How The Emotional Revelation In The Enfield Poltergeist Finale Impacted The Investigation, According To The Docuseries’ Director
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Spoiler Warning: The following article contains major spoilers for The Enfield Poltergeist's finale episode. If you have yet to finish the new Apple TV+ series, please proceed at your own risk.
The Enfield Poltergeist, the new Apple TV+ original series about the investigation into one of the most notorious paranormal investigations in the last 50 years, is at times extremely terrifying while at others incredibly emotional. This is especially true as the four-part docuseries dives more into the histories, both shared and separate, histories of Janet Hodgson and investigator Maurice Grosse, who spent two years looking into the young girl’s claims of a supernatural presence in her family’s home. We had the chance to speak with the director of the production, who provided some insight into the major revelation in the finale.
In the final episode of Jerry Rothwell’s 2023 TV schedule entry, there’s a major reveal about an earth-shattered event that very well could have reshaped Maurice Grosse’s worldview and the way in which he investigated the claims. The year before his investigation began, Grosse’s daughter, who was also named Janet, died in a car wreck, an incident that was terribly tragic and followed by "strange coincidences." Rothwell spoke with CinemaBlend and shared his take on the truly emotional matters:
There are strange coincidences, and kind of what we make of coincidence and the patterns that we see and what they mean for us feels like, somehow, quite at the core of the series: the question of did that shape the way Maurice saw these events?
Throughout the The Enfield Poltergeist finale, the various coincidences are explored. There are details provided about the birthday card Janet Grosse sent her brother just before her passing that was oddly foreshadowing, a clock that stopped working at the precise time of her death and a mysterious wet spot on the family roof in the middle of a drought.
The biggest coincidence of them all, however, deals with Maurice Grosse’s daughter and the girl at the center of his first investigation after the passing both being named Janet. But while Jerry Rothwell thought the family would deny the claim that the coincidences and the father’s grief had no impact on the case, he was a little more open-minded:
I think his family would say no, it didn’t, he was an objective investigator. But I can’t help but think that relating to a young girl called Janet when his own daughter has passed away in really terrible circumstances, must have affected him. Whether it affected his investigations is another question. That’s in a way an open question for the audience.
In addition to talking about the importance of those odd coincidences in the lead-up and duration of the Enfield investigation, as well as how it may affect the audience’s experience, the EP also touched on finding the balance between “belief and disbelief” when it came to everything presented in the docuseries, saying:
The challenge of the series, in a way, was to try and keep people on that knife edge between belief and disbelief, because I think that’s the place where we become really active thinkers as an audience, and it starts to relate to our own lives and the things we believe or don’t believe.
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Topics like coincidences and the battle between belief and disbelief are just small parts of everything that is explored on the show, which combines archival audio recordings with new reenactments to create a unique experience, as teased in the show's official trailer. Jerry Rothwell and his collaborators deserve a lot of credit for their handling of the material, especially the revelation analyzed in the final installment.
You can currently watch all four episodes of The Enfield Poltergeist with an active Apple TV+ subscription.
