Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen Creator on Deaths & Season 2

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the finale of Netflix’s “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen.”

This season of “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” ended with many “holy shit!” moments. From the wedding of Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco) devolving into a bloodbath, to Rachel taking on the role of The Witness, it was a deliciously dark end to the family saga. Variety spoke with creator and showrunner Haley Z. Boston after the finale to break down the biggest moments and answer our remaining burning questions.

I would love to start by asking about the imagery of all the bloody people falling down at the wedding. It’s so visually arresting … How did that come to you?

When I first came up with the idea for the show, the thing I had in my head was, “What if when you marry the wrong person, you bleed to death at the altar?” That was the first nugget. I envisioned a bride bleeding to death in front of all their friends and family. Then it turned into, “Okay, what is next?”

When you go to a wedding, it is hard not to think about yourself, especially if you are young and unmarried, and think about what your wedding is going to look like. I have never gone to a wedding as a married person, but I imagine you think back to your wedding day and your vows. So then the idea became, “What if everyone there who did not marry the right person bleeds to death?” Then it turned into figuring out what that means and the whole story. So the image of a bunch of people bleeding to death at a wedding was there pretty early on.

The blood looked so good. Was there a specific approach you were aiming for?

It’s a mix of special effects and VFX. I wanted it to feel real. I know it’s not realistic that you would bleed from every orifice, but I wanted it to feel real and haunting. That was the goal.

Colin Stetson composed this beautiful music, and in the edit I realized the mass bleed felt very poetic. Rachel’s death, when she walks into the atrium and everything slows down, was inspired by the end of “Kill Bill.” You move from all that blood into a snowy, snow globe-like, peaceful place.

I was constantly saying, “More blood, we need more blood.” I still feel that way. It’s in a good place, but it could use even more.

Why do you think Jules and Nell were ultimately, despite their differences, soulmates?

The show is not one where I say, “I know the answer to what makes two people soulmates.” But in thinking about how to answer that question in the show, there were two things. One was, for me, what would make someone my soulmate or the right person is if they see me for who I really am, which is a big part of Rachel and Nicky’s argument: Rachel realizing that Nicky does not see her. She says in the argument, “I am seeing you in every moment, and you decided who I was, but you are not seeing me as I grow and change.”

With Nell and Jules, something I wanted to establish in that relationship is that they are very honest with each other. I do not necessarily think you need to be that brutally honest. I think you can be honest and kind. But that was something that struck me, and we talked about it in the writers’ room as we were writing the show and figuring out the finale and who should live. It became exciting to have Jules and Nell live, especially because they are on the precipice of divorce. They are about to give up on each other. But because their relationship is actually one where they tell each other everything, they are very upfront with each other. There is no hiding or games. Rachel and Nicky do not have that relationship. So it felt very sweet that ultimately Nell and Jules would end up soulmates.

The Rachel and Nell makeout was surprising. How did that come about?

I think there was a little building interest between the two of them leading up to that. But ultimately, when being forced to answer that question, “Who is my soulmate and what makes him my soulmate,” it was a little bit of an escape into the idea that sometimes you have to kiss someone else to know you are with the right person. I think it is more about that last night of freedom, that this might be my final night to live, and I am just going to give in to my impulses.

The episode with Rachel’s parents reveals the key knowledge needed for the rest of the show. How did you come to the determination that this is where you want to put all the pieces out and explain the bigger vision?

That episode was originally Episode 3, the sort of flashback episode. And then in the writers’ room, we realized that it was too early to leave our main story. So Episode 3 became more about meeting the family in a deeper way, because in Episode 2 it is so heightened and in Rachel’s point of view. Episode 3 is a little more objective. You get to understand Victoria and her role as the mother, and what it means to have a dying mother.

Then it felt natural to shift into Rachel’s family history. As she is peeling back the layers of Nicky’s family, we take her into her own past. I do not love a flashback as a narrative device, so using the device of a videotape felt right. It came from the idea of watching someone’s wedding tape. I liked that midpoint shift. We always talked about it as the first half of the season, Rachel believes the threat is external, and then she realizes it is internal. It is coming from her. In the first half, the house is haunted in a metaphorical sense. In the second half, she is haunted.

The season largely feels like a story about class and gender. Was that intentional?

I think the class aspect was more of an unintentional piece of telling the story of an outsider in a foreign environment. There’s been a lot of content lately that focuses on that, and I didn’t want to emphasize it. It’s part of the story, but it’s not the point. The gender stuff definitely matters. The concept of being a bride carries so much history about ownership and pressure: people talk about your wedding as a young kid, and when you turn 30, everyone’s like, “You’re single.” That pressure feels different for men.

You also get the idea that Rachel is meant to take over as matriarch. Nicky is what we called “the very special boy,” the golden child of the family, and his mother is dying. It feels like Rachel is supposed to take his mother’s place. I’ve seen that dynamic: a man whose wife is expected to assume his mother’s role, so he goes from his mom doing his laundry to his wife doing his laundry.

Rachel’s fear of commitment, which becomes the curse, is a representation of doubt. It’s all wrapped up in that: the notion of what it means to be a wife, especially in this family, is haunting her and keeping her from committing. The family portrait exemplifies that feeling of being trapped. She’s terrified of being painted into it and becoming someone she’s not.

How were you able to capture the specificity of wedding week stress and disagreements?

A lot of it is based on observation. I’ve been in relationships and understand how things can escalate. I also had a married couple in the writers’ room who were very open about their feelings and how their wedding went. As an anxious person, it’s easy for me to imagine how I’d feel in that scenario. It’s heightened, but I wanted the argument between Rachel and Nicky to feel grounded.

I referenced “Anatomy of a Fall.” The argument scene in that film is incredible and very real. I liked the idea of juxtaposing that grounded relationship argument with the brewing death POV, so every time we cut back to Rachel and Nicky, it feels real. Their performances in the finale are amazing, and you really feel it.

I remember writing the whole argument in one run. That was maybe the most fun I had writing the show. It was late, between midnight and 5 a.m. in Toronto while prepping the finale. It felt like catharsis. These two characters have been holding back all season and not talking to each other, and this was the moment to let everything out. I could see both sides of their argument, which was important to me. I hope people are rooting for Nicky. I don’t think I completely slaughtered him. His argument is valid, too.

The last two times we see Nicky are interesting. First, he comforts his sister, not his wife. Then, when he goes to the glass, he slams against it. How do you read those moments?

I think Nicky, after he realizes what he’s done and caused Rachel’s death, has so much guilt. He’s the type of person who does what he thinks other people want him to do. He spends the whole season following his mother’s orders and doing what he thinks Rachel wants.

At the end, he’s comforting Portia. His sister is dead, she’s alone, and he feels like he should be there. At the same time, he’s afraid to face Rachel and confront what he did. If he sits with Portia, he doesn’t have to see Rachel or deal with it.

Then he sees her, and there’s this anger. He’s hitting the glass, upset with himself and the situation. He’s like a kid throwing a tantrum.

When Rachel is driving off, that little smile at the end stood out. How do you read that?

The whole idea of the ending, and Rachel’s ending specifically, is that at the beginning of Episode 8, she takes a leap of faith. She realizes the opposite of doubt isn’t certainty: It’s belief. You can’t be certain about any choice you make in life or what the outcome will be. So she takes that leap, and that’s her arc. She goes from having all these doubts to having belief. And Nicky fucked it up.

Now she’s in a position where she’s desperately clinging to that belief. Over the course of their argument, it starts to slip, and she realizes she doesn’t believe in him anymore. So she has to make that choice again and chooses herself instead of him. That causes all this chaos and mayhem, but she’s choosing herself.

We talked about this a lot in the writers’ room. I was worried she might be unlikable for making that choice because all these people are dying. Maybe some people won’t be on Rachel’s side there. But it made sense to me, and it felt right that that’s the choice she makes. I wanted her to be active because Nicky took away her power by saying no. Rather than letting the sunset take over, letting the curse take over, I wanted to make sure Rachel was actively saying, “No, I changed my mind. I’m choosing myself.”

The whole story is ultimately a breakup story. In choosing herself, Rachel becoming the new witness is a rebirth. You end a relationship, and there’s a mix of sadness and catharsis. She’s reborn and leaves the relationship behind. Metaphorically, when you end a relationship, those people are dead to you in a way. They’re no longer in your life. That’s why she leaves by herself. She’s on a new journey.

That smile is a mix of emotions. Cami played it so well. She’s emotional, exhausted from the week, and then there’s this small smile of, “I got out. I made the right choice. Now I’m on to my next adventure.”

Another thing that stood out was the fox at the end. How did that mirror Rachel’s journey in your mind?

The fox has been a representation of Rachel’s journey for the whole season. It’s a warning the first time we see it, on the side of the road, dead. When she sees the fox in the bathroom, torn open with the babies inside it, that foreshadows her mother’s death and Rachel’s birth. She hears the fox cry throughout.

In Episode 6, Nikki traps the fox, and it loses its foot, which foreshadows the toe Rachel cuts off in Episode 7. There’s also the idea of the fox bleeding to death, which works as a small Easter egg.

If the fox represents Rachel, and Rachel has come back to life, wounded but alive, I wanted to show that the fox is there with her, completing the metaphor.

If you were given the opportunity to do a second season, would that interest you? And would you continue Rachel’s story or explore something else?

That would be a great opportunity. This story is very personal to me. It came from a real fear of mine, something I was using to explore my own fears. I’ve thought about the show as a potential anthology, and whatever that next existential fear is, I’d need to figure out what to explore there.

Horror, to me, runs deep. It allows you to explore taboo subjects and externalize internal fears. I have a lot of fears, so I’m sure there’s more to mine.

The ice cream man was so creepy. Is there more to him?

He’s definitely a red herring. He never comes back again. I liked the idea of this figure who has haunted Rachel’s past and the Cunninghams’ past. You see Jude wearing a Coldy shirt in Episode 4. There was some speculation in the writers’ room that Larry Poole had something to do with the Cunninghams funding his first custard stand.

The idea behind him, especially in the pilot, was to introduce a few creepy male figures so the Sorry Man reveal lands at the end. You’re wondering: Is it the guy in the bar? Is it him? Is he the Coldy serial killer? Is it Nicky’s dad? Who is the Sorry Man?

Then we decided to connect him to Rachel’s past. That’s why she recognizes the logo, because her mother saw it. I wanted to establish that connection to her mother early on.

For a couple of episodes, I thought he was Death or Satan.

I wish he came back at the end. That would have been fun. Maybe next time.