The truth behind Grace’s smile in The Body as Netflix writers explain that confusing ending

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Body*

Running all the way through The Body is the question of whether the Lions dance team are experiencing mass hysteria or something truly supernatural. But when Grace finally wakes up at the end of the Netflix series, her reaction only creates more questions. 

The Body might just be the most exciting Netflix launch of the year so far. It’s got mystery, horror, messy queer relationships, a brilliantly chaotic cast of characters and a banging soundtrack. 

And it wastes absolutely no time. From the very first episode, we’re thrown into the mayhem when the central group of Catholic school students hold a Halloween party. 

The school’s Lions dance team, led by Anya Butler (Kristina Bogic), decide it’s the perfect place to initiate newcomer Grace Franklin (Sofia Wylie). How? By offering her up as a virgin sacrifice to the devil and making her take ecstasy. You know, normal Catholic schoolgirl stuff.

They all have a great night until Grace starts burning up. Her condition quickly deteriorates, and when she collapses, Anya and Lisbeth (Geena Meszaros) panic. She seemingly dies in the car journey to the hospital and they decide to take her home instead of getting medical help. 

Here’s the thing: in the morning, she’s found alive but unconscious. Anya and Lisbeth decide to keep what happened a secret, especially after the toxicology report comes back clear. 

But things only get stranger from there. The girls begin having terrifying visions of Grace, while Anya’s guilt threatens to consume her. Meanwhile, Lisbeth uses their secret to manipulate Anya, driving a wedge between her and Elise (Sara Boustany).

And it’s not long before this spreads beyond the Lions dance team. As stories of miraculous healings start circulating, more and more people in the community become convinced that Grace has some kind of divine power.

The whole thing leaves us as the audience questioning what’s real and what’s not. Are they experiencing a collective delusion? Is it divine intervention? Or did the girls’ deal with the devil actually work?

To get the answers, we need Grace to wake up. But when she finally does, it doesn’t do much to explain what’s been happening. At the end of the finale, just after Anya finally confesses to everything, Grace slowly opens her eyes.

Her father, Michael (Motell G. Foster), asks if she knows her name. A tear rolls down her face as she whispers, “I’m God.” Excuse me?

Grace then looks over to Anya and smirks. And she does the same when her mother, father, uncle and Anya all put their hands over her. 

So, what does Grace’s smile mean at the end of The Body?

The annoying thing is The Body creator Quinn Shephard and co-showrunner Gina Gammell have said the ending is very much open to interpretation. However, the leading theory – and the evidence – suggests that Grace knows far more than she’s letting on. 

Speaking to Deadline, Shephard explained, “There’s really no right way to watch the show. One of our favorite things is hearing people debate out, someone who really believes that the show is supernatural and someone who really believes that it’s a mass hysteria story, and there’s a grounded explanation for every step of the way.”

Gammell said of the many interpretations, “We’ve had people say that it’s body possession. We’ve had people say it’s the devil. We’ve had people say that she’s just waking up and it’s gibberish.”

To which Shephard added, “That she’s really God. That there’s someone else’s ghost in her body, or that she just heard them when she was in the coma. But also, isn’t that life?

“I mean, how many of us have a friend who’s like, I swear I saw a ghost yesterday, and then you sit with that person for 20 minutes, you try to figure out what the explanation is. That’s this show.”

But speaking to Netflix’s Tudum, the creators dropped a couple of clues that could explain Grace’s mysterious smile.

“There’s a little wink at the end,” Gammell teased. Shephard also revealed that the final scene “really foreshadows Grace’s perspective coming into the centre.”

So while neither have confirmed exactly what Grace knows, the comments suggest her smile isn’t just a random reaction to waking up. It could be a hint that she’s far more aware of what’s happening than anyone realises.

Is The Body supernatural or scientific? 

Let’s first look at the evidence that would suggest what happened wasn’t supernatural and Grace may know what’s been going on. First things first, it’s worth noting that studies have shown parts of the brain responsible for hearing can still react normally to speech or audio in some coma patients. 

So, Grace’s smile may be because she heard the chaos unfolding around her as The Body progressed and she knew what Anya did. This would explain why she smiles at Anya after she confesses. 

There’s also the fact that later on in the Netflix series, we find out that the toxicologist didn’t even test for ecstasy, which explains the discrepancy. Maybe the pill is what caused her to go into a coma. 

The Lions team members also confess that their visions of Grace were all made up and that they’d spurred each other on. Yes, Anya has creepy dreams, but she’s absolutely riddled with guilt and fear over what happened on Halloween night. It’s not exactly a stretch to imagine her mind playing tricks on her. 

Meanwhile, Maddie’s (Shirley Chen) collapse is revealed to be a result of her eating disorder. Her miraculous injury recovery may simply have been because it had healed momentarily.  

Many viewers agree with this interpretation, with one writing on Reddit, “I love the subtle smirk that Grace gave Anya at the end, when she declared she was god. It could mean ‘You’re f**ked’ as she knew what Anya and Lisbeth did.

“Or ‘Im covering for you/joking’, as Grace probably remembered Anya trying to help her before she died/went unconscious. Plus she probably heard what was said about her miracles when she was in the coma.”

Another replied, “I do like the idea of Grace having had some awareness of what was happening around her and using that info.”

There’s potentially another clue too through Lisbeth’s disturbed younger brother Leo (Jackson Kelly) and his bond with Father Franklin (Nnamdi Asomugha). If you recall, due to their strict fundamentalist upbringing, both Lisbeth and Leo have a difficult time with reality. 

Leo is struggling with compulsions and desires, punishing himself for these thoughts. But Father Franklin explains that he doesn’t have to take the Bible so literally. 

As Shephard told Deadline, “He has a bit of an OCD compulsion around morality that is really hard for him. We weren’t trying to make a show that was hyper-critical of religion. Obviously, religion is a theme in the show, and it touches on it in a lot of ways. 

“But I think his character is a necessary and important exploration of someone who takes things quite literally, even more literally than his priest wishes him to, which is like where we get that nice bond where Father Franklin is like, ‘Hey, you’re taking you’re this to be a little too hard on yourself.’”

Leo was initially a suspect among the community after being seen as the last person speaking to Grace before her incident. In reality, he went to apologise for his graphic, disturbing drawings of her, which had served as an outlet for his compulsions. 

Shephard continued, “That was important to us to show, that he has these very normal, human impulses, as a teenage boy that then he turns, in his own sense of fear, into something really perverted and out of control.”

Although this is about Leo, could these comments be a hint at the truth behind the entire show? Maybe the girls and the wider community are doing exactly what Leo does: taking perfectly ordinary experiences and turning them into something terrifying or divine because of their religious beliefs. 

Of course, there is evidence for a totally different reading too. Depending on how you look at it, the timing of Grace waking up could be seen as a sign that Anya’s confession has finally broken whatever supernatural hold was keeping her unconscious. Maddie even suggests this as a theory earlier on in the show. 

But perhaps the creepiest detail is the moth that lands on Grace just before she wakes up. Moths are often associated with transformation and rebirth, so could this be a sign of divine intervention? Or perhaps something much darker, given the girls’ supposed deal with the devil?

As said, the creators haven’t confirmed what the truth is. But there is a definitive answer, as revealed by Netflix. Apparently, the showrunners did clue Grace star Sofia Wylie in on what’s actually going on with her character – but it remains a heavily guarded secret for now. 

Wylie said, “Quinn’s explanation is something I’d love to keep under wraps because I think the beauty of the show is that it stays within the mystery, whether it’s medical or spiritual.”

And this brings us onto our next question…

Will there be a season 2?

Unfortunately, Netflix hasn’t yet renewed The Body for season 2. But the good news is the cast and crew are certainly keen, and it’s still very early days. Since landing on November 11, it’s already raced up the top 10 charts in multiple countries, so the signs are all there. 

Speaking about the ending of season 1, Shephard told Deadline, “We always knew that that was where the show was going. From the beginning, that was the arc of the first season, and I think a lot of that has to do with things we would love to do next season and how to keep carrying the story.”

Similarly, Gammell is game for a follow-up if the opportunity arises. On the topic of Anya’s confession being a potential catalyst to Grace waking up, she said, “That’s a fire take. That is Maddie’s prophecy, and if there’s a season 2 we’ll be all over that.”

Gammell separately told Swooon that the ambiguous ending is “a tease and a setup of everywhere that we wish to go next season if we’re so lucky to get one.”

So, fingers crossed Netflix gives us another season. Because I don’t think any of us can cope with Grace’s little smirk being the last we ever see of her.

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page.

Featured image credit: Netflix