Diksha Sundriyal
In Prime Video’s ‘Them: The Scare,’ a detective follows the trail of bodies left behind by a killer whose gruesomeness sends a wave of terror around the city already in turmoil. As LAPD Detective Dawn Reeve digs into the case to figure out the motive and identity of the killer, she discovers that it has a connection to her past, something that had been hidden from her all this while. The effort to untangle the case starts to unravel Dawn’s life as she realizes that she has been in touch with the killer before and the killings have been targeted with her in mind. The killer wants her attention, but why? What is the connection between them? SPOILERS AHEAD
Edmund and Dawn’s Connection Unravels More Secrets About Their Past
While trying to get to the bottom of the murders, Dawn discovers that she has been unaware of some very important things about her life. First, she discovers that she was adopted. Her mother kept this a secret her whole life, waiting for the right time to tell her, but the right time never came. While Dawn processes the information, she becomes more invested in the case as the killer seems to be targeting her family. With each step, she loses more control, and it is at a rather vulnerable moment that her mother dumps another bombshell on her. Not only was Dawn adopted, but also, she was a part of a pair. She had a twin named Edmund, who was also adopted with her, but things didn’t turn out quite as well for him.
Dawn and Edmund were born to Ruby Lee Emory. When their father abandoned her and the children, she realized that she couldn’t take on the task of raising them by herself. She had her own trauma to deal with and couldn’t shake off the sinister things that had happened to her and her family (events of Season 1). She didn’t want her children to grow up under the shadow of all that. In the end, she decided that it would be best if she gave them up. They would have a better chance with a more well-adjusted family who could give them the life they deserved.
What Ruby didn’t know was that she was giving her children to an abusive person. For the first few years of their lives, the twins, like every other kid in that foster home, were put through mental, physical, and emotional abuse. They would have been forced to live that way, but Athena and her husband came along. They adopted the twins, and for a while, it looked like everything would turn out fine for them.
While Dawn adjusted easily with the family, Edmund was prone to tantrums. Their new parents found it difficult to handle Edmund, especially when he was not with Dawn. One morning, Athena took Dawn for a walk in the park, and when they returned, they found her husband dead of a heart attack and Edmund sitting next to his body with the pills that could have saved him. Her husband’s death was the final straw for Athena, who couldn’t mentally and financially afford to raise two children. She couldn’t part with Dawn, but she couldn’t handle Edmund either, as his tantrums grew even worse. Moreover, his presence only reminded Athena of her husband’s death. So, she decided to send the boy back to the foster home.
When Dawn cried for her brother, Athena told her she never had a brother. She told her that the boy she used to play with was her imaginary friend. As time passed, Dawn forgot about her brother entirely. She also repressed the painful memories of the foster home, and because her mother never talked about her adoption, that chapter of Dawn’s life never came to light. Meanwhile, Edmund grew up in abuse until he was adopted by another family, but like Athena, they couldn’t connect with him either and eventually abandoned him.
The separation from his sister and the abandonment by two families left an indelible mark on Edmund. The problem of not being able to connect with people grew worse, and the people around him would always see him as a weird guy they’d rather stay away from. Years later, Edmund tracked down Dawn and visited her home. But even she was ticked off by his presence, and before he could tell her anything, she told him to leave and never come back. This left Edmund completely hopeless, and he took a drastic step that had severe repercussions for everyone involved.
Read More: Them The Scare: Who is the Man with the Painted Face?
