‘Them’ Season 2 ‘The Scare’ Ending Explained And Unpacked

If you’re a fan of the hit Amazon Prime original horror series Them , you may be left wondering just what happened in the explosive season 2 finale. The show, which serves as a gripping anthology with mostly tenuous connections between seasons, has been compared to programs such as American Horror Story and Fargo , and has received rave reviews for its sophomore outing, resulting in a 100 percent “certified fresh” critic score on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Them season two has been subtitled The Scare , and follows up the original season, thus marked Them: Covenant . The Scare released in a single 8-episode batch on April 25, 2024. It quickly left binge-viewers scratching their heads. So, let’s dive into Them ‘s explosive season 2 ending, and explain exactly what happens, why things shook out the way that they did, and how it all ties back to the first season.

As always, the following ending explained contains heavy spoilers for the entirety of Them: Covenant as well as Them: The Scare . Bookmark this page and return later if you’re not fully caught up on the beloved horror series . This show relies heavily on narrative twists and turns which may leave your jaw on the floor, so you definitely won’t want to read ahead just yet if you haven’t already watched the show. With no further preamble, let’s dive directly into Them: The Scare ‘s plot, and provide a comprehensive explanation of the season’s chilling final moments.

What Is ‘Them’ Season 2 About?

Unlike Them: Covenant , which takes place in 1953, Them season 2 shifts the narrative to the tumultuous era of 1991, directly following the release of the Rodney King police brutality video , which energized communities across Southern California to rise up against police violence and state-sanctioned injustice. This makes Los Angeles a powder keg of dangerous activity, particularly for figures like Deborah Ayorinde’s detective Dawn Reeve. When we first meet Reeve, she is assigned to investigate a horrific murder case, which serves as the first of many chilling reveals into her relationship with trauma. Throughout the first half of the season, viewers are shown that Reeve has faced numerous hardships, including a haunting at the hands of a terrifying supernatural force, as well as some childhood abuse.

Reeve’s childhood issues pale in comparison to her twin brother Edmund Gaines’ problems, however, as we learn that Gaines was repeatedly kicked around through the foster care system after he and Reeve were separated in their youth. Reeve spends her life not knowing that she was adopted and blissfully unaware of Gaines’ existence, as Gaines spends his entire childhood facing significant mental health challenges that make it impossible for him to form lasting or meaningful relationships with others. In the modern day, Gaines is shown to be a struggling actor, who becomes possessed by a demonic creature known only as “The Scare” before taking his own life. Meanwhile, flashbacks showcase the gauntlet of trauma the young man has faced which prompted The Scare to take hold of him.

What Is The Scare?

The Scare, as shown throughout Them season 2, is a shadowy figure with dark, obfuscated features who takes on the crimson red locks of a Raggedy Andy doll. This is significant because Edmund Gaines kept this doll as a comforting item throughout his childhood, much to the chagrin of his foster parents. Over the course of the show, Raggedy Andy dolls are explained to display features associated with minstrel blackface , which may also define Gaines’ mismatched perspective on race. As a young black man raised by white families who never respected his identity, he was always treated as an insider. The manifestation of The Scare as a terrifying, obsidian black entity with the hair of Raggedy Andy serves as an amalgamation of Gaines’ identity crisis’.

Struggling to content with his place in life, Gaines eventually snaps, and savagely murders a man who constantly ridicules him at television and film auditions. Shortly thereafter, Gaines kills himself, and The Scare completely takes over his identity. From there, The Scare commits a series of heinous murders which lead Dawn Reeve down a path of slow realization. The victims of these slayings include Reeve and Gaines’ abusive foster mother from their youth, a local drug dealer who is abusive to his child, a pair of inseparable twin sisters, and a young boy named Benito whose brother was taken from him and placed into the foster care system.

What Happens To Detective Reeve?

As the main plot of Them season 2 plays out, Detective Reeve also undergoes significant turmoil in her professional life. Having just witnessed the police union rallying behind the officers who savagely assaulted Rodney King, Reeve receives no such support when she is falsely accused of murder. Instead, her white male coworkers turn on her like a pack of wolves, and immediately threaten her livelihood. Despite this situation, Reeve and her partner Diaz unravel the twisted connection between all the murders committed by The Scare, which leads Reeve to believe that her own son could be the demon’s next victim. Before Reeve can make it to save her son, however, she is attacked by a racist police officer who shoots Detective Diaz, prompting Reeve to fire back and kill the officer in self-defense.

Reeve then returns to her childhood home to find her son, and encounters a series of harrowing flashbacks which fill in the blanks of her shaky childhood memories. From here, The Scare reveals himself to her, and attempts to have a dark, demonic version of Reeve take over her soul like he has taken over her brother. Instead, Reeve fights back, and ultimately defeats The Scare with words of unconditional love and sorrow which vanquish the demon for good, closing the loop on Gaines’ killing spree.

How Does Them Season 2 End?

The final scenes of Them: The Scare connects the show back to season 1 as Dawn Reeve triumphantly leaves the police force. At a hearing with the Internal Affairs board, Reeve presents a secret recording of her colleague which exonerates her of her murder charges, much to the chagrin of the white racists on the board who were more than happy to convict her on extremely circumstantial evidence. These scenes seem to confirm the long-held theory that the “us vs. them” mentality held by the police falls by the wayside when one of their colleagues is a black person, in yet another instance of white people tokenizing black individuals for their own benefit. This parallels an earlier scene where we learn that Edmund Gaines’ white foster family used him as the subject of a psychology book, only to cast him aside once they receive their payday.

Reeve is given the chance to resume her police work in an administrative capacity, though she now sees the corrupt force for what they truly are, and chooses to end her employment with them for good, to the tune of the hit N.W.A. record “ F*ck Tha Police. ” Six months down the line, Reeve’s life seems to be back on track, as she smiles and shares a meal with her ex-husband and their shared child. In the season’s final moments however, it is revealed that Reeve and Gaines were the biological children of Them season 1’s Livia and Henry Emory, as Da Tap Dance Man appears and haunts Reeve with his catchphrase, “Whatcha’ gonna do?”

Ending Explained & Analysis

Them season 2 centers on a number of themes, including generational trauma , learning to let go of the past, and the frustration of the black American experience. The final reveal of Da Tap Dance Man ties the entire show together by revealing that Reeve is destined to be haunted by the same apparition that once haunted her father back in Them season 1. The demonic creature may even be the very same entity as The Scare, as he too shares features associated with minstrel blackface makeup, further contributing to the themes of black trauma. In the first season, Da Tap Dance Man attempted to convince Reeve’s father Henry to kill his family in order to set them free from the difficulty of growing up black in a racist society, similar to The Scare’s intention to make Reeve kill herself so that she could reunite with her brother in death.

Needless to say, these notions of death setting a person free are the machinations of the devil, and are not endorsed by the writers of the Amazon original series. Dawn was able to defeat The Scare by simply offering forgiveness and love in the face of evil, which means she may be uniquely equipped to deal with the haunting at the hands of Da Tap Dance Man, though the season ends before the audience has a chance to find out for sure. With any luck, Reeve will find a way to banish this foul creature in the same manner as she did The Scare before it latches onto her son, spreading the trauma to the next unsuspecting generation. Either way, we’ll just have to wait and see what unfolds in Them season 3 to know for sure.

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