Goosebumps Season 1 Ending Explained: Kanduu's Plan & What Happens To Port Lawrence

The Goosebumps season 1 finale was packed with surprises, but the teens weren’t in a good place at the end. The Goosebumps 2023 season 1 finale might not have killed off the characters' parents as the villain threatened, but the ending was still surprisingly dark. Goosebumps 2023 has been a darker reinvention of author RL Stine’s iconic novel series throughout its ten-episode run. The show told the story of a group of teenagers plagued by cursed items and a possessed teacher, only to eventually discover that the ghost of Harold Biddle, a teenager their parents knew, was behind everything.

While the ending of Goosebumps episode 8 wrapped up the show's story, episode 9 saw the desperate Mr. Bratt (Justin Long) bring Slappy back to life so that he can finish his novel. Slappy wasn’t content living as a doll and soon convinced Bratt to return him to his human body. Slappy became Kanduu, the powerful sorcerer, and the Goosebumps 2023 season 1 finale, "Welcome to Horrorland," explained the entire backstory of this menacing figure. It turned out Kanduu was around before Slappy and his plan was darker than it seemed, spelling continued trouble after Goosebumps season 1's ending.

Kanduu's Backstory & How He Transformed Into Slappy

Kanduu's Experience Of War Made Him A Monster

Kanduu was originally a soldier who was shot on the battlefield. As he bled out, he hid in an underground tomb with walls that were covered in inscriptions. Reading one of these cured Kanduu’s seemingly lethal bullet wound, and he soon started to use this dark magic to his advantage. Whereas Goosebumps 2023’s original villain Harold Biddle just wanted to be popular in high school, Kanduu had loftier evil plans.

He saw war as a disease that ravaged humanity and argued that people could only be cured of this illness if they were given something much worse than each other to fear. When Kanduu met a carnival proprietor, Mahar, he offered him an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. The struggling carnival owner made beautiful puppets, but his business was failing.

Kanduu could perform real dark magic and was willing to help Mahar’s business once the character assisted his nefarious plans in return. While Mahar initially agreed to these terms, like both Bratt and Ephraim, he eventually reneged on the deal. Mahar then transformed Kanduu into Slappy the Dummy so that the villain wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else, even though Mahar lost his life in their ensuing scuffle.

Why Kanduu Turned The People Of Port Lawrence Into Dummies

The Goosebumps 2023 Villain Needed Compliant Subjects

Turning people into dummies was the only way to make them agree to Kanduu’s grisly plan. In the case of both Mahar and Bratt, Kandu met them at desperate points in their lives. Mahar wanted to keep his failing carnival open, while Bratt needed an ending for his novel lest he lose a valuable publishing opportunity. As such, they were willing to temporarily go along with Kanduu's plan.

However, both of them eventually backed out when they realized the plan was evil. Consequently, like many of RL Stine’s classic Goosebumps villains, Kanduu took this option to choose away from Port Lawrence’s residents, effectively freezing their consciousnesses by turning them into dummies.

Kanduu's Spiral Tower & Sacrifice Plan Explained

Kanduu Hoped To Kill Port Lawrence & Unleash Hell

Kanduu argued that unleashing a swarm of real-life monsters on the world would force humanity to unite under a common purpose, thus ensuring that all wars ended. To achieve this goal, he needed to sacrifice a thousand people by burning them alive in a ritual on a spiral tower.

Mahar initially accepted this setup but soon got cold feet, whereas Bratt never learned the details of Kanduu’s plan until it was too late. Goosebumps' teen characters were horrified by the idea, even though Kanduu seemed to think that their trauma would lead them to agree with his plan. Unfortunately for the magician, they were pretty effective at putting a stop to it.

How Isaiah, Margot & The Group Stopped Kanduu

A Clever Trick Confused The Magician

The group of teens tricked Kanduu into thinking that his old partner had returned from the grave when, in reality, Mr. Bratt was standing in for Mahar. This briefly worked and, for a moment, it looked as if things would end happily. However, in a nasty twist borrowed from RL Stine’s darker Goosebumps books, the villain caught on to their plan and broke out of his trance.

However, he was too late to stop Margot from reading the incantation that turned him human again and killed him. Still, Kanduu did manage to do a little more damage on his way out of Port Lawrence.

Isaiah's Death & Resurrection Explained

Margot's Incantation Seemingly Saved Isaiah's Life

Isaiah (Zack Morris) was shot in the Goosebumps 2023 season 1 finale after Margot (Isa Briones) found the right incarnation to stop Kanduu and the villain reverted to his soldier self. As his wounds killed him and he was dragged off to hell, Kanduu fired his service revolver and hit Isaiah in the chest. Things seemed bleak for Isaiah, but Margot spoke an incantation at the hospital that seemed to affect his health positively.

It is unclear whether the spell fully worked, but, since it was a reincarnation spell, the odds are good that Margot brought her love interest back to life. However, this might have had some unforeseen consequences for Mr. Bratt.

What Goosebumps' Final Scene Means For Mr. Bratt

Mr. Bratt Ended Up Possessed All Over Again

Possibly as a result of Margot reading an incantation to save Isaiah, Mr. Bratt became possessed again, this time by Kanduu rather than Harold Biddle. While bringing back the main villain Slappy in Goosebumps episode 9 meant that Bratt arguably deserved this fate, it was still grim to see him undergo the same traumatic process all over again.

If his hubris over finishing his novel hadn’t compelled him to revive Slappy, the antihero might have escaped the series with his life. As is, Isaiah’s ambiguous fate is Goosebumps 2023 season 1’s biggest cliffhanger, but Kanduu returning to possess Bratt means that the villain’s potential comeback is another major potential plot thread.

What Goosebumps Season 1’s Finale Really Means

The Heroes All Got A Fitting Fate In Goosebumps 2023's Season Finale

The Goosebumps 2023 season 1 finale sees all the show’s heroes fulfill their destinies for better or worse. Bratt’s inability to see past his own needs almost doomed the town, whereas the group of teens working together saved nearly everyone. Lucas’ (Will Price) willingness to accept an unrealistic fantasy as reality proves that he is too immature to move on to college and out of town, while Margot’s decision to read the incarnation proves that she really does love Isaiah after all.

Although the Goosebumps 2023 season 1 finale ended on a cliffhanger, the series showed the true colors of its heroes with this episode while leaving plenty of storylines to continue in a potential Goosebumps season 2.

How The Goosebumps Season 1 Ending Was Received

Fans Disliked Some Changes & Felt It Needed Better Pacing

There are a few things to note about the Goosebumps season finale. First, the show has been revealed to be an anthology series, so the second season will not be a continuation of the first season. Instead, it will tell a different story within the world of Goosebumps and even bring back some cast members, but they will play different roles. This goes against some fans' complaints from the season 1 finale. A Reddit thread started with fans discussing their problems with the ending:

"Everything, especially the last episode could have moved slower, fleshed out and given room to breathe. Slappy should have been built up more before revealing the truth. Slappy's the big bad of the series and a fan favorite at least in the books, he needed to be mysterious long enough to make the reveal satisfying. He spent a total of one episode as Kanduu before that was used up too. It could have been easily fit into an excellent second season."

Other fans showed disappointment with the changes to the story. The season changed Slappy's origin story and there were also complaints about Horrorland changing so drastically from the books. Redditor @GucciPiggy90 wrote, "The lack of anything resembling the actual Horrorland was a disappointment to me... Using "Horrorland" in the title feels like a cheat. At least You Can't Scare Me isn't a fan favorite, so most people aren't going to mind that the episode didn't resemble the book of the same name."

With that said, many fans loved the finale, but they wished Goosebumps had paced things better and let the twist play out longer. Redditor @NittanyEagles55 wrote, "Quite a packed finale, almost wish it was 2 parts (one for the background stuff for Kanduu). But an exciting showdown at the end regardless."