Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Teacup Season 1.
TheJames Wan-produced Peacock seriesTeacupcame to an end this Halloween. Over the course of the science fiction horror show fromIan McCullochbased on the novelStingerbyRobert McCammon, we saw twists and turns in nearly every episode. The series follows the Chenoweth and Shanley families, who become trapped on the Chenoweths' farm in rural Georgia when an alien named Assassin comes to Earth. Assassin is in search of a different alien, Harbinger, who has inhabited the Chenoweths' son Arlo (Caleb Dolden). Throughout, McCulloch and his team of four horror directors kept us on edge about who Assassin was inhabiting and who would ultimately make it out alive. The final two episodes also saw some of the show’s best acting in moving performances fromYvonne StrahovskiandScott Speedman. Now that the first season is over, we’re covering lingering questions viewers might have about the series and what the surprise ending might mean for the future of the show.
What Exactly Happens at the End of ‘Teacup’?
In the eighth and final episode ofTeacup, things are looking dire. Valeria Shanley (Diany Rodriguez)is dead, having been killed by her son Nicholas (Luciano Leroux). Over the course of the series, the main characters learned that Assassin can inhabit people and pass from person to person through the eyes and mouth. In a devastating moment in Episode 7, Assassin transfers from Valeria to Nicholas, and he promptly pushes his own mother over the line of the force field, causing abrutal chemical reaction that kills herin the show’s gnarliest effect.
In Episode 8,Assassin transfers from Nicholas to Meryl Chenoweth(Émilie Bierre), and Meryl’s parents, Maggie (Strahovski) and James (Speedman) are faced with a horrible choice. They have figured out that the only known way to kill Assassin is to drown the person it is inhabiting. In themost emotionally brutal scenein the show, Maggie and James wrestle their daughter into the bathtub and proceed to drown her. It is excellent physical acting from Strahovski, especially when Maggie desperately tries to revive Meryl through CPR afterwards (and thankfully, it works.)This jarring scene is also a tragic foreshadowing of things to come. In the process of drowning Meryl, James' gas mask slips off, and Assassin inhabits him before Meryl drowns. James manages to warn his family to run before Assassin fully takes over him, but in the end, in a moment of desperation, Maggie traps James in the freezer in the barn, and she and Ruben Shanley (Chaske Spencer) cover it with sandbags, suffocating and killing James and Assassin with him.
‘Teacup’s Ending Hints at a Second Season
With Assassin now dead, it would seem that the threat has come to an end. The surviving Chenoweths are Maggie, Meryl, Arlo, and James’ mother Ellen (Kathy Baker). Also still alive are Ruben and Nicholas Shanley, their neighbor Donald (Boris McGiver), and alien expert McNab (Rob Morgan). The ragtag crew all decide to drink a trace amount of the liquid they obtained from a branch of thealien tree, which enables them to cross back over the force field line to find help. But just when we thought everyone was safe,McCulloch throws in one final and important plot twist.
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As the survivors (minus Ellen, who stays behind) make their way towards a nearby fire station by car, they run into two people named Carol and Milo, who claim to know McNab from a chat room discussing his alien theories. Within moments, a car tears around the corner and runs into Carol and Milo, instantly killing them. Two people exit the car, introducing themselves as Hayden and Izzy. They explain that the individuals they just killed are not who they said they were, hinting at a sinister alliance and connection to the now-dead Assassin. Hayden and Izzy offer the survivors the choice to continue independently, or to trust and follow them. Maggie looks back at the group before saying, in thefinal line of the show, “We’re not going anywhere until you tell us what the fuck is going on.” This ending seems practically made for a second season.Harbinger remains alive, but just because the only known Assassin is dead doesn’t mean Harbinger, or humanity at large, is safe. McCulloch has left us on a major cliffhanger, and we can’t wait to see how thisdark science fiction storymight expand if the group leaves the farm behind in a potential second season.
All episodes ofTeacupis available to watch on Peacock.
Teacup is a horror-thriller TV show set to premiere on Peacock in October 2024. Produced by James Wan, the series is inspired by Robert McCammon’s 1988 novel “Stinger.” The story revolves around a group of neighbors in rural Georgia who must unite to confront a mysterious and deadly threat. As tensions rise and strange occurrences unfold, they struggle to survive against an unknown and terrifying force.
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