Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen Ending Explained: Does Rachel Die?

In Netflix’s ‘Something Very Bad is Going to Happen,’ a couple goes through a hectic first week, where their entire relationship is recalibrated while secrets and lies come to light. The eight-episode season focuses on Rachel and Nicky as they drive to his parents’ cabin, where they are supposed to get married that weekend. This is the first time Rachel is meeting his family, but she soon realises that her own family history is tied up with the place she is heading to, and all the revelations that come in the wake of her wedding will change her life in the most unexpected of ways. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen Plot Synopsis

A lot of weird things happen as Rachel and Nicky drive to his parents’ cabin in the woods. Despite it being the week of their wedding, Rachel has a sinking feeling that something bad is going to happen, but she doesn’t have any way to put a finger on it. This dread intensifies as she reaches the cabin and notices that Nicky’s family is acting weirdly. As her worst fears start to take shape, she starts to wonder if Nicky’s family disapproves of her so much that they are ready to kill her. Soon, however, she discovers that it isn’t her in-laws that she needs to worry about. She is the one who has brought danger to them.

It turns out that Rachel belongs to a family whose members are cursed to die on their wedding day if they don’t marry their soulmates before sundown. Rachel’s mother died a horrible death because of this, and in trying to protect her, her father turned into an agoraphobe, which cost him his relationship with his daughter. With no one else in her family, Rachel goes to her wedding alone, but the past catches up with her, and the Immortal Man, who is the reason for her family getting cursed, explains to her that if she marries Nicky and he is not her soulmate, she will die just as her mother died. And if she doesn’t go through with the wedding, she will transfer the curse to Nicky’s entire bloodline, who will have to face the consequences if they don’t marry their soulmates.

Does Rachel Break the Curse? Is Nicky Her Soulmate?

When the day of the wedding comes, Rachel discovers that she can make a potion that will mentally transform her into Nicky’s soulmate and solve the problem. Eventually, however, she decides not to do it. She leaves it to fate to decide whether Nicky is her soulmate. At the altar, as she says her vows, whatever doubts she may have had wash away, and from her side, it is confirmed that he is her soulmate. But when the time comes for him to say “I do,” he backs off. The revelation about his parents’ marriage makes him reconsider the institution of marriage, and Rachel realises that he never really believed in the curse. With only a few minutes left before sunset, it is Nicky’s mom who convinces him to go through with the wedding. This makes Rachel realise how hypocritical he had been.

She had been trying to convince him for hours, but he stood his ground, refusing to believe the part about the curse. Their fight also leads both of them to let out all their anger and frustrations, making Rachel reconsider her stand about him being her soulmate and their impending marriage. After all this, when it takes a few words from his mother to convince him otherwise, Rachel realises that it was never about him denouncing the idea of marriage. He didn’t want the marriage if it couldn’t be perfect, especially after he discovered that his parents’ relationship wasn’t as perfect as he thought either. So, Rachel decides to back off. She doesn’t care what the curse will do to her or him and his bloodline. She cannot bear to be married to him, even if she survives.

Soon, the sun goes down, and the clock runs out. This is when chaos ensues, and after it becomes clear that all of them are fated to die, the Cunninghams turn towards the final resort. Realising that the curse had been real all along, Nicky’s doubts about Rachel are erased, and his faith in her being his soulmate is reinstated. He gets down on one knee, puts a ring on her finger, and says, “I do,” completing the ceremony. The Immortal Man signs their wedding certificate as the witness, making them husband and wife. Since the curse has already broken loose, there is no way to undo it for the Cunninghams. What makes it worse is that by this time, it is clear that Nicky is not Rachel’s soulmate, and because she is now married to him, the curse comes for her. She starts bleeding from her nose and then her eyes, and bleeds until she is dead.

Are Victoria and Portia Dead? Why do All the Guests Die?

According to the curse, Rachel and Nicky should have been wed before sundown. Once the wedding was done, the curse would come for Rachel if Nicky didn’t turn out to be her soulmate. This would have prevented the curse from moving on to Nicky’s bloodline, saving him and the rest of his family. However, the wedding doesn’t happen, and in the end, no matter who chooses to back off when, which means that the curse has now been transferred to Nicky’s family. What makes it interesting is that it isn’t just his immediate bloodline that suffers with it. The curse spreads to every single person on his family tree. As long as they are connected to him by blood, they will be cursed.

When the Immortal Man told Rachel about this, she thought that the curse would be activated for the next wedding. She didn’t stop to wonder what impact it would have on the ones who were already married, and that’s what leads to the chaos that unravels when the sun goes down. Since most of the Cunninghams are not married to their soulmates, they start to bleed out and die. No one understands what’s happening, so the better halves, the ones who married into the family but are not connected to them by blood, run away, most likely believing that some virus has taken hold of them. Nicky’s parents and siblings are also not untouched by this. The effect of the curse first starts to show on Victoria, proving that she did not marry her soulmate.

This is the final confirmation that her marriage to Boris was nowhere near as perfect as they’d tried to make it out to be for their children and the world. Victoria had an affair with Beau, and he was most likely the one that she truly considered her soulmate. Despite being with Boris for her entire life, she never really saw him as her soulmate, which is why she bleeds to death. Boris, on the other hand, always loved Victoria. In his eyes, she was his soulmate, which is why he doesn’t bleed to death. In the same vein, Portia, who had married a random guy in Vegas after being left at the altar, also feels the brunt of the curse and bleeds to death.

Is the Immortal Man Dead? Is Rachel Immortal Now?

An interesting thing happens when almost everyone, including Rachel, dies. Death turns its eyes towards the Immortal Man, who had been exempt from dying for a few centuries now. When he ran away from his own wedding with Marianne, he transferred the curse to her family and was cursed to be the witness at their weddings and watch most, if not all, of them die brutal, painful deaths. Over the years, Marianne’s family tree thins to the point that Rachel is her only living descendant. After her forced wedding to Nicky, she, too, dies, and with that, Marianne’s bloodline is completely eradicated.

Still, the curse is meant to be passed on, so when Rachel doesn’t pass it further, the curse goes backward and circles to the Immortal Man. As Death stares him in the eyes, the Immortal Man welcomes it, being tired of walking the earth and watching the descendants of the woman he once loved die. At the same time, he also knows that his curse, too, must pass on to someone else. It has shifted to the Cunninghams now, and when the next wedding happens, a witness has to be there, just as the Immortal Man was for Marianne’s family. This is where things get interesting.

While Rachel dies following her wedding to Nicky, she comes back to life after the Immortal Man dies. Perhaps it is because Rachel, like the Immortal Man, had decided not to go through with the wedding before the sun went down that she became his natural successor. It could also be that she was the last of Marianne’s descendants, and because the Immortal Man had passed the first curse to her bloodline, it made sense that his second curse should befall on the same. In any case, the moment the Immortal Man breathes his last is when Rachel comes back to life. She doesn’t need to be told what’s happening.

It’s as if Death has already told her everything she needs to know. This is why she is not surprised or confused when she rises again. She knows what her purpose is, and she even tells little Jude that when the time comes for him to marry eventually, she will be there to witness his wedding, hoping that he has made the right choice when it comes to the person he decides to marry. She will continue to be the witness of all the Cunninghams until the last of their family is dead and gone, or until one of them decides not to go through with the wedding, pass the curse to another family, and have Rachel’s new curse shifted to them, so that she, too, can die. For now, she is the new Immortal.

Does Nicky Die? What Happens to Jules, Nell, and Jude?

With all the deaths that happen at the wedding, one would think that the Cunninghams are gone for good. It would seem that their entire bloodline, except the kids, has all been killed. No matter what part of the world they are in at the moment, if a Cunningham by blood has not married their soulmate, they bleed to death. In an effort to save the ones that remain, Jules advises finishing the ceremony, believing that once married to Nicky, the curse might reverse on Rachel, and her death would put a stop to everything. He turns out to be wrong, and the curse takes its course. Interestingly, a majority of Nicky’s family survives this.

While Victoria and Portia die, Boris survives, and so does Nicky. When he put the ring on Rachel’s finger, he did it with the strong belief that she was his soulmate. So, the curse spares him. Though he survives at the moment, it doesn’t mean the curse will not act when he takes to the altar the next time. While Rachel is still alive, she technically died and is not his wife anymore. This leaves Nicky cursed but alive to see another day. Things turn out better for Jules and Nellie. While their relationship isn’t perfect, it becomes clear over the season that they are perfect for each other in ways that might not be immediately apparent. An hour before the wedding, even Rachel notes how well they work together.

If there was any doubt about them being each other’s soulmates, it is removed when Jules remains unaffected by the curse. Even though they were on the verge of divorce, it didn’t change the fact that Jules loved Nellie just as much as he had loved her when he was 21. It was because he loved her that he didn’t sign the divorce papers. When Nellie realises that he is not dying, her doubts about him also clear away. While they may be in the clear, at least if they stick together and he doesn’t have to marry again, their son, Jude, has quite a difficult time looking forward to. Before leaving, Rachel tells him to remember what happened today, so that when the time comes, he will choose his partner very carefully, with the knowledge that the curse can destroy everything.