Diksha Sundriyal
The eighth episode of Apple TV+’s psychological thriller ‘The Crowded Room’ unravels the many personalities of Danny Sullivan as he finally confronts the truth about himself. In the past seven episodes, he talked about his life and the circumstances that led him to commit a crime and land in prison. He told this from the perspective of a person who believed that all the people around him were real and not fragments of his imagination. However, following the events of the previous episode, Danny realizes that he had been living inside his head so much that he didn’t realize all the people he was close to were himself. This episode takes him a step further in solving the puzzle that his mind has become. Here’s what the ending means for him. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Crowded Room Episode 8 Recap
Over the weeks in which Rya Goodwin interviewed Danny Sullivan, she tried to get him to the point where he would understand what was happening to him by himself. She didn’t want to unload this huge revelation on him all of a sudden because she knew it would break down his already fractured. However, with his trial date approaching, she was forced to show him the CCTV from the day of the shooting, which triggered the quest for truth inside Danny’s mind.
Realizing that people like Jack, Yitzhak, and Ariana were just voices inside his head, Danny asks for Rya’s help. She helps him understand his various personalities and what purpose they served for him. Step by step, Danny realizes that each of these personalities came out just when he needed them. Rya tells Danny to relive those moments, but this time, imagine himself in place of those personalities. Through this, Danny realizes that the violence committed by Yitzhak was actually done by him, and the loneliness that crushed Ariana was actually his own.
Meanwhile, the detective on Danny’s case finds his stepfather, Marlin Reid, and places him on the crime scene. This comes as great news for Stan Camisa, who now plans to prove that this shooting was an isolated incident and happened because Danny was targeting Marlin for the abuse he suffered at his hands as a child. However, when Marlin realizes the law might catch up to him, he does something that makes Camisa reconsider his approach to the trial.
The Crowded Room Episode 8 Ending: Will Danny Break Out of Prison?
Danny’s mental illness started as a survival mechanism by his brain. When he couldn’t be what was needed of him, his brain created the personality that could be that person for him. When Danny needed to be confident and charming, he got Mike. When he needed someone to protect him, he got Yitzhak. When he needed a father figure, he got Jack. When he needed a friend to share his loneliness, he got Ariana.
These personalities were meant to serve Danny, but his illness was degenerative, and over time, the personalities started to fight for control, as seen in the previous episode. With Rya’s help, Danny learns to exercise control over them. She tells him about a therapy that would allow all his personalities to fuse into one. She helps him in the process by making him understand why he needed those personalities and how they felt the things he couldn’t allow himself to feel.
With the trial drawing close, Rya assures Danny that things will turn out fine for him. All he needs to do is keep a check on his various personalities and hold on to himself, no matter what happens. For the most part, Danny succeeds at this. Sometimes, he feels extreme anger, which would have brought out Yitzhak. Now, however, he allows himself to feel that emotion and deals with himself rather than letting one of his personalities manifest through it. Still, the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison is stressful. This creates a window for the personalities to surface again.
While Danny sleeps, his personalities discuss what it would mean for them if Danny went to prison. They come up with a plan “just in case.” For this, Jonny is allowed to come out. He fakes an injury and steals a pin from the doctor’s office. He keeps it in his pocket in case he might need it again. Considering that Jonny is an escape artist whose whole point is to get Danny out of difficult situations, we can assume that this “just in case” plan is to break Danny out of prison if he receives a harsh sentence, which is a good possibility right now.
Even though Danny has come a long way, acknowledging his condition and working to improve it, he still needs to work hard not to let the personalities seep into his mind without him knowing. It’s still a problem if he blacks out and one of his personalities takes hold. Rya feared that this might happen in court and would ruin his chances of getting the case in his favor. With the personalities planning to break him out of prison even before the verdict, Rya’s concerns are justified.
There is, however, a possibility that the emergence of his several personalities in court just might serve Danny’s case. Rya advised Stan Camisa to go for an insanity plea for Danny, but the lawyer refused because mother scientists in the community did not validate multiple personality disorder. According to him, the best course of action was to show that Danny was harmless; this was his first crime, which would get him the least possible sentence.
However, Marlin goes to the prosecution and tells them about Danny’s previous violent behavior. He did it to protect himself because he knew that once summoned to the court, the truth about how he abused Danny as a child might come to light. So, he turned the fire toward his stepson by painting him as a person prone to violence. This throws Camisa’s entire case out of the window, and now, he is forced to go with the insanity plea. Perhaps, Rya was right all along, which might help Danny prove his innocence.
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