Summary
Episode 10 brings a full horror show as a conclusive ending to the series — the Emory family face their demons, their trauma, and the devil itself as the story goes full circle.
This recap of Amazon’s Them season 1, episode 10, “DAY 10” — the ending explained — contains spoilers.
The final episode has plenty of weight because everything before it has pre-empted that everything will come to fruition; it does not feel like a series that will have a continuation, so this chapter is important.
The final episode opens up with Betty trapped in the underground room that George had created for her. She sits in a solemn silence before climbing up the ladders — she realises the hatch at the top is open. Feeling nervous, Betty leaves the underground room, and it’s a bright and wonderful day. She runs across the farm to escape, but George snipes her from a distance. That’s the end of Betty in this story.
Escape from the facility
Lucky is still in the mental facility. The doctor tells her she will be receiving a gift. Lucky asks if she can use the restroom before going to the ball room. As she gets up, she injects a nurse in the neck, and they collapse.
Commotion on the street
At home, it’s way more hectic — Them season 1, episode 10 begins to snowball an ending.
Back at the house, Ruby axes one of her white neighbours to help her father, who was being hanged. The other man flees, but Henry chases after him and shoots him repeatedly. As they reach the middle of the street, other neighbours come out to see the commotion. The man’s wife comes out, and she’s panicking — she calls him a “dirty n****r”. Da Tap Dance Man shows up behind her and laughs, and Henry focuses on the wife. He looks at her pregnant belly, and it reminds him of when he lost a child. Ruby shouts after her father, which snaps him out of it.
The transforming house
In the distance, police sirens can be heard — Henry tries to return to the house, but the door shuts on him. Ruby can hear her father’s muffled voices, but then she hears children singing. Gracie hears the same thing. As Gracie reaches the wardrobe, someone grabs her. The room that Ruby is in transforms into the school bathroom, and she sees Doris.
Doris tells Ruby that she knows who she wants to be. She tells her she’s just like her mother. As Ruby looks in the mirror, she looks like her mother. The devil is playing on their minds intensely — it’s taking over.
The picture room
Henry finally enters the house, but it looks different. He can hear audiences laughing, and he enters a cinema auditorium. Henry asks Da Tap Dance Man where his daughters are. The man laughs at him and tells him that he needs to look with his eyes if he wants to see them. Suddenly, he sees himself and his daughters in the audience. This was the day he took his daughters out to the cinemas and left Lucky with Chester — this was the day she was raped, and her little boy was killed. The devil is taunting his mind, playing on his guilt and trauma.
Returning home
While escaping the mental facility, Lucky bumps into a black security guard, but he pretends he didn’t see her. On her way home, she sees the commotion outside her house. Clarke sees her but continues driving. Lucky walks through the groups of white people, and they heckle her with racist comments. She screams to shut them all up — this felt like a relief when everyone quietened; it felt in this moment that the racism had peaked to a childish point, and only a scream could stop the adults who were acting like children. As she enters the house, a row of fire appears in front of the garden.
Saving the kids
When she enters, she saves Gracie immediately. On the other hand, Ruby is still immersed in the mirror where she looks like her mother. Her head is plunged into the sink as Doris (who is now black) tries to choke her to death. Lucky finds her, and she’s holding a shard of glass, hurting herself. She tries to calm her daughter down slowly, but Ruby points the shard of glass at her mother. Lucky tells her she would never hurt her, so Ruby drops the shard of glass.
Show who you are
But there’s still the father to save, and he is perhaps the most inflicted person in the house.
Henry is still in the cinema auditorium watching the film with Da Tap Dance Man. The scenes are showing Lucky being raped and his son getting killed. Da Tap Dance Man asks when white people are going to stop taking stuff from him. He tells him to show who he is. As he becomes increasingly agitated, Lucky puts a hand on him to calm her husband down. Henry tells Lucky that he should have been there, but she tells him he couldn’t have known. He apologises and states he was trying to make everything okay. Lucky tells him she and the girls need him. The house returns to normal, and Henry shoots the Da Tap Dance Man. The man laughs at him in return. Henry takes out the man’s handkerchief and rubs off the paint to reveal a white man.
It’s not over yet
As Them season 1, episode 10 reaches a conclusive end; there’s one last thing to do — confront the devil himself.
The family gather and plan to leave the house. Lucky tells them all that they will not be running anymore and heads to the basement. As she walks down the stairs, the door closes behind her. She faces the priest and calls him the devil. The priest talks about keeping the community pure and maintaining purpose. He tells her that this shall not end and that she failed the covenant. The priest explains he understands the loss of a child and the hole it leaves. Suddenly, a baby lays in a basket ahead of Lucky, and it’s Chester. She sobs and picks the baby up who is crying. The priest offers Chester as a gift.
The ending
The priest and his servants gather around Lucky with knives in their hands. She keeps repeating, “I’m right here,” but then she faces the priest and tells him that her boy is gone, and that’s where their similarity ends — she tells him he can no longer blind her — Lucky has finally faced her grief. She rips the cross off him and drops it, and says, “I see you”. Suddenly, the priest remembers his church burning to the ground and goes blind. He scrambles on the floor, looking for his cross. His covenant has broken, and his body sets on fire. The Emory family leave the house, and they are faced with the entire white community and two police officers holding their guns at them. The family stand firm with each other. They are finally together, their souls intact — they are a family again.
Them season 1, episode 10 brings a full horror show as a conclusive ending to the series — the Emory family face their demons, their trauma, and the devil itself as the story goes full circle.
