WARNING: Major spoilers for The Babysitter: Killer Queen
McG’s sequel to 2017’s The Babysitter, The Babysitter: Killer Queen packs the same energy as its predecessor, but the movie’s ending left some unanswered questions after the credits rolled.
Following Cole (Judah Lewis) two years after the events of The Babysitter, the now high-school aged teenager is struggling to cope with his day-to-day life when everyone around him thinks he’s crazy. After all, he knows that he survived the Satanic ritual started by his babysitter and best friend, Bee (Samara Weaving), and her friends. His insistence that all of his memories and stories are one-hundred percent factual has taken a toll on his social life and alienated him from his childhood friend, Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind). Despite them not being as close as they were before, Cole still goes with Melanie, her boyfriend Jimmy (Maximilian Acevedo), and their other friends to a lake party. Then, just like in the previous film, the fun and games start to go south quickly.
Cole finds himself in the middle of another Satanic ritual—the same one as before—which is led by none other than his friend Melanie, who was with him the night Bee and her friends first tried to sacrifice him. Not only is Melanie leading the charge, determined to use the ritual to become an influencer so she can get out of their town and away from her weird father (Chris Wylde), but all the teenagers that Cole killed in the first movie are back for a second chance. They’re out to finish what they started at any cost, and Cole is suddenly fighting for his life again, this time with the help of mysterious new girl Phoebe (Jenna Ortega).
The Babysitter Killer Queen Ending: What Happened To The Book?
After the ritual was botched due to Cole no longer being an innocent, everyone who was attached to the ritual ended up disappearing, likely to go back to Hell permanently. While this is a positive thing in the sense that Cole is no longer being chased by a bunch of demonic teenagers, it’s a bittersweet ending because the triumphant return of Bee is reduced to mere moments. Bee, who seemingly orchestrated the entire thing to tie up loose ends, bids Cole and Phoebe (who she also babysat once) a tender goodbye, wishing them well. She’s obviously glad they found each other, and is happy to see Cole with someone who will be good to him. Even though Bee started the ritual in the first movie, she always seemed to have respect and appreciation for Cole; it’s clear he earned more of her respect after he thwarted her plans and killed all her friends in the first movie.
However, the book wasn’t destroyed when everyone else—Bee included—disappeared. In fact, it was the sole focus of a very short post-credits scene that showed it with open pages, fluttering in the breeze. This means that the book which was used to begin the ritual is still very much in play, and could fall into the wrong hands, since neither Cole or Phoebe has it in their possession by the end of the movie.
Is Everything Really Back To Normal For Cole?
After Bee says her goodbyes and disappears, it seems like everything is back to normal. Cole’s dad (Ken Marino) starts to remember everything that happened during The Babysitter, and it’s clear that Cole’s days of being called crazy are over. But is everything really back to normal? Cole really struggled with gaining a foothold in any sort of high school hierarchy, and it’s clear that the last two years have been rough for him. Even if his parents remember what happened and don’t think he’s crazy, there’s nobody left to corroborate his story. Melanie, who was with him during the first movie, would have remembered, but she disappeared. Nobody else who was with him—except Phoebe—survived. Therefore, while Phoebe could corroborate Cole’s story this time, it’s more likely that nobody will believe either of them.
Cole will likely still struggle in high school and be a social outcast, especially since Phoebe also seemed to make waves when she first arrived at his school. Her choice to scream very loudly during her introduction to his English class, in front of everyone, was more than enough to peg her as weird. So, while she and Cole will have each other, they’ll likely be hard-pressed to overcome either of their reputations, as high school is often depicted as a difficult place for a teenager, unless they happen to be popular. In the first movie, Bee was popular, and she liked Cole—this gave him some semblance of security. Melanie wasn’t necessarily popular, but she was more popular than Cole and probably saved him from bullying on occasion due to her position on the social totem pole.
However, her disappearance might actually make things worse for Cole. There are other bodies from the earlier parts of the ritual, so that’s likely going to cause another investigation—and a bloody one at that—to surround Cole yet again. It’s very unlikely that he’ll be able to escape until he goes off to college, which could always be where a potential The Babysitter 3 could pick up, if director McG decides to revisit these characters for a third movie.
Could Bee Return In The Babysitter 3?
One of the biggest twists in The Babysitter: Killer Queen was the discovery that Bee used to babysit Phoebe. Under normal circumstances, babysitting two different kids who are around the same age isn’t at all uncommon. Since Phoebe just transferred to Cole’s school, this means that she wasn’t in the same school district at the very least, and the same town at the most. Adding to this is the fact that Bee didn’t just move towns; she was part of the wreck that killed Phoebe’s parents. Bee was driving the car that ended up colliding with Phoebe’s parents, and Phoebe presumed that she was dead. Not only did she lose her parents, but she lost Bee, and they seemed to have had a close relationship as well. Phoebe was a young girl, approximately five or six, when the accident happened. Yet, Bee hasn’t aged. This is because she made a deal with the devil to save Phoebe’s life after the car accident.
Throughout The Babysitter: Killer Queen, there are brief scenes where Bee appears to each of her friends—Sonya (Hana Mae Lee), Max (Robbie Amell), Allison (Bella Thorne), and John (Andrew Bachelor)—and recruits them to come back and give the ritual another try. While this was initially set up to seem like she also wants a second shot at the ritual, her potentially orchestrating Cole and Phoebe meeting each other—which is almost too convenient otherwise—might point to something else.
Bee may not be a mere demon, but a higher-ranking instrument of the devil. Not only did she recruit her friends the first time, but she convinced them to do the ritual a second time. This could also be part of the deal she made. If she’s working in tandem with the devil, she could be responsible for recruiting new souls, and did this by drafting her friends into a ritual that she knew would fail. The devil is often depicted in media and literature as charming, persuasive, attractive, and skilled in the art of the deal. The movie’s sub-title, Killer Queen, might also suggest that she is, in fact, the Queen Bee—a ruler of Hell. While it seems like Bee is gone for good after the ritual’s failure, the fact that the book still exists could point to her being able to come back again. Samara Weaving’s return to the cast was kept very hush-hush, so clearly McG enjoys a surprise and knows that both the actress and character are a big draw for the movie. If The Babysitter 3 happens, it’s likely not the last audiences have seen of her.
What The Babysitter: Killer Queen’s Ending Really Means
Ultimately, The Babysitter: Killer Queen is about closure and dealing with trauma. It’s a simple theme that uses high-octane gore, outrageous fight sequences, and a killer soundtrack to get its point across. Where Bee and Cole shared the spotlight in The Babysitter, Cole is at the center of the sequel, and he and Phoebe share in both trauma and a need for closure. While Phoebe can’t get her parents back, she’s seemingly comforted by the fact that her old babysitter survived—even if it was through dark magic—and is embarking on a new relationship. For Cole, he got closure through one last interaction with Bee, whom he clearly cared for and through an interaction with his dad where someone finally believed him.
Even Bee got closure; she seems to want to make things right with both Cole and Phoebe, which means maybe she had regrets of her own and knew there was a way to make it right: influence someone else to start the ritual and hope that Cole and Phoebe hit it off romantically. It was a bit of a gamble on her part, but paid off in the end for Cole and Phoebe, who got a seemingly happy ending. While Cole and Phoebe both will always carry some residual trauma, the ending of The Babysitter: Killer Queen sees them in a good place, ready for a fresh start and able to finally put the past behind them.
