Fear Street Part 2: 1978 Ending Explained-Part 3 Theories And All Those Outstanding Questions

Netflix and R. L. Stine’s Fear Street isn’t the same childhood horror story you remember. Fear Street Part 2: 1978 expanded on the lore that 1994 started. In addition to employing nearly every up-and-coming young adult and child actor on the planet including Cruel Summer’s Chiara Aurelia, the film series has managed to capture the feel of each of the decade’s respective films. In ways, I can’t even explain Netflix brought the book series to life. It’s no small feat to combine the childhood scares of Stine’s work, although the Fear Street series was definitely scarier than Goosebumps, with the rompy gore of the ’70s and ’90s slashers. There is blood in the water and sex on the brain.

In Fear Street Part 2: 1978, our group from 1994 contacts C Berman(Community’s Gillian Jacobs), the only person they know who survived a witch attack. C survived the Camp Nightwing massacre of 1978. However, she tells Deena and Josh she can’t help Sam, who has become possessed by the witch. The rest of the film plays out in a flashback of C(Emily Rudd) and her sister Ziggy(Stranger Things Sadie Sink).

C and Ziggy, along with Cindy’s boyfriend Tommy(McCabe Slye) and Alice(Ryan Simpkins), are all at Camp Nightwing, where hazing, sexcapades, and light outdoor play happen daily. Shortly after, we catch up with Nurse Mary Lane, who is murderer Ruby Lane’s mother who attempts to kill Tommy. She says he will die because she saw it on the wall. Tommy manages to stop her, and she is taken away, but that piques Cindy’s interest. Later that night, they break into the infirmary and read Mary’s diary. Here’s everything you need to know about that bloody ending and what it means for Fear Street Part 3: 1666.

Sarah Frier’s Curse

According to Mary’s diary, Sarah dealt with the devil and cut off her hand on Satan’s Stone. That sacrifice gave her immortal life. Until Sarah’s hand and body are reunited, blood will continue to be spilled in Shadyside. Back in the day, it was called Union before it was split, making poor Shadyside the sole recipient of Sarah’s ire. When the Union settlers killed Sarah, she had already cut off her hand, so they didn’t accomplish anything but ensure she would be pissed and vengeful. Pay attention to the bleeding noses from Part 1 and 2 because they hold clues to where Sarah might be.

Flash forward to now, and Sarah has been possessing or compelling all sorts of people to massacre people. There was a homicidal Milk Man, the mall killer we saw in 1994, and Ruby Lee, the singing killer, to name just a few seen in the opening credits of both Fear Street Part 1 and 2. Shadyside Mall, where 1994 started, is on the same land as Camp Nightwing, making this land super bloody.

Mary had been trying to find the hand when she stumbled on the same witch’s cabin Cindy, Tommy, and Alice find later. They find all kinds of Devil worship stuff and the same wall of names Mary saw, so Mary thought Tommy was a dead man. Of, course soon after, Tommy becomes possessed.

The ending of Fear Street Part: 1978

When Tommy becomes possessed and begins rampaging Camp Nightwing, Alice and Cindy escape deeper into the tunnels. At the same time, Ziggy tries to save as many of the campers as possible with future Sherrif Nick. All kinds of gore and scuffles occur, but the essential bits are Alice found Sarah’s hand, and everyone gets back together in the Mess Hall. Unfortunately, Ziggy had bled on the hand, which means she is now marked, and Sarah is coming for her. Tommy comes back to life and kills Alice forcing Cindy to behead her boyfriend.

This leaves just Ziggy and Cindy and the hand. They find the hanging tree, but instead of Sarah’s body, they find a note that says “the witch forever lives.” The sisters are attacked and left for dead. Nick finds the girls and manages to revive one of the sisters. The catch is, he revived Ziggy, whose real name is Christine, not Cindy, as we have been led to believe the entire time. Cindy died defending her sister.

Just like every other time, no one believes in the witch’s curse. This led Ziggy, now going by C Berman to live in isolation behind locked doors. When Deena and Josh show up, they tell C they know where Sarah’s body is buried. Which means they now have all the pieces to reverse the curse and save Samantha. The hanging tree is now at Shadyside Mall. Deena and Josh find the hand buried in the dirt while C/Ziggy calls Officer Nick presumably to alert him to the plan. Although we don’t hear any of their conversation.

Just as Deena is placing the hand with Sarah’s body, she flashes to 1666. Deena is somehow a descendant of Sarah’s or is Sarah. Fear Street Part 3 takes place in 1666 and brings back all of the dead characters, but I’m assuming they play different people since it is hundreds of years in the past. So about the only one, we can say for sure is Deena who is Sarah, at least short-term.

The lingering questions

• Is Deena, Sarah, a descendant, or just seeing through her eyes? We have no context from Fear Street Part 2: 1978 but we can say definitely nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Sarah may feel a kindred spirit with Deena who feels persecuted for her sexuality. Sarah may have simply chosen Deena to show what really happened instead of being actually related. It is also possible, Sarah isn’t the Big Bad she is made out to be. After all, someone had to have moved the her bones. It’s possible Sarah possessed one of her many killers to do it before their killing spree, but more likely there is someone pulling the strings that is exploiting Sarah’s deal with the Devil.
• What is with the beating heart below the cabin? The pulsing monstrosity is disgusting and maybe more important than it first appeared.
• Is there a clue to the Kansas song Carry On My Wayward Son which is played twice during the film? Either the filmmakers love that song(and who could blame them) or they are telling us the clues hide in identity. Someone is related to someone who is wicked. Either Sarah’s offspring is mad about what happened to her, or more interestingly there is an evil minister or town leader who betrayed Sarah and he is the one who keeps the curse going. It is a way to purge the town of evil every son often.
• Is Sherrif Nick going to turn out to be a very bad boy? We know he comes from a long line of lawmen. Maybe he believed Ziggy all along, but chose to pretend to believe she was lying because he needed to keep his secret?
• Who moved Sarah’s body and why?

Carry on my wayward, son or daughter. Next week we will get all the answers. Fear Street Parts 1 and 2 are currently streaming on Netflix right now and Part 3 premiers next Friday.