{"id":500898,"date":"2026-03-28T23:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:30:12","slug":"something-very-bad-is-going-to-happen-creator-on-deaths-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500898\/","title":{"rendered":"Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen Creator on Deaths & Season 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers for\u00a0the finale of Netflix\u2019s \u201cSomething Very Bad Is Going to Happen<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis season of \u201cSomething Very Bad Is Going to Happen\u201d ended with many \u201choly shit!\u201d moments. From the wedding of Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco) devolving into a bloodbath, to Rachel taking on the role of The Witness, it was a deliciously dark end to the family saga. Variety spoke with creator and showrunner Haley Z. Boston<\/a> after the finale to break down the biggest moments and answer our remaining burning questions.<\/p>\n

\t\tI would love to start by asking about the imagery of all the bloody people falling down at the wedding. It\u2019s so visually arresting \u2026 How did that come to you?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I first came up with the idea for the show, the thing I had in my head was, \u201cWhat if when you marry the wrong person, you bleed to death at the altar?\u201d That was the first nugget. I envisioned a bride bleeding to death in front of all their friends and family. Then it turned into, \u201cOkay, what is next?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you go to a wedding, it is hard not to think about yourself, especially if you are young and unmarried, and think about what your wedding is going to look like. I have never gone to a wedding as a married person, but I imagine you think back to your wedding day and your vows. So then the idea became, \u201cWhat if everyone there who did not marry the right person bleeds to death?\u201d Then it turned into figuring out what that means and the whole story. So the image of a bunch of people bleeding to death at a wedding was there pretty early on.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe blood looked so good. Was there a specific approach you were aiming for?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a mix of special effects and VFX. I wanted it to feel real. I know it\u2019s not realistic that you would bleed from every orifice, but I wanted it to feel real and haunting. That was the goal.<\/p>\n

\n\tColin Stetson composed this beautiful music, and in the edit I realized the mass bleed felt very poetic. Rachel\u2019s death, when she walks into the atrium and everything slows down, was inspired by the end of \u201cKill Bill.\u201d You move from all that blood into a snowy, snow globe-like, peaceful place.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was constantly saying, \u201cMore blood, we need more blood.\u201d I still feel that way. It\u2019s in a good place, but it could use even more.<\/p>\n

\t\tWhy do you think Jules and Nell were ultimately, despite their differences, soulmates?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show is not one where I say, \u201cI know the answer to what makes two people soulmates.\u201d But in thinking about how to answer that question in the show, there were two things. One was, for me, what would make someone my soulmate or the right person is if they see me for who I really am, which is a big part of Rachel and Nicky\u2019s argument: Rachel realizing that Nicky does not see her. She says in the argument, \u201cI am seeing you in every moment, and you decided who I was, but you are not seeing me as I grow and change.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tWith Nell and Jules, something I wanted to establish in that relationship is that they are very honest with each other. I do not necessarily think you need to be that brutally honest. I think you can be honest and kind. But that was something that struck me, and we talked about it in the writers\u2019 room as we were writing the show and figuring out the finale and who should live. It became exciting to have Jules and Nell live, especially because they are on the precipice of divorce. They are about to give up on each other. But because their relationship is actually one where they tell each other everything, they are very upfront with each other. There is no hiding or games. Rachel and Nicky do not have that relationship. So it felt very sweet that ultimately Nell and Jules would end up soulmates.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Rachel and Nell makeout was surprising. How did that come about?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI think there was a little building interest between the two of them leading up to that. But ultimately, when being forced to answer that question, \u201cWho is my soulmate and what makes him my soulmate,\u201d it was a little bit of an escape into the idea that sometimes you have to kiss someone else to know you are with the right person. I think it is more about that last night of freedom, that this might be my final night to live, and I am just going to give in to my impulses.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe episode with Rachel\u2019s parents reveals the key knowledge needed for the rest of the show. How did you come to the determination that this is where you want to put all the pieces out and explain the bigger vision?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThat episode was originally Episode 3, the sort of flashback episode. And then in the writers\u2019 room, we realized that it was too early to leave our main story. So Episode 3 became more about meeting the family in a deeper way, because in Episode 2 it is so heightened and in Rachel\u2019s point of view. Episode 3 is a little more objective. You get to understand Victoria and her role as the mother, and what it means to have a dying mother. <\/p>\n

\n\tThen it felt natural to shift into Rachel\u2019s family history. As she is peeling back the layers of Nicky\u2019s family, we take her into her own past. I do not love a flashback as a narrative device, so using the device of a videotape felt right. It came from the idea of watching someone\u2019s wedding tape. I liked that midpoint shift. We always talked about it as the first half of the season, Rachel believes the threat is external, and then she realizes it is internal. It is coming from her. In the first half, the house is haunted in a metaphorical sense. In the second half, she is haunted.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe season largely feels like a story about class and gender. Was that intentional?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI think the class aspect was more of an unintentional piece of telling the story of an outsider in a foreign environment. There\u2019s been a lot of content lately that focuses on that, and I didn\u2019t want to emphasize it. It\u2019s part of the story, but it\u2019s not the point. The gender stuff definitely matters. The concept of being a bride carries so much history about ownership and pressure: people talk about your wedding as a young kid, and when you turn 30, everyone\u2019s like, \u201cYou\u2019re single.\u201d That pressure feels different for men.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou also get the idea that Rachel is meant to take over as matriarch. Nicky is what we called \u201cthe very special boy,\u201d the golden child of the family, and his mother is dying. It feels like Rachel is supposed to take his mother\u2019s place. I\u2019ve seen that dynamic: a man whose wife is expected to assume his mother\u2019s role, so he goes from his mom doing his laundry to his wife doing his laundry.<\/p>\n

\n\tRachel\u2019s fear of commitment, which becomes the curse, is a representation of doubt. It\u2019s all wrapped up in that: the notion of what it means to be a wife, especially in this family, is haunting her and keeping her from committing. The family portrait exemplifies that feeling of being trapped. She\u2019s terrified of being painted into it and becoming someone she\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow were you able to capture the specificity of wedding week stress and disagreements?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tA lot of it is based on observation. I\u2019ve been in relationships and understand how things can escalate. I also had a married couple in the writers\u2019 room who were very open about their feelings and how their wedding went. As an anxious person, it\u2019s easy for me to imagine how I\u2019d feel in that scenario. It\u2019s heightened, but I wanted the argument between Rachel and Nicky to feel grounded.<\/p>\n

\n\tI referenced \u201cAnatomy of a Fall.\u201d The argument scene in that film is incredible and very real. I liked the idea of juxtaposing that grounded relationship argument with the brewing death POV, so every time we cut back to Rachel and Nicky, it feels real. Their performances in the finale are amazing, and you really feel it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI remember writing the whole argument in one run. That was maybe the most fun I had writing the show. It was late, between midnight and 5 a.m. in Toronto while prepping the finale. It felt like catharsis. These two characters have been holding back all season and not talking to each other, and this was the moment to let everything out. I could see both sides of their argument, which was important to me. I hope people are rooting for Nicky. I don\u2019t think I completely slaughtered him. His argument is valid, too.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe last two times we see Nicky are interesting. First, he comforts his sister, not his wife. Then, when he goes to the glass, he slams against it. How do you read those moments?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI think Nicky, after he realizes what he\u2019s done and caused Rachel\u2019s death, has so much guilt. He\u2019s the type of person who does what he thinks other people want him to do. He spends the whole season following his mother\u2019s orders and doing what he thinks Rachel wants.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the end, he\u2019s comforting Portia. His sister is dead, she\u2019s alone, and he feels like he should be there. At the same time, he\u2019s afraid to face Rachel and confront what he did. If he sits with Portia, he doesn\u2019t have to see Rachel or deal with it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen he sees her, and there\u2019s this anger. He\u2019s hitting the glass, upset with himself and the situation. He\u2019s like a kid throwing a tantrum.<\/p>\n

\t\tWhen Rachel is driving off, that little smile at the end stood out. How do you read that?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe whole idea of the ending, and Rachel\u2019s ending specifically, is that at the beginning of Episode 8, she takes a leap of faith. She realizes the opposite of doubt isn\u2019t certainty: It\u2019s belief. You can\u2019t be certain about any choice you make in life or what the outcome will be. So she takes that leap, and that\u2019s her arc. She goes from having all these doubts to having belief. And Nicky fucked it up.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow she\u2019s in a position where she\u2019s desperately clinging to that belief. Over the course of their argument, it starts to slip, and she realizes she doesn\u2019t believe in him anymore. So she has to make that choice again and chooses herself instead of him. That causes all this chaos and mayhem, but she\u2019s choosing herself.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe talked about this a lot in the writers\u2019 room. I was worried she might be unlikable for making that choice because all these people are dying. Maybe some people won\u2019t be on Rachel\u2019s side there. But it made sense to me, and it felt right that that\u2019s the choice she makes. I wanted her to be active because Nicky took away her power by saying no. Rather than letting the sunset take over, letting the curse take over, I wanted to make sure Rachel was actively saying, \u201cNo, I changed my mind. I\u2019m choosing myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe whole story is ultimately a breakup story. In choosing herself, Rachel becoming the new witness is a rebirth. You end a relationship, and there\u2019s a mix of sadness and catharsis. She\u2019s reborn and leaves the relationship behind. Metaphorically, when you end a relationship, those people are dead to you in a way. They\u2019re no longer in your life. That\u2019s why she leaves by herself. She\u2019s on a new journey.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat smile is a mix of emotions. Cami played it so well. She\u2019s emotional, exhausted from the week, and then there\u2019s this small smile of, \u201cI got out. I made the right choice. Now I\u2019m on to my next adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tAnother thing that stood out was the fox at the end. How did that mirror Rachel\u2019s journey in your mind?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fox has been a representation of Rachel\u2019s journey for the whole season. It\u2019s a warning the first time we see it, on the side of the road, dead. When she sees the fox in the bathroom, torn open with the babies inside it, that foreshadows her mother\u2019s death and Rachel\u2019s birth. She hears the fox cry throughout.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Episode 6, Nikki traps the fox, and it loses its foot, which foreshadows the toe Rachel cuts off in Episode 7. There\u2019s also the idea of the fox bleeding to death, which works as a small Easter egg.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the fox represents Rachel, and Rachel has come back to life, wounded but alive, I wanted to show that the fox is there with her, completing the metaphor.<\/p>\n

\t\tIf you were given the opportunity to do a second season, would that interest you? And would you continue Rachel\u2019s story or explore something else?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThat would be a great opportunity. This story is very personal to me. It came from a real fear of mine, something I was using to explore my own fears. I\u2019ve thought about the show as a potential anthology, and whatever that next existential fear is, I\u2019d need to figure out what to explore there.<\/p>\n

\n\tHorror, to me, runs deep. It allows you to explore taboo subjects and externalize internal fears. I have a lot of fears, so I\u2019m sure there\u2019s more to mine.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe ice cream man was so creepy. Is there more to him?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s definitely a red herring. He never comes back again. I liked the idea of this figure who has haunted Rachel\u2019s past and the Cunninghams\u2019 past. You see Jude wearing a Coldy shirt in Episode 4. There was some speculation in the writers\u2019 room that Larry Poole had something to do with the Cunninghams funding his first custard stand.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe idea behind him, especially in the pilot, was to introduce a few creepy male figures so the Sorry Man reveal lands at the end. You\u2019re wondering: Is it the guy in the bar? Is it him? Is he the Coldy serial killer? Is it Nicky\u2019s dad? Who is the Sorry Man?<\/p>\n

\n\tThen we decided to connect him to Rachel\u2019s past. That\u2019s why she recognizes the logo, because her mother saw it. I wanted to establish that connection to her mother early on.<\/p>\n

\t\tFor a couple of episodes, I thought he was Death or Satan.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI wish he came back at the end. That would have been fun. Maybe next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers for\u00a0the finale of Netflix\u2019s \u201cSomething Very Bad Is Going to Happen.\u201d This season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,175876,148032,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-500898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-haley-z-boston","10":"tag-something-very-bad-is-going-to-happen","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}