THEM: THE SCARE Ending & FAQ

Does the THEM: THE SCARE ending of Season 2 also tease a THEM Season 3? Which of the original cast members are returning? Who is the killer? Is there a tie-in with season 1? Find the answers to these Them Season 2 questions and many others right here!

How about that Them: The Scare ending?! Do you have as many questions as we did after watching the new Them Season 2 horror series on Prime Video? Well, if you want answers, or just more details about the crazy world of Them Season 2, then check out our FAQ below.

Please note, that the section below is full of spoilers for Them: The Scare. If you’re just looking for a review, then click here to read our Them: The Scare review >

Okay, let’s get to that Them: The Scare ending and details about the universe of the amazing horror anthology series from Little Marvin.

FYI: Some of these questions are quite repetitive as we’re attempting to answer everything we’ve been asked.
Still, we’ve decided to just add them all.

Click here to see the latest questions from our readers and our answers to them.

Which of the original cast members are returning?

Deborah Ayorinde played Livia Emory in Them: Season 1, and she’s back in Season 2 as LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve.

Also, Shahadi Wright Joseph returns in the final episode of Them: The Scare in the same role as season 1 as Ruby Lee Emory.

Plus, there’s that terrifying tap dancer, Da Tap Dance Man, who we will get to next!

Does The Scare have a tie-in with Them Season 1?

Yes, in the final episode, it’s revealed that Ruby Lee Emory (Shahadi Wright Joseph) who played the eldest daughter in the family in season 1, is the mother of twins Dawn Reeve and Edmund Gaines.

Also in the final episode of season 2, we see the tap dancer man (“Da Tap Dance Man” is the official character name) from season 1 showing up to haunt Dawn Reeve.

This begins as soon as it’s revealed that Dawn has blood ties to the Emory family, the tap dancer haunted in Season 1. Dawn sees a picture of her own grandmother and sees the obvious resemblance. After all, both characters are portrayed by Deborah Ayorinde!

The moment there’s a look of recognition, the tap dancer man starts approaching Dawn. The ending of Them: The Scare sees Dawn facing the demonic force that also tormented her maternal grandmother.

Who is the killer in THEM Season 2?

Edmund Gaines kills one person while alive, but the remaining victims of the active serial killer in 1991 were killed by THE SCARE which is a paranormal entity that comes from Edmund.

What is THE SCARE in THEM Season 2?

The Scare is the name of the supernatural serial killer also known as “The Man with the Red Hair”. He is the demonic version of Edmund Gaines, who had a brutal life and swore to avenge all the wrong-doings against him in life.

Edmund Gaines becomes “The Scare”, but it’s only the hurt and dark side of him. When he was still alive he was so much more. He was also very misunderstood, hurt, sad, and scarred by life.

Is Edmund the killer in THEM: THE SCARE?

Yes and no. Edmund does kill one person, but the actual serial killer in THEM Season 2 is THE SCARE which is a supernatural demonic force based on all of Edmund’s anger and sadness.

Is Edmund Gaines a serial killer?

Well, Edmund Gaines only killed one person while he was alive.

However, after his suicide, he gave himself up to a supernatural entity. The entity we come to know as “The Scare”. While being part of this entity – also known as the red-haired man inspired by Raggedy Andy – he killed several people.

Always in a violently brutal way with lots of bones breaking and crushing. It was the same method Edmund Gaines used on his one murder victim in real life.

What does the red-haired doll mean?

The twins, Dawn and Edmund, both got a red-haired Raggedy Ann and Andy doll respectively from their mother. She left these dolls with her twins when she gave them up.

Edmund kept his Raggedy Andy doll, while Dawn’s Raggedy Ann doll was thrown out by her adoptive mother, Athena (Pam Grier). This too was an attempt to release Dawn from her connection to the blood bond with her twin brother, Edmund.

The other part of “helping” Dawn forget her brother was claiming that Edmund was her imaginary friend. That she never had a brother. Dawn was just three years old, so manipulating her was very possible. And it worked!

Edmund Gaines (Luke James) modeled his demonic entity on the Raggedy Andy doll with red hair made from yarn.

Why did Dawn and Edmund’s mother give them up?

She gave up her twins to save them. It was a heartfelt attempt to keep them from being part of the family tragedy.

This is why the Them season 2 ending hits especially hard; Dawn is confronted by Tap Dancer Man, who was the entity that pained her biological family in season 1.

Well, along with a whole lot of racist white people, of course.

Why is Athena played by Pam Grier targeted by the serial killer?

It turns out that Athena originally adopted the twins Edmund and Dawn. However, when her husband dies while alone with Edmund, she can no longer bear to be around Edmund. She blames the small boy for not being able to open the pill bottle that had his heart medication.

Of course, it doesn’t make much sense as these pill bottles have child safety caps.

UPDATE ON CHILDPROOF CAPS:

A reader named Claire was kind enough to inform me that there was no such thing as a childproof cap in 1961 as they were invented in 1967. However, this does not mean a 3-year-old boy would be able to open the pill bottle. Both due to little Edmund panicking and because it can still be difficult for a small child to work a lid.

More likely, Athena needed the closeness of Dawn, and the girl was tied so much to her twin brother that she couldn’t get this while the twins were together.

Athena decided to send Edmund back to the foster home, claiming he was a difficult child. Both due to blaming him for her husband’s death and to have Dawn to herself. It’s brutal and selfish, which is why it has weighed down on Athena ever since.

And also why she never told her daughter, Dawn, that she was adopted.

Why are the people killed by the serial killer?

It seems the motive for the supernatural version of Edmund is to leave clues for his sister about their past. Their life together before the adoption. A life Dawn has forgotten, so Edmund wants to remind her.

In a very brutal way, because he’s also very angry that he is all alone while Dawn has a family (a son, husband, and mother).

Remember, the victims of Edmund Gaines as “The Man with the Red Hair” were:

• Their foster mom – who was shoved into the cupboard where Dawn and Edmund hid from her violence as children.
• The drug dealer with a baby – he used the child to hide his activities much like the foster mom (also, the baby cried non-stop according to his grandmother, which Athena says Edmund did).
• Twins – the twin sisters who were as inseparable as Dawn and Edmund.
• Benny, the kid whose brother was sent back (to Mexico) like Edmund was sent back to the foster home.

Who were the white people at the party?

In episode 4, Edmund arrives at a party full of white people. We can see that it’s a party celebrating the self-help book that Edmund is constantly listening to.

What we can’t see is that the author and his wife are Edmund’s second adoptive parents.

Edmund was adopted again later – after being returned by Athena – by a white couple. However, they gave him up again when he turned 12 years old. They never contacted him again, so now Edmund confronts him in episode 4.

Once there, he sees his adoptive mother in the background. She now has a young black boy – no doubt yet another adoptive child – in her arms. One can only imagine that this child will also be given up if he becomes difficult.

There’s a distinct Natalia Grace vibe to this whole ordeal, where children are bought and sold like used cars. It’s just awful!

What does the Them: The Scare ending mean?

As we see Dawn realize who her biological family really is, it becomes obvious that the family curse has not escaped her. Or rather, maybe it did, but not anymore. Not since she realized who and where she came from!

Also, her ex-husband saw their son in a reflection where he had the Raggedy Andy red yarn hair. This could very well be a hint that the curse from Edmund Gaines, Dawn’s twin brother, is still living latently in Dawn’s son, Kal.

As such, both the family curse of “Da Tap Dance Man” (portrayed by Jeremiah Birkett) and the Raggedy Andy-inspired “Man with the Red Hair” have latched onto her family.

Will there be a Them Season 3?

If they follow in the same footsteps as the two first seasons, there should come a Them Season 3, where Dawn’s son Kal Reeve is an adult forty-some years later.

Possibly with children of his own, who will carry the curses and burdens of this family into the next generation.

This story could include both Da Tap Dance Man and this new Raggedy Andy entity. And possibly even a third dark force as each generation seems to have something new haunting them.

THEM: THE SCARE Questions from our readers

Alexis wrote us with the following question:

What was in the letters for Dawn and Edmund that their mother left for them?

This is one of those questions that are left unanswered. Our best guess would be that it’s a mother’s loving words telling her children that she’s giving them up out of love.

However, there is also the chance that these letters that tie Season 1 to Season 2 of THEM will be revealed in the next season.

As Alexis also notes, this could very well be a link to a season 3 story.

Also mentioned in the message from Alexis, Athena has already tried to give Dawn her letter earlier, but she refuses to take it. Of course, this left us all virtually yelling at the screen later: What’s in the letter?!

Finally, I should mention that some people believe it to be just a note attached to the blankets. As in, there is no letter, it’s merely an acknowledgment that the blankets are for each of her twins.

*****

Wanda wrote to us with a question that arose around the same time:

What were the 2 photos at the end of Them season 2 about?

The first photo Dawn looks at is the picture of herself and Edmund as babies in their mother’s arms.

The second photo, which is stuck to the back of the first one, shows the entire Emory Family from season 1.
This means Dawn and Edmund’s mother is in the picture, but so is their maternal grandmother and she is the spitting image of Dawn.

The two characters are also portrayed by the same actress, Deborah Ayorinde.

Unfortunately, the Emory family was haunted by Da Tap Dance Man (just like Edmund’s alter ego The Scare haunted Dawn and her family), and once Dawn sees her family and makes the connection by seeing her grandmother, who looks exactly like her, Da Tap Dance Man is once again evoked.

*****

Jasmyn also sent us a message with a question:

Can you please explain the scene with Edmund Gaines and his adopted dad in the house the day he passed? Was he trying to open the pill bottle and couldn’t or was it The Scare who provoked him to kill his dad?

This is actually a very good question that we’ve heard whispers about around the Internet.

When Edmund and Dawn had both been adopted, Athena especially tried to put some distance between the twins. Presumably to help them attach to their new adoptive parents instead of being attached only to one another.

However, other than that, it appeared the twins were happy there. And it was certainly an improvement from being with the abusive Foster Mom. As such, there is no reason why The Scare should show up to help Edmund at this young age.

Everything we’ve seen led us to understand that it was Dawn’s rejection of her own twin brother as an adult (though she didn’t know who he was at the same) that made The Scare come to life.

It’s most likely that the young boy simply froze when his adoptive dad suddenly fell to the ground due to his bad heart. Rather than not wanting to help, Edmund didn’t know what to do and probably didn’t understand what the pills were.

Do you have more questions about the Them: The Scare ending?

Or just things you’re wondering about?! Feel free to reach out and we’ll update this page with your questions or input and our two cents as well.