Swarm hit Amazon Prime, and it’s marked as a horror thriller series, and I would say that it’s safe to say that it definitely lived up to that. Following Dre, who is an individual that is obsessed with pop star Ni’Jah.
And after the death of her sister, she goes down a twisted path of fulfilling both of their dreams of meeting the icon. However, Dre’s mental and physical state, along with the development of Erotomania, allowed us to see just how far she was prepared to go. So let’s delve into this Swarm’s Ending Explanation.
I thought this show was pretty good, it was shot really nicely, and it was extremely aesthetically pleasing when watching. One thing I would commend this show for is the sound that it used. Not even the score, just the use of sound. The bees, dramatic silences, and other effects were used for dramatic purposes, and they worked really well in providing the haunting landscape that they were going for.
Swarm Ending Explained
As we embarked on the final episode of Swarm, the last time that we saw Dre was in episode 5 after she flipped Marissa’s parents’ house after trying to get them to switch her phone back on. Not only did she feel as though there were important things on the phone, but it was also her way of being able to speak with Marissa months after she had died.
Dre believed that she was communicating with her and was visualizing what she wanted to see, something which I think ties into a theory about the ending. And we picked up with Dre in June of 2018, and she was physically completely different from how we came to know her. She’d cut her hair extremely short and was wearing a completely different style of clothes and living under Tony’s name.
This could have been because the police were on to her following the previous episode, with Detective Green tracking her down. And also with them finding obstructing contents from her vehicle. So she was fully aware that the police weren’t that far behind.
We saw that she started a relationship with a student called Rashida, something which I was quite surprised about at first because one of the first things that Rashida said was that she hated Ni’Jah, something which would have been enough to have gotten her killed a few episodes back.
Dre had been going all around the country and killing people in the name of Ni’Jah and the Swarm, which was an obsessive top fan group. So I originally thought that it marked some moments of change for the character Dre when she didn’t look enraged by that comment.
But we know that Dre hadn’t stopped the killing because she kept acquiring new vehicles when she would be found by the authorities. So she hadn’t lost that sight to her.
Dre Meets Ni’Jah
As the final episode went on, we saw that towards the end of it. We saw what happened, in the beginning, being replicated with the purchasing of the tickets when she didn’t have any money. But instead of it being with her sister, who had died, we saw it being done with her girlfriend.
The obsessive Dre bought the tickets as a way of showing her love for Rashida. But instead, Rashida reacted by going into a fit of rage and saying how she didn’t like Ni’Jah at all. This was the final turning point, and it was enough for dry to kill the person that she loved more than anybody at that time.
When she burned the evidence, the tickets that she got for the concert were inside the jacket, which meant that she had to find an alternative way to get into the concert, which she did manage to do. It was right at the end, once she was in there, that she managed to get on stage.
But as security drew in and as she was being taken out, Ni’Jah told the security to stop. And as she walked over, we saw that Marissa’s face was on Ni’Jah’s body, meaning that Dre was seeing Marissa in that specific moment, a moment that she had spent dreaming of. It was certainly a weird one for sure.
It Was In Dre’s Mind
I think there were two different theories that support what happened at this moment. The first is that it didn’t actually happen at all and that it was all just inside her head. We know that Dre was prone to hallucinations, as we saw when she believed that she was talking to Marissa on the phone.
And also when she was eating the snack at the after-party. She ended up taking a bite out of Ni’Jah’s face. Showing that her mental state, which is supposed to keep her aware of what was happening in the real world, was actually questionable.
So she may well have been taken out by security or maybe never even gotten into the concert that was happening. Instead, she could have just been sitting there cradling Rashida thinking about it. It would be rather strange for the performer to walk a fan out of the gig and put them in their limo. So I think there’s definitely some weight to this theory of it all being inside of her mind.
It Did Actually Happen
The second theory is that it did happen. But she saw Marissa’s face because this was the moment that she had always dreamed of doing with her sister, and she never managed to get over her death. It dated all the way back in the video that she kept replaying, how they said that they would meet Ni’Jah together one day.
But obviously, due to her sister dying, she was unable to do so. So when Dre eventually did her idol, the person that she spoke so highly of and was prepared to kill for, was actually Marissa showing that she viewed them as equals. Two heroes in her rise.
Dre Is Still On The Loose
Regardless of both of the theories, the ending of the first season would mean that Dre didn’t get caught for any of the multiple murders that she committed. I imagine if there’s going to be a Swarm Season 2, she’ll be in another state, under a different name, and continue to steal more cars to get quick escapes. Her love for Ni’Jah was utterly terrifying.
The sound of the bees that would occur whenever the thought of killing somebody was in her mind was supportive of the Swarm hive, and the image that was used when somebody would share their supportive Ni’Jah. So she was definitely deluded and took the support too far. So much so that she even started enjoying what she was doing.
Earlier on in the season, she was asked if she had ever battled with addiction, and she said that she had. This was her addiction to killing, where she mentioned that she took pleasure from it, showing that the character had well and truly morphed into something different. Somebody who once cried was in hysterics when killed. She finished off by being somebody who didn’t even bat an eyelid when doing so.
Is Swarm Based On A True Story?
I suppose one of the main questions that you leave this show with is, “Is what I just watched based on a true story?” And the answer to that is no, but kind of. Glover, the writer of the show, said that the story of Dre fantasizing about Ni’Jah and killing in the name of her is most definitely not real.
But what Glover did do was research a set of different murders that took place, and they were put together when piercing this show. So it is fictitious but loosely based on lots of different cases from over the years and also the mindset that many people have when it comes to idolizing and obsessing over celebrities that they’ve never met. So it’s an interesting way to build a narrative and find inspiration.
Dominique Fishbach, well and truly steals to show. She plays so many different versions of the character, and you genuinely believe every single one that you see. The Dre that we witnessed at the end was not the one that we saw at the start, and it was an extremely impressive performance that sent shivers throughout your body. You’d hope that you’d never meet the character.
Also Read: The Truman Show Ending Explained: The Dark Hidden Meaning Behind The Movie
