The Ending Of Case 39 Explained

After having rescued Lilith from an abusive family situation, Emily takes custody of the child while social services works on finding her a foster home. Not long after, strange events start to occur. One of the other children Emily is dealing with, Diego (Alexander Conti), kills his parents one night, much to everyone's surprise. Despite his own behavioral issues, Diego has been a mostly good-hearted child up to that point and is incredibly remorseful for what he's done. Even more concerning is that Diego received a call from Emily's house right before the murders, but the call didn't come from Emily herself.

An equally atrocious and even more bizarre incident occurs when Emily's close work friend, Doug (Bradley Cooper), kills himself when a swarm of angry hornets starts attacking him in his bathroom. The swarm is strange enough as it is, but what makes Doug's death even more peculiar is that he had recently told Lilith about his fear of hornets, which stems from his childhood. From this point, it's clear that there is something all too disturbing going on that Lilith appears to be at the center of. All of the people involved in these horrifying events have a specific fear — Doug was afraid of hornets, while Diego feared upsetting his family. This particular dynamic amplifies the horror of having our fears exploited and used against us, as well as the costs that can come with revealing too much about ourselves to the wrong people.