Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Watcher season 1While The Watcher’s twisty plot is not easy to predict, one major spoiler is foreshadowed by a clever casting choice. The Watcher tells the eerie true story of 657 Boulevard in Westfield, New Jersey. The house was home to the Braddock family until a mysterious figure known only as the Watcher began sending the clan threatening letters warning them against changing anything about the house. While The Watcher's realistic and ambiguous ending doesn't address the identity of the titular antagonist, one of the show's major twists is actually set up through a clever casting gag.
Until the surprising dénouement, The Watcher goes all out casting suspicion on a range of goofy, campy villains ranging from Jennifer Coolidge’s duplicitous realtor Karen to the creepy (and fictional) John Graff. One of the most likely suspects is Pearl, but the fact that she is played by Rosemary’s Baby star Mia Farrow accidentally also gives away a major revelation that doesn’t come to light until after her introduction in The Watcher. Namely, the central role of a secretive society in Polanski's landmark horror actually signposts the role of the Preservation Society in The Watcher, indicating the organization's sinister presence through Farrow's casting.
Who Mia Farrow Plays In The Watcher
In The Watcher, screen veteran Mia Farrow plays Pearl, the head of the Preservation Society and an all-around nosy neighbor. While her willingness to align herself with The Watcher's resident serial killer John Graff makes Pearl a suspicious figure, there is another reason that viewers might suspect her character from the second she first appears in The Watcher. Pearl claims that her Preservation Society is a perfectly normal homeowner’s association dedicated to keeping the Boulevard’s history intact, but anyone familiar with Farrow’s most iconic role won’t fall for that line since Farrow made a name for herself playing a character who is preyed upon by a group similar to the Preservation Society in Rosemary's Baby. Thus, Farrow's presence somewhat gives the game away, whether deliberately or not.
Why Mia Farrow’s Casting Is A Clever Gag
The reason that Farrow’s casting is a genius gag in The Watcher is that Pearl’s actor played Rosemary in Rosemary’s Baby. That iconic horror heroine was terrorized and driven to the brink of madness by the antics of her old, haunted, seemingly idyllic apartment building’s creepy secret society. Much like The Watcher’s all-important address 657 Boulevard could be haunted or could be a beacon for weird, obsessive, and potentially dangerous characters, Rosemary’s apartment building the Bradford was home to dozens of tragic accidents that may all have a sinister explanation. The twist at the end of Rosemary’s Baby—that all these events were coordinated by the Bradford’s Satan-worshipping residents—is an early indication that the Preservation Society isn't as harmless as they seem.
Pearl’s Actor Gives Away One Twist
The shocking revelation that Jasper sneaks into 657 Boulevard house to play in the dumbwaiter isn’t that much of a shock to anyone familiar with the story of Rosemary’s Baby, since Pearl’s character is clearly a riff on Rosemary’s creepy neighbors. Like Pearl and Jasper, Rosemary’s elderly neighbors in the Bradford also have way too much access to her home unbeknownst to her, using a secret walkway between their apartments to evade detection. Long before The Watcher’s ambiguous ending, the fact that Pearl is hiding a secret route in and out of 657 Boulevard will be clear to anyone who recalls this element of Rosemary’s Baby.
Unfortunately for the Braddocks, finding out that Jasper has been sneaking in and out of their home does not bring them any closer to working out the identity of the Watcher. It certainly could be Jasper (or, more likely, the sharper Pearl), but there is no way of knowing by the ending of The Watcher. Since the real-life mystery was left unsolved, The Watcher opts to leave the identity of its eponymous threat unknown. Thus, even though a cursory glance at Mia Farrow’s screen CV gives anyone familiar with The Watcher’s cast of characters a clue to her character’s secret, this still doesn’t explain who the Watcher was.
Why The Watcher Never Reveals Its Villain
In Rosemary’s Baby, the ending’s revelation that everyone in the Bradford has secretly been conspiring against Rosemary is a shocking twist, but it does at least clarify everything that has been going on in the story. In The Watcher, viewers get no such resolution. While the Netflix show isn’t shy about altering facts to fit its larger-than-life story, The Watcher’s ending stops short of inventing a real-life villain when the Watcher’s true identity remains unknown, and this disquieting lack of resolution is arguably even creepier than any answer.
All episodes of The Watcher are available on Netflix