Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen's Sorry Man Myth Explained

Warning: This article includes MAJOR SPOILERS for Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen!

The Sorry Man myth plays a big role in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, and the truth of the situation is even more significant to Rachel’s story. Rachel and Nicky plan to get married at his family’s remote home in the snowy woods, but everything goes horribly awry in the Duffer Brothers’ new series.

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen has positive reviews and debuted with an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score. Netflix’s new horror show brings all the psychological fear, gore, and supernatural terror that a viewer could want. One of the biggest psychological horror elements, the Sorry Man, stretches across the first four episodes.

The Cunningham family lives in fear of a mythological being whom Jules encountered in childhood. He lives in the woods and kills without mercy. Ultimately, the myth and the truth of the Sorry Man have a significant impact on Rachel’s story. Here’s everything you need to know about him.

The Details Of The Sorry Man Myth In Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen

The Sorry Man myth looms over the first half of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, with most of Nicky’s family believing it’s false. The story goes that Jules ran away into the woods as a child. He thought he was alone, but he began to hear a woman screaming. No matter which direction he ran, it got louder and louder.

He saw a man with long, sharp, dirty fingernails and a distended belly. His mouth is open and downturned. To avoid the murderer, Jules hid. He watched as the Sorry Man cut open a woman with a knife, crying out “I’m sorry” repeatedly. The Sorry Man turned the woman inside out, and he continues to live out in the woods.

The myth of the Sorry Man scared Nicky and Portia so much that the Cunningham parents banned any mention of the murderer. However, Portia still sees the story as a spooky story that someone would tell around a campfire. When she shares it with Rachel and Jude, she tells them that the sorry man isn’t interested in little boys. The murderer is summoned with blood and only takes brides.

The myth feels like something we could read in Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. Despite Portia’s flippancy about the Sorry Man, Rachel and Jude clearly believe the story, though their interpretation of it is slightly different. Jude takes every word as true. He believes it so deeply that he created a terrifying stick doll with Rachel’s wedding dress to trick the Sorry Man into leaving Rachel alone.

Rachel believes the Sorry Man is a serial killer, but she doesn’t necessarily think he’s summoned by blood and turns women inside out. Similarly, Jules looks genuinely terrified every time the Sorry Man is mentioned. He clearly went through something that affected him, even if it wasn’t identical to the story that Portia told Rachel.

The Sorry Man Is Rachel’s Father (& He’s Not A Serial Killer)

Jay Harkin stands in front of a TV with static in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen

Early in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Rachel suspects that Nicky’s father is the Sorry Man serial killer. In a shocking twist, Rachel’s reclusive father is actually the Sorry Man. That being said, he’s not a serial killer. He isn’t summoned by blood. He doesn’t murder women. He doesn’t have sharp, long, dirty fingernails or a distended belly.

All of these incorrect and fantastical details about the Sorry Man can be attributed to the power of myths. As with most myths and urban legends, the terrifying story began with a tiny kernel of truth. Jules did have an experience with a man who cut his wife open while crying “I’m sorry” over and over, which I’ll dissect in the next section.

However, Jules likely misremembered some details because of his young age, and he may have given his parents an unclear explanation of the event. The story grew more exaggerated with each retelling, as each person influenced the overall narrative. Eventually, the myth in Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen became something entirely unbelievable.

What Really Happened The Night Of The Sorry Man Incident

Rachel's mom Ali is dead on the floor covered in blood in Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen — Victoria Pedretti is covered in blood in Netflix’s Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Duffer Brothers

The day that Jules ran away, he went through the woods and found a cabin. He went inside. When two people came inside, he hid under the bed. He could only see the footsteps and the floor, so he had to fill in the blanks on everything that happened.

Although Jules couldn’t see this, Jay put on music while Ali waited by the bed. Blood started pouring from her nose and eyes, and then she collapsed to the floor. Jules, understandably, assumed that the man had killed her. After all, how else would she be so bloody?

Jay came down to check on her, and she was dying. To save Rachel’s life, Jay had to cut open Ali’s stomach to deliver the baby via C-section. This is how the “turned a woman inside out” part developed. Jay left with the baby. Eventually, the Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen character returned home.

How The Sorry Man Connects To The Show’s Superstition Theme

Nicky and Rachel cuddle up at their rehearsal dinner in episode 5 of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen

From the start, everyone treats Rachel like she’s completely unhinged for believing that something bad is going on. They act like she’s just paranoid and superstitious, never taking her seriously. However, her feeling of dread isn’t wrong. Rachel just misplaces the source, thinking the family is going to kill her instead of the marriage killing her.

Similarly, nobody considers that Jules’ experience with the Sorry Man might be true. Instead, they think Jules made up the story to scare his siblings. They act like his fear of the man in the woods is baseless. In reality, he’s not wrong for fearing the Sorry Man. He’s just misunderstanding the incident he witnessed, which influences how he acts towards others and thinks about his family. His unresolved trauma made him a mean person.

It’s important that both the “crazy” people in the story are actually the ones grounded in reality. This reinforces Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’s message that wariness isn’t always paranoia, beliefs aren’t always superstitions, children aren’t always imagining things, memory isn’t always faulty, and so on. It challenges everyone to expand their worldview and consider alternative perspectives.

The Netflix horror show establishes that the world won’t always believe things that folks can’t prove. Rachel directly tells Jude at the end of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen that he cannot let anyone ever tell him that his traumatic experience wasn’t real, and he needs to be extremely careful about who he marries. Jude is the stand-in for the show’s audience at that moment.