The following contains spoilers for Black Phone 2Black Phone 2 brings back the Grabber in a surprising (and effective) way. The sequel to 2021’s The Black Phone, the new film brings back Mason Thames as Finny and Madeleine McGraw as Gwen. Over four years, they’ve tried to move on from the trauma of his attack. However, the threat of the Grabber hasn’t been fully resolved.
A far more supernatural film than the first one, Black Phone 2 expands the powers of certain characters and establishes more rules about how ghosts and psychic abilities work in this universe. Along the way, the movie also reveals the true history of the Grabber, and his secret connection to Finny and Gwen’s long-ᴅᴇᴀᴅ mother.
How The Grabber Returns For Black Phone 2
The Grabber appears in Black Phone 2 as a vengeful spirit, giving him a new host of powers. Years after the first film, Gwen keeps dreaming about three murdered children from the same camp. The three are steadily revealed to have been the first victims of the Grabber, their lingering fear empowering his lingering spirit.
The Grabber is revealed to have power at the campground, confirming that the lingering souls of those victims fuel the murderous spirit. The Grabber appears to Gwen in her dreams, and he proves capable of attacking and injuring her in the real world in a similar way to Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
The Grabber confirms that after his death, he was sent to hell. This led to his soul being hollowed out, with only the worst aspects of himself remaining. This is the enтιтy that is attacking Gwen, with the Grabber intending to kill her as revenge against Finny for tricking him into killing his own brother in the first film.
The Grabber is even able to attack other people in the real world while near the campground, leading to the film’s climax. The source of his power also proves to be his weakness, as finding the bodies of the three boys so they can finally be laid to rest weakens the Grabber and gives Gwen a chance to fight back.
Gwen’s Powers In Black Phone 2, Explained
Gwen was established to have some psychic potential in The Black Phone, but the sequel’s shift in focus towards her also reveals more about her abilities. In Black Phone 2, Gwen communicates with the spirits of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ through her dreams. This is how the Grabber’s first three victims contact Gwen, helping lead her to the camp.
Gwen’s abilities only grow as the film progresses. She’s able to establish something of a connection with her long-ᴅᴇᴀᴅ mother, seemingly transcending space and time to communicate with a version of her from years earlier. Gwen also gradually comes to realize her full power in the dream world, learning to fight back against the Grabber.
This proves crucial to the climax of Black Phone 2, with Gwen using her abilities in the dreamscape to fight back against the Grabber and help fish the bodies of the three boys out of a frozen lake. This allows the spirits to help fight the Grabber, ending their suffering and effectively stopping the Grabber once and for all.
How Black Phone 2 Retcons The Connection Between The Grabber And Finn’s Mother
One of the big reveals in Black Phone 2 is the fate of Finny and Gwen’s mother, Hope. Hope is revealed to have had the same abilities as Gwen, suggesting they are pᴀssed down along their family line. While Gwen got the bulk of the psychic potential, it also explains why Finny has some ability to communicate with the deceased.
Hope is revealed to have been a counselor at the same camp the Grabber once worked at. Known as Wild Bill Hickok by the faculty and campers, the Grabber got his first few kills while at the camp. In later years, Hope’s own psychic abilities allowed her to witness Bill capturing a local paperboy (implied to be Billy).
However, the Grabber saw her come to his house to confirm this and captured her before she could inform the authorities. It was the Grabber who murdered Hope, framing the death as a suicide to hide suspicion. This gives Finny and Gwen extra incentive to bring down the Grabber once and for all, avenging their mother in the process.
This also adds a darker layer to the first film by giving the Grabber a deeper connection to Finny and Gwen. Having been to their house and now aware of who their mother was, the Grabber’s eventual focus on Finny feels far more malicious and targeted in retrospect.
The True Meaning Of Black Phone 2
Black Phone 2 is a film about faith and trauma, especially once the conflict with the Grabber becomes the overt focus of the narrative. Finny is depicted as reeling from the events of the first film, burying his trauma under a layer of blunt teenage snark and marijuana. When Gwen finally confronts him on this, Finny breaks down in tears.
His trauma is fueled not just by his lingering fury over what happened to him, but by the fear that remains inside him. He tearfully admits he doesn’t want to be scared or angry anymore. This is why he initially doesn’t help the three young ghosts, and explains much of his stand-offish personality in the first act of the film.
Overcoming that trauma by overtly confronting it proves to be the key, with Finny even delivering some pretty harsh blows to the Grabber once he’s weakened enough by Gwen and the others for other real people to interact with his invisible form. By the end of the film, Finny has adjusted and overcome his trauma in a powerfully emotional way.
The other big element of the film is faith. Gwen admits to her love interest Ernesto that she prays to Jesus, and her faith is eventually revealed to have merit. While the Grabber was sent to hell following his death, a final conversation between Gwen and her mother’s spirit quietly confirms the existence of heaven.
Black Phone 2 isn’t necessarily an inherently Christian movie, however. A minor thorn in Gwen’s side for much of the film is Barbara, a fundamentalist woman who works at the camp. The two bristle upon their first meeting, Barbara’s holier-than-thou atтιтude conflicting with Gwen’s coarse language.
Barbara even initially refuses to help locate the bodies of the children or protect Gwen, only relenting alongside her husband when ranch hand Mustang calls them out for being poor Christians. This highlights the film’s focus on the importance of genuine faith and goodwill, as opposed to a surface-level use of the Bible as a cudgel.
Ultimately, Black Phone 2 uses faith as a shield. It’s the ghosts’ faith in Gwen that leads to their salvation, and Finny’s faith in his sister that prompts him to help her. Black Phone 2 uses those elements to make a point about the power of belief and the importance of applying it to friends, family, and strangers.
