Lucy Gaymer and Sian Robins-Grace have taken our deep-rooted fears and phobias and have been able to give them a supernatural tinge, in the British limited series, “The Baby.” They have dealt with mental health issues, and concepts like postpartum psychosis and paedophilia, among many other things, and have weaved them in a fascinating manner into a narrative. The paranormal angle taken by the makers has given them a lot of bandwidth to experiment and not be restricted in any way. The makers have taken full advantage of the liberty at hand and have been successful in creating an idiosyncratic and intriguing screenplay that has elements of horror, gore humor, and a sort of analysis of individuals battling their own past, all sprinkled in equal proportions.
What Did The Baby Symbolize?
The baby was in complete control of Natasha. He was making her do terrible things. He wanted to have Natasha all to himself. She barely left the place and had stocked up whatever supplies she needed. Natasha was scared because she was aware of the terrible things that the baby was capable of doing. She took him to a birth and postnatal center named Strode, for a routine checkup. The doctor wanted to examine the newborn, but Natasha wasn’t allowing her to do so. The doctor thought that Natasha was unnecessarily getting stressed and she took the baby in her arms. Natasha attacked the doctor and then left the center with the baby. A similar incident happened when Natasha’s father came to meet her. He wanted to cook together and spend some quality time with his daughter. He noticed that she was in a harried state and was in desperate need of some assistance. He took the newborn inside, put him in his cradle, but as soon as he came out, Natasha attacked him, as she was possessed by the baby.
Mrs. Eaves, who was in reality Nour, Helen’s lover, had lost all hope. She had parked her car outside Natasha’s house and used to sleep there herself. She knew that the baby owned Natasha now, and no matter how much she tried to mitigate the inevitable, the only recourse available was to kill the newborn, which the latter wasn’t agreeing to. Natasha thought that if she kept the baby by herself and gave him the love that he had always desired, then he wouldn’t be so violent and would refrain from hurting people. But Natasha was wrong. The kid had an extremely obsessive behavior and demanded undivided attention. He didn’t like anybody touching him or suggesting Natasha to get rid of him.
Bobbi met Sam, her partner, probably for the very last time. She had packed all of Sam’s stuff and had come to drop it off. Bobbi had been wanting to adopt a kid, but the social worker had turned her request down. She hadn’t met Sam for the longest time as she was stuck with Natasha in Jupiter House. Sam fails to acknowledge her problems, and instead of pacifying a grief-stricken Bobbi, she tells her to quickly come on stage and give the audition, for which they have been preparing for quite some time now. Bobbi came on stage, created a scene, and left Sam in the middle of the performance. Bobbi had always been a people pleaser, and somewhere, Sam’s cold reaction triggered a rebellion inside her. She was done pleasing everyone and decided to be totally non-cooperative. But Sam never intended to hurt Bobbi. Sam was minutes away from going on stage, and her future depended upon the audition. In fact, Sam never voiced her concerns, but she did feel neglected in the relationship. She felt that everything was always about Bobbi, her problems, her desires, and her aspirations, but not even once did she see what Sam was going through. Bobbi’s life was in a mess, and she didn’t know where to start. Sam tells her that her sister Natasha might pretend to be strong, but she needed her at that moment more than ever. Bobbi decides to visit her sister. She finds Mrs. Eaves sitting in her car, and asks her what she had been up to and what exactly the newborn wanted. Mrs. Eaves told her that the baby was made of something really “old.” Certain patterns of human behavior have existed, in some form or another, since the inception of life on this planet. Human beings have this incessant need to be loved, and this very need becomes the root cause of a lot of fears. Sometimes the fear of being abandoned enwraps us and transforms us into something so violent that people start to fear us. The newborn, when it didn’t get any love from Helen, had vowed in silent fervor to avenge the injustice that he had been subjected to and give the world a taste of its own medicine. He was like that tree that had been sown in hatred and had grown to detest the world around it so much that it decided to not let anybody rest in its shade.
Ending Explained – Was Natasha Able To Kill The Baby?
Mrs. Eaves had always thought that she had made the newborn the way it was, but in reality, the world had nurtured him to become such a monster. Bobbi goes inside Natasha’s house and realizes that her father had been there before. She asked Natasha about the same, but the latter lied about the fact. Bobbi drops a glass on the floor and pretends to go inside to get a towel to clean up the mess. She wanted to find her father, as she knew that Natasha had hidden him somewhere inside the house. She finds him lying in the bedroom in a wounded state. The baby gets to know what Bobbi was trying to do. Natasha asks Bobbi to run for her life, as she knows that he would make her do terrible things to her sister. But Bobbi isn’t able to escape. Mrs. Eaves, who had been sleeping in her car, gets distracted by the commotion happening inside Natasha’s house. She goes inside and finds Bobbi trapped inside a cupboard. After helping Bobbi come out of the closet, she goes into the room where the newborn was present. She tries to make him sleep, but Natasha intervenes, once again possessed by the little one, and stabs Mrs. Eaves. She takes the baby with her to the same cliff from where the newborn had fallen into her arms. A terrified Bobbi follows her, together with an injured Mrs. Eaves. She finds Natasha sitting on a cliff with the baby. Bobbi tries to calm her down and tells her that she knows it was not her who committed all those harrowing acts. Natasha questions her own existence and tells Bobbi that she doesn’t know what is the purpose of her life. Bobbi tells her that contrary to what she thinks, the newborn cannot give her life a purpose. Bobbi tells her that sometimes in life it is not about the end goal, but about the little moments of joy, of care and affection, that make all the difference.
She urges her to let the newborn go and end it once and for all. Just then, a limping Mrs. Eaves arrives at the scene and asks to hold the baby and wish him goodbye. Without giving anybody a chance to react, Mrs. Eaves jumps from the cliff with the baby. Natasha jumps after her and saves Mrs. Eaves from drowning. They believed that their nightmare had finally ended. Natasha apologizes to her friends, Mags and Rita, and promises to be there for them no matter what. Bobbi goes back to entertaining the kids with her magic tricks, and Natasha knew that she had to help her younger sister break free from the shackles of her past.
Where on one hand, Natasha, Bobbi, and Mrs. Eaves were looking forward, in anticipation, to the exciting possibilities that life had in store for them, a toddler crawled out of the water. The evil baby had not died; it was still pretty much alive. With Season 1 leaving us on a cliffhanger, it is still unknown how the wrath of the newborn could be put to an end. An individual can still be dealt with, but how do you fight intrinsic emotions embedded deep inside the human soul? Season 2 would probably delve into it and provide Natasha and others with the much-needed answers.
See More: Episode 7: Recap And Ending, Explained – Is Mrs. Eaves Able To Kill Jack?
