The American Horror Story: 1984 ending officially tied up the loose ends in what could be considered the most grisly installment to date. The ninth season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series took the ’80s slasher horror genre to a new level by interweaving a number of twists and turns, including the existence of the paranormal. As the season continued, the truth about Camp Redwood was unearthed but it was already too late for the new counselors.
AHS: 1984 centered on a group of young people who took the opportunity to escape their lives by taking a job at the newly reopened Camp Redwood. The group quickly found that the camp was the site of a sinister massacre at the hands of the director, Margaret (Leslie Grossman). She had a history of pinning the murders on other people, including Mr. Jingles, aka Benjamin Richter (John Carroll Lynch). With Benjamin back on the loose, the counselors got stuck in the middle of a new massacre. The Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa), then came into the mix which complicated matters even more, especially for Brooke Thompson (Emma Roberts).
As the majority of counselors found themselves stuck in purgatory, everyone had their sights set on Margaret. In the years after the second massacre, Margaret built a profitable empire and vowed to take advantage of Camp Redwood’s dark past. Meanwhile, Benjamin’s main priority was keeping Richard away from his son. Ultimately, the group put their differences aside to do what they felt was justified in the AHS: 1984 ending.
What Happens In The AHS: 1984 Ending
The AHS: 1984 finale takes the story to present-day 2019 and it gives viewers a relatively happy ending. An adult Bobby Richter, who we accurately predicted would be played by Finn Wittrock, arrives at an abandoned Camp Redwood in search of answers regarding his father where he meets Montana and Trevor (Billie Lourd and Matthew Morrison). The ghosts share that Bobby’s father, Benjamin, is dead and that he was wrongly convicted for the Mr. Jingles murders. They also reveal that Benjamin’s priority was keeping Bobby safe which hindered on Richard Ramirez’s fate. As a way to make it up to Benjamin, the dead camp counselors spent 30 years killing Richard over and over again to keep him trapped at Camp Redwood, and essentially protecting Bobby from the Night Stalker’s wrath. Of course, Richard breaks free and tries to attack Bobby before he escapes for the next part of the journey.
Bobby then goes to the local asylum where he meets Donna (Angelica Ross), who is thought to be the season’s “Final Girl”. Donna fills in Bobby about what else happened at Camp Redwood on Halloween night in 1989. After the counselors thwarted Margaret’s music festival plans, they converged on her cabin to get revenge. While Margaret hid inside, Donna and Brooke attacked the woman. In the fight, Brooke was shot and seemingly killed before the counselors dragged Margaret outside. They brutally dismembered her limbs before forcing her body through a woodchipper. What was left of her body was sprayed across the camp’s boundaries, preventing her from coming back as a ghost – at least that was what they thought.
Bobby claims that someone has been sending him money since he was young. This leads Donna to believe that someone else survived that deadly night. Bobby and Donna track down the sender in Oregon where they find that Brooke was still alive. Brooke explains that she survived because Ray (DeRon Horton) helped with her gunshot wound and eventually got another chance at life. Brooke clearly feels shame for never contacting Donna but she finally had the opportunity at a happy life.
Despite the information he gathers, Bobby decides to go back to Camp Redwood to find his father. While there, he encounters Magaret who supposedly died before she was thrown into the woodchipper which explains why she returned in ghost form. Margaret attempts to kill Bobby but is stopped by Benjamin. Bobby is finally given a chance to meet his father and the pair emotionally embrace. Margaret comes back and chases after Bobby before Lavinia (Lily Rabe), his grandmother, intervenes. The ghost counselors arrive as back-up while Bobby safely leaves the camp after a tearful farewell to what is left of his family.
Why Brooke Kept Sending Bobby Money
Bobby carries that hope that his father is alive because someone has been anonymously sending him money for nearly 30 years. Montana reveals that it couldn’t have possibly been Benjamin because he was killed and subsequently disappeared. After Donna and Bobby learn that Brook is the sender, the real question is why she spent so many years doing so. Brooke explains that she sent him the money because she never wanted the camp to ruin another life.
Brooke was a victim of a bad relationship before she took a job at Camp Redwood. Her fiancé turned her wedding into a massacre which led Montana on a mission for revenge after losing her brother during the deadly event. Brooke was then the target of the Night Stalker and trapped at a cursed camp with the psycho mastermind, Margaret. After being pinned for the murders, Brooke lost years of her life being stuck in prison until Donna faked her execution. Even as she traveled to get back to the camp for her own revenge, Brooke encountered more unfortunate events, causing another near-death experience. No matter how hard she tried to move on, Camp Redwood kept pulling her back in.
Just like the situation for Brooke, Bobby is an innocent victim connected to the camp. Brooke worried for years that he would eventually learn about his father and find his way to the camp. To give Bobby a chance at a better life, she sent him money so he would have the financial support need to live that life. Furthermore, it’s also possible that Brooke kept sending Bobby money because of the guilt she felt for not seeing through Margaret’s facade sooner to realize that Mr. Jingles was also a victim or her insanity.
Did Mr. Jingles Ever Get Justice?
One of the biggest twists in AHS: 1984 is the revelation that Mr. Jingles was a relatively innocent man. At the beginning of the season, the former Camp Redwood employee was painted as a serial killer. Over the course of the series, viewers learned that Margaret carried out the original massacre and pinned it on Benjamin. He was locked up for over two decades and started to believe he was a monster. When Donna helped him escape, Benjamin spent some time on a revenge tour before teaming up with Richard Ramirez for a few years as he embraced the serial killer lifestyle. Benjamin later turned his life around but when his wife was killed and his son threatened, he traveled back to Camp Redwood to take care of his past.
Benjamin finally had a chance to face his mother and the belief that he was responsible for his little brother’s death. Benjamin’s overall life was extremely tragic and the relationship with his mother added another level to that sadness. When he came clean about guilt and his goal in protecting his son, Lavinia encouraged her son to end his life so that he could have more power to kill Richard for good. Benjamin failed but he was reunited with the ghosts of his mother and brother. More than that, the rest of the spirits at Camp Redwood learned of Benjamin’s innocence. So while he never received proper justice in the real world, he very much got the justice he wanted from the people who mattered most – including his son.
It wasn’t until 2019 that Bobby is given the truth that Benjamin wasn’t a serial killer but it’s the fellow ghosts who went out of their way to reveal the truth. This paved the way for a heartwarming reunion between father and son. If Benjamin had the choice, he probably would have done everything the same in order to save his son. To him, that is more important than unearthing the truth about the murders at Camp Redwood.
The Real Meaning Of AHS: 1984’s Ending
The AHS: 1984 ending primarily focuses on wrapping up the lingering questions surrounding the events that plagued Camp Redwood. It also plays on the deeper theme of moving on. Brooke left the camp in a near-death condition but never carried through with the attempt of sharing her survival. Rather than contact Donna, Brooke left that entire chapter in the rearview in order to move on with her life. She successfully ends up building a new life with a husband and two kids. Had she constantly focused on her time at Camp Redwood, she probably would have ended up as one of the spirits trapped there.
Now that Bobby finally receives his answers regarding his father, he too can move on. It’s rare for the series to have a happy ending but the American Horror Story: 1984 ending presents one of the most satisfying conclusions in the show’s history. Montana makes it seem like she and the other victims are long forgotten since the ’80s were so far in the past. Bobby and the rest of the survivors prove that there are still people out there that know what truly happened at Camp Redwood and could never forget those who fell victim. This is why by the end of the episode, Montana stated that “the ’80s will never die,” and she finally has reason to believe that.
