‘The Bad Seed Returns’ Ending Potentially Sets Up Another Sequel to the Lifetime Movie
Have we seen the last of Emma Grossman? The little girl with a murderous streak who we first met in Lifetime’s The Bad Seed has grown up, but she hasn’t reformed. In The Bad Seed Returns, which aired on September 5, Emma continues to take revenge on those who cross her, with deadly results. By the movie’s end, she’s amassed quite the body count. And there could be more come, if Lifetime decides to make a third Bad Seed movie.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Bad Seed Returns.]
Emma turns on her friends and family in ‘The Bad Seed Returns’
When we last saw Emma (Mckenna Grace), she was a little girl being taken in by her aunt Angela (played here by Michelle Morgan) following the death of her father David (Rob Lowe). In The Bad Seed Returns, she’s now 15, and a seemingly average teenage girl, at least at first glance. She has several close friends, does well in school, is a member of the dance team, and appears to have a loving relationship with Angela, her uncle Robert (Benjamin Ayres), and their new baby, Cade.
Emma might look like a normal teen to those around her, but it’s clear there’s something off about her. She rehearses basic social interactions in the mirror and quietly seethes when things don’t go her way. Emma resents her infant cousin and is angry when her uncle plans to send her to boarding school. She’s jealous when her friend (Marlowe Zimmerman) is named captain of the dance team instead of her. Plus, there’s the troubling matter of Kat (Ella Dixon) a girl from Emma’s former school who’s just moved to town. She sees right through her classmate, which puts Emma at risk.
When Emma feels threatened, she lashes out. Is it any surprise when the accidents start? Her aunt’s baby nearly drowns in the pool. Robert is almost crushed to death under a car. Her best friend’s dog is stolen and later found dead. And that’s before the violent conflagration in the movie’s final act.
Almost everyone close to Emma is dead at the end of ‘The Bad Seed Returns’
Emma got away with multiple murders in The Bad Seed. She does it again in The Bad Seed Returns, which ends with her killing Ella, Robert, and Angela – and somehow coming out of it looking like the victim. (Earlier in the movie, she engineered her dance team rival’s death by stealing her epilepsy medication; she also killed her friend’s dog).
Angela has begun to suspect that something is terribly wrong with her niece. She packs the baby into the car and heads off to visit Brian (Lorne Cardinal), the man who killed David when he thought he was attacking Emma at the end of the first movie. That frees Emma to put her deadly plan into action. She pretends to extend an olive branch to Kat, inviting her over to talk. Then, she poisons the other girl’s hot chocolate with her uncle’s pain medications, causing her to pass out.
Emma leaves her classmate to die and moves on to dealing with her uncle. Robert is at home, but he’s still recovering from his accident and had limited mobility. She plays a recording of a baby crying and Robert, who thinks his wife and child have returned home, crawls upstairs to check on the infant. (Emma’s already done several things to make him look like a neglectful father, which is why he’s so determined to check on Cade). Meanwhile, she sets a pan on fire in the kitchen, in an echo of another kitchen fire that everyone blamed on Robert.
The house goes up in flames, with Robert trapped upstairs. Emma runs outside, where she confronts Angela, who’s just returned home. Angela has finally realized the truth about Emma: She has antisocial personality disorder. “You’re a monster,” she says to her niece before running inside to save her husband. But she’s too late, and both Angela and Robert are overcome by the smoke.
Emma triumphs, but where could she go next?
At the end of The Bad Seed Returns, Emma and Cade are the only two surviving members of the Grossman family. Emma meets with a social worker, who says she’ll do her best to keep the two together (which sounds like it could be very bad news for the baby).
The movie wraps up the latest chapter in Emma’s deadly story. So far, Lifetime has not confirmed that we’ll be seeing another Bad Seed sequel. But there’s plenty of potential for a third movie involving the character.
Just imagine the unlucky family who takes her in as their foster daughter after the latest tragedy. Or consider her relationship with her cousin. She had no love for the baby in this movie, but now that he’s her only living family, it’s not hard to see her turning on anyone who tried to keep them apart. There’s also Nathan (Jude Wilson), the hapless guy who falls for Emma (and shows up to comfort her as her home is destroyed by fire). He’s in her good graces now, but what if he tries to break up with her? Emma would surely come up with some creative demise for anyone who dared to dump her. There’s no question there could be plenty of opportunities for Emma to wreak more havoc, should Lifetime wish to continue the series.
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