Spoilers for Red Rose Season 1 below!
The following article contains mention of suicide and violence.
After walking through the online terrors and riddles faced by a group of teenagers, Netflix’s Red Rose resolves many overarching mysteries in its ending moments while setting the stage for season 2. What begins as a seemingly supernatural portrayal of modern technophobia in Red Rose later morphs into a terrifying conspiracy that alludes to many real-world issues surrounding online privacy. With each episode, Red Rose‘s action and drama further dissolve the lines between the real and virtual world, leading to a satisfying conclusion.
Although the Netflix horror drama leaves many crucial details to a viewer’s imagination and intentionally paves the way for a follow-up, it presents some important details about its central app’s origins and evil forces working behind it. At the same time, Red Rose also sheds its supernatural underpinnings towards the end and focuses more on the psychological ramifications of the murderous Red Rose app. With so much going on in its eight-episode runtime, Red Rose leaves viewers with a lot to unpack in its final moments. Here’s a detailed explanation of Red Rose‘s ending.
The Origins And Inner Workings Of The Red Rose App Explained
Netflix’s Red Rose introduces the titular app as a highly invasive software that accesses everything on Rochelle’s device. Although it initially seems harmless, the app gradually takes control of Rochelle’s life by manipulating her text messages, incoming calls, phone camera, and even her actions in the real world. What begins as a seemingly casual prank soon becomes a digital nightmare for Rochelle. To her dismay, no one even believes her when she blames the app for her actions until she dies after presumably committing suicide.
Toward the sci-fi horror show’s season 1 ending, the murky inner workings of the application become clearer when the show harkens back to its origins. It turns out that the app was developed by a Manchester-based high school kid named Jacob, who wanted it to use to know more about his crush, Alyssa. While at it, Jacob also took advice and approval from a group of remote online friends. Over time, as Jacob gathered more information about Alyssa’s personal life by asking her questions through the application, the app grew to a degree where it gained master access to every piece of technology surrounding Alyssa.
Despite using the app’s data to please Alyssa, Jacob (portrayed by Charlie Hiscock, known for playing Will the Kit Man in Ted Lasso season 2) got rejected when he asked her out. While most members of his remote friends’ group made fun of him after the rejection, one mysterious member aliased “The Gardener” gave him moral support and, in return, asked for access to the app. Little did Jacob realize that The Gardener did not have his best interests in mind and was about to misuse the app for their benefit.
Why Was Red Rose On The Dark Web
Soon after, Jacob learns that The Gardener is using the app to torture Alyssa. He tries saving her but fails to reach her before The Gardener. When Jacob threatens to report The Gardener’s crimes, he meets the same fate as Alyssa. Following Jacob’s tragic ending, the app and its new developers continue growing from strength to strength before targeting Rochelle (played by Isis Hainsworth of Metal Lords fame). Roch, too, gets murdered before she can uncover the truth behind the application and warn her friends about it. Her death encourages Wren and her group of friends to investigate the app, which leads them to its dark web website.
When Jaya breaks into Red Rose’s password-protected website, she realizes that its developers are using the depths of the internet to spread its roots and wreak havoc on the lives of its users for mere entertainment. This affirms that after Jacob’s death, The Gardener turned his technology into something far more sinister by abusing innocent people through the app and streaming it all on the dark web to entertain an audience that pays for it. The dark web proves to be the perfect place for the illegal only activities of the horror drama’s overarching villain because it maintains its anonymity until Jaya finds a way to hack into its system.
The Gardener’s Identity And Purpose In Red Rose Explained
In Red Rose‘s finale, Wren’s father gets kidnaped by a man who she presumes to be The Gardener. As Wren and her friends race against time to find her father and stop Red Rose before it is too late, Noah encounters a mysterious woman who tries to kill him but abruptly changes her mind. Wren reaches her father’s abductor before her friends and, during a showdown, overpowers and kills him in the heat of the moment. Meanwhile, to avoid escalation, Noah asks Jaya to delete Red Rose despite knowing that it will destroy all evidence surrounding the hideous crimes of the developers and viewers.
Towards the climax of the Netflix sci-fi TV show, all seems to have ended well until Jaya meets the mysterious woman who spared Noah. When Jaya taunts her by saying that The Gardener is dead, the woman responds, “Is she?,” hinting that she is The Gardner. The woman then reveals that she only spared Noah and intentionally led them to Wren’s father’s abductor to spice things up. She knew that, like Wren’s father, Rick, Wren was also capable of having violent tendencies. By disclosing how she was controlling Wren and her friends’ narrative all along, the woman proves that she lost the battle but won the war.
Considering how the woman never explicitly confesses that she is The Gardener and only refers to her in the third person, there is a slight possibility that she, too, is a mere pawn in The Gardener’s game. Owing to this, the Netflix show’s season 2 can easily retcon someone else as The Gardener. Even her motives seem shrouded in mystery, but she comes off as a typical twisted villain who only wishes to watch the world burn.
Why Was Rick Arrested In Red Rose’s Ending
Unfortunately, since Jaya deletes all evidence that proves Red Rose’s existence, Rick faces the repercussions of Wren’s actions. He takes the blame for the murder of the man who was previously presumed to be The Gardener, and in turn, saves his daughter from getting charged with manslaughter. In the end, Rick’s arrest again affirms that The Gardener’s plan went precisely as she had expected.
Did Jaya Actually Delete Red Rose
Jaya (played by Ashna Rabheru from the cast of Netflix’s Sex Education) likely deleted every trace of Red Rose. However, given her coding forte and ability to think ahead of the curve, she might have saved some evidence to protect herself and her friends from The Gardner in the future. Even if Jaya has wiped Red Rose out of existence, The Gardener seems to have no intentions of stopping as she proudly tells Jaya that she “can’t delete an idea.“
What To Expect From Red Rose Season 2
The Gardener’s final warning to Jaya rings true when an unsuspecting young man in Tokyo receives a mysterious link on his phone. The link takes him to Red Rose’s download page, where the show’s credits start rolling before he hits download. This closing scene from the show’s season 1 confirms that Red Rose lives and is setting out to target a new group of young people. If Netflix renews the horror series for season 2, the show will likely pick up where season 2 leaves and unravel the experiences of a new roster of young characters experiencing the horrors of technology.
Using this setup, Red Rose season 2 can also cue season 1’s characters as digital vigilantes who set out to help the victims of the app escape Red Rose’s online web of lies and slander. While at it, the follow-up could also reveal more about the details surrounding The Gardener’s identity, her origin story, and her true motives. By digging deeper into season 1’s references to the American J-horror remake, The Ring, Red Rose season 2 can also bring a supernatural twist to its depiction of contemporary technophobia.
