'The Body' Ending, Explained: Breaking Down What Really Happened to Grace

Teenage years are tough for everyone, but for the protagonists of The Body, it's almost perilous. In fact, Netflix's newest teen drama about a Catholic school dance team, the Lions, takes adolescence to new and terrifying places.

“I’ve always been interested in the idea of girlhood as a religious experience,” co-showrunner Quinn Shephard told Tudum. “This story is definitely my way of putting a playful spin on all the nightmares of my own teenage-dom.” The result is a dark, campy drama that explores themes of belonging, rebellion, and religion, while also leaving you guessing at every turn.

The season begins at a Halloween party in 2004, when the Lion's newest member, Grace (Sofia Wylie), dies after being forced to take ecstasy as part of an initiation. Team Captain Anya (Kristina Bogic) scrambles to cover up the death, accepting help from outsider and Lions-wannabe Lisbeth (Geena Meszaros). The two decide to take Grace's dead body home, tucking her in and hoping to keep the Halloween party a secret. The only problem is that Grace isn't actually dead. She begins breathing again shortly after they leave, but remains comatose.

Throughout the season, Grace's mysterious condition haunts Anya and the Lions, but for Lisbeth, it's an opportunity to get closer to Anya and finally snag a spot on the team. Meanwhile, Anya is juggling her intense guilt with her growing sexual attraction to her best friend, Elise (Sara Boustany), who is the only one not falling under Lisbeth's spell. After a few visions and medical miracles, Grace is being worshiped as a saint while Lisbeth takes over the dance team and Anya finally comes clean.

It's truly one hell of a ride (pun intended). Now that you've watched the season, it's time to break down The Body's ending and finally get to the bottom of what really happened to Grace.

How does 'The Body' end?

The Body ends with Grace waking from her coma after Anya confesses her sins to Father Franklin, Grace's uncle and the St. Marks's principal (Nnamdi Asomugha). Is it just a medical mystery? Has Anya's confession finally freed Grace from the bargain the Lions made with the Devil, sacrificing Grace for a place at Regionals? Or is it God? The community members gathered outside definitely believe it's the latter, including her classmates Leo (Jackson Kelly) and Maddie (Shirley Chen), who have gathered outside her home to pray to her.

Grace awakens in the finale when a mysterious moth settles on her unmoving body, suggesting potential divine intervention. And in the final scene, when asked if she remembered her name, Grace says, “I'm...God.” The finale ends with her uncle, her father (Motell Gyn Foster), her mother (Ashley Madekwe), Anya, and others surrounding her and putting reverent hands on her body.

What actually happened to Grace on 'The Body?'

The Body leaves it ambiguous what really happened to Grace. Though Father Franklin seems to believe that her comatose state was due to the ecstasy she took at the Halloween party, it's unclear whether medical professionals ever confirmed this. We also don't know the extent of her injuries—is her declaration that she is God a sign of brain damage? She did, after all, stop breathing on Halloween night.

Though The Body never explicitly confirms whether or not God and the Devil exist within the world of the show, it seems likely that, no, Grace was never actually possessed. Nor was she somehow imbued with saintly healing powers, as the townspeople begin to suspect.

Still, the ending leaves room for interpretation. “Everything that happens that has a supernatural theory in the show should always have a counterpart with a totally grounded medical or scientific explanation,” Shephard explained in an interview with Tudum.

Grace's dad also discusses this in the show. He reminds his brother that, regardless of what the Church decides, miracles are true miracles if people believe in them. Maddie, Leo, and Coach Shauna Miller (Gabby Windey) believe that Grace helped heal them and their loved ones, and while Grace's condition remains unexplained, who's to say they're wrong?

What happened to Anya on 'The Body?'

After spending the entire season terrified that someone might find out about her involvement with Grace's mysterious illness, Anya finally admits what she's done. She only does so after considering throwing both Elise and her boyfriend, Steven (Orlando Norman), under the bus. Once Elise forces Anya to see how selfish she's been, Anya rushes over to Grace's home to confess to Father Franklin.

The finale ends moments later, so we never find out what, if any, Anya's consequences are. Given her family wealth and the Church's desire to keep the myth of Saint Grace going, Anya may not face any repercussions for her actions. However, she did lose her best friend/lover and her boyfriend in one night, which might be the worst punishment she could face.

What happened between Anya and Elise on 'The Body?'

It looked like Anya and Elise might actually get to be together. After finally giving in to her desires and hooking up with Elise, Anya seemed committed to exploring the relationship—but her refusal to break up with Steven and her continued friendship with Lisbeth stopped Elise from going forward. Ultimately, after realizing Anya drove Grace home from the Halloween party, Elise made it clear she thought Anya was selfish. So it doesn't look like these two will be getting together in the future.

Were any of the visions of Grace real on 'The Body?'

Yes and no. While most of the girls on the Lions confess that their visions were fake, Maddie, who ends the series fully believing that Grace is a saint, stands by her story that she had a vision of Grace at Regionals. That said, her vision could have been a hunger-induced hallucination, as Maddie starved herself leading up to the big performance. Anya similarly maintains that she had visions of Grace, but hers could also have a non-spiritual explanation, as she was suffering from pretty extreme guilt the whole season.

What happened to Lisbeth on 'The Body?'

Throughout the entire season of The Body, Lisbeth never shows any signs of guilt over what happened to Grace—not for covering up her temporary death, her drug use, or the involvement of Grace's new Lions teammates. Instead, Lisbeth uses the Lions's weakness to her advantage, taking a spot on the team and eventually blackmailing Anya into letting her stay at her home.

In the finale, Lisbeth senses Anya is getting ready to confess, so she beats her to the punch. At a Lions cotillion event, she rallies the group to tell her version of the story, clearly intending to turn them all against Anya and turn herself into the hero. She tells the girls she was there the night of the Halloween party and implies that she resurrected Grace, asserting her spiritual authority over the group.

Unfortunately, the episode ends before we see their reactions, but based on Lisbeth's past manipulations, they'll likely follow her lead. That is, unless Anya disputes her account or Grace can remember how Lisbeth tried to cover up her death.

Assuming Lisbeth doesn't get in any legal trouble, she'll still have to find a place to live and a way to support herself. Anya's confession means Lisbeth no longer has anything to blackmail her with, so I'd guess Anya will throw her out. Furthermore, in the season finale, her mother (Louisa Krause) becomes convinced the rapture is coming and seemingly tries to die by suicide. Lisbeth might not have a home to return to.

Will there be a season 2 of 'The Body?'

No official plans for season 2 of The Body have been announced, but it sounds like Shephard would be interested if Netflix gives it the green light. Speaking to Tudum, the creator teased that the final moments—when hands reach out to touch Grace, and she smiles—“really foreshadows Grace’s perspective coming into the center.” Of course, Grace's perspective can only really come in a second season, so it's clear there's more story left to tell.

Co-showrunner Gina Gammell was even more explicit in an interview with Swoon. Speaking on the ambiguous ending of season 1, Gammell said that the uncertainty is “a tease and a setup of everywhere that we wish to go next season if we’re so lucky to get one.”