Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘Swarm’ explores the toxic dedication of a fan. It follows the story of a girl named Dre, whose obsession with a pop star leads her to commit horrific acts. Co-created by Donald Glover, the series comments on the complex relationship between an artist and their fans and how social media has magnified the false sense of connection that some people feel with the celebrities that they obsess over but have never met in real life. So much bloodshed happens in the show that one can’t help but wonder how long Dre can keep up with this act. Will she ever be caught? Here’s what the events of the final episode mean for Dre’s future. SPOILERS AHEAD
Swarm Plot Synopsis
Dre loves Ni’Jah, the pop singer whose fans call themselves the Swarm. Dre and her sister, Marissa, are Ni’Jah’s fans, but Marissa is more focused on building a future for herself while Dre is caught up in Ni’Jah’s world. An argument ensues between them when Dre’s carelessness at Marissa’s workplace threatens to ruin things for her. Marissa leaves to spend the night with her boyfriend but is shocked to find him cheating on her. She returns home to apologize to Dre, who has gone to party and doesn’t check her phone until the next day.
Dre comes home to find Marissa dead. It looks like she died by suicide after listening to Ni’Jah’s recently released album, ‘Festival.’ Marissa’s death breaks Dre, and she is further hurt by Marissa’s family, telling her to leave the funeral. She visits Marissa’s boyfriend, Khalid, whom she blames for her sister’s murder. That night, Dre kills Khalid, which begins her streak of murders.
With nothing else left for her in Houston, Dre finds a new purpose for herself. She tracks down the man who had badmouthed Marissa and Ni’Jah and kills him. She also commits more murders along the way. As soon as she kills one person, she moves on from the city to find the next Ni’Jah hater and kill them. It also gets easier for her because, being a young Black woman, she slips through the cracks.
Swarm Ending: Is Dre Caught?
For two years, Dre goes around the country killing people and disposing of them. Because she doesn’t stay in one place for long, the police are not able to connect her to the murders. She isn’t even considered a suspect because no one has put together the story yet. That’s where Loretta Greene comes in. She is brought in to solve the murder of Tiffany Long in Nashville. The detective’s first move is to examine the victim’s social media. She notices a tweet from Tiffany in which she spoke ill of Ni’Jah.
She is reminded of another case that happened in Arkansas. A woman named Dorothy Day was murdered in her home. What caught Loretta’s attention was that the killer didn’t run away as soon as they killed Dorothy. They stayed behind to eat and even cleaned up a little bit. A similar method of killing leads Loretta to give the Arkansas case another glance, and she notices that Dorothy also tweeted bad things about Ni’Jah.
The investigation picks pace when Loretta finds out about Reggie Wilkins. Dre didn’t technically murder him, but she did leave behind four strippers who were arrested for killing the man. One of them spoke about Dre, whom she knew as Carmen. Loretta conducted a search for murders where a victim had been beaten to a pulp, which eventually brought her to Khalid’s murder. Looking into his case, she finds out about his girlfriend, Marissa Jackson, who died a week before Khalid was murdered.
Loretta finds this interesting. From Marissa’s mother, she finds out about Dre. Dre’s turbulent childhood and violent tendencies convince Loretta that she is the murderer. The fact that Dre is a hardcore Ni’Jah fan is what seals the deal for her. However, it is not enough evidence to prove her guilt. Loretta’s superior doesn’t pay attention to her, preventing her from digging deeper into Dre. She is forced to bide her time and wait for Dre to slip up, which happens a couple of weeks later.
Loretta is notified of the arrest of a person named Tony, who ran onto the stage during a Ni’Jah concert. She receives the picture, which confirms that Tony is Dre. The detective discovers that Dre is being held in Atlanta. She still doesn’t have proof against Dre, so her best bet is to talk to the serial killer and see if she can find something to prove her guilt. She makes her way to Atlanta, hoping that Dre doesn’t pay her bail in the meantime. Does this mean that Loretta has caught up with Dre?
One of the things that helped Dre get away with murder was that she never got caught, not even for a speeding ticket. Her kills were never clean, which means she left DNA on the crime scene. Because she was never arrested, one can assume that she never got into the system. Now, however, she has been arrested. On top of that, Loretta is on her, and she would want to get Dre’s DNA to see if it matches the one left at the crime scenes. This all but confirms that Dre will be held accountable for all the people she has killed.
Does Dre Meet Ni’Jah?
All Dre ever wanted was the meet Ni’Jah. She had attended her concerts but had never had a chance to get up close to the singer. She wanted to meet Ni’Jah because she felt they would become instant friends. All her life Dre had looked for acceptance from other people, but she only found it in Ni’Jah’s songs. She believes that Ni’Jah knows and understands her, so she thinks they’d be great friends.
After many failed attempts to attend her concerts, Dre finally sees Ni’Jah perform live. She is so captivated by the woman she, and other fans, considers Queen that she can’t stop herself from crossing the barrier and getting up on the stage. Before she can reach Ni’Jah, she is caught by the security guards while the singer runs in the opposite direction. However, when Ni’Jah sees Dre fighting the guards and pleading with her, she decides to give Dre a chance.
Ni’Jah asks the guards to leave Dre and invites her to sing to the audience. After the concert, they make their way out together and sit in Ni’Jah’s car, where she hugs and comforts Dre. This is what Dre had wanted. This is exactly how she imagined it would play out. She always believed that the moment she and Ni’Jah met, they would bond, and the singer would see just how special Dre was. Finally, Dre gets that moment with Ni’Jah, fulfilling her lifelong dream.
There is a possibility that we could argue that Dre never actually gets past security. She is taken away and arrested, which is how Loretta finds her. Ni’Jah comes to the rescue, and all the follows could be happening inside Dre’s head. She came so close to meeting her idol this time, so when she was robbed of that experience, she told herself that that’s not how it went down. Dre is known for being an excellent liar. In a previous scene, she concocted an entire story about how she met Ni’Jah’s mom, who then introduced her to the pop star. If Dre can lie to others, she can lie to herself too. Hence, we can say that the show’s final scene never really happened.
Despite the hallucination being a comparatively sound theory, the show never hints at it. So, we can assume that it all happened in real life. Dre did end up hugging Ni’Jah in her car. This experience, gratifying as it might have been for her, broke down her walls. She felt freer now that her only dream was attained. While this is great for her, the cops still come for her. After showing her kindness, Ni’Jah lets the law do its work and allows the cops to arrest Dre.
Read More: Is Ni’Jah Based on a Real Pop Star? Is She Based on Beyonce?
