Eye-opening Swarm theory suggests that viewers have Marissa's death all wrong

Dre’s story begins with tragedy, however, as episode 1 of Swarm sees her best friend and foster sister Marissa die, leading to Dre going off the rails in subsequent episodes. But given Dre’s unreliable point of view, many have been left with questions about what exactly what happened to Marissa and how she died.

Marissa’s death in Swarm

Swarm begins with Dre and her former foster sister, Marissa, both living and working together.

The pair are almost inseparable and since childhood have shared a love for the music artist Ni’Jah, who is inspired by real-world pop star, Beyoncé.

For Marissa’s birthday, Dre buys the pair extortionately expensive tickets to see the singer, despite the fact that neither of them really have the money to afford it.

Their relationship is complicated by the presence of Marissa’s boyfriend, Khalid, who often lays into Dre for being weird or for not having lost her virginity.

As the episode progresses, Dre and Marissa get into an argument when ‘Ris’ reveals that she will have to pass on the Ni’Jah gig because Khalid has already invited her on a trip to Atlanta.

That night, Ni’Jah unexpectedly releases her latest album, called Festival, and after seemingly losing herself in the music, Dre uncharacteristically goes out to a club where she meets a young man and has sex with him.

The next morning, she wakes up to find a string of texts from Marissa, saying that she and Khalid had an argument over him cheating on her.

When Dre gets back to their apartment, however, she discovers Marissa’s dead body on the bed.

The discovery seemingly flicks a switch in Dre’s head, resulting in her beginning the bloody killing spree that takes place over the next few episodes, beginning with Khalid.

What happened to Marissa in Swarm and how did she die?

As the audience, we’re told that Marissa died after committed suicide in Swarm.

The show tells us this on multiple occasions, notably in episode 1 when Dre scrolls through social media and fans speculate that Marissa took her own life following the release of Ni’Jah’s latest album, believing it to mirror her own situation with Khalid.  

The belief that Marissa committed suicide crops up again in episode 6 when the show transforms into a true-crime documentary as it follows a detective called Loretta Greene who is attempting to solve Dre’s murders.

However, here’s where the story of Marissa Jackson in Swarm takes an interesting turn as the fictional character is based on a young woman of the same name who apparently committed suicide in the real world following the release of Beyoncé’s Lemonade album.

The story circulated all over social media but was eventually proved to be a hoax courtesy of the satirical news site Empire Herald and the ‘real’ Marissa Jackson never actually existed at all.

Instead, the hoax news story and rumors surrounding it ended up becoming the inspiration for Donald Glover and Janine Nabers when they were creating Swarm.

Theory suggests Dre might have killed Marissa

All of this leads to the theory that Dre might well have been responsible for Marissa’s death all along.

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The theory is proposed by Reddit user lezzymcguire1, who suggests that Dre killed Marissa after the pair argued about not going to see Ni’Jah and that a number of scenes in episode 1 point to Dre attempting to cover up her guilt.

One scene, in particular, sees Dre, who is usually quiet and reserved, venture out to a nightclub on her own where she confidently walks straight in past the waiting line and begins flirting with the first man she comes across, later going on to have sex with him.

This is totally out of character and suggests that the whole sequence could have been a hallucination to create an alibi in Dre’s head for what she was really doing.

On top of that, Dre later finds Marissa’s phone plugged into charge in the hallway outside their apartment. The phone is found hidden underneath a blood-covered bag from the convenience store where Dre recently cut her hand, suggesting that she put the phone there herself.

If this is the case, then she could well have taken Marissa’s phone and sent the texts that were apparently from Marissa herself, again hoping to cover up what she had actually done.

One thing that we can gather from Swarm’s seven episodes is that Dre is an incredibly unreliable narrator as the events we’re shown aren’t always what match up with reality.

A perfect example of this comes in episode 7 when Dre storms the stage of a Ni’Jah concert and the singer tells the security guards to let her go. When she then walks up to Dre, Ni’Jah’s face is actually Marissa’s and the pair leave together.

There is no way that this is what actually happened and it’s worth noting that the episode is called ‘Only God Makes Happy Endings’ after all.

The reality of the scene is actually revealed in episode 6 when Loretta learns that Dre had been arrested for storming the stage and she tells the documentary crew that she’s planning to head over there to question Dre about the murders.

Don’t be fooled by Marissa’s scar

The final piece of evidence that suggests Dre could have been the one to kill Marissa is the scar on her wrist.

We’re initially led to believe that Marissa’s scar Is the result of self-harm but in episode 6, we’re told of a sleepover that took place when Marissa and Dre were children that took a violent turn.

Marissa and her friends had been playfighting as part of a game devised by her friend Gwen and Dre misread the situation and attacked, even going as far as stabbing Gwen in a fit of rage.

If Marissa had attempted to drag Dre off Gwen, it’s highly likely that she also got hurt during the incident.

This is almost certainly why we see Dre kissing the scar on Marissa’s wrist in episode 1 as she feels guilty about hurting her sister, not because she self-harmed.

If Dre has already hurt Marissa once before, who’s to say she couldn’t do it again?

Swarm is available to stream now on Prime Video after releasing on Friday, March 17, 2023.

If you are affected by any issues raised in the article or would like someone to speak to, please call the Samaritans for free on 116 123. You can also email them at [email protected] or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch in the UK. In the US, please visit Samaritans USA for more information.

You can also contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text 741741 to get in touch with the Crisis Text Line. Americans can now call or text 988 to reach out and speak to a counsellor.

In other news, Who is Ni’Jah in Swarm and is she based on a real-life singer?