Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen Theory Suggests A Very Different Ending For Nicky

Nicky survives until the final moments of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, and one theory provides a very different ending for him. The horror miniseries from co-executive Duffer brothers and creator/writer/showrunner Haley Z. Boston became an instant success, with mostly positive responses. As a critic for ScreenRant, I gave it a 9 out of 10 in my review of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. The series’ success continued with award nominations, with Camila Morrone receiving a Critics’ Choice Super Award nomination and the show getting a Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination.

The show explores the primal fear of marrying the wrong person in a society that pushes marriage on individuals. Midway through the show, Rachel’s family curse comes to light. She learns that her wedding has three possible outcomes. 1. Rachel marries her soulmate, and she lives. 2. Rachel marries someone who isn’t her soulmate, and she dies a bloody death. 3. She walks away, passes the curse to her fiancé’s bloodline, and gets cursed to become the Witness.

The ending of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen carries high stakes, making it a life-or-death situation. The final episodes include many twists, with the story featuring multiple outcomes during a single wedding. Most shockingly, Nicky is left alive, curled up in his bed while holding a teddy bear, at the end. While a widely accepted explanation exists, there’s also a theory about Nicky being a witness that could change everything.

Why Rachel Being Nicky’s Soulmate Doesn’t Make Sense

Courtesy of Netflix

Soulmates are an ambiguous thing in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, and they don’t have to be reciprocal. This is the reason why Victoria can die while Boris doesn’t. Boris survives because he knows Victoria’s flaws and still thinks of her as his soulmate. Nell survives because she isn’t part of the bloodline. She and Jules are unexpectedly each other’s soulmates. They might not have the perfect relationship, but they know and accept who one another is. They’re honest and trust each other, even if they also hate each other. As such, Jules makes it out alive.

The widely accepted reason why Nicky survives in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is that he still thinks of Rachel as his soulmate, even if she doesn’t reciprocate that sentiment. Adam DiMarco told ScreenRant’s Liam Crowley in an interview, “He didn’t die, which proves that he still believes that Rachel’s his soulmate, so he’s a romantic till the very end.”

Camilla Morrone implied in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she might accept the widely believed theory, stating, “Nicky and Rachel are not soulmates in this case, at least not to Rachel.“

However, Rachel being Nicky’s soulmate makes absolutely zero sense.

Nicky doesn’t actually care about Rachel’s thoughts, needs, or wants at any point in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. He didn’t care before the first episode that Rachel never wanted to get married, pressuring her into an engagement. If they were soulmates, none of this would have been an issue to begin with. When they talk in the diner, he doesn’t care that Rachel doesn’t want children. He completely dismisses her fears of pregnancy and childbirth and minimizes her feelings. When they get to the house, he decides to go get Rachel’s dress at the behest of his family, ignoring that Rachel doesn’t want that.

When he comes back, and she’s terrified, he doesn’t trust her. He insists that he needs to hear his family’s side of the story. He doesn’t even bother to leave and come back when things are calmer. He doesn’t bother to make her feel safer. Later, it’s revealed that he doesn’t believe Rachel’s instincts and superstitions, dismissing them and belittling them.

Nicky very clearly doesn’t understand Rachel, let alone love her. Boris and Jules know exactly who their partners are, flaws and all, and still believe them to be their soulmates. Their love is built on trust and honesty. However, that doesn’t apply to Nicky.

Nicky hides parts of who he is from Rachel, including his family role and the real reason why he was at the airport when they met. He hides his disbelief in the supernatural. Rachel was honest from the start about who she was and what she wanted. He doesn’t actually trust what she’s saying, though.

Instead, Nicky does exactly what Rachel said his family was doing in episode 2. He’s creating a bride-shaped hole and not caring about the person fitting into it. If anything, his soulmate is the completely false idea of Rachel that he created in his head.

Theory: Nicky Could Be A Second Witness At The End Of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen

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With all the flaws in logic, Nicky absolutely should have died alongside the rest of his bloodline in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. As I broke down, there’s no reason to believe that Rachel is his soulmate. His lack of death could be taken as an inconsistency or a logic flaw.

However, another possible explanation for why Nicky might not have died in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is that he became a witness alongside Rachel. If Nicky is immortal, then of course he wouldn’t die the bloody death that his family went through.

The previous Witness confirmed in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen episode 4 that death punished him for being a coward and walking away from his beloved at the altar. He was forced to watch his beloved’s family suffer the same blood curse that he had. This anecdote tells us as an audience that Death is a vindictive rascal who takes any opportunity to punish folks.

Death also made a deal with the first woman in the line without her knowing all the conditions. He essentially tricked her into dooming her bloodline to a terrifying death. There’s no reason to think that he would be any less of a trickster some 500 years down the line.

What’s more, Nicky did not one but two separate things to piss off Death. First, he was a coward and walked away from the altar. This is what led to the previous Witness getting that position. Second, he tried to stop Death from taking all the souls he was owed by tricking Rachel into marrying him.

It’s completely reasonable to think that Death would want to punish him. What’s more, his not dying before becoming immortal makes sense because of the order of events. Rachel didn’t marry her husband by sundown on her wedding day, meaning she had to experience a bloody death. When Nicky backed out of the wedding, his whole family became cursed, and he doomed Rachel to become the Witness.

Then, he tricked her into marrying him, dooming her again. After that, she walked away of her own free will, reinforcing her role as the Witness. Because of the order of events, it makes sense that Rachel died a bloody death and then was resurrected as the Witness.

However, Rachel not getting married by sundown doesn’t kill him. His walking away from the altar doesn’t doom him to a bloody death – just his family. If he became the immortal witness when he walked away, then he wouldn’t have to die a bloody death even after marrying someone who isn’t his soulmate.

How The Nicky Theory Changes The Meaning Of The Horror Show’s Ending

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The Nicky Witness theory actually fits perfectly with Haley Z. Boston’s statements about Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’s ending. She told Variety, “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.”

In this interpretation, Rachel gets to shed her connection to Nicky by choosing to die and be reborn as the witness. It’s freedom and empowerment. She was screwed over by the man who was supposed to love her, and now she’s done with him. Her immortality is more of a gift, allowing her to live on without Nicky.

However, Nicky is the person who did the screwing over. He might have backed out of the wedding, but he did it from a place of fear, not choosing himself. What’s more, he backed out of backing out as soon as he realized the curse was real. As such, his Witness role would be more of a curse in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. The likelihood of us ever getting a concrete canonical answer is very little, as the show was conceived as a limited series. The creator, Haley Z. Boston, mentioned that Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen season 2 hinges on her creating a new “something bad” to happen, making it an anthology.

Why Haley Z. Boston Likely Wouldn’t Support The Nicky Theory

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The entire theory that Rachel isn’t Nicky’s soulmate hinges on the terrible things he does, which stretch all the way back to before Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. If Nicky actually cares about Rachel, then it’s plausible that he would still believe she’s his soulmate, even after everything. While Boston has never directly addressed the theory, she has made one thing very abundantly clear: she is a “Nicky apologist.” Those are her words, not mine. When speaking to Deadline in June, she made it clear that she didn’t think Nicky was a bad guy.

“I was worried that people would see [Rachel] as the antagonist there or wouldn’t be on her side because her saying no causes all these people to die. During the writing process, I worried about that. Then in the edit, I worried that people were going to hate Nicky too early or not see his side. I didn’t want to completely vilify him. I wanted people to understand that if Rachel wasn’t cursed, he is making the right decision, he’s doing what she ultimately wanted…I do think there’s good in what he was doing as well, but I’m glad that people really relate to Rachel and are rooting for her.”

If Boston’s goal was to make Nicky sympathetic, she didn’t really succeed in my eyes, and I have seen quite a few others online talking about how Nicky is the worst. I spent a lot of time looking at discussions about the show, especially on Reddit and TikTok, because I truly enjoyed Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. The words “spineless,” “immature,” “coward,” and “scumbag” have been used to describe the character on social media, and those are some of the nicer comments. Regardless of how the majority of us feel, though, I doubt that Boston, who empathizes with Nicky to the degree that she does, would agree to curse him to a life of watching other people die.

Release Date

2026 – 2026-00-00

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Haley Z. Boston

Cast

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  Adam DiMarco

  Nicky Cunningham

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  Camila Morrone

  Rachel Harkin

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