Netflix’s new horror series from the Duffer Brothers dropped all eight episodes on March 26, 2026. The show follows Rachel Harkin (Camila Morrone) and Nicky Cunningham (Adam DiMarco) as they prepare for their wedding at Nicky’s family cabin. But Episode 4, titled “The Witness,” reveals the dark truth behind Rachel’s growing dread. A family curse. A bargain with Death. And a bloody history that explains why Rachel feels like something very bad is going to happen.
The episode takes viewers back to 1997. Rachel’s father, Jay (Josh Hamilton), kidnaps her from the Cunningham estate. He forces her to watch a home video of his wedding day to her mother, Alexandra (Victoria Pedretti). The video starts happy. Alexandra dances in her wedding dress. She laughs. But then everything goes wrong.
A Horrifying Birth Caught on Tape
The wedding video takes a dark turn. After the ceremony, Alexandra starts bleeding from her nose and mouth. She collapses on the hotel room floor. Jay panics. Alexandra is pregnant with Rachel at the time. With no help coming, Jay cuts Rachel out of her mother’s stomach himself. The scene is disturbing. Jay keeps apologizing as he does it. This is where the “Sorry Man” legend comes from. Nicky’s brother Jules (Jeff Wilbusch) witnessed this event as a child. He saw Jay run from the cabin, covered in blood, saying he was sorry over and over. Jules created the “Sorry Man” figure in his mind to process the trauma.
Victoria Pedretti, known for her roles in The Haunting of Hill House and You, plays Alexandra. Showrunner Haley Z Boston told Radio Times she reworked the entire episode because Pedretti and Logan Miller (young Jay) gave such strong performances. The episode originally had a short flashback. But their work allowed the team to expand it to 15 minutes of screen time.
The Witness Explains the Curse
After watching the video, Rachel returns to the bar where she first met the mysterious old man. Zlatko Burić plays the Witness, also called the Immortal Man. He tells Rachel the full story of her family’s curse.
The curse started many generations ago. A bride and groom were deeply in love. But the groom died in a hunting accident before the wedding. The bride begged Death to bring him back. Death agreed on one condition: she had to truly believe he was her soulmate. Death brought the groom back. But Death also cursed all their children. Every descendant must marry their true soulmate by sundown on their wedding day. If they marry someone who is not their soulmate, they die by bleeding out. If they run from the wedding, the curse passes to their partner’s family.
The Witness explains that the curse originally belonged to his family. He fell in love with a woman named Marianne, who is Rachel’s ancestor. On his wedding day, a mysterious man warned him he would die if Marianne was not his soulmate. He got scared. He left her at the altar. The curse then transferred to Marianne’s bloodline. As punishment for his cowardice, the Witness became immortal. He must now watch every wedding in the Harkin family line.
The Rules Are Brutal
The Witness breaks down the rules for Rachel. She has three options. If Nicky is her soulmate, she lives. If Nicky is not her soulmate, she dies. If she calls off the wedding, she dies and the curse transfers to Nicky and his entire family. The Witness tells Rachel he likes to “throw a little warning in” to make things interesting. His question to her in Episode 1—“Are you sure he’s the one?”—was not random. It was his way of warning her.
There is one known way to survive. Rachel learns from a family tree that one ancestor beat the curse. She used a potion. The potion turns the person drinking it into their partner’s soulmate. But the ingredients are extreme. Rachel has to cut off her own toe for the potion. She goes through with making the potion. But at the last moment, she decides not to drink it. She does not want to change who she is for marriage. She chooses to believe Nicky is her soulmate.
What Episode 4 Means for the Rest of the Series
Episode 4 sets up the high stakes for the wedding day. Rachel now knows the truth. Her mother died because she married the wrong person. Her father has been hiding this secret her whole life. The Witness has been watching her family for generations. The audience also learns that Nicky’s family has their own secrets. Victoria Cunningham (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Nicky’s mother, is dying. The family has been keeping this from Nicky and Rachel. That explains why everyone acts so strange around the wedding.
The episode also connects the two families in a twisted way. Jules witnessed Rachel’s traumatic birth as a child. The Cunningham cabin was near where Alexandra died. These two families have been linked by tragedy for decades.
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Fan Reactions to Episode 4
Social media lit up after Episode 4 dropped. Viewers praised Victoria Pedretti’s performance. Many called her the “queen of horror” after her work in Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series. Others reacted to the toe scene. The body horror element caught many people off guard.
“Episode 4 of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is the most disturbing thing I’ve watched all year. That birth scene will stay with me forever.”
“Victoria Pedretti needs to be in every horror project. She brings something special to every role.”
The episode currently holds strong viewer ratings across review platforms. Critics point to Episode 4 as the turning point of the series. The curse explanation is clear. The stakes are high. And the audience finally understands why Rachel has felt so much fear since arriving at the cabin.
Where to Watch
All episodes of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen are now streaming on Netflix worldwide. The series is available for viewers in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, India, and other regions.
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