Warning: Major spoilers ahead for The Boroughs.
Time is running out in The Boroughs, and not just because the characters live in a retirement home. A strange creature has been attacking residents in the middle of the night and there’s something even worse lurking in the shadows of this place that Sam (Alfred Molina) and the others call home.
Stranger Things comparisons abound in The Boroughs thanks largely to the involvement of the Duffer Brothers (in a producing capacity). Yet this story, created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, stands on its own two feet, diverging more and more from that other Netflix hit as the series goes on.
Building up to the finale, Sam and the gang have unearthed a conspiracy led by the founders of their community who have been torturing an alien creature to help them stay young forever.
Mother, as it’s known, has been calling to Sam in the guise of his dead wife, pleading for help. And now, just as everyone has made it out of the town in one piece, they all decide to go back and rescue Mother along with her freaky alien kids.
But will everyone make it out alive? And is there scope for a second season with all these loveable aged-up misfits?
The Boroughs ending explained: How do the gang rescue Mother?
Wally’s (Denis O’Hare) initial betrayal works in the gang’s favour when he kidnaps Mother from the people he was working for.
As he takes her to a meeting point at the Community Centre, baddies Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg) get into a fight about losing Mother in the first place. Anneliese even slaps her husband not once, not twice, but three times in what increasingly feels like a bizarre form of slapstick.
Wally backtracks a bit though when he realises that Mother’s blood could be the key to curing disease worldwide. His husband died from AIDs, and that loss still haunts him, so creating new treatments using Mother could make up for that in some way.
According to Sam though, Mother wants to die, which conflicts with Wally’s plan somewhat, and she needs their help to fulfil that wish.
Renee (Geena Davis) is the one who ultimately convinces Wally that this is for the best, that it’s the right thing to do. Bear in mind that Wally is also dying of cancer, but he agrees anyway, helping to kickstart the next phase of the plan.
How do the gang escape from Blaine and Anneliese?
Underground, the group moves through various tunnels so they can escape and go to the cave with the tree where all of this started. Most of the exits have been blocked, however, as if they’re being herded (and it probably doesn’t help that they’re not the fastest bunch of young ‘uns either).
When it looks like Blaine and Anneliese are about to catch up, Art (Clarke Peters) and Judy (Alfre Woodard) stay behind to buy the others time. Crazy Anneliese stabs Judy with a knife, pushing Art to reveal Mother’s location. She licks the blood at one point like a demented cartoon villain before Art eventually gives in.
Meanwhile, Renee and Paz (Carlos Miranda) separate from the group to free Mother’s gross freaky spider children. Hank (Eric Edelstein), the security guy who tried to kill Renee earlier, is now stuck down in the lab with them, and he is not well.
Using Hank’s resentment towards Blaine, Renee convinces him to help by giving up the key that can free Mother’s family. Never mind the fact these creatures love to chow down on spinal fluid which they suck out of your throat while you sleep.
Sam and his daughter Claire (Jena Malone) make a last stand in his house against Blaine and Anneliese. Together, they wire up the TV’s to create the same weapon that worked so well on all the people who had been enhanced by Mother’s blood previously.
Once it’s switched on, energy emanating from the TV’s kills all the baddies until just Blaine and Anneliese are left, floating in the air as their faces melt off. Blaine says “I love you” and then she explodes in front of his eyes, followed closely by him.
The day is saved… or so it seems.
Does Judy die?
Cutting back to Judy after Anneliese cut into her, things are bad. Wally says she needs a hospital, but they’re out of time.
Judy and Art share a heartfelt memory then about the time they took their children to the Grand Canyon.
“You looked so beautiful standing in the water, laughing with the kids,” says Art.
They never made it to the Grand Canyon though, and it looks like Judy isn’t going to make it in general because she’s close to letting go now. Art begs her to stay, and that’s when Mother suddenly pulls out a glowing hand and heals Judy.
Because of course she does.
This weakens Mother a great deal, so time is of the essence. Despite his daughter pushing back, Sam decides he must be the one who takes Mother to the cave alone where she can die in peace.
“I couldn’t help your Mum,” says Sam, “and I wasn’t good at helping you, but I want to help her.”
What happens at the end?
Sam finally arrives at the cave with Mother where she chooses to die. But just as she’s about to explode, for alien reasons that remain unclear, Blaine suddenly shows up and hits Sam in the head with a rock.
How did Blaine survive the TV attack? That’s also unclear. But what we do know is that he’s back to use Mother so he can resurrect his wife, Anneliese. Sam eventually gets the best of Blaine, holding him tight as Mother explodes so he’ll be caught in the blast as well.
“No I can’t die,” screams Blaine.
“Everybody dies,” says Sam. “Welcome to the club.”
That’s when Mother and all her kids die in the explosion. But what of Sam?
Does Sam actually die in the explosion?
As the blast fades, Sam finds himself back in his old home that he shared with his wife before she died. Lilly (Jane Kaczmarek) is there like everything’s normal and the past year didn’t happen. Except, it did.
“Is it really you?” asks Sam.
“She’s saying ‘Thank you,'” replies Lilly, suggesting that Mother has briefly brought them back together in her dying moments. Or, more likely, she’s put the illusion of Lilly into Sam’s mind so he can enjoy a brief (but fake) reunion with his long lost wife.
“Are you gonna stand there asking questions or are you gonna dance with your beautiful wife?” says Lilly.
“We will be together again,” says Sam as he holds Lilly close. “We are together always,” she replies.
The pair kiss and hug one last time and then Sam wakes up in the aftermath of the explosion, back in reality.
Renee and Paz arrive and help take Sam home because they’re pals like that.
What is that weird glitch effect at the end?
To celebrate, the gang have a big party where they talk about their future plans. Renee invites Wally to join her and Paz on their trip to Italy, for example.
With no more Blaine and no more freaky monsters popping up at night, everything is finally back to normal. Except… why does Sam’s reflection glitch in the mirror while he changes his bandage?
Sam himself doesn’t even notice , but we do.
So what does that mean? There used to be a similar glitch effect when Lilly would appear to Sam in his mind, but we now know that was actually Mother reaching out to Sam via the memories of his dead wife.
Is Mother still around? That’s unclear. In fact, this whole twist ending isn’t clear.
But if we had to hazard a guess? Sam is still in the illusory world that Mother created when she reunited him with Lilly. If he’s on the edge of death, perhaps Mother gave him a happy ending to thank Sam. But if so, why wouldn’t she just keep him in the same place with Lilly? And how is this world being maintained if Mother really died like she wanted?
There’s also the possibility that Sam did actually die in that explosion. His reunion with Lilly was engineered by Mother, but what came after is the afterlife where he’s found peace with the new friends he’s made. If that’s true though, wouldn’t Lilly be there as well? Didn’t he even say they’ll be together again?
Without more information to go on, this “twist” ending is annoyingly ambiguous, the kind of surprise that feels tacked on in case the powers that be decide to commission a second season. Let’s hope new episodes are ordered though because there’s a lot that’s been left unexplained still, not in a fun thought-provoking way but in a confusing, frustrating fashion.
The Boroughs is available to stream on Netflix now.
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