Posted by Despite all the chances we had in the last few years to explore the true story of Billy Milligan (especially after movies like Split and series like Netflix’s Monsters Inside), there was an immense curiosity about how Apple TV+’s The Crowded Room would end. The series starring Tom Holland took several liberties from Milligan’s real life, and its ending raised many questions about what the protagonist did after the trial. In this article, all the main elements will be explained: What’s the “unpaid debt” Danny mentions in the final scene? What’s his relationship with his mom? Was he cured? Let’s see it together.
You can watch the official trailer for The Crowded Room here on Youtube.
The Crowded Room ending explained: what’s Danny’s unpaid debt?
The ending episode of The Crowded Room explained how Danny Sullivan’s story turned out. In an exciting twist of the events, his attorney lets him speak at his trial, forcing the hand and revealing Danny’s multiple personalities in front of the jury. That’s when Danny admits in front of everybody the abuses from his stepfather, and that’s what will lead the jury to declare him innocent of all charges because of insanity.
The series on Apple TV+ closes its story in the psychiatric facility where Danny is being cured. Rya, the therapist who saved him, discusses with him the aftermath. Danny’s mother comes to visit from time to time, but now that Danny is slowly accepting the truth and the reality of his many personalities, he cannot forgive her for allowing those terrible things to happen in his life. Rya considers this a normal phase of Danny’s evolution.
A specific detail needs to be explained in the ending scene of The Crowded Room. When Rya is saying goodbye, she happily recognizes how Danny is successfully integrating the good parts of his multiple personalities: he’s confident, brave, charming; he’s adopting the good parts of every alter he had, developing a unique, leading character that has all the best qualities inside him. He recognizes it too, but the last thing he tells Rya before leaving is important: not all personalities are integrated yet because Danny has an “unpaid debt,” and now it’s “his turn to be the guardian angel.” What’s the unpaid debt? What does Danny mean?
In the last image of the series, it becomes clear that Danny’s unpaid debt is towards Adam, the twin brother he created to protect himself during his stepfather’s abuses. From this point of view, Adam has been the most important guardian angel Danny had in his childhood: he was the one taking over Danny’s life every time the abuses took place, and the brutality of existence was unbearable. In a certain way, Adam doesn’t really have a personality trait Danny needs to integrate: he truly was an alter required to take his place and suffer instead of him in the worst moment of his life. This is the debt Danny has with Adam.
The ending scene of The Crowded Room shows Adam next to Danny, still as a separate personality, and this is the way the series has explained how Danny pays his debt to Adam. Letting him exist now that life is peaceful and under control, Danny is now acting as a guardian angel for Adam. He wants to show him that life also has beautiful moments, and he wants to protect him, like Adam did in his childhood by taking his place in those terrible moments.
Danny Sullivan, as Billy Milligan in the real story, will never be fully cured. His personality was irremediably broken in his childhood, and now that the worst is over, he can only do his best to find a good balance, keeping his alter close and trying to behave as a whole. The Crowded Room ends with Adam still present out of Danny as a separate, unintegrated personality: an image that reflects Danny Sullivan’s struggle to change what he’s always been.
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