Dhruv Trivedi
‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ on Hulu is a mystery drama set in an ultra-exclusive retreat, where nine individuals come to get help with their emotional demons. What they expect to be a luxurious getaway, however, soon turns out to be a dark journey into their psyche as the mysterious leader of the retreat begins to dose them with hallucinogens as part of the treatment. Wildly different in personality and background, the nine individuals then begin to learn more and more about each other and themselves as each of their twisted pasts comes to the surface.
Episode 6 finds them deep into their treatment, the “new protocol,” which has made their outlook increasingly surreal. Things are beginning to get just a little bit out of hand, and even their supremely confident leader, Masha, seems to be out of her depths. The mysterious person threatening to kill her is also making things increasingly uncomfortable at the Tranquillum House Retreat. Let’s dive into the ending of ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ episode 6 and see where it leaves the characters. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Nine Perfect Strangers Episode 6 Recap
The episode opens on the eve of Zoe’s birthday, where Masha gets tempted to eat the leftover birthday cake as she pictures a young blonde girl. However, she soon comes to her senses and spits the cake out. We are then taken to Frances’ bedroom, where the author is having strange hallucinations of a miniature version of Paul, the man who allegedly tricked her into an online relationship and subsequently sending him a large amount of money. She finally flushes the annoying, singing figure into the toilet and the next morning tells the group the same, quite proudly.
The rest of the residents of Tranquillum House also discuss their own surreal dreams at breakfast and readily consume the much stronger dose of drugs that Masha prescribes them. Hence starts a surreal day, wherein the guests are paired up and then let loose on the property to experience the effects of the hallucinogens. Carmel is apprehensive at first and admits to taking psychotropic medication. Masha comforts her and lets her go ahead with the treatment, after which Carmel spends the day paired up with Lars, who occasionally comforts her when she gets too agitated.
Tony and Frances also find themselves opening up to each other and eventually kiss. However, a little later, Tony’s paranoid side begins to come out as he gets increasingly agitated from seeing people in the swimming pool. Ben and Jessica, who have so far had a languid time since they’ve been dosed with MDMA instead of psilocybin, find themselves experiencing the effects of the latter for the first time, causing Jessica to briefly panic when she thinks her nose has fallen off.
Nine Perfect Strangers Episode 6 Ending: Did Masha Have a Daughter? What Happened to Her?
The Marconi family, who initially enjoy their experience of the drugs, then experience visions of Zach. It initially starts with Zoe, who catches a glimpse of her brother hanging from a tree. However, Heather experiences the most vivid hallucination, in which her dead son speaks to her. When she asks him why he killed himself, he replies that the medication he was on gave him suicidal thoughts, something that he claims his mother knew about.
Hearing this, Heather breaks down and goes into an inconsolable fit. Masha has her sedated, but the family — and even Yao and Delilah — are shaken from the experience, and the latter suggests that they are not qualified to deal with a situation like this. The episode then closes with Masha again visualizing a young girl, who is seen riding a bicycle on the sidewalk that eventually opens out to a street, where an oncoming car is seen approaching.
From the horrified look that we see on Masha’s face in the hallucination and the resemblance between her and the young girl, it is easy to infer that she is Masha’s daughter. Also, the tense scene that the episode closes on strongly suggests that the young girl was killed when she got hit by a car whilst riding her bicycle. This also, most likely, occurred before Masha was shot, as she seems to be much younger in her visualization.
The fact that Masha’s daughter was killed begins to show us why the leader of Tranquillum House is so interested in recalling visions of family members who have died, like that of Zach Marconi. The mysterious woman is looking for a way to reconnect with her own daughter — which she claims to be doing when Delilah confronts her about eating cake — and is possibly using her patients to try out new procedures that might help her synthesize a way for her to interact with her own daughter. If the Marconi family’s hallucinations are anything to go by, it looks like Masha is quite close to reaching her objective.
Why Did Zach Commit Suicide? Was it His Mother Heather’s Fault?
The apparition of Zach that Heather experiences plainly claims that the pamphlet describing his medication clearly stated suicidal ideation as one of the side effects. From the way Heather reacts, it seems like she actually read the pamphlet but possibly chose to block out the memory after the death of her son. Now, with a vision of her own son reminding her, she becomes inconsolable and blames herself for the tragedy. Therefore, Zach seemingly committed suicide due to the effects of the medication he was consuming.
Though it is difficult to pin the blame for Zach’s death specifically on Heather, Napoleon seems to be of the opinion that it is his wife’s fault. In a heartwrenching turn — from initially blaming himself for the death of his son — he now blames his wife and hints to Masha that their relationship will likely never recover from this revelation.
Read More: Where is Nine Perfect Strangers Filmed?
