Diksha Sundriyal
Showtime’s ‘The Curse’ has flourished in its capability to surprise the audience at every turn, and just when it looks like there are no tricks left in its bag, it delivers a finale that completely rewrites the audience’s expectations, leaving them shocked and confused. After the somewhat unsettling ending of the penultimate episode, it feels like there are only two ways that Asher and Whitney’s marriage could have gone. But, once again, the creators of the show find an answer so different from what the audience could have imagined that it becomes hard not to think about what the show’s ending means. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Curse Season 1 Episode 10 Recap
The final episode picks up about a year or at least nine months after the events of the last episode. Whitney and Asher have recovered from all that was plaguing their marriage; they have finished the first season of ‘Green Queen,’ which is set to stream, with another season already greenlit by HGTV. In a more exciting turn, they have a baby on the way, which is what they’d been trying for, and it looks like things are back to normal between them. But then, one day, Whitney wakes up to find Asher stuck to the ceiling with no idea how to come back to the ground.
The Curse Season 1 Ending, Explained: How Did Asher Fly and Where Does He Go?
Asher and Whitney’s marriage was complicated, to say the least. Even after Asher’s monologue in which he accepts his follies and declares his undying love for Whitney while also kind of manipulating her into not divorcing him, there is no way back to normal between them. Even now that they have a baby on the way, there is the familiar look of frustration and discontent on Whitney’s face, which shows that she has now pushed herself further into the marriage she was so desperate to come out of. Had this continued, Asher and Whitney were eventually headed for divorce, though with the success of their show, they’d have to stay with each other for at least the next few seasons of ‘Green Queen,’ so that the audience would love them enough to see them separate and not drift away from the show. But then, Asher gets stuck to the ceiling, and everything changes.
The first question that comes to mind while watching this episode is how Asher got into this position. How did he get stuck to the ceiling, and why is it impossible for him to come down? At first, he thinks it has something to do with the pressure inside the room. He asks Whitney to open the doors and the windows immediately and blames the house for not stabilizing the pressure. He thinks there is an air pocket inside the room that has caused this, and if he gets out of there, he’ll be able to land back on the ground. But he turns out to be wrong.
There is no scientific explanation for this because if there was, why was Whitney not on the ceiling, too? If there was some change in pressure or an air pocket, why did it only affect Asher and not Whitney? With science and logic out of the way, there is only one way this question can be answered. It happened to Asher because he was the only one who was cursed. He was cursed the first time by Nala, and the thing messed him up so much that he didn’t know whether the curse was real or not. The show plays with his doubts while also sowing the same in the audience’s mind, so we never know whether or not to believe the curse.
While dealing with Nala’s curse, Asher is also cursed by Dougie. They have a heated conversation in which Asher brings up Dougie’s wife, which angers the latter, and he curses Asher from afar. This curse has no immediate effect, and it’s not even clear what Dougie cursed him with. But after the events of the finale, it might have something to do with Dougie’s desire to have Asher taken away from the thing he wants the most, for him to not get the happiness he is so desperate for. It would make sense then that Asher flies off into the sky on the day that his child is to be born. He’d wanted to be a father so much, and finally, he had everything: the show, Whitney, and the child. He couldn’t have been happier, but he never gets to taste that happiness. He is torn away from the world and thrown out of it.
Another thing that might have acted against Asher is his own words. In the previous episode, he claims that he and Whitney are meant to be together, and he is ready to change and be exactly who she wants him to be. He also says that should she ever not be in love with him anymore, should she want to leave him, he will feel it and disappear. Perhaps that’s what happened. Perhaps Whitney had finally run out of whatever patience she had left for her husband, especially with the arrival of their child on the horizon, and didn’t want to keep up with the ruse anymore. Maybe she had already been thinking about leaving him once the baby was born, and that’s why Asher was removed from the situation when the child was finally there.
While Asher is stuck to the ceiling and trying to find a way back to the floor, Whitney starts having contractions. She cannot help Asher while in labor, so she calls for help. The doula arrives on the scene and is shocked to see Asher on the ceiling. He tries to get Asher down, but the moment the ceiling is removed from the equation, Asher is pulled towards the sky and is saved by the tree. He holds on to a branch and tells Whitney to go to the hospital, promising he’ll be there. To help him, Dougie is asked to be on the scene, but he misreads the situation and thinks that this is Asher trying to run away from his responsibilities as a father due to nerves and is so invested in trying to get the shots for the show that he doesn’t pay attention to Asher’s pleas of getting a net to trap him, lest he flies away.
In the end, what he feared the most happened. The fire department is called; they think Asher has lost his marbles and think cutting the tree’s branch is the best way to bring him down. While he pleads with them not to do it, they don’t listen, and the moment the branch is cut, Asher’s tether is lost, and he flies away into the sky and off into space, never to return.
What Happens to Whitney? Will She Still Make Green Queen?
In an earlier episode, Whitney was told that the show (call it ‘Fliplanthropy’ or ‘Green Queen’)wouldn’t be made without Asher. The concept was sold on the fact that they were a couple, and no matter how stuck Whitney felt in her marriage, they wouldn’t allow the show to be made without Asher. As a result, Whitney tries to fix their marriage by acting happily around her husband but eventually comes clean to him about everything, and despite what she’d expected, they make up. But what happens now that Asher is gone? It’s only good news for Whitney. She’ll not only have the show all to herself, but it’ll be an even bigger hit than the first season.
The audience craves drama. They have little to no interest in what Whitney’s doing with her passive homes. They are more interested in her marriage and relationship with Asher, so the network doesn’t want to go ahead without the husband. But now that the first season has aired and people are familiar with Whitney and Asher, it will be shocking for them to know that he is dead and gone. Even if they didn’t like Asher or thought Whitney too good for him, they would be interested in knowing what happened to him, how it happened, and, more importantly, how Whitney is dealing with her grief, especially with the child.
The tragedy offers enough scope for emotion and drama, and knowing Whitney, Dougie, and the network, they will want to capitalize on it. So yes, they will go ahead with the second season of ‘Green Queen,’ and there is no doubt that it will be an even bigger hit for them.
