The Boroughs ending spoilers follow.
More than just Stranger Things with senior citizens, Netflix's recent sci-fi drop The Boroughs took something as ordinary as aging and looked at it through a magical, charming, and curious lens through its main characters Sam (Alfred Molina), Judy (Alfre Woodard), Art (Clarke Peters), Wally (Denis O'Hare) and Renee (Geena Davis).
A mix of rebellious, cantankerous and spirited elders, this group of retirees are drawn into the mystery of The Boroughs when new resident Sam witnesses his neighbour Jack (Bill Pullman) being attacked and killed by a monster in episode one.
Fast forward seven more episodes, and Sam and his gang are in a life and death battle to put an end to the dark and mysterious occurrences that have been taking place in these Boroughs. But what happened in the end?
The true villains are not the monsters, but the people. More specifically, Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg), who run the Boroughs. The pair have been manipulating the monsters into draining the brain fluid of residents so that they can feed it to the matriarch monster known as 'Mother.'
They, along with others in their inner circle, would then drink Mother's blood in order to stay youthful and immortal forever. Think Death Becomes Her, but yuckier.
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If you're reading this article, then you will know that the gang of wily pensioners triumphed. They managed to free Mother from her confinement, kill Anneliese and a few others from the inner circle.
Then, when Blaine (who they presumed had died in the same blast that took out Anneliese) returned for revenge, Mother supernaturally blasted him to smithereens. Sam, who had been in a tussle with Blaine in the Cave of Wonders moments before his demise, was left unharmed. Unharmed yes, but perhaps… changed?
At the end of the season, Sam can be seen looking into the mirror as he tends to a cut on his forehead. At that moment his reflection flickers like TV static. Just like the supernaturally enhanced Blaine and Anneliese did when they were exposed to Sam's monster-killing accelerator device made out of old TVs.
But what does it all mean?
Why did Sam's reflection glitch static at the end of The Boroughs?
As mentioned above, the finale isn't the first time that we see characters go all static.
We all remember what happened when the Boroughs' welcome liaison Kayleigh (Beth Bailey) was exposed to Sam's device in front of his daughter Claire (Jena Malone). Surprise, surprise she was on the monster-blood diet too.
Mother would also send messages through to Sam in the form of the grieving former engineer's late wife Lilly (Jane Kaczmarek) who flickered static like a TV with a faulty signal. In fact anytime we see someone go static, it's in relation to the supernatural.
Is it possible then, that while taking out Blaine, Mother imbued Sam with something otherworldly? We know that Mother was grateful to Sam for rescuing her, saving her from suffering the indignity of being used and depleted, and also for saving her children from that fate.
When Mother explodes, ending her life, that of her children and presumably anyone who had been using her blood to stay alive, she allows Sam to see his wife one last time. Her gift was closure to him, but could she have knowingly (or unknowingly) left him with another gift?
The Boroughs creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews spoke to Netflix's Tudum about this rather mysterious ending, sharing their inspiration behind the finale while hinting at the reason behind Sam's glitching.
"[It's a] little bit of an homage to Stranger Things," said Addiss, explaining that it's much like Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) vomiting a slug at the end of the season one finale of the '80s sci-fi series.
While the slug represented the unforeseen consequence of Will's interaction with the Upside Down, Sam's glitching hints at potential side effects from his time in the Cave of Wonders.
Speaking on the advice they received from their executive producers, Stranger Things' Matt and Ross Duffer, they said: "They were like, 'Listen, you don't know what's going to happen. You've got to tell a complete story so that there's an emotional satisfaction to the end of the season, and then crack the door on the story going forward — but don't tie yourself down because who knows what the story will be going forward.'"
One thing we do know is that Sam's glitch is different from the other characters who have experienced the same static flicker. It doesn't happen as a byproduct of being exposed to something that interferes with his natural state. Nor does it happen to him, but rather just his reflection. So whatever he has presumably received, it does not operate the same way.
Naturally there has been no news of a season two renewal given that The Boroughs has just debuted, but hopefully this rebellious, sexually liberated, fearless gang will return, bringing with them more answers about Sam's fate.
The Boroughs is available to watch now on Netflix.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
