Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for American Horror Stories Season 4: The Thing Under The Bed
While most of the anthology episode’s plot seemed pretty predictable,American Horror Stories 4: The Thing Under The Bed’s ending proved that its storyline had a few surprises up its sleeve.American Horror Storiesseason 4has been a long time coming. The first two seasons of the series aired in 2021 and 2022 respectively, before 2023’s industry strikes led the creators to delay the release of season 3’s latter half until October 2024. Technically,American Horror Stories 4: The Thing Under The Bedis the ninth episode of season 3, not part of season 4.
Regardless of the show’s release schedule,The Thing Under The Bedstill feels like a classicAmerican Horror Storiesouting. The episode opens with a small girl telling her father about something creepy under her bed, only for the thing to attack her minutes later. The episode’s heroine, Debby Ryan’s Jillian, then wakes up beside her husband. Jillian has struggled with vivid dreams throughout her life, and they only get worse when an unseen person drags her husband under the bed and kills him in real life. As a suspicious detective pins the death on Jillian, she searches desperately for answers.
Why Mary Killed Jillian In American Horror Stories Season 4: The Thing Under The Bed’s Ending
Jillian Realized That Mary Was The Villain A Moment Too Late
With the help of a nurse who also suffers from similarly vivid dreams, Jillian tracks down the girl from her dream at the beginning of the episode. Now in her twenties, Mary has been in a coma for ten years. Initially, Jillian thinks that Mary’s attack by someone under her bed during her childhood must be related to the string of unexplained deaths that recently claimed her husband’s life. Jillian is technically correct, but she only finds out Mary’s real role in the story inThe Thing Under The Bed’s twist ending. First, Jillian sleeps in Mary’s old home.
The Thing Under The Bed’ was directed by Courtney Hoffman.
Jillian meets Mary in her comatose dream state, an idyllic world where she controls everything. A little girl and boy argue nearby, prompting Mary to fly into a rage. A strange person attacks Jillian in the dream, but she wakes up before they can do any damage. Jillian visits the nurse who introduced her to Mary and suggests prescribing her a drug that stops patients from dreaming. Instantly, the nurse gets a message saying Mary is currently experiencing one of her fateful dreams. As he walks into the bedroom, the nurse is killed by the thing under the bed.
With no other options left, Jillian decides to kill Mary. She visits the hospital where Mary miraculously woke up from her coma shortly beforehand, and Mary goes back to sleep to confront her. Jillian battles with the thing under the bed in Mary’s room, but is shocked when the thing turns into Mary. It turns out thatMary herself is the thing under the bed inAmerican Horror Stories, as her powers in the dream world extend to controlling her memory of the escaped patient receiving mental health treatment who hid beneath her bed as a child. Now, Mary uses the memory of him to kill others.
What Mary’s Last Line Meant In American Horror Stories Season 4: The Thing Under The Bed
Mary Never Left Her Father Because She Maintained A Presence In The Waking World
Mary killed Jillian’s husband since she knew that Jillian wasn’t ready to have a baby with him, and she wanted to free Jillian from what Mary viewed as an unhappy marriage. Likeother episodes ofAmerican Horror Stories4,The Thing Under The Bedfeatures a nasty twist ending when Jillian and Mary finally fight. Jillian didn’t realize that Mary controlled the thing under the bed, butMary’s line about how she “Never left” her father implies she was always able to wake up from her coma if she wanted. Moreover, her spirit was irrevocably fused with her childhood attacker.
How Mary Became The Thing Under The Bed In American Horror Stories Season 4
Mary’s Rejection of Reality Strengthened Her Dream Powers
Mary spent years in her dream reality, creating a perfect world for herself that was only occasionally visited by other characters who shared her ability. Characters like Jillian and the nurse were less accomplished at bending the dream world to their will since they spent less time there. However, Mary’s dream powers seemed to come at a cost. When she attacked Jillian in her hospital room, Mary merged with the thing under the bed, and it became clear that they were the same person. Spending years in her own mind turned Mary into the imagined monster from her childhood.
The thing under the bed was Mary’s monstrous alter ego that she used to commit misdeeds like Jillian’s murder.
Mary became the thing under the bed by rejecting reality and living entirely in her mind, making her dream world strong and substantial enough to impact reality. LikeAmerican Horror Stories4’sClone, this episode explored questions of identity and self as the line between Mary and the thing under the bed blurred over the years. In her childhood, the thing under the bed was simply an escaped patient from a mental health facility and Mary was an ordinary little girl. By the end, the thing under the bed was Mary’s monstrous alter ego that she used to commit misdeeds like Jillian’s murder.
Why Mary’s Face Changed In The Thing Under The Bed’s Ending
Mary Became The Monster After She Woke From Her Coma
InThe Thing Under The Bed’s ending, viewers might have been forgiven for assuming that Mary exorcised her demons by allowing the thing under the bed to kill Jillian. However, the ending was even darker than that, as evidenced by Mary’s face changing. After waking up from her coma for the second time, Mary spoke to her father and reassured him that she had never really left. In her reflection,Mary’s face changed into the grinning male face of the thing under the bed. This signified that, by controlling her dream world, Mary had fully become her own childhood nightmare.
What The Thing Under The Bed’s Ending Really Means
The American Horror Stories Season 4 Episode Was A Cautionary Tale
The Thing Under The Bed’s ending is really about the dangers of rejecting reality and spending too much time in the imaginary world of the mind. Although Mary loved her dream world and was willing to kill to protect it, its stability came at the cost of her real life. As far as Mary was concerned, her dream life was perfect, and she had every right to kill Jillian and her husband to maintain it. However, by spending most of her life in a coma, Mary missed out on reality in favor of her meticulously constructed dreams in thisAmerican Horror Storiesepisode.
