Final Destination Bloodlines‘ Erik has the film’s most brutal death, but the motivation behind it is a bit more complicated than it initially appears. In the Final Destination franchise, Death operates as an unseen and overarching nemesis, causing catastrophes and then picking off any survivors who might have escaped thanks to a premonition. Death also has a number of specific rules that it seems to follow in the films, determining who dies and in what order. This allows the main characters to a chance to escape his design (even if most fail).

It’s possible to have Death skip over someone (at least temporarily) by taking another life. Final Destination 2 proved that Death can even fully pᴀss by a victim if they are killed and then revived. These rules are at the center of Final Destination Bloodlines‘ ending, which builds up from another rule — the descendants of unintended survivors are also marked for death. Erik Campbell initially seems to be an exception to that rule, but there’s another reason he survived his initial brush with Death. This doesn’t extend to his eventual fate, however, as another rule supersedes it.

Erik Was Spared From Death Because Of His True Family

Death’s plan initially spares Erik because of his lack of a blood relation to a previous survivor, but interfering in Death’s newest design quickly gets him taken out. In the world of Final Destination, Death seems to operate as an unseen but conscious force, using the world around its victims to pick them off while following its rules. This is the main crux of Final Destination Bloodlines.

The film deals with the fallout of Iris (a survivor of an intended disaster in 1969) finally allowing herself to be taken by Death to warn her family of what’s coming. It doesn’t take long for her children and grandchildren to be targeted. Erik is seemingly doomed while alone at his tattoo parlor, the film cutting away before his death.

However, Erik actually survives his initial brush with death following the demise of his father, Howard. This turns out to be because Howard wasn’t his biological father. Erik is instead the result of an affair his mother had. It seems that Death spared Erik for this reason, as Erik’s situation looked positively bleak before he escaped off-screen.

This is actually one of Final Destination Bloodline‘s most interesting plot beats, especially for what it means for the franchise as a whole. This proves suggests Death has a sick sense of humor. Erik’s scene in the tattoo parlor is set up in a similar manner to Death’s other kills.

This suggests that Death set up Erik’s near-death experience for the fun of it and never actually intended to take him. Even if Death didn’t actually claim him in this sequence, the unseen enтιтy is physically and mentally torturing Erik during the beat.

There’s almost a sense of cruelty to this fake-out, especially as Erik deals with the sudden demise of the man he always knew as his father. Death spares Erik because of their different bloodlines, but this doesn’t save him when he breaks another rule.

Death Still Killed Erik For Interfering In The Plan

Erik is killed later in the film while trying to save his brother Bobby. This is after the group speaks with William Bludworth, the last survivor of the catastrophe that Iris prevented decades prior, who reveals the rules as he knows them. This includes the fate of Kimberly Corman, who technically died but was then resuscitated in Final Destination 2.

However, doing this consтιтutes messing with Death’s plan. This, as described by Bludworth, is when “things get messy,” with Bludworth implying Death will snuff out any plans quickly and brutally. Erik ignores this warning and devises a plan to save Bobby, which ultimately results in Death claiming Erik while he’s trying to help Bobby escape his fate.

While Death never appears on screen and expands on the motivation behind Erik’s particularly brutal demise, it seems to be the realization of Bludworth’s previous comments. This also plays into comments from Final Destination Bloodlines directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, who compared Death to a “fisherman” while describing the enтιтy’s sense of “playfulness.”

While Erik might have been spared and could have even technically survived the entire film because of his lack of a direct blood relation to Iris, his decision to remain involved and to actively interfere in the death of his brother sealed both their fates. It’s worth noting that Erik’s death is also one of the most graphic and painful in the film.

Erik’s death is caused by a malfunctioning MRI, which rips all of Erik’s piercings out before he’s impaled and eventually cut in two by a wheelchair that is also drawn in by the magnetic machine. Erik might have had a chance to escape Death in Final Destination Bloodlines, but his refusal to follow Bludworth’s suggestions ultimately doomed him to the movie’s worst fate.