Is Emaline real? ‘Carrie’ star teases Season 2 storyline as he answers one burning question
In Stephen King’s 1974 novel, Carrie White goes on a rampage and destroys the town of Chamberlain, Maine, after a cruel prank during her prom. In the adaptation ‘Carrie’ by Mike Flanagan for Prime Video, the prom scene is retained, but there is a second character with powers named Emaline West (Thalia Dudek). This character isn’t present in the original novel and is only seen by Carrie (Summer H. Howell) for most of Season 1, leaving her existence in question.
However, Emaline is a real person who can astral project, meaning her consciousness leaves her body. Carrie becomes friends with her, and she helps her come to terms with her telekinesis. Emaline is revealed to be another girl with the TK gene, like Carrie. In the finale, Emaline drives Carrie away from Chamberlain in the finale. Her mother, Amanda West (Katee Sackhoff), also discusses the danger posed by women with similar abilities with Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan). She is one of the characters missing after the prom.
Now, Howell said Season 2 would explore the show's different take on Carrie and answer questions about Emaline in a conversation with The Direct. “A lot of questions will be answered about Emaline,” she said. Emaline has been criticized online for the change, which takes away some of the blame from Carrie during the prom massacre.
However, Howell said this was unnecessary hate and encouraged viewers to watch and find out why Flanagan decided to go this route. During the prom, Emaline asks Carrie if she wants her to take the wheel for part of the destruction. Carrie agrees. In the final scene, Emaline tells Carrie that she is a god and that the world is hers. Carrie agrees and smiles.
Flanagan, who has planned out a three-season story arc, told TheWrap that Emaline isn’t responsible for all the deaths. “It’s important too when you look at the ending, you can very clearly see that Emaline is not at the wheel when Carrie kills Chris. Emaline is not at the wheel when Carrie killed Tommy Ross by mistake. When Emaline is and isn’t there is important, but it’s not meant to remove agency so much as to deal with those moments of shock, to spread the complexity of culpability out for a tragedy. I do think tragedies have many authors, but there are also other people in that gym besides Carrie and Emaline.”
On October 22, Prime Video announced they have renewed ‘Carrie’ for Season 2, two weeks after it premiered on October 7. Season 1 contains eight episodes, four of which were directed by Flanagan. Kate Siegel plays Adelaide, the leader of a group of psychic women with similar powers to Carrie.
Siena Agudong plays Sue Snell, Amber Midthunder plays Ms. Desjardin, and Josie Totah plays Tina Blake. Flanagan previously adapted King’s ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘Doctor Sleep.’ All eight episodes of Season 1 are available to stream on Prime Video. There is no release date for Season 2 yet.
