Cold feet before a wedding can happen to anyone. But in the Netflix series Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, the bride, Rachel, faces a chilling dread leading up to her big day.
The show is set over one tense week, following Rachel and her fiancé, Nicky, as they prepare for their wedding. During a family visit, Rachel stumbles upon a wedding invitation with a disturbing note: “Don’t marry him.” This sets off a chain of eerie events that lead Rachel to discover that her family is under a curse.
The Family Curse
A mysterious figure, known as the Witness, warns Rachel that her life depends on whether Nicky is her true soulmate.
In a pivotal episode, Rachel learns the curse dates back generations. It began when an ancestor made a deadly deal with Death to bring back her beloved. Now, each generation must marry their soulmate or face dire consequences. If Rachel marries Nicky and he’s not her soulmate, she’ll die. If Nicky is her soulmate, she survives. If she decides against the wedding, she dies, and the curse transfers to Nicky’s family.
The Role of the Witness
The Witness, played by Zlatko Burić, reveals his own bitter connection to the curse. He abandoned his bride at the altar after receiving the same warning. The curse then shifted to her family, dooming them to the same fate.
Unraveling Connections
Rachel’s wedding day is steeped in hidden connections. Her father reveals a dark secret about her birth—Rachel was born after her mother died during childbirth, a traumatic event that involves a horrifying twist in family history. The Witness appears in a wedding video from that tragic day, untouched by time.
Nicky’s family harbors their own secrets. His mother is gravely ill, but they hide this from the couple, adding to the oppressive tension as the wedding approaches.
The Tense Wedding Day
On the wedding day, just as Rachel is about to say “I do,” Nicky shocks her by saying no. He struggles with the implications of their marriage, feeling that it may be “poison” in his family’s history. With time running out, the stakes grow higher as Rachel questions whether to trust her feelings about the curse.
In a dramatic twist, Rachel refuses to marry him, fearing she will die for him. Moments later, guests begin to bleed from their orifices, recalling Rachel’s mother’s tragic end.
Desperate, Nicky decides to marry Rachel at the last second, but she insists that she won’t be bound by fear. This pivotal moment leads to a series of tragic events where many guests suffer the curse’s deadly grip.
Final Outcome and Consequences
As chaos unfolds, Rachel learns she and Nicky aren’t soulmates after all. Heartbroken, she succumbs to the curse. However, in an unexpected twist, she takes the place of the Witness, becoming a guardian of the curse’s cycle. She encounters Nicky’s young nephew, Jude, urging him to choose wisely in love.
In the end, Rachel drives away from the devastation, leaving the haunting legacy of the curse behind her. This twist highlights the theme of choice—how love can uplift, but also ensnare, binding people to dark histories.
This intertwining of fate, love, and fear reflects modern anxieties about relationships. How far will one go to avoid pain and loss? As new statistics suggest, up to 20% of couples experience significant stress before marriage, showcasing the dark side of love that Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen captures so compellingly.
For more insights on the psychology of marriage and pre-wedding anxieties, you can explore resources from the American Psychological Association here.
In the end, the series reminds us that the pursuit of love can sometimes lead us into chilling territory, forcing us to confront the shadows of our past and the consequences of our choices.
