmed, quietly confirming that he and Nell are actually soulmates, despite their plans to divorce.
As mentioned, The Witness died as well, as his work is done.
Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is available to watch on Netflix.
