Dead Boy Detectives follows two teen ghosts and their clairvoyant friend as they solve supernatural mysteries while an evil witch they get into the crosshairs with tries her best to destroy them. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Dead Boy Detectives, Charles and Edwin, solved paranormal cases in London. They’re joined by a psychic named Crystal Palace, who they help by exorcising her demon ex out of her.
Gradually, she starts lending her clairvoyant talents to the agency to crack the cases, and the reluctant Edwin begins to come around on her. Meanwhile, Charles keeps hitting on her and the two grow an intimate relationship.
One case takes them to America, where a powerful witch feeds young girls to the snake to remain beautiful and young. They deprive her of her victim and she seeks revenge.
Meanwhile, the Cat King takes an affinity to Edwin and binds him with a spell, prohibiting his travel outside the town through any means of transport, real or magical.
They’re joined by a new members in Crystal’s new housemate, Niko. They solve more cases as the witch brews a diabolical plan to get her revenge. Meanwhile, Afterlife’s Lost & Found department is after the boys.
The boys have to contend with a visit to hell, as Crystal has to deal with her demon. Both parties succeed, as the Lost & Found department is kept at bay. Meanwhile, Esther, the witch plays her hand.
She is ultimately defeated but this victory exacts a heavy toll. The dead boy detectives depart for London where the Lost & Found department spares them and leaves them with a new member, to continue their work.
Ending explained:
Esther’s plan
Esther has eternal life, but eternal youth eludes her. She maintains her grasp on it with a big magical snake, who when fed with young girls, keeps her youthful.
She has sacrificed hundreds of young girls to the serpent to keep off the wrinkles. Her latest change of ways entails achieving the same results, only way more efficiently and without young girls.
It is through a device that tortures a ghost and turns its pain into energy she feeds and enjoys the cosmetic and magical benefits of.
Edwin, having suffered such torment in hell, has by far the biggest threshold for pain. This means he can be her energy cow for eternity. She kidnaps him and pins him down to the machine.
The witch’s reckoning
However, Charles, Crystal, and Niko help free Edwin from Esther Finch.
Crystal goes inside her mind and summons Lilith, telling her about the injustice that hundreds of young women have had to endure because of the witch she granted immortality.
Lilith is enraged and in the real world, after Esther’s snake is killed by Charles, her youth disappears in an instant. She is instantly depowered.
Lilith arrives and drags her away with herself, as Esther screams and shouts in agony and fear.
Niko’s status
Niko dies from Esther’s magical attack, catching the arrow that was meant for Crystal. She bleeds to death rather quickly.
Crystal, Charles, and Edwin grieve her loss while Jenny contacts her mother in Japan, where her body is to be taken.
However, before the credits roll on the final episode of Dead Boy Detectives, the camera moves up to an igloo in the middle of an unknown tundra.
Inside it are sprites Litty and Kingham, talking to another person holding the same lucky charm in their hand as the one given to Niko by Tragic Mick.
A high probability is this hooded person is Niko; however, how she survived the ordeal is up for the next installment of Dead Boy Detectives to explain.
Fate of the Dead Boy Detectives Agency
The Night Nurse surprises the dead body detectives in their office. She is accompanied by her boss in the afterlife, a woman known as The Principal, who presides over the Lost & Found department.
She is there to pick up the boys but when she looks at the difficult cases they’ve solved, and, in doing so, have helped the department wrap up long-unresolved cases of missing ghosts, she gives them a second chance.
She allows Charles and Edwin to stay and continue their work, and leaves Night Nurse with them, ordering her to work as their operator. The boys are beyond relieved as the Night Nurse rues it all.
Meanwhile, Crystal is still in Port Townsend, helping Jenny clean up at her shop after the explosion. She has also formally joined the Dead Boy Detectives Agency, having buried David the demon inside her ancestral realm.
She has also seen what kind of person she used to be but is learning how not to let that continue to define her.
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