Warning: spoilers for Smile 2.

pop star Skye Riley, who’s preparing for a new world tour after a traumatic accident and her recovery from substance-use disorder.

The Smile entity begins to torment Skye during rehearsals, at home, and with the people closest to her. Desperate for help and feeling alone, Skye reaches out to her former best friend Gemma, who she stopped talking to after calling her names via text. Gemma quickly replies and makes amends with Skye, and stays with her that night. However, near the end of Smile 2, it’s revealed that every one of Gemma’s appearances was a product of the Smile entity’s hallucinations, and there were a couple of clues to this throughout the movie.

7 Gemma Immediately Calls Skye Back

After Not Talking For About A Year, Gemma Answers Too Fast

Skye has a lot of unresolved trauma throughout Smile 2, which makes her the perfect target for the Smile entity. Her career and fame had taken a toll on Skye for years, developing substance-use disorder that only got worse after a car accident in which her boyfriend and famous actor, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson), died. Skye struggled to get back on her feet and get clean, and some of her personal relationships were deeply affected by all this, among them her friendship with Gemma, who she was best friends with for years.

Before the events of Smile 2, Skye sent very aggressive and insulting messages to Gemma that effectively ended their friendship. Now recovered and preparing for her new tour, Skye’s mother (and manager) Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt) tells Skye to get an assistant and suggests Gemma for it. After some hesitation, Skye decides to reach out to Gemma and texts her, in hopes of reconnecting with her former best friend. Gemma calls Skye just minutes after the text and, despite what happened between them, Skye doesn’t do much damage control.

6 The Time Dilation On Gemma’s Arrival To Skye’s Apartment

Skye Loses All Sense Of Time

Many things about the Smile entity are still a mystery, but both Smile movies so far have given enough details to understand the basics of it. The Smile entity feeds off the trauma of its hosts, using it and their most painful memories to torture them through vivid hallucinations. Throughout Smile, it was somewhat easy to identify when Rose was experiencing a hallucination and when things were really happening to and around her. Smile 2 messed with the entity’s hallucinations a lot more, making it harder to know what was real and what wasn’t.

This is key to the overall viewing experience of Smile 2 as it makes the audience part of Skye’s story, as neither Skye nor viewers are sure of what’s real and what’s a product of the torture inflicted by the Smile entity. One of the ways the entity messes with Skye in Smile 2 is by making her lose track of time, which happens multiple times throughout the movie. One of them is when, after her phone call with Gemma, she sees an obsessive fan in her apartment, naked, and ready to attack her.

This hallucination doesn’t last more than a couple of minutes, and when Skye runs to the door to escape from him, Gemma is already there, waiting for Skye to open. Skye questions how she got there so fast, with Gemma telling her that their call happened an hour ago. Of course, that’s not true, as the phone call, the naked fan, and Gemma’s arrival were all created by the Smile entity.

5 Gemma Forgives Sky Way Too Fast

Gemma Is Unbothered By Skye’s Past Insults

Although Smile 2 doesn’t properly explain what happened between Gemma and Skye, there are enough bits of information to piece together a believable reason. While Elizabeth doesn’t think that what happened between Gemma and Skye was a big deal and the latter could ask the former to be her assistant, the audience later gets a look at the last messages Skye sent, and they were a big deal. Skye repeatedly insulted Gemma, who did well at distancing herself.

Skye was a pretty toxic person to be around, and it’s possible Gemma tried to help her and Skye reacted aggressively.

During the height of her substance-use disorder and the aftermath of the accident, Skye was a pretty toxic person to be around, and it’s possible Gemma tried to help her and Skye reacted aggressively. Whatever the case and the real reasons behind Skye and Gemma’s fallout, the very strong words used by Skye are not something anyone would easily forgive and forget. When Gemma calls Skye back, she’s more concerned about Skye’s current situation than why she’s so casually reaching out again and not exactly apologizing.

Gemma quickly agrees to meet Skye at her place and brushes off what happened between them. This, of course, is a relief for Skye, who is already going through a lot between her career, past trauma, and now the Smile entity, but it was just the latter beginning to mess with her in a very personal way. As confirmed later on when the real Gemma calls Skye, she wouldn’t have forgiven Skye so easily.

4 Skye’s Mom Doesn’t Notice Gemma In The Apartment

Gemma Even Says Hello To Her

After quickly arriving at Skye’s apartment and forgiving Skye, Gemma agrees to spend the night at Skye’s apartment. After the hallucination of the naked fan in her apartment and the many other ways the entity had already messed with her, Skye understandably doesn’t want to be alone at home. However, Skye wakes up in the middle of the night and talks to a sleeping Gemma, opening up about their past, her struggles, and more. A sleepy Gemma tells her she’s a horrible person, and when Skye turns to her, she finds Gemma smiling at her.

Elizabeth arrives and hurries Skye up, but she doesn’t notice Gemma in the room, even when Gemma says “hi” to her.

In one of many jumpscares in Smile 2, Gemma’s face suddenly lights up like a car light and makes an unsettling sound. Skye jumps out of bed and it’s suddenly morning, another example of time dilation caused by the entity. Gemma appears with two mugs of matcha for her and Skye, but Skye realizes she’s running late and, again, is rude to Gemma. Elizabeth arrives and hurries Skye up, but she doesn’t notice Gemma in the room, even when Gemma says “hi” to her.

Given how much Elizabeth insisted that Skye reconnect with Gemma and offer her to be her assistant, it’s strange that she wouldn’t have been happy to see her at Skye’s apartment and say “hello” to her. Even if they were both rushing, Elizabeth definitely would have seen Gemma if she had truly been there.

3 Gemma Never Replies To Skye’s Texts

Gemma Suddenly Stops Talking To Skye Again

Skye tries to initiate again with Gemma through text and Gemma calls her minutes later, but she never replies to her texts. After spending the night at Skye’s apartment, it’s understood that they are friends again, and it’s expected that Gemma will appear more often… but she doesn’t. Skye is busy with rehearsals for her world tour and different public appearances, so she doesn’t really have time to meet Gemma again, but she keeps with her – or, at least, tries to.

Skye gets a call from the real Gemma, who questions her about all her “random” text messages and tells her to stop texting her.

Skye texts Gemma, but she never replies, and she desperately asks her to come over, spend the night again, or simply meet with her as she spirals more and more due to the Smile entity. Skye and Gemma don’t meet again until the former escapes from the private hospital Elizabeth took her to, and Gemma takes her to meet Morris. It’s during that car ride that Skye gets a call from the real Gemma, who questions her about all her “random” text messages and tells her to stop texting her after what happened between them.

2 Gemma Doesn’t Interact With Other Characters

Gemma Only Talks To Skye

Perhaps the biggest clue to Smile 2’s big Gemma twist is that she doesn’t interact with any other characters, just Skye. The morning after Gemma stays with Skye, Elizabeth doesn’t notice her, and the scene cuts right after Gemma greets her, not waiting for an answer. That’s the only interaction the fake Gemma has with another character, but obviously, Elizabeth was never going to have any reaction to her. The only other time Gemma could have interacted with someone else is outside the hospital when Skye escapes after supposedly killing her mother.

The point of the Smile entity is to isolate Skye, and the best way to do so is through someone Skye trusts and who gives her some sense of safety and stability.

Gemma says Elizabeth’s driver took her there, but the driver does not react to her when Skye pulls him out of the car at gunpoint. The point of the Smile entity is to isolate Skye, and the best way to do so is through someone Skye trusts and who gives her some sense of safety and stability – and who is better than her former best friend, even more if she easily forgives and forgets what happened between them.

1 Gemma Conveniently Appears Outside The Hospital

Gemma Appears Right When Skye Needs Her Most

In fact, Gemma always conveniently appears when Skye needs her the most in Smile 2. Gemma quickly calls Skye after the first text, Gemma arrives too fast to Skye’s apartment (despite telling her she would be there in approximately 45 minutes), she suddenly appears behind Skye the morning after, and she appears outside the hospital when Skye escapes. The latter is a huge giveaway, as Gemma simply appears with two coffees when Skye gets out of the hospital with a gun, and tells Skye she was driven there by her mother’s chauffeur.

Gemma leads Skye to the car and they leave, which is also quite convenient as Skye is desperate to get to the abandoned Pizza Hut and meet Morris. The Smile entity reached new levels of evil but also intelligence in how it messed with Skye and manipulated her and her reality, and the Gemma twist, while shocking, it’s also one of the most brilliant parts of Smile 2.