Netflix's The Boroughs Showrunners Explain the End of Season 1, and What May Happen in Season 2

This article contains spoilers for The Boroughs Season 1, including the Season 1 finale.

There goes the neighborhood! After eight hours of wild weirdness, the retirement community of The Boroughs is closed for the season on Netflix, and the mysteries have been wrapped up in a nice, concrete manner. Just kidding! There’s plenty left to answer after that season finale; luckily, we have showrunners Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews on hand to answer some of your most burning questions… or at least push them off to a potential second and third season. Before we get to that, though, let’s break down the ending of The Boroughs Season 1: Secrets come to light, someone almost dies, several other characters do die, and the curious creature known as Mother makes her final move… for now.

Things kicked off with the reveal of a terrifying monster preying on the elder citizens of The Boroughs, a weird retro-futuristic retirement community in the middle of the desert. Enter Sam (Alfred Molina), an ex-engineer and widower who would rather be anywhere else than the cul-de-sac he’s forced to live on after he got stuck in a contract that his wife, Lilly (Jane Kaczmarek), signed for them before she died. Instead of booking it out of the Boroughs, he discovered a group of new friends, including perky art teacher Renee (Geena Davis); former journalist Judy (Alfre Woodard); Judy’s usually stoned husband, Art (Clarke Peters); cancer-ridden but still cheery former scientist Wally (Denis O’Hare); and friendly neighbor Jack (Bill Pullman), who was having an affair with Judy.

After Jack was killed by one of the monsters, the group slowly discovered that there were multiple “children” of a creature called Mother. Her offspring were sucking the spinal fluid of the old residents of the Boroughs in order to bring it back to feed Mother, who would then be tapped for her amber blood, which is drunk by select management-level members of the Boroughs staff in order to keep them young. Sound complicated? I didn’t even mention the strange cave outside the community featuring a tree covered with objects, and one juicy peach that Art eats to temporarily become young himself.

By the time we get to the finale, it’s become clear via a mental connection between Mother and Sam that the monsters aren’t really the bad guys. That would be Blaine (Seth Numrich) and Anneliese (Alice Kremelberg), the nearly century-old couple who captured Mother and formed the Boroughs at least in part as their personal spinal juice farm to stay [Alphaville voice] forever young. But then they collide with Sam’s group; while Renee and younger boyfriend/former security guard Paz (Carlos Miranda) freed the children, Wally snuck Mother out just in time for the ET-esque creature to heal Judy from a stab wound inflicted by Blaine.

Blaine tracked the group back to Sam’s house, but Sam’s daughter, Claire (Jena Malone) – also a genius engineer – had managed to fix the old TV-powered weapon that Sam discovered could hurt those who had been imbibing the Mother juice, and used it to make Anneliese explode while seriously injuring Blaine. They managed to get Mother back to the strange peach tree, and she prepped to explode, with Blaine arriving and beating up Sam. Then Mother did explode, not only flash-frying Blaine, but also sending Sam into a vision of his dead wife.

With the Boroughs saved, the group all gathered for a barbecue. Judy and Art have reconciled after her near-death experience, and Paz and Renee are headed off on a trip with Wally tagging along. And Sam? Well, he heads to the bathroom to check a wound on his head from their adventure, only for his image to glitch in the mirror just like the visions Mother was feeding him earlier in the season had done. Curious – perhaps it’s not really over after all? Let’s break it down!

What Are We Supposed to Gather From Sam Glitching in the Mirror?

“That we have ideas for season two [and] know where [it] goes, and it builds directly off that moment, and nothing about that shot was done idly,” Addiss teased. “It was a tip of the cap to where we want to go, which means we can't give away what it means, because that's going to be the fun, knock on wood, should we get a second season.”

That’s not very helpful, so let’s speculate. Of note, the real Sam doesn’t glitch; the version in the mirror does. Previously, Sam saw glitched visions of his wife, Lilly, which we later established were not Lilly but rather Mother trying to telepathically connect to him thanks to his close connection to death. The simplest version of what’s going on here is that this is an indicator that, despite exploding, Mother isn’t completely dead. Furthermore, she is still connected to Sam, but as for what she needs from our faithful engineer now that she’s escaped Blaine and Anneliese, we’ll just have to wait and see.

There’s a Three Season Plan… If They Get to Do It

“We have a very specific three-season plan, and we think we know the last shot of the last scene of the last episode,” Addiss said. “How we get there might change a little, but we have the answers to all the questions, and a plan of how and when to answer those. We wanted season one to feel emotionally complete, but leave some questions unanswered. We really wanted [you] to feel like you got a full story, in case that's all we get. If it’s a success, we'd like to tell you a bit more about what's going on. What is Mother? We know the answer to that. We want to tell you, so hopefully people watch so we get that chance.”

The immediate follow-up question here is whether that three-season plan is a continuing story razor-focused on Mother and her children, or if we’ll get new, weird things happening in a potential Season 2 and 3.

'We think of this as one large, complex story where crazy stuff continues to happen that's surprising, but it is one story to us.'

“Oh, we didn't say that,” Addiss said, when asked if they’ll be sticking with the Mother plot squarely if the show continues. “You always want something new. We really want, across three seasons, for the audience to feel like we've answered all the questions. It doesn't mean that we're not introducing some crazy stuff in Season 2. We don't think of it as a monster-of-the-season show. We do think of this as one large, complex story where crazy stuff continues to happen that's surprising, but it is one story to us.”

That seems like a yes to continuing the Mother and children story, but that there would potentially be new threats and new wrinkles to the mythology in future seasons.

What Advice Did They Get From The Duffer Brothers?

It may not be a burning question, but an interesting one nonetheless, that this series is executive produced by Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer, aka the Duffer Brothers. Once you know that, it’s impossible not to see the DNA of the Netflix hit. Clearly, a show focused on 70 to 80-year-old characters doesn’t need to worry about the main problem the Duffers dealt with on Stranger Things – i.e., puberty – so what advice, if any, did they give Addiss and Matthews?

“The idea of the first season having both a satisfying ending and also cracking the door for an interesting Season 2 came from them,” Matthews explained. “They very clearly articulated, ‘You just never know.’ Tell a complete story and then leave room to tell more story. Our first draft has had a little bit more – not quite an ending, maybe kind of a beginning. It was a little bit in the middle. And they were like, ‘Do this… And then that.’”

Was the Final Scene a Tribute to Stranger Things?

As noted, the final scene of the episode finds Sam in the bathroom in the middle of a big family meal, with a weird glitch teasing more mysteries to come. It’s hard to watch that scene and not think of the final scene of Stranger Things Season 1, which finds Will (Noah Schapp) in the bathroom in the middle of a big family meal, coughing up a slug that teases more mysteries to come. So was that deliberate? Well, yes.

“Setting that in the bathroom was a definite, loving homage to Stranger Things,” Addiss said, laughing. “And [the Duffers] laughed when they read [it]. I want to be clear, they knew what we were doing, and they thought it was funny. But yeah, of course it was an homage. There's so many homages in the show for things that we love, and one of the things we love is Stranger Things. So if we have the chance, we’re gonna put it in the bathroom mirror.”

But Was the Opening Scene a Tribute to Stranger Things?

That said, if you were thinking the season was bookended with Stranger Things tributes since it starts with someone riding a bicycle across a suburban neighborhood… well, no.

“We really thought of the bike more as a nod to E.T. in the opening, because we have Dee Wallace playing the first character that you meet in The Boroughs,” Addiss said. “And so really, the bike was not a nod to Stranger Things.”

Wallace played mom Mary Taylor in the 1982 Steven Spielberg classic. Then again, the bikes in Stranger Things are a nod to E.T. already, so in a way… Okay, never mind. It’s a stretch.

Did You Catch All the Easter Eggs?

Stranger Things and E.T. aren’t the only properties that get shout-outs throughout the first season. When asked about their favorite little nods, Addiss called out a specific book being read in the Manor, the asylum in The Boroughs for old folks not quite right in the head.

“There's a gentleman in the Manor reading Salem's Lot,” Addiss revealed. “He's reading a first edition of Salem’s Lot, my personal copy, because I did sometimes think about the show as ‘Salem's Lot, but what if the town was worth saving?’”

As for Matthews, he noted the “not that subtle” idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark, something that directly ties into Molina’s cinema history: He made his film debut as Satipo in the 1981 film. “That was Alfred's first movie. I love that. Some younger people who watch it – and you know what the idol was – maybe now they'll discover Indiana Jones. I liked getting that one in, although we were not very subtle about it.”

'I did sometimes think about the show as "Salem's Lot, but what if the town was worth saving?"'

There’s one other extremely non-subtle nod to one of the cast members. Midway through the season, Renee’s convertible goes over a cliff as in the end of Thelma and Louise; this time, though, she’s not in the car.

“One hundred percent, you’ve got Geena Davis in the desert with a car,” Addiss said. “We wanted her from the beginning, and that was baked in by the time she got there. [We were] really glad that she agreed to do it, or it might have been awkward.”

Does Sam See the Real Lilly at the End, or Another Aspect of Mother?

Sam has been seeing visions of his wife Lilly all season long, but they’re either memories or visions put in his mind by Mother, who is trying to get him to help free her. The one exception? The finale, where Sam sees Lilly after Mother explodes, and she insists that this is “real.” But is it?

“In our brain, that’s her,” Addiss said. “And the reason that we would come out and say that's important is because the acting they did is so good, and the emotion shines through in a way that I wouldn't want that to be anybody else. This guy went on a journey, and his reward for making that change from a guy who wants to kill a monster to [a guy who wants to] save a monster is one moment with his wife. It's the first moment that you've ever actually seen Lilly as opposed to his memory of Lilly or Mother trying to communicate through the image of Lilly. It’s the first time Lilly herself is in the show. Where does it take place? How does time really work? We can unpack [that] in further seasons. But yes, that is really her, and it is real.”

Who Is Running The Boroughs Now That Blaine and Anneliese Are Dead?

Are they youth-sucking monsters? For sure. But Blaine and Anneliese are also two people responsible for running a retirement community that houses hundreds, if not thousands, of people. So who’s in charge now that they’ve exploded?

“That’s a ‘down the road’ question,” Addiss said. “Yeah, there is an answer. We can tell you their name. But yeah.” When asked if the head of the Boroughs will be a rotating position, Addiss laughed. “Yeah, we'll just kill them every season and be surprised every time.”

Are Blaine and Anneliese Vampires or Vampire-Adjacent?

We get to see hints of this throughout the series, but in the finale, Blaine and Anneliese are revealed as the monsters they truly are, complete with long fingernails and sharp fangs. It’s hard not to think specifically of the design of Nosferatu.

“It wasn't us saying they are vampires,” Addiss explained. “It was us saying that the nature of how they live is vampiric, right? They suck fluids out of other people to extend their own lives. I mean, we are absolutely jamming on vampire myths and legends. Are they this world’s version of vampires? We're definitely not saying that, but in the same way that we're playing with a lot of conventions of different things, we are 100% nodding to these things.”

“In fact, we're doing a movie series of 12 films in New York at the Paris Theater that all inspired The Boroughs, and one of them is Lost Boys, which is a movie that I just love,” Addiss continued. “So that makeup is definitely us playing with vampire conventions.”

Added Matthews, “But Dark Crystal [is also] in that film series, and that's about bad guys draining life force out of good guys for their own needs. Clearly something we're into.”

What’s Up With That Weird Peach Tree, and How Does It Connect to Mother’s Goo?

While it does feel like a lot is explained by season’s end, there’s one aspect that is not wrapped up – that strange tree in the cave, and the peach that grows out of it. What’s up with that?

“That was a question that we went back and forth on, answering this season or not, and ultimately decided not to, because finding a way to get to the answer felt a little crammed in,” Addiss admitted. “So forgive us if we don't get a Season 2, because that's on me. But yes, there was a draft of Season 1 that explicitly explained the tree, and it just didn't fit. We had an answer. Of course, that answer might change now that we haven't told anybody, but it'll be answered.”

'We had an answer. Of course, that answer might change now that we haven't told anybody, but it'll be answered.'

Earlier in the season, Art eats the peach and becomes temporarily young; once he runs out of peach – he even eats the pit – he goes through massive amounts of pain as the effect wears off. Wally was briefly and hesitantly forced to work for Blaine in order to figure out a way to get more life-giving essence out of Mother, and as payment, he was given the amber liquid, curing his cancer and turning him younger as well. So will Wally be going through the same withdrawal pains?

“I think he would definitely have a hangover,” Addiss joked, while Matthews added, “You're right to notice that he is having a different form of blood, rather than the peach, and he is on it in a more controlled way.”

More Mother juice questions? Why not? And as the showrunners clarified, they called it “goo” rather than “juice,” so adjust your glossaries accordingly. With Mother gone, there are a number of other characters – including sadistic security guard Hank (Eric Edelstein) – who were on the goo and now no longer have access to it. Do they just age and die?

“That's going to be a question answered down the line,” Addiss said. “But I do think if you look at vampire lore and what happens, there are some interesting things. I think it's a good and interesting question.”

Added Matthews, “It makes Hank's scene at the end more meaningful, where he chooses to let time do what it does best, and get things clean. He knows that without Mother, it's not going to go well for him, and still makes that choice. That's important.”

Continued Addiss, “Yeah, I think you can infer from what Hank says [that] it's not going to go great for them.”

How Many Times Did Anneliese Slap Blaine on Set?

Perhaps it’s not the most burning of burning questions, but in the finale, Anneliese slaps Blaine about four times in a row while he calmly tries to placate her. So how many times did Alice Kremelberg actually slap Seth Numrich?

“I was there that day, and they're young actors,” Matthews revealed. “They really want to do a good job, and they very clearly were not allowed to hit people on set. So they came up to me very quietly, and they were like, ‘I know we both want to do the slap for real.’ I said, ‘Absolutely not. That's against the rules.’ And they said, ‘Well, we really want to do it.’ And I said, ‘All right, listen, you can do it once, but then I'm going to yell at you in front of everybody and say you can't do it again.’ And so of all those hits, only one hit was ripped.”

What Did Raiders of the Lost Ark Teach the Showrunners About How to Handle Villains?

Let’s be honest; we didn’t directly ask them this question. Instead, we asked the showrunners about the surprising turn Blaine makes towards the beginning of the finale, when giving a speech to the community. He seems to break from Anneliese, making her come off as more villainous. But is she? Is he?

“We really think that he did it all for her, and so he does have perhaps more guilt or more hesitation than she does about it, because he's doing it out of love for her,” Addiss explained, “which means, on some level, she must want that, right, or why else would he do it? There was an element for us of trying to make it feel like the relationship was complex. But yes, he definitely, if you notice, is less violent [and] more regretful. I'd say that he has been hurt.”

'He doesn't want to go through what Sam did. So he's definitely a reflection of Sam and has some guilt about that.'

“It’s another thing we learned from Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Matthews added. “Your bad guy should be as similar to your good guy as possible. If the show is about Sam, a guy who's very much in love with his wife [and] dealing with losing her, the bad guy at some point has to realize, ‘Oh, he's a guy who's very much in love with his wife, and he's facing the possibility for the first time of losing her.’”

“He built this whole place so that he won't lose her,” Addiss continued. “He doesn't want to go through what Sam did. So he's definitely a reflection of Sam and has some guilt about that.”

“Anneliese’s main focus is different,” Matthews summed up. “He did this all for her. She didn't do it all for him. She has her own heart and emotions in her life. So that's how they're different, their goals. He calls the Boroughs a promise turned to brick and stone.”

Who Is Mother?

“You have no idea what Mother is,” Blaine tells Sam as he’s throttling him on the ground in the finale. “What she’s capable of.” So who is she, and what is she capable of?

“That is the question of the whole show that we're going to answer, over – hopefully, knock on wood – multiple seasons,” Addiss said. “The language there was, I will say, very carefully chosen by us. That is not idle talk. I think it's interesting that you put your finger there, because it will matter.”

“And he’s not lying,” added Matthews. “But when Blaine says that, it's because he knows a little bit more than Sam. He doesn't know everything. Sam doesn't know that much. Maybe even Mother doesn't know that much. But Jeff and I do know the answer.”

'That is the question of the whole show that we're going to answer, over – hopefully, knock on wood – multiple seasons.'

When asked point blank if Mother is an angel – a reasonable assumption given the omnipresence of “Seraphim,” a digital assistant throughout the Boroughs a la Siri or Alexa – Addiss and Matthews didn’t move a muscle. It seems, though, that we might be on the wrong track with that one.

“We’ll do the good version of the Mike Flanagan vampire story, Midnight Mass,” Addiss joked. “Yeah, we'll do the reverse of that. We won't say any which way, because we like our answer. We're going to hold it close.”

Okay, showrunners; keep your secrets.

What Is Season 2 About?

Look, we had to try. While Addiss and Matthews were tight-lipped about the plot of a potential Season 2 of The Boroughs, we decided to try another tack. If Season 1 is about Sam dealing with grief and finding a new community, what is the theme of Season 2?

“What would you do with a second chance?” Addiss teased simply.

Intriguing! Now bring on Season 2.

You can chat with Alex Zalben on BlueSky @azalben.bsky.social, or find him regularly yapping on the Comic Book Club podcast.

An Unboxing of and the Best Prices for Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Collector’s Edition

The Top 5 Things You Need to Know About AORUS Motherboards

The $17 Baseus 67W USB-C Charger Will Fast Charge the Most Powerful Gaming Handheld PCs

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Ship Is Now Available for Insiders

‘No Xbox’ Trends as Fans Hit Out at Marvel vs. Capcom Collection Skipping Microsoft’s Consoles

Studio Ghibli AI Trend Sparks ChatGPT Backlash, Resurfaces Old Comments From Hayao Miyazaki, and Even Zelda Williams Has Waded In

Ubisoft Insists MIA Splinter Cell Remake Still in Development Despite Fresh Layoffs

Doom: The Dark Ages Runs Terribly on My Handheld Gaming PC

DOOM Eternal Finally Adds Official Mod Support on Steam, With Microsoft Store Support Coming 'Soon'

Capcom Adds All 3 OG Resident Evil Games to Steam, But There’s a Catch

‘Are We Cooked?’ — Pokémon Go Looks to Be Adding a New ‘Currency’ to Access Mega Raids, Though Players Are Split on Whether it Will Revitalize Mega Pokémon

Elden Ring Poster Signed by FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki Currently Going for $15,000 at Auction

Netflix's The Boroughs Showrunners Explain the End of Season 1, and What May Happen in Season 2

What Are We Supposed to Gather From Sam Glitching in the Mirror?

There’s a Three Season Plan… If They Get to Do It

What Advice Did They Get From The Duffer Brothers?

Was the Final Scene a Tribute to Stranger Things?

But Was the Opening Scene a Tribute to Stranger Things?

Did You Catch All the Easter Eggs?

Does Sam See the Real Lilly at the End, or Another Aspect of Mother?

Who Is Running The Boroughs Now That Blaine and Anneliese Are Dead?

Are Blaine and Anneliese Vampires or Vampire-Adjacent?

What’s Up With That Weird Peach Tree, and How Does It Connect to Mother’s Goo?

How Many Times Did Anneliese Slap Blaine on Set?

What Did Raiders of the Lost Ark Teach the Showrunners About How to Handle Villains?

Who Is Mother?

What Is Season 2 About?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

What Are We Supposed to Gather From Sam Glitching in the Mirror?

There’s a Three Season Plan… If They Get to Do It

What Advice Did They Get From The Duffer Brothers?

Was the Final Scene a Tribute to Stranger Things?

But Was the Opening Scene a Tribute to Stranger Things?

Did You Catch All the Easter Eggs?

Does Sam See the Real Lilly at the End, or Another Aspect of Mother?

Who Is Running The Boroughs Now That Blaine and Anneliese Are Dead?

Are Blaine and Anneliese Vampires or Vampire-Adjacent?

What’s Up With That Weird Peach Tree, and How Does It Connect to Mother’s Goo?

How Many Times Did Anneliese Slap Blaine on Set?

What Did Raiders of the Lost Ark Teach the Showrunners About How to Handle Villains?

Who Is Mother?

What Is Season 2 About?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You May Like

Subscribe US Now