‘Below’ Ending Explained: Does Calvin Kill the Monster? Does the Monster Kill Calvin?

What to Watch Genres Romance Children's/Family Comedy Drama Documentary/Reality Music Platforms HBO Max Netflix Peacock Moods Fun Frisky Nostalgic Intense Adventurous Choked Up Curious Romantic Weird More From Decider Skip to main content New Shows & Movies To Watch This Weekend: Netflix’s ‘The… Sydney Sweeney’s Steamiest ‘Euphoria’ Moments, From… Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Roast Of Kevin Hart’ On Netflix,… Canceled TV Shows 2026: Which Of Your Favorite Shows Got The Axe? 11 Best New Movies on Netflix: May 2026’s Freshest Films to Watch ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Episode 6 Recap: The Burning Tree Netflix 2026 Summer Movie Preview: ‘Office Romance,’… Kelly Ripa Warns Nikki Glaser She Can See Her “Underpants” On… Where to Stream: Below (2026) Powered by Reelgood More On: Josh Hartnett Stream It or Skip It: ‘Below’ on Netflix, Where Josh Hartnett Faces Down A Sea Monster In Newfoundland How Long Is ‘Verity’ In Theaters? What We Know About the ‘Verity’ Streaming Release Date Is the ‘Verity’ Movie Streaming on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video? 11 Best New Shows on Netflix: October 2026’s Top Upcoming Series to Watch Ever since Jaws brought horror to the waves, “There’s something in the water” has been a phrase that drips with menace. It’s the tagline for Netflix’s Below, creator Jesse McKeown’s oceanic epic about a small fishing town in Newfoundland, Canada fending off a colossal creature from the sea — as well as the sickness, madness, and other unexplained phenomena that come with it.

**Spoilers for all six episodes of Below, now streaming on Netflix**

By the show’s sixth episode, fisherman and father Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett) knows exactly what he’s dealing with (spoiler alert!): a gigantic deep-sea squid like nothing his scientist friend Dr. Fonda Lee (Mackenzie Davis) has ever seen before. But Calvin himself has: It’s the same creature that killed his father decades earlier.

It falls to Calvin, Fonda, and Calvin’s troubled son Wade (Charlie Heaton) to save the town of Snooks Arm, both from the berserk cephalopd and the evil corporation that wants the townsfolk cleared out so they can dig for precious metals in the land beneath them.

How does this trio of unlikely heroes pull it off? Does the squid live to swim another day? And what does the ominous final shot really mean? We’ve got the answers below…

By the final episode, Fonda has figured out that the reason the squid is acting so aggressively so far from its natural habitat is that it has an egg sac tucked away in the massive iceberg that floated into the harbor at Snooks Bay. Meanwhile, the animal has become such a threat to human life that the Canadian military is preparing a bombing run to end that threat permanently. 

The plan forces the evacuation of the town…which plays right into the hands of Jim Crocker (Frank Moore). This unscrupulous CEO has been secretly mining precious metals in other remote communities that have been resettled by the Canadian government as a cost-cutting measure; this way, he never has to cut a deal with the locals and pay them their fair share. The squid is the perfect pretext to kick out the people of Snooks Arm, who’ve proven difficult to persuade otherwise.

So Calvin comes up with a plan of his own. By shooting the iceberg down to a smaller size, then towing it deeper out to sea, they can safely lure the squid away from civilization. This will spare not only the town, but the animal itself, which as far as they know is the last of its kind. Working together on the water for the first time, Calvin and Wade lasso the iceberg and drag it away, with the squid following peacefully. 

In the end, Calvin makes his peace with the creature. Perhaps more importantly, the squid apparently makes its peace with him, and doesn’t eat Calvin, Wade, or any more of their family or friends, Fonda included.

Yes, unfortunately. Sinking down to the depths below the place Calvin settles the iceberg, it sacrifices its own life to give nutrients to its young as they prepare to hatch. They swim away, momentarily hinting at an optimistic future for the ancient species.

But Fonda throws cold water, or rather hot water, on this theory right away. She tells her assistant that the water has simply gotten too warm for the young squid to survive. “And it’s just getting warmer,” she adds, depressingly. “And who knows what’s next?”

A year after the events of the rest of the series, Snooks Arm is a boom town, with the story of the squid attracting tourists and supporting bustling businesses. Fish have even returned, for some reason.

Maybe they’re scared. In the final moments of the show, Calvin and Wade stare in horror as an entire fleet of floating icebergs heads their way. Any one of them could be another “squidberg,” covered in toxic secretions that cause severe dehydration and eventually madness, with another ferocious cephalopod in tow. All of them are evidence that “what’s next,” as the waters grow warmer, is a catastrophe. 

There certainly can be one, after all. The ocean is apparently full of squid, and Calvin, Wade, Fonda, and all the other main characters from the Penney family are still alive to fight them. There are hints of romance between Calvin and Fonda. There’s the ongoing fight against the Crocker Group, led by Calvin’s sister Ruth (Willow Kean). There’s Wade’s erstwhile fiancée Maggie (Marthe Bernard), a young woman from a secret settlement on an abandoned island who kidnaps and seduces him while bearing a striking resemblance to the sailors’ tales of the Old Hag, a spirit of the seas. There’s even the mystery of how Maggie somehow acquired an engagement ring meant for Wade’s sister Mary (Ruby Stokes), even though she was nowhere near Snooks Arm at the time. Maybe something even more supernatural than giant squids is going on.

Sean T. Collins (@seantcollins.com on Bluesky and theseantcollins on Patreon) has written about television for The New York Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pain Don’t Hurt: Meditations on Road House. He lives with his family on Long Island.