Explore the psychological depths of the curse in Netflix’s ‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’: from the soulmate potion to Rachel’s leap of faith, we analyze the symbolic meaning behind her decision and how the series turns a supernatural pact into a profound metaphor for marriage and identity.
From the title alone, it was clear that Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen would be a slow-burn narrative—one where our fears and the true meaning of events would be revealed with a careful buildup as we approached the ending. What we didn’t expect, however, was how the series’ brand of horror shifts from one episode to the next. The further we get into the story, the more we are forced to change how we see the show itself.
Initially, it feels like a masterpiece of psychological tension: a bride-to-be arriving at her fiancé’s family home, overwhelmed by a sense of threat until she’s convinced they want to kill her. Then comes a rational explanation for everything—one so twisting and complex that it’s hard for us to fully buy into it. Finally, we discover the ancient pact with Death in Rachel’s family line, and the marriage turns into a high-stakes chess match against fate (echoed by the haunting, constant use of Paul Anka’s You Are My Destiny). Ultimately, Rachel’s choices and the show’s ending transform the story into a beautiful symbolic reflection on marriage, trust, and faith.
Beyond just explaining the plot and the ending, the most fascinating parts of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen revolve around the symbolism of the curse and the power of Rachel’s choices. This is where the true key to understanding the show is hidden. Let’s uncover it together.
Faith or Death: The Curse in Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen Explained
The early episodes of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen feel like the visual manifestation of a nightmare. We are bombarded with subconscious symbols: the “Sorry Man” who hunts brides, the abandoned child, the old man who relentlessly asks “is he the one?”, the hanging effigy in a wedding dress, and the father-in-law literally digging a grave. Just as in a dream, these elements lack logical coherence in isolation, yet the collective sense of dread they create is absolute.
Then comes the explanation, delivered through a lo-fi videotape that feels like a clear homage to The Blair Witch Project. We learn of an ancient curse embedded in Rachel’s bloodline, born from a pact made with Death generations ago. The rule is brutal: once you accept a marriage proposal, you must wed your true soulmate before sunset on your wedding day—or you will bleed to death. It is a perfect narrative intersection of helplessness, the desperate need for control, and the paralyzing anxiety tied to marital commitment.
The Coward’s Exit and the Condemned Witness
There is an alternative, however, and it is no less terrifying. If you retreat and abandon the wedding voluntarily, the curse is transferred to the family of the person you left behind. This is precisely what happened generations ago to the old man who speaks to Rachel in the bar. He was the last man in his own line to face the trial, but he acted out of cowardice, jilting Rachel’s ancestor on their wedding day.
In that moment, the curse shifted to her family, and the man was condemned to be a witness, forced to watch every subsequent wedding in Rachel’s bloodline. He is the living embodiment of the “bad thing” that happens when we refuse to face our destiny: a life spent watching others suffer the consequences of our fear.
The Origin of the “Sorry Man”
The visceral reality of how this curse manifests was captured by Rachel’s father on an analog camera years earlier. On her wedding night, after promising her life to her husband, Rachel’s mother bled to death while still pregnant with Rachel. Her father was forced to perform a horrific makeshift surgery with a knife to save the infant, all while a young, hidden Jules watched in shock from beneath the bed.
This trauma would forever haunt Jules, his mind transforming the image of a grieving father into the “Sorry Man”—a monster who disembowels brides for inscrutable reasons. In reality, the “Sorry Man” was Rachel’s dad, a man weeping and repeating “I’m sorry” as he desperately tried to save his child from the wreckage of his wife’s body.
Marriage, Soulmates, and Faith: How Does the Curse Truly Work?
One of the first questions we are compelled to ask when the nature of the curse is revealed is a classic existential dilemma: does the curse demand we find an authentically predestined soulmate—a match written in the stars—or does it simply require us to believe, with absolute and unwavering conviction, that the person we are marrying is “the one”?
This distinction is fundamental, yet it remains shrouded in ambiguity throughout the series. Rachel never quite resolves this in her own mind, but the answer creates a massive divide in how we interpret the story. In the first scenario, there is almost nothing to be done; one is a victim of cosmic luck. In the second, however, the curse becomes a perfect symbolic mirror of the human emotions surrounding marriage.
In the finale of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, attentive viewers are given the answer. When the curse shifts to Nicky’s family, we witness a massacre at the wedding party. However, there are specific instances where one spouse dies while the other survives. Dr. Cunningham (Boris), for example, lives, while Nicky’s mother, Victoria, dies. Even Nicky himself remains alive after the marriage is finalized. This cannot be explained by simple bloodlines, as we see various couples at the party bleeding out together—a sign that the curse impacts both partners.
The concept of a “soulmate” is existentially reciprocal: a soulmate is the person who completes you, your perfect match. Two halves can only coincide if both represent the missing piece of the other. Therefore, if the curse kills only one spouse, it isn’t because one found their soulmate and the other didn’t (that would contradict the very definition of the word). The true reason lies in the faith you place in the other person. If you believe blindly that the person you married is your soulmate, you survive. If you harbor doubt, you bleed.
Boris survives because he has always worshiped and loved his wife Victoria for his whole life, whereas Victoria dies instantly because, in her narcissism, she was never convinced Boris was the right person (early in the series, we learn she was in love with someone else). Nicky survives because, in the chaotic haze of that day, he is genuinely convinced Rachel is his soulmate, while Rachel dies because she is certain he is not—having decided to marry him only through her mother’s persuasion, which, in her eyes, reduced Nicky to a mere puppet controlled by his family.
The Philosophical Meaning of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen
This revelation transforms the entire plot into an allegory for the test of trust that marriage demands. As we know, entering a marriage is a profound psychological trial: it is a commitment for a lifetime, built on the certainty that this is the right person to walk beside for the rest of one’s days.
Of course, achieving absolute certainty is practically impossible. This realization generates an incredible amount of anxiety, leading us to frantically search for “signs” and “proof” that we are making the right choice. The truth, however, is that love contains a massive component of faith. No matter how much evidence one collects, uncertainty can only be conquered by a leap of faith—the very foundation of a lasting union.
A marriage “works” only if you believe in it with your whole heart—if you believe you have found the person capable of accompanying you through life. If you possess that kind of faith, the marriage survives. If you don’t, it becomes… well, a curse. Rachel’s struggle in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen takes this symbolism and turns it into a literal fight for survival: if she can find blind faith in Nicky, she lives. If not, the very act of saying “I do” becomes her death sentence.
Something Living, Something Dead, Something Stolen, Something Red: Rachel, the Potion, and the “Cheat Code”
In the face of the curse’s grim reality, Rachel never quite finds the courage to view her situation as an act of faith. Instead, she remains stubbornly trapped in the belief that it is an inescapable destiny. The haunting strains of You Are My Destiny act as a sonic shadow, reflecting a fatalism she feels powerless to outrun.
Convinced of her own impending death, Rachel seeks a loophole: she invokes a supernatural ritual through the spirit of an aunt who survived the trial. The answer she receives is a dark perversion of a centuries-old wedding tradition: “Something Living, Something Dead, Something Stolen, Something Red.”
The transposition of the auspicious traditional rhyme—“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”—is a stroke of narrative genius. It systematically inverts blessings of happiness and prosperity into a dark, threatening vision of the future. Where the original charms represent continuity and hope, Rachel’s version demands a metamorphosis of the soul.
The ritual is designed to fundamentally alter Rachel’s essence, transforming her into the “perfect” soulmate for Nicky. It is a process of erasure: the Rachel we know would cease to exist, replaced by a version of herself designed specifically to fit Nicky’s existential “match.”
In her obsessive superstition, Rachel views this ritual as a marital “cheat code.” Rather than accepting the fundamental truth that absolute certainty is impossible and that the only solution is a leap of faith, she turns to witchcraft to manufacture that certainty. The price, however, is her own identity. She attempts to fight one supernatural pact with another, choosing to kill her authentic self in order to survive in the guise of “someone else”—the idealized version of a wife.
The Refusal: Why Rachel Doesn’t Drink the Potion in the Finale
In the closing moments of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Rachel makes a decision that defies the logic of survival. After the harrowing sacrifice of amputating her own pinky finger to complete the ritual, she stands with the potion in her hand—the very thing that would guarantee her physical life. And yet, she chooses not to drink it.
Is this the “leap of faith” the curse demanded all along? In many ways, yes. Rachel later admits she made the choice because she felt 98% sure that she was Nicky’s soulmate. That missing 2% is the most crucial part of her journey; it is the acknowledgment that absolute certainty does not exist.
However, there is a second, more profound layer to her choice. The key lies in a line delivered by Victoria earlier in the series, a sentiment that haunts the narrative’s conclusion. Victoria’s decision to die “on her own terms” is driven by a clear, defiant will: she chooses to die as her true self rather than live as something she has never been.
This sentiment fits Rachel like a perfectly tailored gown. Standing before the mirror, Rachel abandons her obsession with guarantees and chooses self-sovereignty. She decides that it is better to risk death as her authentic self than to survive as a magical construct. By reclaiming her identity, she walks to the altar and says “I do” with a complete, blind trust in Nicky. She is ready to commit her entire life to the marriage and believe in it fully, even without the safety net of a spell.
If she is wrong, she accepts the consequence. Rachel ultimately chooses the possibility of death over the certainty of living as a lie.
The Meaning of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen: The Horror of Losing Ourselves
Ultimately, the profound essence of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen lies in a paradox: the “very bad thing” destined to occur is not necessarily the physical death promised by the curse. The true horror, which the series sows slowly throughout its episodes, is the prospect of the erasure of the individual—the risk of vanishing when a marriage is built upon a fallacious compatibility and an absence of faith in the other.
By rejecting the potion, Rachel performs an act of rebellion against our contemporary obsession with certainty and the desire for absolute control over our lives and emotions. In an era that pushes us to seek the “perfect match” through algorithms and scientific compatibility—in a world that continues to offer “cheat codes,” rituals and alternative shortcuts much like alchemy and black magic once did—Rachel’s decision to take an act of faith reminds us that love is not a calculation, but a trial of commitment. By accepting that 2% of uncertainty, Rachel ceases to be a victim of fate and becomes the sole architect of her own story.
The finale of the series leaves us with a truth that is as uncomfortable as it is powerful: a marriage “works” not because it is written in the stars or secured by a spell, but because two people decide, every single day, to believe in one another despite the darkness that surrounds them. The curse may be ancient, but the leap of faith—the jump into the void of trust—remains the most modern, courageous, and profoundly human act one can perform.
To explore this analysis in its Spanish edition, you can find the full narrative here.
Frequently Asked Questions: Understanding the Mystery
The curse is an ancient pact with Death tied to Rachel’s bloodline. Once a marriage proposal is accepted, the bride must marry her true soulmate before sunset on the wedding day. If she fails to find her “match,” she (and potentially her family) will bleed to death. However, as the series progresses, it is revealed that the “soulmate” status isn’t a cosmic decree, but a matter of absolute faith in the partner.
The “Sorry Man” is both a supernatural entity and a psychological trauma. In reality, the figure was Rachel’s father, who was forced to perform a horrific, improvised surgery to save infant Rachel after her mother bled out due to the curse. A young Jules witnessed this, and his traumatized mind transformed his grieving, apologetic father (“I’m sorry…”) into a monster. While the curse is real, the “monster” is a manifestation of Jules’s misinterpreted memory.
The curse targets those who harbor doubt. Nicky survived because, in his simple-hearted devotion, he genuinely believed Rachel was his soulmate. Victoria died because she was a narcissist who never truly believed Boris was her “match.” Rachel died because she knew Nicky wasn’t her soulmate; she saw him as a puppet of his family. Survival depends on the subjective belief of the individual, not an objective truth.
The ritual “Something Living, Something Dead, Something Stolen, Something Red” is a dark inversion of the traditional “Something old, something new…” blessing. While the original rhyme invites luck, the dark version is a magical “cheat code” designed to force a transformation. It offers survival at the cost of the bride’s original identity.
Rachel chooses authenticity over survival. Drinking the potion would have guaranteed her life by turning her into Nicky’s perfect match, but she would have ceased to be “Rachel.” By refusing it, she reclaims her agency. She admits she is “98% sure” of her choice, accepting the 2% of risk as the price of remaining her true self.
