Credit: Netflix

So, now that The Boroughs is finally out, can we all agree that absolutely nobody expected the show to get that dark by the finale? Because Netflix marketed it as this mystery thriller set inside a retirement community, and for the first episode or so, you almost start believing the place could be normal. Almost! But as soon as the people begin disappearing and forgetting conversations, people become suspicious.

The story takes place inside this massive retirement estate in New Mexico, where elderly residents move in hoping for comfort and medical support. On the outside, the Boroughs look perfect. Fancy houses with organised events for the elderly… Who wouldn’t want that? But the staff feels too shady, and the residents notice it as well. Every time somebody asks a question, they get these strange, rehearsed answers back. Nobody says anything directly or explains where the missing residents have gone. The whole place starts feeling less like a community and more like a place where some shady business is going on.

And that’s where Sam and the others come in. Instead of ignoring the warning signs, they start searching into what’s happening around them. They snoop around restricted areas and investigate old records as they question the staff. One resident loses track of days. Another hears noises beneath the ground at night. Then the show starts introducing tunnels underneath the estate with secret experiments and hints that the residents themselves might be connected to whatever’s living below the town. At that point, you realise the series was never just about a retirement home in the first place.

By the time of the climax, The Boroughs throws all of its biggest reveals at us in one go. And if you’ve just finished the last episode, chances are you’re still trying to process how all the clues fit together. What exactly was beneath the town? Why were residents losing memories and time? And were the Boroughs protecting people from the creatures… or feeding them to it?

What was really beneath the Boroughs?

Right then, let’s get to the big question because this has been there from the very first episode. Yes, you guessed that right: what exactly was hiding underneath the Boroughs? And the show spends so much time dropping creepy little hints that by the finale, you already know the answer is going to be horrible. Because nobody puts underground tunnels, memory loss and missing residents into the same series unless something nasty is waiting at the bottom of it all.

At first, the residents think the Boroughs management is hiding a couple of suspicious incidents here and there. Fair enough. But once Sam and the others start sneaking around the restricted areas beneath the estate, things get much darker. Secret tunnels run underneath the entire community for crying out loud. And can we please talk about the shady staff, please? How can they ignore everything that is going on? Reminds you of the unbothered doctors from the laboratory in Stranger Things. And you know when a show keeps repeating the same detail over and over again? Yeah, the memory loss stuff wasn’t random at all.

The finale pretty much confirms that the creatures beneath the town survive by feeding on human memories and time. Which is grim enough already. That’s why certain residents keep forgetting conversations or losing entire chunks of their lives before they even realise it. And once the show reveals that part, you suddenly start thinking back to all those earlier scenes and have the sudden realisation of what happened. Even the disappearances start making more sense after that reveal.

But here is the part that makes the whole thing worse: the Boroughs themselves may have been built around the creatures on purpose. Not accidentally. On purpose. The people running the community seem fully aware of what’s living underground, and instead of shutting the place down, they keep bringing new residents in anyway. Which raises another massive question: were they trying to contain the creatures… or feed them? Because, not gonna lie, by the end of the finale, the humans start looking far more sinister than the monsters.