WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fear Street Part 2: 1978, now streaming on Netflix.
One of the biggest mysteries in Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy is why the witch, Sarah Fier, decided to exact revenge on Shadyside and not Sunnyvale. Attacking the poorer town does shape her in a more evil light, but it’s a bit inconsistent as to what her grudge is. Part 1: 1994 hinted that it’s due to people desecrating her grave, but Part 2: 1978 now suggests it might be random and a curse built out of hatred. Come the finale of the latter, clues are dropped suggesting why Sarah was actually killed and what this vendetta’s about.
In the finale, Deena and Josh tell Christine Berman that they know where the witch’s bones are. All they need to do is find her skeleton hand at the Hanging Tree, which they dig up at the mall. It’s the same spot where Camp Nightwing was decades before, so with this they head to the grave to reunite the body and break Sarah’s curse.
But as they commit the act, Deena’s soul connects with Sarah’s energy and she starts getting visions. Her mind’s then transported to 1666 as Part 2 ends, thus kickstarting the next chapter. After the “To Be Continued” card rolls, we quickly get the trailer for Fear Street Part 3: 1666, and it becomes clear that Deena’s going to be reliving Sarah’s memories in the settlement before it became split into the two towns. We see various characters from the two chapters thus far playing other characters, hinting that Deena’s seeing their ancestors.
It could be that Deena is a descendant of Sarah’s bloodline, ergo why she got a nosebleed when their bus passed the grave in Part 1. But more importantly, it’s what Deena experiences that may reframe the franchise entirely. There are quick shots of Sam, Deena’s girlfriend in 1994, and Deena once more having sexual relations in 1666, which hints that Sarah Fier might have been a lesbian in these puritanical times.
We also see religious townsfolk judging women, lining them up, assaulting, killing them and then dumping bodies, but as these snapshots go by, it might be that they’re women either accused falsely of witchery or gay people persecuted by zealots and bigots. Of course, it stands to reason they may have been part of a coven, but given that Sam’s mom in Part 1 hated her for loving Deena, and that LGBT acceptance is a big theme in this story, it looks like homophobia may be the ultimate cause of all the violence back then.
If the town murdered Sarah’s lover, that might be what inspired her to give her soul to Satan, chopping her hand off for the devil and then possessing slashers over the years to make their bloodlines pay. It just seems too coincidental that Deena would be the one who jumps into Sarah as a vessel, as she’s been begging Sam to come out in public. Thus, Deena may realize this witch hunt turned a good woman evil in the name of revenge, and she might rethink her decision to stop Shadyside’s punishment.
Directed and co-written by Leigh Janiak, the Fear Street trilogy stars Sadie Sink, Kiana Madeira, Olivia Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Darrell Britt-Gibson, Ashley Zuckerman, Fred Hechinger, Julia Rehwald, Jeremy Ford and Gillian Jacobs. Part 1: 1994 and Part 2: 1978 are now streaming on Netflix, followed by Part 3: 1666 on July 16.
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