Carrie Ending Explained: Who The Others Are & That Margaret Twist

Carrie White's prom night may have ended in a bloody massacre, but the conclusion of Mike Flanagan's Carrie majorly diverges from the Stephen King novel and previous film adaptations. The miniseries is available to stream on Prime Video, with the platform releasing all eight episodes on October 7, 2026.

In the new show, Flanagan brings the story of Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) into the digital age. After Carrie's father Ralph (Tahmoh Penikett) dies in a tragic work accident, authorities become aware of her existence, and she is forced to go to public school for the first time. There, she becomes the center of a cyberbullying scandal but also learns the beauty and wonder of living in the world, and discovers her telekinetic powers for the first time.

Flanagan imbues Carrie with his signature empathy, bringing depth to antagonists like Carrie's prime tormentor Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton) and her religious mother Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), while also giving the protagonist an ally in the form of Emaline West (Thalia Dudek), an original character created for the show. The miniseries also explores other women with powers, and it all comes together in Carrie's catastrophic yet somewhat uplifting — and certainly open-ended — final episode.

What Happens To Carrie After The Prom Massacre

Going into the finale, it seemed hard to believe that the Carrie White of this series could massacre an entire gym of people. After all, this girl wanted nothing more than a personal apology from Chris, even though Carrie could have inflicted so much more pain on her. However, at the prom, Carrie didn't act alone.

After Chris drops the blood on Carrie, and the protagonist is standing on the stage, drenched, shocked, and humiliated, Emaline comes to her. Emaline tells Carrie to let her "take the wheel," knowing that despite her powers, Carrie isn't capable of enacting this level of bloody revenge on her own. Carrie lets Emaline in, and she enacts her wrath.

Through Carrie, Emaline's last act of destruction is to crush Billy Nolan (Arthur Conti) and Chris to death in his car. (Ironically, Chris's final words were an attempted apology to Carrie.) The massacre now complete, Carrie is immediately horrified at what she's just done, but Emaline, who has been advocating for Carrie to use her powers against those who try to bring her down, reminds her that all she wanted was to exist, telling her to yell it and then to dance with her.

Over top "Shy Girl" by Haute & Freddy, Carrie and Emaline dance in the streets in the ultimate celebration of agency and sticking it to their bullies. However, when Emaline gets shot, she's no longer able to maintain her astral projection and disappears.

Without Emaline to help her, Carrie crumbles at the horrors of the world and her hand in causing them. Just like that night after Chris sadistically brings her to the construction site where her dad died, Carrie goes home to Margaret in tears. She may be a superpowered young woman, but in this moment, Carrie is a little girl who needs her mother.

Margaret obliges Carrie, bathing her like she did when Carrie was a baby and inviting her to pray in the closet. However, it quickly becomes clear that this is a trap. Though Margaret had fled from Amanda (Katie Sackhoff) when she told her killing Carrie was the only way to stop her, the prom night massacre proves Amanda right in Margaret's eyes. Despite Margaret's best efforts to keep Carrie pure and shelter her from the world, she knows she can no longer control her daughter and that only leaves her with one choice.

As Carrie prays, Margaret raises her knitting needle but hesitates, which is exactly what Amanda warned her against. Though Margaret does stab Carrie in the ear, the hesitation is enough for the protagonist to react in time, stopping the needle from doing any real damage. An attempt to stab Carrie with scissors backfires as well. With Carrie now having lost her mother on top of everything else, she sends the house crumbling down on them.

Both survive the wreckage, with Margaret seemingly holding a large piece of rubble off of herself only for it to collapse. Meanwhile, Emaline — the corporeal Emaline — shows up to rescue Carrie, and they take off in Emaline's car.

Margaret White's Telekinesis Powers & The Shining Connection Explained

Margaret is still alive, albeit trapped, when Carrie leaves. The next scene not only reveals that Margaret made it out of the wreckage and is speaking to the documentary crew, but also drops the shocking twist that she has telekinetic powers. A flashback cuts to the wreckage scene and unambiguously shows Margaret holding up the rubble without touching it. As she describes it, she "flexed".

The Narrator (Kate Siegel) then asks Margaret if she'd ever flexed before. The only other time Margaret can think of is a moment when she was a very little girl, praying for God to see her. Following her pleas, the cross hanging above her bed shifts dramatically, and a young Margaret is elated, though at the time, she believes this is a small miracle from God, granting her wish.

The Narrator explains more about the "TK gene", telling Margaret that it's often dormant and extremely recessive, with many who possess it potentially never knowing they do. Most of Carrie's episodes have begun with the Narrator sharing stories of women with powers, and in episode 2, she discusses the mother who lifts a car off her trapped son. She repeats this story to Margaret, telling her about the part the media didn't cover, where the woman realized she had powers and was thus able to access them again.

Unfortunately for Margaret, she doesn't possess the same abilities as this woman, which leads to her demise. However, before the Narrator kills Margaret, she tells her that a lot of people have "a little shine in them". This may not mean much to Margaret, but it certainly does to Stephen King fans.

In The Shining, "the shine" is the term used to describe the psychic powers Danny Torrance possesses, and it's been a longstanding King theory that Carrie and The Shining are connected because Carrie's TK gene powers mirror the shine. By the Narrator using this term, she gives credence to that theory, and with Carrie being so open-ended, it allows for a possible Flanaverse Carrie-The Shining connection.

Who The Other Women Are & Why They Kill Margaret

The biggest question throughout the series is who the "other" women are — the "others" whom Sue (Siena Agudong) spots at the prom, the "others" who are shown at the end of episode 1 living in a house together with one of them, Caitlyn (Delainey Hayles), sensing Carrie's powers and telling her leader about them. This question is answered in the finale... mostly.

In the penultimate episode, Amanda tells Margaret that the powers Carrie possesses are part of a large spectrum, which the audience knows is true from the stories at the beginning of each episode, and that many of these powered individuals form groups. In the finale, the group from the end of episode 1 is revealed to be posing as the documentary film crew, and their ultimate goal is to get as much information as they can about Carrie and her whereabouts.

Caitlyn, who is one of the three girls at the prom, is a mind reader and acts as a documentary crew member present for the interviews conducted by the leader/Narrator. Whenever the Narrator suspects a subject of withholding information, she becomes increasingly hostile in her questioning, turning the interview into an interrogation. This is to provoke the subjects into thinking about whatever they're not saying so that Caitlyn can use her powers and learn the truth.

The Narrator appears to have the strongest power of all, as she can make others submit to her will, like how she compels Sue to forget about seeing the other girls. It is left ambiguous what the Narrator wants exactly with Carrie — possibly to recruit the powerful teen into the Narrator's group or coven, but to accomplish what goal is unclear. What is clear, however, is that the Narrator believes that Emaline, and possibly all astral projectors, are dangerous and wants to separate Emaline from Carrie.

The Narrator becomes visibly excited by Margaret's fierce maternal determination to also find Emaline, and presses to learn more about Margaret's TK gene. Given that the Narrator and Margaret have the same goal, if the latter's powers were strong enough, the Narrator could potentially recruit Margaret for her mission.

This is why the Narrator compels Margaret to tell the truth about whether she'd be able to access those powers again. When Margaret says no, her fate is sealed. Without powers, Margaret is not only useless to the Narrator's cause, but also a liability, hence why she wills Margaret's heart to slow down and come to a full stop, killing her.

There's a brief flicker of remorse on the Narrator's face before she resumes her steely facade, instructing Caitlyn to put Margaret back in bed at her hotel to make it look like she died in her sleep. Like Emaline, the Narrator has proven to be dangerous, lethal, and powerful — and she's coming for Carrie.

Carrie's Survival & Where Emaline Is Taking Her

Unlike the Stephen King novel and the Brian DePalma movie, which both see the protagonist meet her bitter end, Carrie survives in Flanagan's series. Though she's initially bloodied and feverish from her ordeal, she wakes up in Emaline's car mostly fine, if not scared and demanding answers.

As Emaline drives on the open road, she refuses to tell Carrie their destination because then "they" — presumably Caitlyn and the Narrator's group — might be able to track her thoughts. However, as homicidal as she may be, Emaline seems to genuinely care for Carrie and to have not only her best interests, but also Carrie's agency at heart.

Emaline is presumably Amanda's daughter, and if that's the case, she has already experienced her mother trying to kill her, further trauma-bonding her and Carrie, who just went through the same thing. It's also clear that Emaline has some unrevealed history with the Narrator and her group, whom Emaline refers to as "monsters".

Though the specifics are unknown, control is at the root of this conflict. The Narrator's group is a structured organization with a clear leader, which Emaline wants no part of, and she seems to want to give Carrie that freedom. Though she claims to be taking Carrie to safety, Emaline also gives Carrie the option of going wherever she wants to, telling Carrie, "It's your world."

This is the moment when Carrie first feels her power. Not her abilities, her power. All the other times Carrie used her TK gene were outside her control or in reaction to something, often abuse. But now, with Emaline taking her to freedom, wherever that may be, Carrie can truly explore her world for the first time — and what she does with that is entirely up to her.

How Carrie's Ending Sets Up Season 2

Carrie has been billed as a miniseries, which makes sense if it had followed the ending of King's novel. However, with such an ambiguous conclusion, it opens the door for more seasons. Though nothing has been confirmed, Flanagan revealed he envisions Carrie as three seasons (via Collider).

Carrie's final episode still leaves questions unanswered, namely what the Narrator's group wants. This blank could be filled in in season 2, along with why the group and Emaline are adversaries, and whether Emaline really just wants Carrie to be free or has nefarious plans for her.

That leads to Carrie herself. She needs to figure out what she wants, and she basically has to do it alone, as neither she nor the audience knows if Emaline can be trusted. Carrie may also have to deal with antagonists stronger than her for the first time, as despite the psychological power Margaret and Chris had over her, they were no match for Carrie and her shine. Speaking of which, Flanagan opened Carrie up to be connected to a greater Stephen King universe, so the telekinetic teen may meet characters from the King of Horror's iconic novels.