Carrie finale ending explained: how Mike Flanagan's prom night breaks from Stephen King's book

Mike Flanagan's Carrie ends with a finale that makes some big diversions from Stephen King's debut novel. Tommy's death is different, Carrie's revenge on Chris and Billy is more personal, and Margaret turns out to have powers of her own. Though updating stuff for modern audiences can often be terrible, I think Flanagan has done a cracking job using this story to expose modern-day bullying.

There's also a big change to the book's ending, and with three seasons planned, there's a lot to talk about.

Kate Siegel's interviewer is connected to the others Amanda talked about

Episode 8 brings us back to where we started, with Sue being interviewed about the prom. She repeats the line about how no one really understands what happened that night. We also get the reveal that the mysterious woman conducting these interviews is Kate Siegel. Siegel is married to Flanagan and pops up in a lot of his projects. As I write this, they haven't announced the character's name, so I'm calling her Siegel. Having her in this role hints that this lady is a very important person.

She tells Sue that the police and scientists like to ask their stupid questions and then tell someone why they're wrong, but assures her that's not them and that they just want to understand. That's another cryptic clue. Basically, they're not with any officially sanctioned body. When she shows Sue a picture of Amanda and asks if she's ever seen her, it shows Siegel is very aware of Amanda's plan to assassinate Carrie, and that her group are the others Amanda was talking about.

This ties back to the scene after Carrie let her powers take over in the locker room, where a random girl felt how strong Carrie's powers were and reported to a mysterious woman facing away from us. I did wonder if this was a future Abra Stone, since in Flanagan's version her fate is still very much up in the air. I also wondered if there are more psychic kids in general now because the True Knot were defeated. But we now know that was Siegel, and she's been watching Carrie for a while.

The phones go first when the blood falls

When the blood falls on Carrie, everything goes wrong, and it's very crazy to see. We've had this teased throughout the series, as the interviews showed Tina with the aftermath of a phone exploding in her face. I think it symbolizes how these were the devices used to spread misery, so them being the first thing to go is quite symbolic. I also like how Carrie flexes her hand, a reference to how her psychic powers in the book are described as a flex.

As everyone scrambles, Carrie looks up at Chris and Billy, who narrowly escape as she brings down the rafters. She psychically pushes them away to avoid being crushed, but Tommy is caught in the crossfire. A stage light then crashes down on the principal's head and sets the curtains on fire. This is a lot different to the book, where Carrie jumps off the stage like a frog and goes out to the parking lot, has a moment of panic, breaks down, and then returns to the hall to deal out vengeance.

Tommy's death now falls on Carrie

As Tommy's head bleeds on the stage, he mentions seeing stars as he slips away. That's the neurons firing off in his brain, and it calls back to the moment he and Carrie shared under the stars after the party in episode 3, when he told her he was the space guy and they bonded for the first time. In the book, the bucket of blood just accidentally falls on his head and kills him.

In the novel, Sue finds Carrie in the parking lot after the rampage, and Carrie says she wants to look up and see the stars, so I felt the show was playing off that too. I do like the change of making Carrie inadvertently responsible for Tommy's death. It shows how her powers have gotten out of control, and that giving in to her worst impulses puts everyone in danger, friend or foe.

Letting go, and the shadow that exploded

Realizing what she's done, Carrie looks out at the screaming crowd, and the mysterious girl who has been appearing to her shows up behind her, telling Carrie to let her help and let her take the wheel. This reminded me a lot of the bridge with Chris and Billy, where Carrie was pushed to be destructive and had to let go to drop bricks over the highway, which could have led to death. Episode 4 also opens with a woman levitating above her car, and it all comes crashing down when she realizes what's going on. They drop the brick just like they dropped the bucket, and in all instances they didn't really understand the weight of their actions. The idea of letting go felt purposeful to me.

Carrie turns to face the crowd and the two merge together. Amanda pulls out her gun and rushes the stage, but two strangers we saw arriving earlier stop her. They reveal they have powers too and are there to either take Carrie or save her. Sue reaches the stage and finds Tommy dead, and as she cries, everything stops. Siegel asks what she saw behind Carrie, and Sue says she saw a shadow that then exploded. Carrie lets out a shock wave that knocks down everything in the gym.

That line references the book's excerpts from a report titled The Shadow Exploded, a title the book never explains. I like that they tied it to this girl's influence, if she is an antagonist, showing Carrie's dark impulses literally consuming her. The book also explains why the students laugh: "There was nothing else to do. It was either laugh or cry and who could bring themselves to cry over Carrie after all those years." The students have become numb to their own cruelty, no longer seeing Carrie as a real person. The book also describes her face breaking, and her wanting to let the darkness have her and hide her shame. It feels like Flanagan is playing with that idea and giving the darkness a physical form.

No one in the gym is innocent

Carrie's blast is so strong the school starts to crumble, and inside it's quite a brutal scene. The principal, still recovering, gets electrocuted in a way that makes him look like someone being crucified. I think that symbolizes how the school and everyone who failed to help Carrie will now pay for their sins. Rest in peace, Matthew Lillard.

Amanda shoots Carrie in the arm, and Miss Desjardin, who ran over to try to save her, gets thrown right back into the flaming stage. I thought it showed how no one was innocent. She has been one of the only teachers to come to Carrie's defense, but only out of guilt from once being a bully herself, to absolve her own sins. In the book she fakes niceness and joins the laughter once Carrie is covered in blood, but Carrie doesn't kill her, she just pushes her into the wall. I did even wonder if she could have made it out in the show and might pop up in season 2. I do love Amber Midthunder too.

The sprinkler dance, and an unblinking nod to Sissy Spacek

Some students escape, including Chris and Billy, but Carrie follows them out and slams the door, trapping everyone in. The sprinklers go off, which felt like a clear play on the showers, and the electrocuted students convulse as if they're dancing. A fantasy of finally being accepted turns into a violent nightmare, and the moment has stuck in my head. In the book there's no mysterious girl influencing her. Carrie is fully aware, snaps on her own after leaving the gym, feels the pipes to set off the sprinklers, and laughs at the bodies dancing, which Flanagan seems to have taken literally. King writes that it wasn't enough, because "They weren't crying yet."

I love that Carrie never blinks during the rampage, a nice nod to Sissy Spacek's dead-eyed stare in the 1976 film. Sue survives on the stage, and the two other psychic girls avoid electrocution by standing on the tables without warning anyone, which kind of killed me a bit.

Siegel wipes Sue's memory of the other psychics

Back in the interview, Sue repeats that it wasn't just Carrie. The other psychic kids at the dance, Amanda included, are all new for the show. Siegel asks if Sue can really be sure, and Sue says that if she really thinks about it, she's not sure she saw anyone else. This makes her forget and basically covers up their involvement. That could also explain why they aren't in any accounts in the book, keeping things in line with the source. I know it's a completely different story with no phones or internet; I'm just doing fan theories.

Chris and Billy get a more personal ending

Margaret cries outside the house as explosions go off. The show doesn't explain them, but in the book the gym fire reaches the school's fuel tanks. Chris realizes the gravity of what they've done, but Billy says they all deserved it. In the book they sleep for a bit, Billy plans to go to Mexico, and although he agrees to take Chris, it's clear he'll ditch her.

In the show, Carrie walks toward them and Billy tries to run her over, but she swats the car away into a field. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, Chris tries to turn the wheel, a last-ditch attempt to right her wrongs that comes too little too late. Billy shows his true self, screaming and crying, until the girl tells him to grow up and crushes the roof onto his head. Chris tries to apologize but can't get the words out, and Carrie crushes the car. In the book Carrie tosses the car into a local bar and lets them burn, which is not as personal, I would say. Here Chris is forced to face the monster she created.

"I exist": the street dance versus the book's rampage

The girl reassures Carrie she did nothing wrong and that all Carrie ever wanted was to exist, making her repeat "I exist" until she screams it over Chris's body. They dance through the streets amid flames until the girl seemingly gets shot, bringing Carrie back. Brian De Palma's name is also on the theater next to Carrie.

In the book, Carrie destroys fire hydrants so the fire department can't fight the blaze, blows up gas stations, and kills people gathered at a church after praying and getting no answer, feeling God either doesn't exist or is scared of her. Survivors even report hearing her thoughts. At first I thought the dance was a bit silly, but thinking more, it shows Carrie celebrating breaking free and showing the world she exists, ready to dance with the devil she keeps locked inside. I do still kind of wish we'd seen her full rampage, but the symbolism is really great.

Margaret's mercy, and her own hidden powers

Carrie collapses into Margaret's arms and admits to killing everyone at the school, and Mama says everything's okay. She recalls Carrie following her into the closet to pray, calling her "my little shadow," another reference to The Shadow Exploded. I think it shows Margaret always knew something like this would happen. She says that even if God doesn't forgive, she does, then thrusts a knitting needle toward Carrie's ear, but Carrie's powers send it flying. The showdown brings more crucifixion symbolism and works as a symbolic death of her old life.

In the book, Margaret confesses Carrie was conceived after Ralph came home drunk, that she wanted to kill her at birth and again at three after the rocks, and she uses a butcher's knife kept for that day. Carrie stops her heart with her mind, a death given to another character in the show. Here, Carrie digs out of the rubble, most likely protected by her powers, and Margaret briefly holds a piece of rubble over her own head, revealing powers she never developed. I feel this Margaret genuinely loves Carrie, keeping her locked away to protect her from the world, so the attempted murder is an act of mercy in her eyes.

The girl is real, and Siegel kills Margaret

Carrie looks up at the stars and sees her dad, accepting death, but the girl shows up to rescue her, proving she was actually real. Margaret is interviewed by Siegel, who tells her the girl is an AP, short for astral projection. Siegel explains the TK gene skips generations and is mostly dormant, and we hear that "A lot of people have a little bit of shine," referencing the Shining. In the novel, Margaret and Carrie's father both carried a recessive gene.

Siegel then slows Margaret's heart until she slumps over like a sack of Bibles, pretty much word for word how Carrie kills her mother in the book. The psychic girls return the body to the hotel, where heart failure won't be questioned. In the car, the girl tells Carrie she's been there too and apologizes: "Sorry for taking so long to get to you." There are psychic trackers on their heels, she calls Carrie a god, and it parallels Billy's ride with Chris. She says the world is Carrie's, and Carrie repeats it, like Scarface, smiling as the season ends.

Which change from King's novel stood out most to you?