Although Smile’s ending, Smile 2’s closing scene reveals that a significant chunk of the story took place in the shattered mind of its disturbed heroine. However, where only ten minutes of Smile takes place in the heroine’s head, Smile 2’s ending is much more ambitious and ambiguous.

When whether Smile 2’s Morris was even real in the first place.

Smile and Smile 2’s Victims Suffer From Survivor’s Guilt

Rose and Skye Riley Share This Psychological Affliction

None of these specific details matter to Skye who, overwhelmed by the demon’s powers, ends up violently taking her own life after she succumbs to the entity. The Smile franchise’s demonic entity absorbs her just as it absorbed Rose in Smile’s ending and the sequel closes on the grisly revelation that Skye has jammed her microphone into her eye socket, killing her instantly. This would seemingly mean that Smile 2’s twist ending es the curse onto the thousands of concert attendees, meaning the next sequel in the series will need to follow dozens of new victims.

Exposing countless victims to the curse at the same time means Smile 3 will have a hard time finding one main character to focus on.

This is what derailed the Ring franchise, whose 2017 reboot Rings ended with its cursed videotape going viral. While it is a fun twist, exposing countless victims to the curse at the same time means Smile 3 will have a hard time finding one main character to focus on. Fortunately, the Smile movies have already secretly provided an answer to this plot hole. The Smile franchise’s victims all have one thing in common, namely survivor’s guilt, and this means not everyone from Skye’s concert is susceptible. Specifically, Skye and Rose felt they could have saved their mother and ex-boyfriend.

The Smile Franchise’s Demon Only Preys On Vulnerable Victims

Skye and Rose Have Pre-Existing Traumas Before Their Curses Begin

Meanwhile, Smile 2’s opening victim, Joel, was traumatized by seeing Rose die and thinking he could have saved her at the end of Smile. Thus, the Smile franchise’s demon might only be able to prey on people who are already psychologically vulnerable because they are living with the trauma of losing a loved one and feeling uniquely responsible for this death. Much of Smile’s runtime is devoted to Rose’s guilt over her mother’s overdose, while Smile 2’s big twist is the revelation that Skye was at least partially responsible for the crash that killed her boyfriend.

These revelations proved that the Smile franchise’s demon can’t necessarily pick its victims at random, and it might only be capable of feeding on people whose existing survivor’s guilt leaves them open to manipulation. This explains why both Skye and Rose are haunted when the demon takes the form of people from their past, whether it is Rose’s mother in Smile’s Stephen King-inspired ending or both Skye’s boyfriend and her younger self in Smile 2’s finale. This, in turn, provides an answer to Smile 2’s possible plot hole.

This Smile Series Twist Would Fix Smile 2’s Sequel Setup Plot Hole

Skye’s Concert Wouldn’t Necessarily Need To Curse Every Attendee

Smile 2’s ending seemed doomed to ruin the franchise just as it was getting into full swing. After all, a version of Smile 3 that tries to depict the breakdown of thousands of concert attendees in the week following Skye’s death would feel less like the intensely insular psychological horror of the first two movies and more like a full-blown epic disaster horror. However, Smile 2’s ending would not necessarily the curse on to everyone at the concert. Instead, only those who were already vulnerable due to earlier experiences of survivor’s guilt may be vulnerable.

Both the sequel and the original movie needed to follow an individual character’s perspective to feel uniquely scary

This would mean that Smile 3 could avoid having thousands of people all living through the curse at the same time, which would inevitably ruin the isolated atmosphere of the series. Smile 2’s critical success is owed in part to the sequel’s decision to ramp up its action and pace, but both the sequel and the original movie needed to follow an individual character’s perspective to feel uniquely scary. Luckily, Smile and Smile 2 already secretly justified the next movie’s singular viewpoint.