The Ending Of Peacock's Sick Explained
Contains spoilers for "Sick"
While isolating at a lakeside cabin in the middle of nature in April 2020, Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) are in for the fight of their lives — and it isn't from the virus that is sweeping the country at the time. The new pandemic-themed horror movie "Sick," a Peacock release directed by John Hyams and written by "Scream" scribe Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb, follows college students as they run from masked killers ... but the killers are wearing balaclavas, not N95s.
While at first, it looks like the "intruder" is just Parker's friend DJ (Dylan Sprayberry) chasing her down, there is more than meets the eye to "Sick." As Miri, Parker, and DJ try to outrun the actual intruders, they find out who they are and what they want, which turns out to be what the college students are least expecting.
Like many slasher films, not everyone can make it until sunrise. If you're confused about who survives, who dies, who the intruders are, and what their motives are, we have you covered. Grab your mask and some disinfectant wipes as we break down the ending of the COVID-19 slasher "Sick."
Who is going after the college students?
While there are no other houses for miles, someone manages to find Parker and Miri at the lake house. Who are the masked assailants coming after them? They are actually only after Parker; Miri and DJ are simply collateral damage to them.
The man in black and the woman in the car who chloroforms Parker are the parents of a college student named Benji who recently contracted the coronavirus and passed away after hospitalization. After losing their son, Jason (Marc Menchaca) and Pamela (Jane Adams) try to figure out who spread the virus at an end-of-the-world party. As they speak to Parker, they tell her seven people that went to the party contracted the virus. As they do a rapid test on Parker, they confirm she is positive, making her the likely point of contact.
The killers are parents trying to avenge the death of their son. Like many who experience the passing of their children, they feel he was taken away from them too soon, and their response is to figure out who put them in this situation. Based on their planning, like the mother having a chloroform-spiked mask for Parker to wear, they're thorough and resourceful.
It also isn't lost on us that the masked intruders share their names with another set of killers known for killing at a lake: "Friday the 13th's" Pamela and Jason Voorhees.
Parker's infection status
Based on the test the killers run, Parker has been asymptomatically positive for several days. Before she and Miri head to the lake house, she walks through the known symptoms, highlighting that she doesn't have any. Miri has to remind her to put on her mask, so it's clear that Parker may not have been the best about wearing masks so far.
This means that, despite going to an isolated location to quarantine with her friend and attempting to not contract the virus, Parker's already infected with the COVID-19 virus. She attends parties and other social events while infected, meaning that any person she's kissed or closely interacted with has the chance of catching it from her.
As a movie taking place during April 2020, Parker's lack of knowledge of her infection status is familiar. Before tests and vaccines were easily accessible, people didn't always know if they were positive and unknowingly spread the virus, which is what caused the cases to reach the level they did. Parker is an example of many identical scenarios, and this lends the film some dramatic irony; we're far enough past those early days and enlightened enough now to know that Parker could still have spread coronavirus if she was asymptomatic, but to the characters, that wasn't yet clear.
But what about Miri's infection status?
The point of Miri going to the lake house with Parker is to lower her chances of contracting the virus because her father is susceptible. However, in quarantining with Parker, whom we now know is positive, she actually increases her chances of becoming sick.
While the two weren't even together for 24 hours at the cabin, there is still a chance she is infected. They spent time together in close proximity without masks, eating the same food and drinking together as they watch the news. It's very likely she is incubating the virus when the police cars appear at the end of the movie. Parker is asymptomatic, but that doesn't mean Miri will be.
After going through the ordeal she went through at the lake house, she now has to worry if she is sick and how sick she will get. This was a fear for many during the height of the pandemic. Many were worried that if they did contract the COVID-19 virus, they would end up in the hospital and would be seriously impacted. While scared of getting sick, others, like Miri, were worried about passing the virus on to their vulnerable friends and family. Miri represents two common concerns people had during the height of the pandemic, especially before prevention methods like vaccines were available.
What happened to DJ?
While Miri and Parker are trying to quarantine alone, their plans change when Parker's situationship, DJ, shows up. He wants to talk to Parker about their relationship status — especially after he saw a video of Parker kissing Benji at the party — but Parker has no interest in giving him the answer he wants to hear. As the masked strangers appear at the lake house, DJ is unfortunately killed as Parker and Miri try to get away.
However, that isn't technically the end of DJ's story. He puts up a good fight against the intruder, suffering a stab wound to the stomach and several to the back. Just as Miri and Parker seem to lose hope that DJ is coming outside, the door to the house opens. DJ appears in the doorway, clearly injured. When Parker goes to help him, it becomes clear it isn't DJ moving forward.
The killer is using a fireplace poker to move DJ's body forward as a lure. He's hoping that, in seeing her injured friend, Parker will come close enough that the masked man can grab her instead and carry out his initial plan. DJ not only died to protect the young women, but his body is used as live bait to manipulate them because he is too injured to fight the killer off at this point.
Who is the person killed in the opening montage?
"Sick" opens with a college-aged man being followed in a grocery store and killed in his home after receiving text messages similar to those Parker receives on the lake. When audiences initially see the montage play out, it isn't clear who this individual is. However, with the revelation of who the killers are and what their goal is, the identity of this person is disclosed.
The killers trace who infected their son and then who gave that person the virus — reminiscent of how actual CDC workers were responsible for contact tracing. Because the film establishes Parker is the person that passed the infection to Benji, they walk back who infected her, doing a track-and-trace much like government agencies were doing at the time. Tyler Murphy, played by Joel Courtney from the "Kissing Booth" trilogy, is the individual audiences watch in the opening montage. He is the one that gave Parker coronavirus, based on the family's findings.
The audience doesn't know much about Tyler. We aren't even sure how he passed the virus to Parker because their relationship isn't revealed. However, he is condoned to death because Pamela and Jason believe he is the reason Parker has the virus. He isn't a random person killed in an opening montage; to them, his death has a purpose.
Grief is a powerful emotion
These parents are going after what they perceive as the cause of their loss. Because Parker is positive for coronavirus, and she kisses Benji at the party as documented in a video on social media, they believe she is the reason they lost their son and decide to act accordingly to avenge the death of their son and try to relieve the hurt and loss they're feeling.
"Sick" shows how powerful grief can be in dark times. In Pamela's words, "Benji died alone in a hospital bed." Families weren't allowed to be in the room with individuals sick with the virus. They weren't allowed to be there to say goodbye to their loved ones in person. Sometimes they didn't even know it was happening until after it happened. Not only did Pamela and Jason have to experience one of the worst things for a parent to live through, but they had to do it from a distance without the ability to comfort their son in his final moments. Their "lashing out" in killing those they believe are responsible is an act of grief.
That doesn't make it okay, but it shows just how powerful a parent's grief can be when they lose a child. This is an overarching theme of the film. Everything these parents have done, from stalking Parker out to the lake house to killing Tyler, has been because of their grief.
Grief can blind people
As they torture Parker, putting a bag over her head so she can experience what it's like to not know when her last breath is, she reminds them that Benji was willingly at the party and wasn't wearing a mask either. They react in anger, with Jason hitting her across the face, not wanting to put any of the blame on their youngest son.
Though their son could be held partially responsible, they don't want to acknowledge that; their grief doesn't let them. It blinds them to Benji's actions and how they played a role in his death. While Parker admits to DJ that she coaxed Benji out of his room to join the party, it was still an active choice he made. Other active choices include not wearing a mask when at the party and kissing Parker. Nobody forced Benji to make these choices, but his parents don't want to accept that.
While their grief is influencing their actions, it's also influencing how they remember their son. All we know about Benji is that Parker called him sweet and that he wasn't initially at the party taking place in his own home, which doesn't give too much information about him or his personality. His choices could make sense. Either way, his parents' grief is clouding their judgment not only to the point that they are killing people but in how they choose to remember their son and his actions.
It is a family affair
It isn't just Jason and Pamela going after Parker, either. They didn't only have one son; they have two. Their second son, Jeb (Chris Reid), is at the lake house, helping his parents in their mission and going after Parker and Miri too. However, in Parker and Miri's efforts to get away and survive the night, they kill him. In the parents' eyes, they've now lost both of their sons because of the actions of one person.
Now, in trying to make sure the person responsible for Benji's death experiences exactly what he did in his final moments, they cause the death of their remaining child. Letting their grief take the reigns and make choices for them results in a death they didn't plan for. They have no qualms about killing people who get in the way of their mission, like DJ and almost Miri, but they don't account for the possibility that someone could hurt them in the process. In making it a family outing, they cause the death of their other child.
You have to be careful who you trust
"Sick" is a great example of why it's difficult to trust people in such life-altering situations. When Miri and Parker meet up at Parker's vehicle to head out to her family's lake house, Miri asks her to wear her mask. Parker waves her off, telling her she doesn't have any of the symptoms of the virus, so therefore she must not have the virus, but puts the mask dangling from her wrist on. Miri is clear that she cannot contract it because her father is immunocompromised.
Miri trusts her friend and her word. She didn't ask her to take a test before they head to the lake. If she had, they may have discovered Parker's positive status much earlier. It shows that, despite the relationship you have with someone, you can't always trust that they've been safe enough to protect themselves or the people they surround themselves with.
Of course, this isn't intentional on Parker's part. She isn't going into quarantine with her friend knowingly having the virus and in some type of weird attempt to pass it to her. However, she wasn't responsible. She was lax in her mask use and went to parties and events that turned into spreader events. While she cares about her friend, even begging Pamela to spare Miri because she isn't the reason Benji is dead, she still accidentally put her and her friend's father at risk.
How did the killers track and trace?
Pamela and Jason find Parker and Tyler by tracing who has coronavirus and attended the party. All they tell Parker is that they did the tracing to figure out who infected her. However, there is a key detail they mention earlier that may hint at how they figured everything out.
When sharing their story with Parker, they tell her she infected seven people at the party. Not only did they track and trace who passed the virus to Benji, but they also traced who is responsible for the cases from the party. While they don't outright say it, it seems like they may have been working their way through the people that went to the party to see who tests positive for coronavirus.
The audience isn't told if the other people that got sick passed away or if they kissed Parker. Based on the parents' certainty in who infected their son, it seems like they may have found other evidence showing she interacted with the others in a similar fashion. Based on their proficiency with social media, they likely went through the hashtags of the original video, checking for points of contact to try and confirm their suspicions about Parker.
Be careful of what you post online
Pamela and Jason use information freely available on social media to find and kill college students, with just some time and some social media stalking. If a video of Parker kissing Benji hadn't been posted online, his parents might not have known who to target. Parker also posts a selfie with the caption that she's heading to the lake. With just her name, it's easy to figure out in property databases if her family owns a house on a lake nearby. Social media gives Pamela and Jason both the answer they are looking for in who to blame for their son's death and where to find her.
Pamela and Jason become stalkers, using social media to track down Parker at this remote lake house. The fleeting video we glimpse earlier, when Parker nonchalantly talks about kissing Benji at the party, turns out to be far more important than she realizes. It's another lesson to be careful about what you post online. Oh — and also, don't party and kiss strangers during a global pandemic.