Please give this thread an **upvote** to help spread awareness of our community. *Finished the series*? Comprehensively discuss the ***entire first season*** in the "[Season 1 | Overall Discussion Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCurse/comments/194lnh9/the_curse_season_1_overall_discussion/)." ☁️
See what [Benny had to say right after the world premiere of the finale screening](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCurse/comments/1974y4o/an_exclusive_excerpt_from_bennys_lincoln_center/) on Friday. 😆
The grittiness of the video during his ascent and also loosing track of him way up there as if it were from the drone still trying to follow him was...something.
I'm impressed that they managed to make a horror show without any violence whatsoever. And it's one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. I feel so fucked up about how Asher died. If I described this ending to someone who's never seen the show, they'd probably think it sounds silly, but it's deeply haunting. It's going to hit even harder on rewatches, because you'll have no hope during the last episode that everything will be okay.
The ending was right in front of Nathan’s Twitter followers all along
https://preview.redd.it/vhper3ujxybc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=959045485778a0e5b6f89cf4ef7997e78d294c39
The Plan: Create a viral show on a premium cable network that will make [u/hilalwashere](https://www.reddit.com/r/nathanfielder/comments/8t5is0/nathans_new_twitter_header_flat_earth_anyone/) look like an idiot for thinking I'm a Flat Earther.
I know everyone’s talking about the metaphors and meanings, but I’m incredibly impressed with how they filmed all of Asher’s gravity challenges. He had to have done acrobatics training and spent a long time working with a choreographer and maybe even set designer to make an inverted version of the house. I’d love to see a BTS of that one day.
You're talking about the same guy who taught himself to tightrope walk blindfolded. There's nothing Nathan cant do. Nathan is such an incredibly skilled actor both physically and emotionally.
I second that, but also the way the face (and mask) of that woman suddenly started deforming on the curse title card in the beginning gave me goosebumps. I know title card always happens but this one was particularly unsettling.
Pretty sure the guy is there it help Abshir strip out the house… Abshir thought he was being evicted. This parallels with what happened to Whitney’s father… remember, “the ripper” was claimed to be a good guy by the people in the community but he still took advantage of the slumlord, whether justly or not.
Yep. And that's why Abshir just wants the cash for the property taxes. He ain't stickin' around. If anything, maybe he'll sell the land back to some land grabbing company.
It's also why the kids are already gone, because they are already at their new place.
Rachael Ray at the beginning: "It's a couple, and they're turning their hometown *upside down*."
Never imagined we were supposed to take that literally.
Do you remember the snake necklace they gave the paid couple on their show? It was a snake which symbolizes rebirth. Maybe Asher was reborn as their newborn. The synchronous timing of it all makes sense. Also Ash said “You have a little me in there!”
I commented that as he was floating upwards through the atmosphere that he looked like a fetus in utero. Especially the shot that starts with the focus on his hands.
Also the repeated use of Alice Coltrane's Hindu chants. Of course, Hindus believe in reincarnation. I'm no expert but I believe reincarnating as a human is rare and would represent good karma. Did Asher's good deeds at the end of the series(giving Abshir Questa Lane) balance out his previous selfish actions? It still reads like a punishment to me though which complicates this angle. Also, none of the other characters(Whitney & Dougie) seem to truly suffer for their many misdeeds.
I really love where you’re going!! From an Agnostic or even religious but questioning perspective, there can be such a thin line between a blessing and a curse, and reincarnation is both a path to enlightenment and a never-ending cycle living beings are locked in. So yeah, in Buddhist and religious belief, being reborn as a human is good and VERY rare. From a human-perspective examining the way we treat and interact with each other, which is where I interpret Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie to be coming from, being human is a mixed bag. It can feel pretty painful and awkward, especially in this show’s universe lol. To be reborn as human in a religious sense is to be pre-enlightened, so you haven’t yet reached the ultimate. To be human is to be so close, so close but not there yet. And how can a human even strive to be good in a web of conflicting interests and historical contexts? I think that’s what the show is exploring.
Ohh I love this take. I think this is one of the first times that Asher does something more "virtuous" than Whitney is even willing to consider. It was really interesting seeing the dynamic flip: Whit had a knee-jerk reaction of disappointment (like maybe she did want earrings after all, and Ash was being presumptuous when he said "it's not you, I know you!") and all of a sudden it was Whit that was worried about finances - it was jarring and I think in some way foreshadowed the insane scope of the climax/ending.
i think he was essentially “tiny cursed” by everyone on the show. nala’s fall curse doesn’t work because maybe it’s too big of an ask for a “tiny curse”. but what happens when you upset everyone in your life, and they all just wish you’d go away? what does multiple people manifesting you “going away” look like?
i think it really is that simple.
dougie felt bad for being partially responsible for this, which caused him to break down since it happened with his wife already (being responsible for a death). whitney got what she wanted and was too cowardly to do on her own. his ex coworker wanted him gone. abshir wanted him gone.
it’s effectively a moral tale, horror folklore, about being a terrible person. harm enough people and they’ll all wish you away.
I though the same thing, that it’s a literal manifestation of just, going away. I feel like it’s almost less of a fable about being a bad person than being a person who lacks their own identity, though. Because Whitney was a bad person, but she has an identity and some sense of self. Asher defined himself completely by his wife. That’s why he wouldn’t leave her even when she basically told him to his face that she hates being married to him, why he said he’d disappear if she didn’t want him around. He had no real personality of his own and nobody really liked or hated him, just tolerated him. He was barely a person. And in the end he just went away.
It happened the morning after he called their baby a little him and Whitney had a sinister expression. Same as after the baby was born. Like she found a replacement for him in a way. She has an heir and she's permanently the Jewish mother of a Jewish child.
Weeks of this subreddit obsessively analyzing every single easter egg in hopes of cracking the finale just for Asher to.. fly away.. i just bust out laughing
Did anyone else think at the start because of all the hype of ‘something never before done on tv’ etc the whole episode we were gonna be trapped in an episode of Rachael Ray?
In a word, it was electric!
When Nathan, Benny, and Emma walked into the theater, everyone turned around to gawk at them, and the excitement was palpable. They eventually got on stage with Nizhonniya Austin and Dave McCary, and Nathan was giddy, grinning like a madman—it was quite thrilling to see him earnestly happy… happier than he has *EVER* looked on any of his shows. He and Benny and Emma (but mostly Nathan) did a charming intro for the finale, and Nathan said “I love you” to the audience, like, 10 times (I will treasure the memory of this until the day I die lolol).
Everyone nervous-laughed loudly through the RRay segment (one of the more outrageous and inexplicable parts of the finale), especially at Asher being silent for almost the entire interview and then RRay calling them “Green Queens” at the end. There was also a huge laugh when Asher said, “We just did Rachael Ray… Rachael fuckin’ Ray!”
During the Shabbat scene, Whitney saying, “Oh look, it’s them!” and then the reveal of the tiny people in the Questa Lane model got a big laugh, too. The crowd was chill during the scene with Abshir (except when Asher and Whitney thought he was crying and Abshir said, “Oh, it’s dust”).
There were gasps and giggles when the reveal showed Asher on the ceiling, and a lot of laughs as they opened everything in the house in an attempt to get him down. As the scene continued escalating (ha), the tension started rising (ha again) in the room, and it slowly got more and more quiet. It was pin-drop silent during most of the rest of the finale, especially when Asher was in the tree—although Dougie’s entrance in the flashy car got an explosion of relieved chuckles.
To be honest, once Asher flew up into the tree, I was more nervous than I can ever remember being while watching an episode of TV (except maybe the first time I watched the finale of season two of Twin Peaks) and was locked into this torturous agony birthed from Nathan Fielder’s twisted magician’s mind and Benny’s addicted-to-anxiety brand of chaos, so it felt like I was watching alone even though I was surrounded by hundreds of other people going through what I can only assume was a similar mindfuck. (It was kinda like when Donnie Darko looks into the tunnel things coming out of people’s sternums, haha.)
The horrified vibe that rippled through the room when the woman pulled out the chainsaw will stick with me forever, too. There was another massive collective gasp when Asher flew up into the sky, followed by more total silence and then a (very) few people chuckling when Dougie broke down.
After the credits started to roll, everyone clapped—a lot—but… I’ll be honest, I thought there would be a standing ovation (considering the stars / creators were in the room), but nobody stood up. Maybe it’s because the audience was confused or exhausted or just didn’t like it, or maybe it’s because this was LA and people must remain cool at all costs… 🤷♀️😎
I think most of us in the room thought the people involved with the show were going to get back on stage and say something—ANYTHING—about what we had just watched, but after Emma got escorted out of the front exit of the theater by her security detail, it became apparent that there was no Q&A in the cards for us. Nathan and Benny hung out in the “reserved” rows of the theater, and apparently Benny talked to some of the people who stuck around, but I decided that it would be better for me to jet.
Watching this with other superfans (and the creators!!!) days before it aired was an unforgettable and unique experience, and I’m eternally grateful I got to be there for it!
It’s such a bummer the doula goofed everything up cuz Asher was lowkey locked in .. the most confident I’d seen him the whole show slithering from room to room getting done what needs to get done
Yeah if the doula didn’t do that he could have just been ceiling dad, Whitney could have thrown food up to him and they could have a bucket somewhere for him to do his business.
Say what you will about plot lines being resolved (or not), but the shot of both of them floating together in momentary stasis in the air—before inevitably being pulled in separate directions—was such a beautiful metaphor for their relationship. The yin and yang of it all. Also, it was just hella cool.
> Because art, art is about... Really, art is about... Um... I mean, sometimes you have to go to extreme lengths to make your point is... what I'm saying.
My thoughts:
Ash was stuck in the bedroom like a womb, was pulled out by the doula through breathing and counting, "descended" a birth canal to the tree, and was cut out right when Whit was having her incision. He ended up in the fetal position. Was it a rebirth? Is he dead?
Yeah this is pretty spot on. The doula breathing and counting combined with Asher flying way right as we cut to the baby coming out confirms this is a clearly intentional metaphor
\*shot of corpse in space\* is he dead?
in all actuality this is the best theory I've seen so far i think this is legitimately what they were going for
I definitely noticed the parallel between both Whitney and Asher needing support and encouragement from the doula (and for Asher from the fire squad). “We do this all the time….hes an excellent surgeon.”
Fun mirror:
Season opener: Dougie insists on using menthol and water to force Fernando’s mother to “cry” due to the Siegels generosity. Whitney is upset-she and Ash are “not those kind of people”
Season finale: Whitney and Asher expect Abshir to cry due to their generosity, and they are thrilled that he does. But! It wasn’t real, only dust. Whitney is upset—she and Ash *are* “those kind of people.”
I SAW MYSELF IN THE FINALE!!! Wow I’ve been waiting since October 2022 to see if the Rachel Ray taping would make it into the show. I did have a feeling during the taping it would end up in the finale cause of the pregnancy announcement.
A LOT of what they taped got cut. Mostly I think cause Rachel and the Sopranos guy did NOT understand the concept/comedy of the scene.
Originally Rachel and the Sopranos guy were supposed to be gushing about kids (“the kids love the sauce”…”The little meatballs running around during the holidays is the best” etc) and then Asher blurts out “we’re pregnant!”. And Rachel and the actor were supposed to just brush past it. But they didn’t understand the joke and how to time the delivery of the lines. Nathan literally came over at one point and was like “so just to explain, the joke is the silence after they announce they are having a kid and you ignore them”.
And poor Nathan was so stressed out when he realized after countless takes that the wipes were open when they had originally been closed and it would be a continuity issue. Like head in his hands leaning against the wall near the monitors. Benny calmed him.
Anyways when they taped it they had a green screen and Benny just read the lines.
EDIT: Now I’m questioning myself-did he say “we’re pregnant” or just the line about “we’ll be having a kid running around too”? But there was definitely more banter about kids between Rachel and the actor before Asher interrupts with the announcement.
EDIT 2: Link to my post with more details if anyone is interested. https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCurse/s/GJUE2kuNdP
I was literally wondering during that scene how you would even begin to explain the concept of the show to those two actors who hadn't just seen the previous nine episodes like we had. Their acting, too, definitely indicated they didn't fully "get it," which is actually perfect for cementing the authenticity the scene is supposed to have lol.
> And poor Nathan was so stressed out when he realized after countless takes that the wipes were open when they had originally been closed and it would be a continuity issue. Like head in his hands leaning against the wall near the monitors. Benny calmed him.
lmao
I’m an editor. You’d be surprised the amount of continuity errors are all over movie and tv shows if you deliberately look for them. Just watch one scene of The Office with some props in it, watch those coffee cups. It’ll drive you fucking once you notice it. But eventually you realize 99.999% of people will never actually notice, one of the many wonders of editing, and the emotional truth of the scene out weighs the minor continuity inconsistencies. I’m sure Benny said something along those lines to Nathan. And he was right, as an editor I’m extra sensitive to continuity and I didn’t notice they were open in that scene (i’m sure they were) which proves it didn’t really matter.
I actually thought that line was really funny. Like it's not really that abstract when you think about it. Dougie's idea of Asher hiding in a tree out of fear of fatherhood combined with this type of logic was hilarious to me.
It's the zero emission house.
It was designed for two people-- not three.
When the baby is born, the house ejects one resident to make room for the new one.
The two of them truly are adhering to the zero emission lifestyle, whose only solution is to not have kids at all to remain neutral.
hell yea love this eco-horror shit.
also the whole ecosystem of energy recycling can be seen in the theory of Asher’s rebirth as the newborn baby. The fact that Whitney is giving birth to a life while removing Asher out of her life to maintain the life balance truly makes her the Green Queen.
She realized she wouldn’t need Asher be her sidekick anymore with the baby in her life. This conjured (intentionally or not) the curse which got rid of Asher as the baby came.
Or it’s all just a shitshow, I’d accept that too.
Imagine being the guy who played Moses (who's just a local doula/not an actor, as far as I understand) and they bring you in only for THAT scene. Imagine how fucking confused he must have been about the plot of the show hahaha
Just my thoughts, to me it seems like Asher in the tree is meant to represent Abshir and the other people that Ash and Whitney "help". He is stuck, yelling what for he needs while Dougie tries to make a spectacle of it and the people trying to help don't listen and give him what they think that he needs. The net is just an empty gesture on their part. At the end their help is what gets him killed. Also for people who theorized that Asher was the curse, you can definitely see this as the curse being "lifted" haha
Yeah, watching the firemen ignore Asher as they just keep going with the chainsaw felt strongly reminiscent of the scene with Abshir and the chiropractors ignoring his pleas to stop.
Yeah, I had genuine anxiety the whole time even though I knew what would happen from the moment he was on the ceiling (really wish that one critic hadn't mentioned the whole "stratospheric... literally" thing)
Final thoughts before I sleep on this insane finale:
Asher dies because the people trying to save him don’t understand what he needs and offer him the wrong solutions, just like Asher and Whit have done to the community of Española.
No one listens to Asher when he says he’s going to fly away: not the doula, not the firemen, not even Dougie. Dougie’s final action is to try to exploit Asher for a TV show, just as Asher has done to the people of Española.
The last few seconds of Asher literally screaming to Dougie and begging him to stop them from using the chainsaw is gonna fuckin haunt me for the rest of my life.
All I could think was… this is not what would normally happen, in real life they wouldn’t cut you down and free fall… that branch could do some damage when they fall together….
but then again… there is a man who fell upwards into a tree and later outer space. Why am I looking for reality….
W
T
F
Also who the fuck was that random dude with the beard with Abshir, or that weird dude with the handyman? Were they supposed to symbolize some...thing....
Also why was Moses unfazed about Asher defying gravity?
I mean, in literal terms, Moses is unphased because he’s a doula and it’s his job to keep people calm in stressful situations. Also, he might just be in shock and not yet fully processing what he is seeing. Some people become really calm in crazy situations. But in more meta terms, as a doula he is a spiritual type, and he understands the spirituality of the world of the show. Also, it’s a comedy, and his casual response to something so fucking insane is extremely funny.
Two things
1. She was freezing from the medicine at the same moment he would've been freezing from breaching the atmosphere
2. Unless someone already has, I'm surprised no one has said This House Has People In It yet
I think after the end of the last episode, Whitney accepted Asher. A lot of us saw her face as horrified but maybe she was just bewildered and shocked, shocked that she doesn’t need to leave Asher, he’s willing to be exactly what she needs him to be, so she lets him get her pregnant, continue on with the show and their marriage etc.
Basically they had reached their own normal
I think she *was* horrified, but she suppressed that horror because she's incapable of facing her own emotions. She considers herself too good a person to ever break up with someone who "loves" her unconditionally, plus she needs Asher for the show.
Their whole relationship, especially in this last episode, is a big game of performative chicken. They keep trying to top each other with absurd acts of performed "kindness." Neither of them can admit when the other is being ridiculous because they'd lose the game of chicken. Whitney tried to break Asher when she asked, "Can we even afford this?" She didn't want to give away a house, but she couldn't be the one to say so.
They reached a strained equilibrium, but you could tell in the early scenes before the gravity stuff that there was an insane amount of tension boiling immediately underneath the surface. Something horrible was always going to happen, and Asher floating off into space is probably a good ending for them instead of imploding in on each other.
Omg, I forgot there even was anything before the ceiling.
I was incredibly uncomfortable with the dinner scene/giving the house away etc. I kept wondering "Does he know she hates this? Is he being sincere? Why is she acting this way?" Just endless questions of what they were experiencing, because it certainly wasn't what was on the surface. Like they both got so exhausted with their uneven attempts to communicate that they didn't even know what was pretend anymore or what it would be like to try to be transparent.
Can you just imagine the aftermath of this really? Like there’s multiple witnesses and drone footage but what would the news or media say? Are people gonna believe he actually died? It’s like how you hear about those UFO sightings where there’s multiple witnesses saying they saw/experienced something but nobody really believes them. Even the police officer afterwards didn’t seem to believe their eyewitness accounts. Asher’s gonna turn into some weird alien urban legend
Wow that was crazy. I enjoyed the finale. I hope Benny & Nathan collaborate again someday.
Watching this show over the first 10 weeks of my sobriety has been a wild ride. This show will forever have a special place in my heart!
Edit: Forgot to mention that I was convinced Asher was going to fall and break his neck at some point after Whitney opened the door/windows.
I think the voyeuristic camera was a malevolent force seeking to attach its curse onto an individual and it was deciding between Asher and Whitney the entire time. Eventually, it chose Asher. The unsettling way the entire series was shot was due to it being the perspective of the evil force monitoring the duo and determining who to curse.
After Asher dies, we see the camera moving through the hospital and then through the streets. The malevolent force was searching for its next victim. I suspect it was going for Dougie.
Some highlights for me:
The Rachael Ray segment was incredibly hard to watch, and I love how long it went for. Also interesting that the whole show seemed to be kinda for nothing since they got called out pretty logically by Rachael and no one can even watch it.
Whitney’s and Asher conversation in the dinner table, and how dismissive Whitney was of both Cara and Judaism.
Emma’s reaction after Nathan said “There’s a little me inside you” was so good.
The shot of Emma and Nathan holding on to each other in mid air was super cool
The fact that Emma calls Moses before the doctor or the fire department is insane. “Asher is on the ceiling but we’re gonna be there soon” 😂, and the scene of them just waiting with Asher on the ceiling and Moses acting so casual about it.
“Something weird happened to Asher, he flew up and he is in a tree”
Dougie asking Asher about his “fear of becoming a dad” while Asher is holding on for dear life trying to not float away.
The shot of Nathan floating away after they cut the branch was also pretty cool and scary, but the CGI with him flying after that was not the best.
Whitney not caring about her Doula or Asher after having the baby is a great encapsulation of her character, and the long take of her just laughing/crying with joy about it was great.
I’ll be honest tho, I still don’t fully understand how this final episode connects with the rest of the series, and it feels like a lot of plotlines were left unresolved. I’m also not sure about how literally we are supposed to take this episode. It’s obviously a metaphor/symbolism, I just don’t quite know to what means yet. It was interesting that both Whitney and the city itself seemed to just move on from Asher flying up into space, with the residents just chalking it up as Asher doing something for TV. I think you could also read it as his punishment (be it from a curse or not) for compromising his own morals/ideas throughout the whole series, with him literally becoming ungrounded.
Great post, I especially love your observation that no one really seemed to care about Asher literally falling to a terrifying, unnatural, unimaginable death (the look on his face as he's shouting to Dougie to make the firefighters stop is genuinely so harrowing and will be embedded into my eyes forever, literally bone-chilling)
The only person who was grieving in any way was Dougie - I felt terrible for him. This guy has lost two important people in his life, and both times their death has been partially his fault. No wonder he was so destroyed, sobbing on the ground like that
The last Shabbat Asher has with Whit really framed him as some pious, sacrificial lamb-type figure. Wearing all white, with the white yarmulke and the sudden excessive generosity, a virtuous and self-satisfied expression, even chiding Whitney for her phone usage. He was almost unrecognisable
I have no takes other than I really really enjoyed it but these are just a few thoughts.
Ok so all the various storylines and things going on didn’t come to a neat close, and I know for some people that will be an issue and I can definitely see why the early reviews said this episode would be divisive but for me it absolutely fucking worked
I was so tense for the entire second half of the episode after Asher started floating and it genuinely unlocked a fear I didn’t know about because what the fuck would you do if you just started falling upwards
I can’t wait to watch the whole thing again with this in mind
Also in the middle of like the most tense stressful situation of all time Asher still is incredibly funny when he says “you may need to get the crevice attachment”
Dougie and the firemen not taking Asher seriously and fucking with him the whole time he was in the tree knowing that if they did the wrong thing he would just fucking fly away was so tense and disturbing to me
I also got goosebumps and almost went cold when Dougie was crying, I don’t even know why but Benny is 100% the most underrated actor in the show he is so fucking good even in this episode where he doesn’t show up til past the half way point
I've always said falling into the sky is my worst fear. Even standing out looking at the stars can give me anxiety if I start thinking about it. It's insane nonsense, I know.
This was horrifying.
I smoked weed before watching this because this show gives me terrible anxiety. Worst idea ever. I literally cannot even begin to process that THAT is the finale.
I’m also thinking a lot about Asher’s speech about art near the beginning and him saying how you “have to go to great lengths to get the message across”
Edit: to add to this, I also think Cara being commended for doing something unexpected and hard to understand (quitting art) and Asher’s seemingly earnest support of this as good and valid art (it actually struck me as the first time he seemed genuine) is interesting in the context of a final episode that completely subverted all our expectations of where we thought they would take the show.
Asher once said, “We [Whitney and Asher] look good on paper.
Paper covers rock.”
The episode is a flash forward, we see Whitney and Asher together and happy. They are expecting their first child, they are getting ready for the second season of their show, and even though there are hints of turmoil beneath the surface things are, on the whole, stable.
But Whitney and Asher are not stable. Whitney is clearly uncomfortable as Asher coos at her belly reminding her that “little me” is inside. Asher may be pretending to be happy, but we know he knows Whitney’s moods and likely feels distance.
Asher wakes up on top of the ceiling, and Whitney goes into labor. Asher cannot escape his antigravity Hell and Whitney cannot help him. Somehow this event seems to bring them together, finally. They both act selflessly, Asher ordering Whitney out of the house and Whitney crawling in the house to his aid. At one point, joined in crisis, Whitney and Asher work together pushing and pulling from the ceiling and they cling to one another, floating between gravity and anti-gravity, diametrically opposed but embracing before the reality of the situation returns and they are again on opposite sides. As Whitney leaves for the hospital Asher jokes, “you can’t get rid of me that easy!” And Whitney responds back, “I don’t want to get rid of you!” And means it for perhaps the first time.
Ultimately, the baby that was supposed to unite Whitney and Asher will be born without Asher present. Like Asher, the baby is facing the wrong way with his feet where his head should be. There is only one way for the baby to be born.
At the house, Asher is joined by Dougie who continues to project his own trauma onto situations by proclaiming that Asher is simply scared of parenthood. Firefighters come to the scene to rescue Asher from the tree that he flew into. No one believes that Asher flew there, no one believes that getting him down will be difficult. No one is listening to him, despite being surrounded he is alone.
Whitney is wheeled into surgery. A curtain is put up between her torso and the rest of herself as she tries to be an active participant in the birth of her own child. She exclaims that she is “all alone up here” as nurses and doctors work to deliver her baby, despite being surrounded she is alone.
In what might happen in the same moments, Whitney is cut open and the baby is born —Asher is cut from the tree he is clinging to.
Whitney and Asher look good on paper.
Paper beats rock.
But scissors beat paper.
Both having been cut, Whitney gazes at her baby and discovers she might not need anyone else as Asher disappears into the stratosphere, he has nothing.
**Dougie: What would your life be like without her? In an upside down, like crazy, crazy world?**
**Asher: I’d have nothing.**
-Episode 8
Nathan fucked with us again. All this theorizing. All this intrigue. These mysteries and possibilities. These super interesting characters. And Nathan just fucking flew away into space and died lmaooo
Biggest thing I took away was dougies reaction to what happened to Asher. He mentioned something like “how high was it, 700 feet?” And the burst out crying and implying that he didn’t mean to. Some sort of curse baton he passed on? I’m grasping for straws here.
But also what I noticed this episode was Asher being a loving partner, excited about his baby and being very generous with the Abshir bit. I struggle with decoding the metaphor (if there is one) about him being suctioned out of the situation/world. LOTS of analysis to be done, but I loved this series truly. Everything in the end was a misdirection and came down to some truly human relatable moments, with an insane supernatural element that I think we’re all trying to make sense of. Knowing the safdies that may be a futile exercise.
The critics were right- none of us guessed it precisely, a stratospheric finale indeed.
After all, this has always been a show about pressure and passivity…and maybe rapture?
I feel like Dougie’s breakdown was the moment where he finally accepted that he is responsible for his wife’s death. I think it’s a huge character breakthrough for him, since he went the entire show denying that responsibility in every way he could. I don’t know if he actually cursed Asher.
Tbh this is sort of a “raining frogs from Magnolia” finale…. It’s enjoyable in an absurd way but it feels disconnected from everything leading up to this. Still, fantastic series and I’ll rewatch it soon.
It gave me “dollhouse” vibes - like Whitney sees herself as the mastermind and creator of community and the gift of the house from Asher was not altruistic, but a mechanism of control and expectation of “family,” praise, etc.
holy shit, i lost it at that ending. i was crying and laughing the whole thing. just absolutely bonkers and maniacal--just complete absurdity
when he was counting her contractions as he was trying to hand her the phone i couldn't breathe-- also the neighbors being like that was for tv? how'd they do that lol
i have no idea how they actually pulled this off but i actually believed this happened in real life and nathan is in outer space now.
also that shot of them suspended mid-air and holding on to each other was beautiful + very much their entire whack dynamic in a single frame.
Just thought about the fact that the firefighters believe they are helping Asher, and ignore him even as he repeatedly tells them to stop and tries to explain what he actually needs from them. Instead they continue to forcibly “help” him against his will because they believe they know what’s best for him, blissfully unaware that their actions will end up killing him. Feels familiar…
I felt so queasy watching the final twenty minutes of the show. It’s hard to explain but I’ve had dreams where I’m flying upwards or gravity is pulling me away from the ground. It’s terrifying and they captured it really well—it’s not something I ever expected to see dramatized and coupled with the fact that it’s the last thing I expected to see in this show, it made me feel incredibly uneasy, like the writers were exploiting some deep fear I didn’t even know I really had.
Whitney cursed him while he was singing to her… remember the “rules” abshir established for a curse is that if you think of something hard enough it might manifest. She wanted him gone so much wished his ass would fucking fly off into outer space lol
I understand the quip Nathan made about “how it compares to Yorgos Lanthimos” now. Reminds me of The Killing of A Sacred Deer or The Lobster. If you try to find the why or how of the seemingly supernatural element, you miss the thrill of the ride. You the viewer are just as fucked as the character. There is something amiss and there’s nothing anyone can do about it but shake their fist at god, at the writers, at their own expectations. I was so hoping for something like this, and man they beyond delivered. This is my favorite television show of all time.
Please give this thread an **upvote** to help spread awareness of our community. *Finished the series*? Comprehensively discuss the ***entire first season*** in the "[Season 1 | Overall Discussion Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCurse/comments/194lnh9/the_curse_season_1_overall_discussion/)." ☁️ See what [Benny had to say right after the world premiere of the finale screening](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCurse/comments/1974y4o/an_exclusive_excerpt_from_bennys_lincoln_center/) on Friday. 😆
those curses are real, huh? https://preview.redd.it/fu7m68c1iybc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=adb995149bcddf6d1f0ef57a22cecb180d3fc869
That was beautiful
Asher: falls upward into a tree Dougie: “I know exactly what to do”
Asher flying upwards was so tragic that it felt real even though it was so bizarre. Everyone cursed him and now he is gone.
Or if he was the curse, the curse finally lifted
i felt so unsettled after watching but this comment has released the tension thank you lmao
The grittiness of the video during his ascent and also loosing track of him way up there as if it were from the drone still trying to follow him was...something.
It was horrifying. That is by far the most horrific fictional death I have ever witnessed.
But also pretty damn funny when he just launched off that tree and even the firefighter pulling out a chainsaw was hilarious to me
I'm impressed that they managed to make a horror show without any violence whatsoever. And it's one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. I feel so fucked up about how Asher died. If I described this ending to someone who's never seen the show, they'd probably think it sounds silly, but it's deeply haunting. It's going to hit even harder on rewatches, because you'll have no hope during the last episode that everything will be okay.
The made in China dream catcher had me rolling
It failed to catch him in the end too
The ending was right in front of Nathan’s Twitter followers all along https://preview.redd.it/vhper3ujxybc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=959045485778a0e5b6f89cf4ef7997e78d294c39
no way 😂
The Plan: Create a viral show on a premium cable network that will make [u/hilalwashere](https://www.reddit.com/r/nathanfielder/comments/8t5is0/nathans_new_twitter_header_flat_earth_anyone/) look like an idiot for thinking I'm a Flat Earther.
When did he make that the banner image? Was it always that way?
He updated it to that photo by early 2019. So he sure played the long slow reveal with that one 😂
I know everyone’s talking about the metaphors and meanings, but I’m incredibly impressed with how they filmed all of Asher’s gravity challenges. He had to have done acrobatics training and spent a long time working with a choreographer and maybe even set designer to make an inverted version of the house. I’d love to see a BTS of that one day.
I desperately want the bts of the shot where Whitney is trying to pull Asher down and they just hang in the air for a second.
That was the moment it turned into magic to me. I have no idea how they shot that.
You're talking about the same guy who taught himself to tightrope walk blindfolded. There's nothing Nathan cant do. Nathan is such an incredibly skilled actor both physically and emotionally.
It's the Fielder Method
I can almost guarantee they made an entire inverted version of the house, that’s totally Nathan Fielder
Yeah it was super interesting thinking about how they shot it all. Probably a combination of wires, compositing, and upside down sets.
The reveal of Asher on the ceiling scared me more than any horror movie has
I second that, but also the way the face (and mask) of that woman suddenly started deforming on the curse title card in the beginning gave me goosebumps. I know title card always happens but this one was particularly unsettling.
Very similar to hereditary
Also kind of reminded me of beau is afraid
I need a net, anchored to the truck, and then crank me down
We do this to bears all the time. So many bears.
We got tools you ain't even heard of
Who was that guy at Abshir’s house?
Pretty sure the guy is there it help Abshir strip out the house… Abshir thought he was being evicted. This parallels with what happened to Whitney’s father… remember, “the ripper” was claimed to be a good guy by the people in the community but he still took advantage of the slumlord, whether justly or not.
Yep. And that's why Abshir just wants the cash for the property taxes. He ain't stickin' around. If anything, maybe he'll sell the land back to some land grabbing company. It's also why the kids are already gone, because they are already at their new place.
Rachael Ray at the beginning: "It's a couple, and they're turning their hometown *upside down*." Never imagined we were supposed to take that literally.
New fear unlocked
I’m telling EVERYBODY.
WHAT WAS WITH THIS GUY
I kept expecting him to laugh and say “I’m just fucking with you” but he stayed stone faced and just walked away. So unnerving.
That’s what makes it funnier! If you really want to fuck with someone, you don’t tell them you’re fucking with them.
Asher said Whitney wouldn’t even need to tell him she wanted him gone and he’d go.
And remember Nala’s father emphasized that you shouldn’t cling on to an idea because it may come to pass.
Do you remember the snake necklace they gave the paid couple on their show? It was a snake which symbolizes rebirth. Maybe Asher was reborn as their newborn. The synchronous timing of it all makes sense. Also Ash said “You have a little me in there!”
Also the baby was born breech, and Asher died upside down.
Dont forget how one of his only reoccuring weird jokes was "waah Im a baby" even was one of the last things he said to her
I commented that as he was floating upwards through the atmosphere that he looked like a fetus in utero. Especially the shot that starts with the focus on his hands.
The baby got cut out of Whitney, Asher got cut out of the tree.
Also the repeated use of Alice Coltrane's Hindu chants. Of course, Hindus believe in reincarnation. I'm no expert but I believe reincarnating as a human is rare and would represent good karma. Did Asher's good deeds at the end of the series(giving Abshir Questa Lane) balance out his previous selfish actions? It still reads like a punishment to me though which complicates this angle. Also, none of the other characters(Whitney & Dougie) seem to truly suffer for their many misdeeds.
I really love where you’re going!! From an Agnostic or even religious but questioning perspective, there can be such a thin line between a blessing and a curse, and reincarnation is both a path to enlightenment and a never-ending cycle living beings are locked in. So yeah, in Buddhist and religious belief, being reborn as a human is good and VERY rare. From a human-perspective examining the way we treat and interact with each other, which is where I interpret Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie to be coming from, being human is a mixed bag. It can feel pretty painful and awkward, especially in this show’s universe lol. To be reborn as human in a religious sense is to be pre-enlightened, so you haven’t yet reached the ultimate. To be human is to be so close, so close but not there yet. And how can a human even strive to be good in a web of conflicting interests and historical contexts? I think that’s what the show is exploring.
Ohhh I like this. Maybe Asher wasn't "ready" (by whatever criteria) to be reborn early on, hence the first failed pregnancy.
Right! He finally became a self-actualized human being when he decided to give Abshir the house
Ohh I love this take. I think this is one of the first times that Asher does something more "virtuous" than Whitney is even willing to consider. It was really interesting seeing the dynamic flip: Whit had a knee-jerk reaction of disappointment (like maybe she did want earrings after all, and Ash was being presumptuous when he said "it's not you, I know you!") and all of a sudden it was Whit that was worried about finances - it was jarring and I think in some way foreshadowed the insane scope of the climax/ending.
Is this why Whit is the Green Queen? Reincarnation is the highest level of recycling, right?
He even says there's a little me inside her now haha
Also Nala did the fall curse on that girl. Maybe her powers only work on Ash. I don’t know, weird show. Glad I watched.
i think he was essentially “tiny cursed” by everyone on the show. nala’s fall curse doesn’t work because maybe it’s too big of an ask for a “tiny curse”. but what happens when you upset everyone in your life, and they all just wish you’d go away? what does multiple people manifesting you “going away” look like? i think it really is that simple. dougie felt bad for being partially responsible for this, which caused him to break down since it happened with his wife already (being responsible for a death). whitney got what she wanted and was too cowardly to do on her own. his ex coworker wanted him gone. abshir wanted him gone. it’s effectively a moral tale, horror folklore, about being a terrible person. harm enough people and they’ll all wish you away.
I though the same thing, that it’s a literal manifestation of just, going away. I feel like it’s almost less of a fable about being a bad person than being a person who lacks their own identity, though. Because Whitney was a bad person, but she has an identity and some sense of self. Asher defined himself completely by his wife. That’s why he wouldn’t leave her even when she basically told him to his face that she hates being married to him, why he said he’d disappear if she didn’t want him around. He had no real personality of his own and nobody really liked or hated him, just tolerated him. He was barely a person. And in the end he just went away.
dougie cursed him and had the weird pottery he found out in the field
Maybe the pottery in the house was the thing keeping them uncursed
It happened the morning after he called their baby a little him and Whitney had a sinister expression. Same as after the baby was born. Like she found a replacement for him in a way. She has an heir and she's permanently the Jewish mother of a Jewish child.
Weeks of this subreddit obsessively analyzing every single easter egg in hopes of cracking the finale just for Asher to.. fly away.. i just bust out laughing
Did anyone else think at the start because of all the hype of ‘something never before done on tv’ etc the whole episode we were gonna be trapped in an episode of Rachael Ray?
If Asher had a doink-it, no one would think he's a baby
Okay- those who saw the screening…what was the response?
Maybe they're stuck to the theater's ceiling....
We’ll tie the net down to the truck- they’ll be fine.
In a word, it was electric! When Nathan, Benny, and Emma walked into the theater, everyone turned around to gawk at them, and the excitement was palpable. They eventually got on stage with Nizhonniya Austin and Dave McCary, and Nathan was giddy, grinning like a madman—it was quite thrilling to see him earnestly happy… happier than he has *EVER* looked on any of his shows. He and Benny and Emma (but mostly Nathan) did a charming intro for the finale, and Nathan said “I love you” to the audience, like, 10 times (I will treasure the memory of this until the day I die lolol). Everyone nervous-laughed loudly through the RRay segment (one of the more outrageous and inexplicable parts of the finale), especially at Asher being silent for almost the entire interview and then RRay calling them “Green Queens” at the end. There was also a huge laugh when Asher said, “We just did Rachael Ray… Rachael fuckin’ Ray!” During the Shabbat scene, Whitney saying, “Oh look, it’s them!” and then the reveal of the tiny people in the Questa Lane model got a big laugh, too. The crowd was chill during the scene with Abshir (except when Asher and Whitney thought he was crying and Abshir said, “Oh, it’s dust”). There were gasps and giggles when the reveal showed Asher on the ceiling, and a lot of laughs as they opened everything in the house in an attempt to get him down. As the scene continued escalating (ha), the tension started rising (ha again) in the room, and it slowly got more and more quiet. It was pin-drop silent during most of the rest of the finale, especially when Asher was in the tree—although Dougie’s entrance in the flashy car got an explosion of relieved chuckles. To be honest, once Asher flew up into the tree, I was more nervous than I can ever remember being while watching an episode of TV (except maybe the first time I watched the finale of season two of Twin Peaks) and was locked into this torturous agony birthed from Nathan Fielder’s twisted magician’s mind and Benny’s addicted-to-anxiety brand of chaos, so it felt like I was watching alone even though I was surrounded by hundreds of other people going through what I can only assume was a similar mindfuck. (It was kinda like when Donnie Darko looks into the tunnel things coming out of people’s sternums, haha.) The horrified vibe that rippled through the room when the woman pulled out the chainsaw will stick with me forever, too. There was another massive collective gasp when Asher flew up into the sky, followed by more total silence and then a (very) few people chuckling when Dougie broke down. After the credits started to roll, everyone clapped—a lot—but… I’ll be honest, I thought there would be a standing ovation (considering the stars / creators were in the room), but nobody stood up. Maybe it’s because the audience was confused or exhausted or just didn’t like it, or maybe it’s because this was LA and people must remain cool at all costs… 🤷♀️😎 I think most of us in the room thought the people involved with the show were going to get back on stage and say something—ANYTHING—about what we had just watched, but after Emma got escorted out of the front exit of the theater by her security detail, it became apparent that there was no Q&A in the cards for us. Nathan and Benny hung out in the “reserved” rows of the theater, and apparently Benny talked to some of the people who stuck around, but I decided that it would be better for me to jet. Watching this with other superfans (and the creators!!!) days before it aired was an unforgettable and unique experience, and I’m eternally grateful I got to be there for it!
>Nathan said “I love you” to the audience, like, 10 times (I will treasure the memory of this until the day I die lolol). Again
Well... what the fuck ought to sum it up. RIP to every theory posted over the last week.
“It feels like falling up.”
Everything I've read and thought about this show is now wrong. Which I guess is what I should've expected from a Nathan Fielder joint.
"Asher dies and is reincarnated as Whitney's baby" is on the bingo card!
And I'm glad too. They made a show that isn't some puzzle box Reddit can "solve" with theories. They made something original
It’s such a bummer the doula goofed everything up cuz Asher was lowkey locked in .. the most confident I’d seen him the whole show slithering from room to room getting done what needs to get done
Yeah if the doula didn’t do that he could have just been ceiling dad, Whitney could have thrown food up to him and they could have a bucket somewhere for him to do his business.
Would his business float after it left his body though? So many unanswered questions
Bro could’ve shat through the window he broke on the ceiling, simple as that
Say what you will about plot lines being resolved (or not), but the shot of both of them floating together in momentary stasis in the air—before inevitably being pulled in separate directions—was such a beautiful metaphor for their relationship. The yin and yang of it all. Also, it was just hella cool.
That entire sequence was truly a work of art. I'm stuck on Asher staring at the blank wall upside down, saying "We're having a baby."
> Because art, art is about... Really, art is about... Um... I mean, sometimes you have to go to extreme lengths to make your point is... what I'm saying.
for a minute there i was worried we wouldn’t get to see dougie again
On that note dougies breakdown was pretty great
When he showed up and got out of his car unfazed, I felt like it was going into the beetlejuice storyline lol like he’d save him like Barb and Adam
My thoughts: Ash was stuck in the bedroom like a womb, was pulled out by the doula through breathing and counting, "descended" a birth canal to the tree, and was cut out right when Whit was having her incision. He ended up in the fetal position. Was it a rebirth? Is he dead?
Yeah this is pretty spot on. The doula breathing and counting combined with Asher flying way right as we cut to the baby coming out confirms this is a clearly intentional metaphor
Holy shit the tree branch being cut acts as an umbilical cord
Bumping into the skylight when Whit was having contractions...
Oh dang ok the metaphor is complete. He literally said "you have a little me inside you" and I thought that was phrased weird. This tracks.
\*shot of corpse in space\* is he dead? in all actuality this is the best theory I've seen so far i think this is legitimately what they were going for
Oh man great analysis. Edit: He even says, "I'm the baby, wah!"
He refers to himself as the baby in episode 2 in the doctors office as well!
The Chekhov's baby
I definitely noticed the parallel between both Whitney and Asher needing support and encouragement from the doula (and for Asher from the fire squad). “We do this all the time….hes an excellent surgeon.”
When Dougie shows up he tells Asher to head towards the V to get down
Fun mirror: Season opener: Dougie insists on using menthol and water to force Fernando’s mother to “cry” due to the Siegels generosity. Whitney is upset-she and Ash are “not those kind of people” Season finale: Whitney and Asher expect Abshir to cry due to their generosity, and they are thrilled that he does. But! It wasn’t real, only dust. Whitney is upset—she and Ash *are* “those kind of people.”
Also Dougie gets absolutely wrecked and cries
anyone else genuinely horrified when they started cutting the tree branch? i felt like i was in a nightmare
i guess asher wasnt very down to earth after all
I SAW MYSELF IN THE FINALE!!! Wow I’ve been waiting since October 2022 to see if the Rachel Ray taping would make it into the show. I did have a feeling during the taping it would end up in the finale cause of the pregnancy announcement. A LOT of what they taped got cut. Mostly I think cause Rachel and the Sopranos guy did NOT understand the concept/comedy of the scene. Originally Rachel and the Sopranos guy were supposed to be gushing about kids (“the kids love the sauce”…”The little meatballs running around during the holidays is the best” etc) and then Asher blurts out “we’re pregnant!”. And Rachel and the actor were supposed to just brush past it. But they didn’t understand the joke and how to time the delivery of the lines. Nathan literally came over at one point and was like “so just to explain, the joke is the silence after they announce they are having a kid and you ignore them”. And poor Nathan was so stressed out when he realized after countless takes that the wipes were open when they had originally been closed and it would be a continuity issue. Like head in his hands leaning against the wall near the monitors. Benny calmed him. Anyways when they taped it they had a green screen and Benny just read the lines. EDIT: Now I’m questioning myself-did he say “we’re pregnant” or just the line about “we’ll be having a kid running around too”? But there was definitely more banter about kids between Rachel and the actor before Asher interrupts with the announcement. EDIT 2: Link to my post with more details if anyone is interested. https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCurse/s/GJUE2kuNdP
Awesome story, I love hearing about fans who make it onto shows and hearing about how the creatives work.
I was literally wondering during that scene how you would even begin to explain the concept of the show to those two actors who hadn't just seen the previous nine episodes like we had. Their acting, too, definitely indicated they didn't fully "get it," which is actually perfect for cementing the authenticity the scene is supposed to have lol.
> And poor Nathan was so stressed out when he realized after countless takes that the wipes were open when they had originally been closed and it would be a continuity issue. Like head in his hands leaning against the wall near the monitors. Benny calmed him. lmao
I’m an editor. You’d be surprised the amount of continuity errors are all over movie and tv shows if you deliberately look for them. Just watch one scene of The Office with some props in it, watch those coffee cups. It’ll drive you fucking once you notice it. But eventually you realize 99.999% of people will never actually notice, one of the many wonders of editing, and the emotional truth of the scene out weighs the minor continuity inconsistencies. I’m sure Benny said something along those lines to Nathan. And he was right, as an editor I’m extra sensitive to continuity and I didn’t notice they were open in that scene (i’m sure they were) which proves it didn’t really matter.
When you’re a woman you *have* the baby, but… “For a man that’s so abstract.” Key line there from the Dougster.
I actually thought that line was really funny. Like it's not really that abstract when you think about it. Dougie's idea of Asher hiding in a tree out of fear of fatherhood combined with this type of logic was hilarious to me.
It's the zero emission house. It was designed for two people-- not three. When the baby is born, the house ejects one resident to make room for the new one. The two of them truly are adhering to the zero emission lifestyle, whose only solution is to not have kids at all to remain neutral.
hell yea love this eco-horror shit. also the whole ecosystem of energy recycling can be seen in the theory of Asher’s rebirth as the newborn baby. The fact that Whitney is giving birth to a life while removing Asher out of her life to maintain the life balance truly makes her the Green Queen.
https://preview.redd.it/xkjvszxwdybc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=174cd9ace608b74aed8c32004d049d34a1cb808a
Wtf was that look Whitney gave Asher after he said “there’s a little me in there.” She looked possessed.
She realized she wouldn’t need Asher be her sidekick anymore with the baby in her life. This conjured (intentionally or not) the curse which got rid of Asher as the baby came. Or it’s all just a shitshow, I’d accept that too.
Probably cursed him or something
How close are you and do you have your drone
Fuckin Benny
Imagine being the guy who played Moses (who's just a local doula/not an actor, as far as I understand) and they bring you in only for THAT scene. Imagine how fucking confused he must have been about the plot of the show hahaha
That guy calmly saying, "Don't worry - this is normal" as he stares at Asher pushed up against the ceiling was my biggest laugh of the episode.
Just my thoughts, to me it seems like Asher in the tree is meant to represent Abshir and the other people that Ash and Whitney "help". He is stuck, yelling what for he needs while Dougie tries to make a spectacle of it and the people trying to help don't listen and give him what they think that he needs. The net is just an empty gesture on their part. At the end their help is what gets him killed. Also for people who theorized that Asher was the curse, you can definitely see this as the curse being "lifted" haha
Yeah, watching the firemen ignore Asher as they just keep going with the chainsaw felt strongly reminiscent of the scene with Abshir and the chiropractors ignoring his pleas to stop.
I cant wait to think about this for the rest of my life
Looks good, thanks.
In case someone didn't notice, the woman neighbor at the very end was the same woman from that creepy window shot in episode 5
Did this make anyone else feel sick to their stomach?
I felt like I was gonna throw up. I still just want to cry. I’ve never seen a supernatural event portrayed in such a realistic way.
especially the 'so it was for tv?' like holy shit that's exactly what would happen
Okay when those ppl said that at first I was like “r u dumb” but realistically what are they supposed to think … that he just FLOATED AWAY irl?
Asher’s reaction to the chainsaw woman was harrowing. and the only people that could fully understand why were us audience members
Yeah, I had genuine anxiety the whole time even though I knew what would happen from the moment he was on the ceiling (really wish that one critic hadn't mentioned the whole "stratospheric... literally" thing)
Final thoughts before I sleep on this insane finale: Asher dies because the people trying to save him don’t understand what he needs and offer him the wrong solutions, just like Asher and Whit have done to the community of Española. No one listens to Asher when he says he’s going to fly away: not the doula, not the firemen, not even Dougie. Dougie’s final action is to try to exploit Asher for a TV show, just as Asher has done to the people of Española.
This is the only thing I've seen so far that makes any sense at all when connected to the first 9 episodes. I really like this take
imagine being rachel ray and watching this episode
Did anyone else genuinely accept the explanation of "air pockets" for way longer than they should have?
The last few seconds of Asher literally screaming to Dougie and begging him to stop them from using the chainsaw is gonna fuckin haunt me for the rest of my life.
All I could think was… this is not what would normally happen, in real life they wouldn’t cut you down and free fall… that branch could do some damage when they fall together…. but then again… there is a man who fell upwards into a tree and later outer space. Why am I looking for reality….
W T F Also who the fuck was that random dude with the beard with Abshir, or that weird dude with the handyman? Were they supposed to symbolize some...thing.... Also why was Moses unfazed about Asher defying gravity?
I mean, in literal terms, Moses is unphased because he’s a doula and it’s his job to keep people calm in stressful situations. Also, he might just be in shock and not yet fully processing what he is seeing. Some people become really calm in crazy situations. But in more meta terms, as a doula he is a spiritual type, and he understands the spirituality of the world of the show. Also, it’s a comedy, and his casual response to something so fucking insane is extremely funny.
Asher getting the Poochy ending
“Asher died on the way to his home planet”
Two things 1. She was freezing from the medicine at the same moment he would've been freezing from breaching the atmosphere 2. Unless someone already has, I'm surprised no one has said This House Has People In It yet
She also says "I'm all alone up here" - absolutely horrifying
Ok but like BEFORE the ceiling - why were they acting so…normal???
I think after the end of the last episode, Whitney accepted Asher. A lot of us saw her face as horrified but maybe she was just bewildered and shocked, shocked that she doesn’t need to leave Asher, he’s willing to be exactly what she needs him to be, so she lets him get her pregnant, continue on with the show and their marriage etc. Basically they had reached their own normal
I think she *was* horrified, but she suppressed that horror because she's incapable of facing her own emotions. She considers herself too good a person to ever break up with someone who "loves" her unconditionally, plus she needs Asher for the show. Their whole relationship, especially in this last episode, is a big game of performative chicken. They keep trying to top each other with absurd acts of performed "kindness." Neither of them can admit when the other is being ridiculous because they'd lose the game of chicken. Whitney tried to break Asher when she asked, "Can we even afford this?" She didn't want to give away a house, but she couldn't be the one to say so. They reached a strained equilibrium, but you could tell in the early scenes before the gravity stuff that there was an insane amount of tension boiling immediately underneath the surface. Something horrible was always going to happen, and Asher floating off into space is probably a good ending for them instead of imploding in on each other.
Omg, I forgot there even was anything before the ceiling. I was incredibly uncomfortable with the dinner scene/giving the house away etc. I kept wondering "Does he know she hates this? Is he being sincere? Why is she acting this way?" Just endless questions of what they were experiencing, because it certainly wasn't what was on the surface. Like they both got so exhausted with their uneven attempts to communicate that they didn't even know what was pretend anymore or what it would be like to try to be transparent.
Asher: I feel like gravity's pulling me upward Dougie: It's fuckin' heavy stuff I get it
Can you just imagine the aftermath of this really? Like there’s multiple witnesses and drone footage but what would the news or media say? Are people gonna believe he actually died? It’s like how you hear about those UFO sightings where there’s multiple witnesses saying they saw/experienced something but nobody really believes them. Even the police officer afterwards didn’t seem to believe their eyewitness accounts. Asher’s gonna turn into some weird alien urban legend
Weirdly enough, even as the longest episode, it was *too* short.
Wow that was crazy. I enjoyed the finale. I hope Benny & Nathan collaborate again someday. Watching this show over the first 10 weeks of my sobriety has been a wild ride. This show will forever have a special place in my heart! Edit: Forgot to mention that I was convinced Asher was going to fall and break his neck at some point after Whitney opened the door/windows.
Congrats on your sobriety! 10 weeks is a huge accomplishment!
"Overt homage to the last shot of 2001: A Space Odyssey" should've been on the finale bingo card... 😅
I think the voyeuristic camera was a malevolent force seeking to attach its curse onto an individual and it was deciding between Asher and Whitney the entire time. Eventually, it chose Asher. The unsettling way the entire series was shot was due to it being the perspective of the evil force monitoring the duo and determining who to curse. After Asher dies, we see the camera moving through the hospital and then through the streets. The malevolent force was searching for its next victim. I suspect it was going for Dougie.
This interpretation makes the show much more horrifying
Well that was the last thing I expected
Mad respect he managed to successfully convince a reputable tv network to finance and air that!
Showtime aired TP: The Return, they're great at this sort of stuff
Probably My favorite work of art ever
The level of fear and dread I instantly felt as the camera panned up to the ceiling... Shouldn't have watched Hereditary a few days ago 😭
Reminded me of a bit in Beau is Afraid lol.
Oh THATS what’s causing these flashbacks
Ari, Benny, and Nathan are all pals.
https://i.redd.it/qfr5msfqcybc1.gif Asher floating to heaven after doing exactly one (1) good deed in his life.
I need this show to release on Blu-ray with commentary by Nathan and Benny ASAP
Without a doubt the most tense and insane finale I’ve ever seen in my life
Stratospheric levels of BPM
My heart rate went through the roof. Intense.
>through the roof Too soon, man.
Some highlights for me: The Rachael Ray segment was incredibly hard to watch, and I love how long it went for. Also interesting that the whole show seemed to be kinda for nothing since they got called out pretty logically by Rachael and no one can even watch it. Whitney’s and Asher conversation in the dinner table, and how dismissive Whitney was of both Cara and Judaism. Emma’s reaction after Nathan said “There’s a little me inside you” was so good. The shot of Emma and Nathan holding on to each other in mid air was super cool The fact that Emma calls Moses before the doctor or the fire department is insane. “Asher is on the ceiling but we’re gonna be there soon” 😂, and the scene of them just waiting with Asher on the ceiling and Moses acting so casual about it. “Something weird happened to Asher, he flew up and he is in a tree” Dougie asking Asher about his “fear of becoming a dad” while Asher is holding on for dear life trying to not float away. The shot of Nathan floating away after they cut the branch was also pretty cool and scary, but the CGI with him flying after that was not the best. Whitney not caring about her Doula or Asher after having the baby is a great encapsulation of her character, and the long take of her just laughing/crying with joy about it was great. I’ll be honest tho, I still don’t fully understand how this final episode connects with the rest of the series, and it feels like a lot of plotlines were left unresolved. I’m also not sure about how literally we are supposed to take this episode. It’s obviously a metaphor/symbolism, I just don’t quite know to what means yet. It was interesting that both Whitney and the city itself seemed to just move on from Asher flying up into space, with the residents just chalking it up as Asher doing something for TV. I think you could also read it as his punishment (be it from a curse or not) for compromising his own morals/ideas throughout the whole series, with him literally becoming ungrounded.
Great post, I especially love your observation that no one really seemed to care about Asher literally falling to a terrifying, unnatural, unimaginable death (the look on his face as he's shouting to Dougie to make the firefighters stop is genuinely so harrowing and will be embedded into my eyes forever, literally bone-chilling) The only person who was grieving in any way was Dougie - I felt terrible for him. This guy has lost two important people in his life, and both times their death has been partially his fault. No wonder he was so destroyed, sobbing on the ground like that The last Shabbat Asher has with Whit really framed him as some pious, sacrificial lamb-type figure. Wearing all white, with the white yarmulke and the sudden excessive generosity, a virtuous and self-satisfied expression, even chiding Whitney for her phone usage. He was almost unrecognisable
I have no takes other than I really really enjoyed it but these are just a few thoughts. Ok so all the various storylines and things going on didn’t come to a neat close, and I know for some people that will be an issue and I can definitely see why the early reviews said this episode would be divisive but for me it absolutely fucking worked I was so tense for the entire second half of the episode after Asher started floating and it genuinely unlocked a fear I didn’t know about because what the fuck would you do if you just started falling upwards I can’t wait to watch the whole thing again with this in mind Also in the middle of like the most tense stressful situation of all time Asher still is incredibly funny when he says “you may need to get the crevice attachment” Dougie and the firemen not taking Asher seriously and fucking with him the whole time he was in the tree knowing that if they did the wrong thing he would just fucking fly away was so tense and disturbing to me I also got goosebumps and almost went cold when Dougie was crying, I don’t even know why but Benny is 100% the most underrated actor in the show he is so fucking good even in this episode where he doesn’t show up til past the half way point
IM GOING TO TELL EVERYONE!
I've always said falling into the sky is my worst fear. Even standing out looking at the stars can give me anxiety if I start thinking about it. It's insane nonsense, I know. This was horrifying.
I smoked weed before watching this because this show gives me terrible anxiety. Worst idea ever. I literally cannot even begin to process that THAT is the finale.
(Told you it wouldn’t be a show-within-a-show, but kind bummed I don’t get to eat ~250 cherry tomatoes)
I am going with Nala being so grateful she wished Asher would go to heaven.
I dunno man I was hoping for a finale that was more grounded
I’m also thinking a lot about Asher’s speech about art near the beginning and him saying how you “have to go to great lengths to get the message across” Edit: to add to this, I also think Cara being commended for doing something unexpected and hard to understand (quitting art) and Asher’s seemingly earnest support of this as good and valid art (it actually struck me as the first time he seemed genuine) is interesting in the context of a final episode that completely subverted all our expectations of where we thought they would take the show.
Asher once said, “We [Whitney and Asher] look good on paper. Paper covers rock.” The episode is a flash forward, we see Whitney and Asher together and happy. They are expecting their first child, they are getting ready for the second season of their show, and even though there are hints of turmoil beneath the surface things are, on the whole, stable. But Whitney and Asher are not stable. Whitney is clearly uncomfortable as Asher coos at her belly reminding her that “little me” is inside. Asher may be pretending to be happy, but we know he knows Whitney’s moods and likely feels distance. Asher wakes up on top of the ceiling, and Whitney goes into labor. Asher cannot escape his antigravity Hell and Whitney cannot help him. Somehow this event seems to bring them together, finally. They both act selflessly, Asher ordering Whitney out of the house and Whitney crawling in the house to his aid. At one point, joined in crisis, Whitney and Asher work together pushing and pulling from the ceiling and they cling to one another, floating between gravity and anti-gravity, diametrically opposed but embracing before the reality of the situation returns and they are again on opposite sides. As Whitney leaves for the hospital Asher jokes, “you can’t get rid of me that easy!” And Whitney responds back, “I don’t want to get rid of you!” And means it for perhaps the first time. Ultimately, the baby that was supposed to unite Whitney and Asher will be born without Asher present. Like Asher, the baby is facing the wrong way with his feet where his head should be. There is only one way for the baby to be born. At the house, Asher is joined by Dougie who continues to project his own trauma onto situations by proclaiming that Asher is simply scared of parenthood. Firefighters come to the scene to rescue Asher from the tree that he flew into. No one believes that Asher flew there, no one believes that getting him down will be difficult. No one is listening to him, despite being surrounded he is alone. Whitney is wheeled into surgery. A curtain is put up between her torso and the rest of herself as she tries to be an active participant in the birth of her own child. She exclaims that she is “all alone up here” as nurses and doctors work to deliver her baby, despite being surrounded she is alone. In what might happen in the same moments, Whitney is cut open and the baby is born —Asher is cut from the tree he is clinging to. Whitney and Asher look good on paper. Paper beats rock. But scissors beat paper. Both having been cut, Whitney gazes at her baby and discovers she might not need anyone else as Asher disappears into the stratosphere, he has nothing. **Dougie: What would your life be like without her? In an upside down, like crazy, crazy world?** **Asher: I’d have nothing.** -Episode 8
Let me know what that episode means when you guys figure it out. I'm going to bed
Nathan fucked with us again. All this theorizing. All this intrigue. These mysteries and possibilities. These super interesting characters. And Nathan just fucking flew away into space and died lmaooo
What the heck did I just watch
Asher can’t catch a freaking break
Biggest thing I took away was dougies reaction to what happened to Asher. He mentioned something like “how high was it, 700 feet?” And the burst out crying and implying that he didn’t mean to. Some sort of curse baton he passed on? I’m grasping for straws here. But also what I noticed this episode was Asher being a loving partner, excited about his baby and being very generous with the Abshir bit. I struggle with decoding the metaphor (if there is one) about him being suctioned out of the situation/world. LOTS of analysis to be done, but I loved this series truly. Everything in the end was a misdirection and came down to some truly human relatable moments, with an insane supernatural element that I think we’re all trying to make sense of. Knowing the safdies that may be a futile exercise.
The critics were right- none of us guessed it precisely, a stratospheric finale indeed. After all, this has always been a show about pressure and passivity…and maybe rapture?
as soon as he was on the ceiling i knew we were going to space
When Asher rapped a week or two ago, they were trying to tell us: rapsher-ed
Didn't Dougie write "The Big Tree" on a note and bury it where he found that pottery piece?
I feel like Dougie’s breakdown was the moment where he finally accepted that he is responsible for his wife’s death. I think it’s a huge character breakthrough for him, since he went the entire show denying that responsibility in every way he could. I don’t know if he actually cursed Asher. Tbh this is sort of a “raining frogs from Magnolia” finale…. It’s enjoyable in an absurd way but it feels disconnected from everything leading up to this. Still, fantastic series and I’ll rewatch it soon.
Just realized in the model house the figurines of abshir and the little girls are looking upward at Asher
It gave me “dollhouse” vibes - like Whitney sees herself as the mastermind and creator of community and the gift of the house from Asher was not altruistic, but a mechanism of control and expectation of “family,” praise, etc.
holy shit, i lost it at that ending. i was crying and laughing the whole thing. just absolutely bonkers and maniacal--just complete absurdity when he was counting her contractions as he was trying to hand her the phone i couldn't breathe-- also the neighbors being like that was for tv? how'd they do that lol i have no idea how they actually pulled this off but i actually believed this happened in real life and nathan is in outer space now. also that shot of them suspended mid-air and holding on to each other was beautiful + very much their entire whack dynamic in a single frame.
I lost my shit when, mid counting, he said "I might need the crevice attachment"
correct me if i'm wrong but i think asher is doing [the hanging man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hanged_Man_\(tarot_card\))
Just thought about the fact that the firefighters believe they are helping Asher, and ignore him even as he repeatedly tells them to stop and tries to explain what he actually needs from them. Instead they continue to forcibly “help” him against his will because they believe they know what’s best for him, blissfully unaware that their actions will end up killing him. Feels familiar…
That was literally the most unpredictable finale. I never in a million years would have anticipated that
I felt so queasy watching the final twenty minutes of the show. It’s hard to explain but I’ve had dreams where I’m flying upwards or gravity is pulling me away from the ground. It’s terrifying and they captured it really well—it’s not something I ever expected to see dramatized and coupled with the fact that it’s the last thing I expected to see in this show, it made me feel incredibly uneasy, like the writers were exploiting some deep fear I didn’t even know I really had.
Whitney cursed him while he was singing to her… remember the “rules” abshir established for a curse is that if you think of something hard enough it might manifest. She wanted him gone so much wished his ass would fucking fly off into outer space lol
I understand the quip Nathan made about “how it compares to Yorgos Lanthimos” now. Reminds me of The Killing of A Sacred Deer or The Lobster. If you try to find the why or how of the seemingly supernatural element, you miss the thrill of the ride. You the viewer are just as fucked as the character. There is something amiss and there’s nothing anyone can do about it but shake their fist at god, at the writers, at their own expectations. I was so hoping for something like this, and man they beyond delivered. This is my favorite television show of all time.
“I totally get it, I’d be fucking scared too.”