The Crowded Room ending explained: Was Danny found guilty?

Over the past 10 weeks, we've tuned in to The Crowded Room to find out what will happen to Danny Sullivan (Tom Holland) – is he destined to a life in prison after all?

The question has been at the forefront of recent episodes even more so, as we've seen Danny's lawyer Stan Camisa (Christopher Abbott) work together with psychology professor Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried) to persuade the court to believe Danny's diagnosis of multiple personality disorder.

It's been a tense and often emotional watch as Danny has grappled with his new reality of the world and we've learnt more about his childhood and alternate personalities. Episode 9 also provided some heartbreaking insight into the dynamic at play between his mother Candy (Emmy Rossum) and stepfather Marlin Reid (Will Chase), with sad consequences for Danny.

But as the trial reaches its epic conclusion, what happens to Danny at the end of The Crowded Room? If you're looking for a breakdown of the Apple TV+ drama's ending, read on.

The Crowded Room ending explained

The thought on everyone's mind after episode 9's sad ending was whether Danny was alive or not and, thankfully, we see him alive (but bleeding out) in his prison cell.

Although Ariana (Sasha Lane) has been 'missing' all this time, she's laying next to Danny pleading for him to stay with her and to allow her to help him. He finally reaches a level of quiet he's never had before but he's losing consciousness quickly, leading Ariana to push him off the bed and onto the floor.

The finale also opens up with some further insight into Stan's own life, with him begging his doctor friend for more pills after an angry confrontation about defending his country in the war. When home, we see that Stan's fridge is adorned with memorabilia from the war, clearly showing his mind is still very much there after what he's experienced.

Stan then gets a call and visits Rya, telling her that Danny has attempted suicide and if the prison officers hadn't heard him fall off his bunk, he'd be dead. When the pair visit Danny as he's recovering, Rya is confronted with Danny's alter Jack (Jason Isaacs) who refuses to let them speak to Danny.

Jack has made it clear that he doesn't intend to let Danny undergo fusion therapy and get rid of the alters, instead preferring for Danny to lead a life in prison with him taking over as the primary personality. We see that inside the barn-like structure within Danny's mind, Jack has locked Danny in a stable, quite literally imprisoning Danny in his own mind.

After a brainwave, Rya says that the real key to the trial is showing Danny the truth so that he can tell the jury what really happened in his childhood, thus demonstrating the motivation for the New York City shooting. Stan and Rya drive to the hospital where Candy works and Candy hands Rya an envelope.

The next day, on the final day of the trial, Stan calls Danny to the stand, but with Jack taking over Danny's body, he adopts a slight American accent to try to convince the jury it's actually him. Although the prosecution tries to get Stan's claims of alternate personalities thrown out, the judge allows it.

After confronting Jack about his use of Danny's body on the stand, Stan confronts him with pictures, which were clearly provided by Candy the day before in the envelope. The pictures are of Candy holding a baby but when Stan asks if there's anything out of the ordinary about the photo, he urges Danny to tell him where Adam is.

Back in his mind, Danny manages to fight his way out of the locked stable and in reality, Stan continues to show Danny a series of childhood images that don't show he has a twin brother named Adam. In his mind, Danny wades through the water that Jack has started filling up the barn with.

We've seen images of the water and bodies before in the series but now, Danny walks towards Adam in the water. The light that shines down into the barn from the real world is taken from Jack – who is now surrounded by Ariana, Mike (Sam Vartholomeos) and Jonny (Levon Hawke) – and is placed on Adam.

As Rya said before, now faced with the truth, Danny has managed to take back control of his mind and turns to face Stan on the stand - now clearly himself. He reveals that Adam had to go away because he "wanted it to happen", referring to the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of stepfather Marlin. He talks about the fact Adam was trying to protect Candy but Danny had to send him away.

After being asked repeatedly who Adam was, Danny eventually admits that "Adam is me".

Was Danny found guilty?

After Danny's final testimony, we hear Rya and Danny talking in the present day about the trial and how he felt at the time. Back in the past and at the trial, the foreman says that the jury unanimously finds Danny not guilty by reason of insanity, with Danny looking visibly shocked.

He turns round to Rya and in the present, tells her that she saved him. Now, Danny looks much better and we find out that they're going over details to help Danny after he's disassociated from a lot of details in his therapy.

Rya admits that it was hard for her to think of Danny working with another therapist and at the same time as her explaining, we see that Candy came to visit Danny in his facility. Although he admits he wasn't exactly ready to see his mother after her betrayal in the trial, Danny and Candy chat through things and she tells him she hasn't seen or heard from Marlin for more than a year.

Candy admits she hasn't been a good mother and when Danny asks her when she knew about his abuse, she sits down and mentions Danny's real father who she married at 17. She says that when Danny was 4, she "came to understand" that Danny's father had sexually abused him also, although she can't bring herself to explicitly say it. She talks about needing someone like Marlin to take care of them so for a long time, she told herself that "it couldn't be true" and that she couldn't have "brought another man like that into our lives".

She apologises even though Danny is visibly angry, and he tells her that he's glad she came. When she says that maybe she can come back, he turns away but in the present with Rya, he acknowledges that his mother won't try to win him over and visit him again.

We get a brief glimpse into Rya's new life as her mother still helps her out with raising her son, but she's also turned her back on being a professor even though she's had a new diagnosis entered into the medical journal. She's happy being a shrink, taking appointments with clients downstairs in her home now.

When Danny walks her out of his facility, she's teary-eyed as she says goodbye and is happy to see that the fusion therapy is working for Danny as he exhibits certain traits of all his alters. But Danny admits he has an "unpaid debt" and says not all of them are him, saying that it's his time to be the "guardian angel", like how Rya was for him.

As Rya walks away from the house, she turns back to wave goodbye to Danny and we see Adam in the window with him. The Beatles' Let It Be starts to play and we see Danny pick up some tools and approach his canvas, surrounded by fireflies like in the picture he's painted.

All episodes of The Crowded Room are available to watch on Apple TV+. Start your seven-day Apple TV+ free trial.

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