This hidden detail explains the dark reason Sam glitches at the end of The Boroughs

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Boroughs*

The Boroughs has one of the happiest endings, until it doesn’t. The new Netflix series leaves a number of questions in its wake, the biggest being why the hell Sam (Alfred Molina) glitches at the end. 

Yes, The Boroughs has been described by some as “geriatric Stranger Things” – it deals with monsters, vintage tech, and is even produced by the Duffer brothers – but it’s so much more than that. 

The series follows Sam, who is resentfully moved to the titular retirement community out in the desert after his wife (played by Malcolm in the Middle’s Jane Kaczmarek) tragically dies.

When he witnesses his neighbour Jack (Bill Pullman) being killed by a fluid-drinking monster, Sam and his new pals – Renee (Geena Davis), Judy (Alfre Woodard), Art (Clarke Peters), and Wally (Denis O’Hare) – band together to uncover a far darker conspiracy. 

Although the monsters initially seem like the antagonists, the real villains are Blaine and Anneliese, the seemingly young couple who run the retirement compound. As it turns out, they’re way older than all of the residents there. 

They’ve secretly spent decades exploiting a mysterious entity known as Mother, using her blood to keep themselves and their inner circle forever young.

Hidden beneath the Boroughs is a vast tunnel system where Mother’s terrifying “children” (the monsters) are sent to harvest brain fluid from sleeping residents, which is then fed back to her to keep her alive. 

Blaine and the others consume Mother’s blood – that strange golden liquid repeatedly referenced throughout the series – which effectively freezes them in time. 

But as Sam and his pals uncover, after years of having her body used as a never-ending blood factory, Mother is exhausted and dying. 

She’s able to communicate with certain residents – including Sam – by sending out signals. She uses this method to tell him that she wants to die peacefully for the suffering to end, requesting to be taken to the cave where Blaine and Anneliese first found her in 1949.

After Blaine tracks them down, chaos erupts inside the cave. Sam and Blaine fight, giving Mother time for her children to gather around her. Under their protection, she explodes, emitting a huge beam of light and seemingly killing Blaine. 

The scene then cuts to the final sequence, showing Sam, his daughter Claire (Jena Malone), Renee, Judy, Art, and Wally enjoying a nice meal together, as one big happy family. Here’s the thing: It’s a very happy ending, but it almost seems a little too perfect. 

This becomes clear when Sam goes to dress his head wound in the bathroom. When he looks down, his reflection in the mirror glitches, just like the signals sent by Mother. 

According to co-creator Jeffrey Addiss, it’s all just a little tease for a potential second season. “[Sam] glitching in the mirror is a hint at where we hope to go [next],” he told Netflix. “We wanted to have some fun.” 

But I think there’s more to it than a bit of fun. 

Theory explains why Sam glitches at the end of The Boroughs

One of the darkest theories is that the final reunion sequence never actually happened. Instead, it’s been speculated that Sam is actually in a coma following the explosion inside the cave, with Mother keeping his consciousness alive inside a made-up reality.

Now, there are plenty of theories that Sam inherited Mother’s powers. But as was highlighted by DMT’s Shikhar Agrawal, if that were the case, “it would have been his physical body that glitched, and not his reflection.”

Throughout The Boroughs, Mother is shown creating mental projections and communicating through memories and loved ones, so it wouldn’t be completely left field for her to construct a comforting scenario inside Sam’s mind.

Agrawal’s theory goes that Sam’s in a coma, Mother’s still alive somewhere – perhaps inside Sam’s head – and she’s trying to keep his consciousness alive. This would not only explain the glitch but also the fact that the final blast killed Blaine but only left Sam with a tiny scratch. 

There’s also the question of the mysterious peach tree hidden deep within the cave. After Art gets his hand on its single peach, every bite he takes proves that its powers go far beyond those of Mother’s. 

Her blood can stop people from aging, but the fruit actually reverses it. The show repeatedly hints that the tree is connected to Mother in some way, but it never gives us the full story. 

What’s more, the creators have already confirmed there’s much more to the tree than we currently know, which we’ll find out if The Boroughs is renewed for season two. 

Co-creator Will Matthews revealed that they originally planned to show exactly where the tree came from in the first chapter. “We ultimately decided to hold that answer [for future seasons] of what the tree is and why the tree is where it is because it’s all connected,” he said.

Given this is where Mother explodes, and we’re missing exactly what happened after that – as the scene then cuts to the final reunion – surely there’s far more to this story than meets the eye. 

I also want to highlight that final scene. It’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, but it’s bordering on eerie how perfect everything is. Judy and Art are happily married, having brushed the whole Jack affair under the rug, but perhaps the most telling outcome is Wally.

He was dying of cancer before he got roped into helping Blaine. But if Mother is dead, how is he still alive and planning a trip away with Renee and Paz (Carlos Miranda)? It all just seems like one big illusion. 

Sadly, until we get confirmation of a follow up chapter, all of these questions are up in the air. But between Sam’s reflection glitching, that mysterious peach tree, and that ‘too good to be true’ finale, it becomes harder to believe that Sam really got the happy ending he thinks he did.

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Featured image credit: Netflix