Spoonful of Sugar (2022) Ending Explained - What the hell was going on with Johnny?

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to our Spoonful of Sugar (2022) ending explained article. I have to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy this movie. I found it a little boring and even a tiny bit ridiculous in parts. Still, I can see why others might have enjoyed in and I can also see why you might have a few questions. That plot was definitely a little on the confusing side, here and there. There’s a few plot points that are just randomly thrown to the wind, as well.

With that being said, despite me not really liking the film a great deal, I really enjoyed the ending. It is a lot of fun and fairly unexpected. We are going to clear that ending up for you in this article. As always, we will recap the plot and answer a few questions along the way.

As always, this article is not spoiler free so you might want to exit stage left if you haven’t watched the movie yet. Why not go check out our review of Spoonful of Sugar instead?. Allow me to apologise in advance, too. This is a big article so you might want to grab a coffee or tea. Let’s take a look.

A few character introductions

So the movie starts off introducing us to a few key characters. We see main character Millicent (Morgan Saylor) chatting with a potential employer, Rebecca (Kat Foster). Millicent is interviewing for a job as a babysitter to Rebecca’s child. She says she is studying child care at university, specifically the care of children with allergies.

Rebecca’s child, Johnny (Danilo Crovetti), is non-verbal and requires a particular type of care. Rebecca claims it is due to allergies. He wears an astronaut outfit at all times as, apparently, it’s the only way they can make him wear protective gear outside of the house.

Rebecca walks Millicent through a quick job interview. Honestly, I think she would flunk this big time in real life due to her combative attitude and lack of communication skills. Anyways… Millicent casts doubt on Johnny’s issues actually being physiological. She remarks that research suggests allergies may actually be a mental issue. This is going to play into the plot just a tiny bit, later on.

Millicent begins to promote the use of LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) in treating these mental health issues. Rebecca hires Millicent for the job. We learn, later on in the movie that Millicent didn’t exactly need to be the perfect candidate. The outcome for her was always going to be the same as we will soon find out.

Millicent is micro-dosing LSD and hallucinating frequently

Millicent meets Johnny’s dad, Jacob, for the first time in the kitchen. She seems smitten and begins a routine of fantasising about him on the reg. It would appear that Millicent is experiencing something of a sexual awakening and Jacob is right at the centre of it. She even hallucinates on the bus which, as you can imagine, causes her immense embarrassment. The point here is that Millicent’s grip on reality is tenuous at best.

We get further confirmation of this during an appointment with her Psychiatrist Dr Welsh (Keith Powell). While there, she begins to hallucinate, seeing Dr. Welsh’s finger crawling across the floor. Dr. Welsh wants to drop her dose to help her avoid these hallucinations but I think she secretly quite enjoys them and is very much dependent on the drug.

Let’s take a quick aside here to clear up this whole LSD thing. I am sure the vast majority of you know of it as something of a recreational drug. LSD is also being used, tentatively, as a treatment for certain mental health disorders. Despite being a powerful psychedelic, some studies show that it can be effective in improving mood. It would seem that Millicent is prescribed the drug as treatment for her depression.

I think we also get the suggestion that Millicent suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder (Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder), as well. A condition which leads to her becoming extremely attached to people, even when they, perhaps, don’t reflect said attachment. People with BPD often abuse drugs as a way of coping with the massive trauma caused by their condition.

In low doses, side effects and hallucinations from LSD should be minimal but, clearly, she is exceeding these recommended doses. So that sort of clears up a bit of the psychology behind our main character.

Millicent wants a family and will go to any length to get it

Millicent’s ultimate goal is to have a family. She was raised by foster parents and is just a tad bitter and resentful of people who have kids. She feels that, generally speaking, parents are neglectful and ungrateful. Hence, they don’t deserve to have kids. This has lead to incidents of Millicent attempting to remove kids from their parents that have resulted in her getting into trouble.

Bit of a plot hole that, isn’t it? How would she get a job caring for children with a criminal history of kidnapping them? Well, apparently the parents didn’t report her to the police. That’s got to be enormously unlikely. She’s even honest with her Dr about having thoughts of taking children and being violent to people but he dismisses her concerns.

Anyways… Moving on, we see Jacob and Rebecca chatting on the sofa. They talk about Millicent and Rebecca remarks on her being awkward. Speaking of awkward, director Mercedes Bryce Morgan seems to have a penchant for making erotic thrillers so now you get to enjoy the first of many needless sexual encounters, here.

It does serve a purpose to highlight the transactional nature of sex between the pair, though. Rebecca seems to use sex as a way to pacify Jacob, often leaving his ravenous sexual appetite frequently unsatiated to use as a bargaining chip. The sex has, apparently, changed from when they were both younger and is now far more vanilla. Oh, and Johnny’s random screaming often interrupts them as it is about to do here.

Is Johnny potentially autistic?

The pair run into the room and attempt to calm Johnny. It’s here that the movie opens up a little bit. Johnny reacts aggressively to Rebecca’s efforts to restrain him. Jacob makes it clear to Rebecca, and to the audience that Johnny isn’t suffering from allergies. I think Jacob is far more open to the suggestion that he is actually suffering from autism. Now, if we think back a little, Rebecca mentioned that she is convinced that Johnny does not have autism.

Clearly the couple don’t agree and this serves as a further indicator of just how divided they are. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s inability to accept Johnny’s condition, perhaps due to embarassment or a feeling of failure, means he is being used like a guinea pig by doctors. Suffering from the side effects of failed treatment after failed treatment.

In my opinion as someone who has spent a lot of time around an autistic child, it is very obvious that Johnny’s issues may actually be autism. Johnny is non-verbal, he is averse to touch, and easily overstimulated. He appears to lack the typical social abilities present in many neuro-typical people. This seems, at least on the surface, like a pretty clean cut case but autism is never really that simple.

The big problem with Rebecca’s denial of Johnny’s condition is that she is unwilling to actually confront the condition head on. This means his propensity towards violence is unaddressed and getting worse. This is, obviously, going to play into the story in a huge way.

Why does Johnny dig up a dead rabbit?

So we just mentioned Johnny’s propensity towards violence but it’s actually much worse than just outbursts. Johnny has been killing bunnies. Digging one up to show Millicent, it becomes clear that this isn’t the only bunny in the yard and there are, in fact, many buried in different places.

Johnny digs this up to show Millicent because he knows she won’t judge him. He maybe even, sensing her deranged nature, thinks she will be impressed. We are eventually going to learn that bunnies aren’t the only thing that Johnny has killed. It gets much much worse as Millicent will soon realise in the starkest manner possible.

In the meantime, though, instead of being repulsed by this, Millicent smiles excitedly. She skins the bunny to make a good luck charm for Johnny. This scene serves to highlight the similarities between Johnny and Millicent. They are both anti-social people with psychopathic tendencies and, as we will learn, later on, both of them are also serial killers. The insinuation here is that Millicent also started her killing career by butchering animals. Hence her capability when it comes to skinning rabbits.

Millicent wants to steal Johnny and Jacob

So I am sure we can all see where this is going, right? Millicent wants a family and the only thing standing in her way is Rebecca. Millicent thinks Rebecca is a neglectful mother who cares more about her work. Believing she is more deserving of having children than Rebecca and believing she would be a better parent, she hatches a plan.

Obviously, as we see in some of Rebecca’s interactions with Johnny, this isn’t true. She wants to be close to him but he lashes out. Rebecca is even self harming due to the sadness the situation causes her. This doesn’t matter to Millicent, however, who plans to steal both Johnny and Jacob from Rebecca, essentially replacing her in the family unit. What’s the best way to do this? Well, by seducing the sex starved and unsatisfied Jacob, of course.

While at Jacob and Rebecca’s home, Millicent listens in on a phone call. Jacob and Rebecca are having more marital issues. For a brief moment, we again see the transactional nature of sex between the two. Rebecca is focused on work leading to a phone sex session which she uses to pacify Jacob. The session is cut short, however, leading to Jacob becoming frustrated. Millicent realises there is an opportunity to capitalise on this.

Why does Millicent give Johnny LSD?

It’s time for Millicent to put her plan into action. She begins drugging Johnny with LSD, hoping to unlock his mind in the same way the LSD unlocks hers. Troubling scenes for sure given the context but why does Millicent do this? It is purely to strengthen their bond and further exclude Rebecca. Johnny will associate Millicent with the wild experiences he has been having and prefer her over his actual mother. He will also be far more suggestible, as well.

Millicent and Johnny do grow closer as a result of this, running around like idiots, off their faces on LSD. The pair, for some reason, decide to go and play “let’s get run over” in the road. Of course, it just so happens to coincide with Rebecca and Jacob rolling down the street. Rebecca is balls deep on Jacob’s dong which apparently makes him swerve erratically. Was she biting it or something?

Naturally, Jacob nearly runs Johnny over. Somehow Rebecca manages to avoid biting off Jacob’s bell-end, jumps out of the car and chastises Millicent. Millicent is wildly apologetic as Johnny suddenly vomits up candy, something that had been strictly forbidden by Rebecca. While continuing to shout at Millicent, Rebecca upsets Johnny. Johnny finally speaks, calling for his mommy, only, the mommy he wants is Millicent, not Rebecca. Millicent’s plan is working like a charm.

Rebecca fires Millicent

Obviously this rejection is bound to send Rebecca over the edge so she sends Millicent away and marches Johnny into the house. She demands that he calls her mommy which he astutely refuses to do. Rebecca is distraught that his first time speaking wasn’t directed at her but things are about to get even worse.

Jacob drives Millicent home. While consoling her in the car and telling her it wasn’t her fault, Millicent sees her opportunity and kisses him. The ever horny bastard joins in and has sex with her. Millicent realises that her plan is starting to come together, only, there is a slight spanner about to be thrown in the works.

It gets a bit dark here but also a little on the nose. Millicent enters the house and her foster father accosts her at the door. He reminds her that Millicent has agreed to a sexual relationship with him. Have you ever watched a horror movie where the foster parents are actually decent people? Me either…

Millicent pretends she is going to pleasure him, only to murder him. This actually confused me quite a bit. I don’t know if I am a missing something here but do you really need a foster parent when you are in your twenties? It might be just me but, I mean, I moved away from home at 18. I certainly wouldn’t have been trying to find a foster parent, had my parents been dead. Strangely enough, I considered myself an adult at that point but, whatever. More plot holes I guess.

Obviously, this is where we get the grand reveal. Millicent is actually a serial killer. She takes some of her foster dad’s hair and puts it in a book. As she flicks through the book we see a series of names. In a moment of punch-to-the-face exposition, it becomes clear that she has already murdered all of her previous foster dads. Has nobody ever looked into this girl and her frequently dying families?

The insinuation is that they sexually assaulted her, I suppose, meaning she killed them in revenge. I think it would have been more interesting just to have a plain old killer motivated by blood. Instead, Morgan has have to have the tried and tested, tropey, backstory to make you… err.. sympathise with Millicent, I guess?

The doctor caring for Johnny is Dr. Welsh

Millicent sneaks up to the house of Rebecca and Jacob. There she spots her own Psychiatrist, Dr Welsh, talking to Rebecca. It turns out that he has been the one looking after Johnny this whole time. He was the doctor that Jacob claimed was using the family in some kind of sick experiment. Could it be that Dr. Welsh is actually a bit of a prick hole exploiting families and patients?

Rebecca is telling the doctor that Johnny spoke which he claims must be because the medication is working. He also clarifies that it may just have been the relationship with the babysitter that helped Johnny. With this in mind, he encourages Rebecca to maintain Johnny’s relationship with Millicent. After all, it may be the reason Johnny found his voice.

Rebecca says she doesn’t want the babysitter around Johnny anymore. Doctor Welsh tells her that doesn’t matter because it’s not up to her, it’s up to Johnny. Another highly unlikely thing for a doctor to say. This prompts Rebecca to allow Millicent to continue working with Johnny. Not exactly fantastic writing here.

Either way, the result is that Millicent is back at the house and back to attempting to seduce Jacob in the kitchen. This scene is super awkward and Johnny realises that too so saves us from it by stabbing Jacob in the leg. It is clear, at this point, that Johnny is becoming possessive over Millicent; a dangerous fact given his tendency towards violence.

Millicent takes Johnny to bed and tells him he can’t hurt his father. She tells Johnny that she loves Jacob and if he wants them to be a family, there is something that Johnny needs to do. Millicent gives Johnny a flick knife and tells him to stab Rebecca when he is next alone with her. She tells him that when she is his true mommy, he won’t have to hide his rabbits anymore. Implying he can kill as many as he wants.

Millicent continues seducing Jacob

While in the garden, Millicent is burying more bunnies that the family, apparently, fed to Johnny. Jacob comes outside and Jacob and Millicent make the beast with two backs on the grass. We get a little hint of Millicent’s seduction tactics here. She is going to offer Jacob the things that Rebecca won’t give him like a little light choking.

Because Millicent isn’t a mum, I guess, Jacob is quite enthusiastic about doing it to her. Remember when loads of people got seriously into light BDSM because of 50 Shades? Believing themselves to be depraved sexual deviants despite only engaging in some light spanking and the occasional throat gripping. Yeah, movies like this are the result of that.

Johnny watches on from the window while screaming at the top of his voice about the inclusion of yet another awkward sex scene in this cheeks movie. Or, maybe he was screaming because he is possessive of Millicent, I am not sure… It’s probably that last one. Either way, he isn’t happy.

When Rebecca is in Johnny’s room later on, she spots pictures that Johnny has drawn of Millicent, Jacob, and him as a family. He’s also whipped up a few pictures of Jacob and Millicent having sex. Rebecca angrily asks him whether he likes her because she is, obviously, jealous that Johnny views Millicent as his mother.

Why does Millicent murder Dr Welsh?

We have another moment of really obvious exposition here. Millicent uses a mirror to basically explain the entire history of her life, just in case you fell asleep, or something. She claims she doesn’t need the drugs anymore, basically pushing to one side what initially was the entire hook of the movie early on. It’s on the front cover for Christ’s sake. She is ready to claim what’s hers.

She elaborates on killing her foster dads, explaining how they were all considered to be suicides. Apparently the police wouldn’t start to get a bit suspicious when this kept happening. Millicent mentions the names Emily and Marybeth, hinting that she has been changing her identity over time.

She explains that she is now doing this for Johnny so they can be a family. The camera pans out to Dr. Welsh lying on the floor frothing at the mouth. The implication being that Millicent has murdered him but the police will likely believe it to be a suicide. Despite the lipstick on the mirror that would probably look a little suspicious and the history of strange suicides going back years. All associated with the last patient that visited him.

Millicent likely murdered Dr. Welsh due to his connection to Rebecca, Johnny and Jacob as he was aware of Millicent’s history. What with her being his patient and all. If and when Johnny murders Rebecca, as instructed to by Millicent, and Millicent becomes his new mum, iIt would probably look a bit on the suspicious side. Millicent probably realised that Dr. Welsh would be able to connect her to the crime and realised she needed to get him out of the picture. Hence why she murdered him.

But Jacob doesn’t love Millicent

So we are finally getting to the last scenes of Spoonful of Sugar, here and this is where things get good. I only wish the rest of the film was better as this ending is so much fun. Millicent heads over to the house but Rebecca refuses to let her in, cutting Millicent’s hand as she tries to force her way through the door.

Rebecca heads upstairs to be with Johnny while Millicent walks around the back of the house looking for another way in. She enters the workshop where Jacob is working. Millicent asks him whether he loves her, thinking she can manipulate him, but little does she realise that her plan is about to unravel.

Jacob doesn’t actually love Millicent. She says she wants more from him but he tells her he can’t give her more. He cares about her but doesn’t feel love for her. We then cut to Rebecca talking where it becomes very clear that she has been completely aware of Millicent’s plans all along. In fact, she has been letting it happen. Knowing that love isn’t true love until it is tested, she sees this as an opportunity for her family to grow stronger.

There was one thing Rebecca didn’t prepare for, though and that’s just how much Johnny loves stabbing things. Millicent’s manipulation of Johnny pays off as he stabs Rebecca in the hand. She screams and begins to choke him. It’s clear that Johnny is still tripping balls off of the LSD laced tablets and this is a part of why he stabbed her. Rebecca locks him in a room and heads down to the workshop with a knife.

A shocking twist

Millicent is still trying to seduce Jacob in the workshop because she ain’t no quitter. Being the horny bastard that he is, she knows she can potentially control him with sex. It has worked for Rebecca for a long time so why not her? While attempting to grab him, Rebecca comes in and stabs Millicent in the back. Millicent manages to escape into the garden, closely pursued by Rebecca brandishing the knife.

As Millicent heads towards the steps, she notices Johnny standing there with the flick knife. She falls in front of him and pleads to him, thinking he will protect her. In a shocking twist, Johnny stabs Millicent repeatedly, killing her before looking at his mum and dad as they watch on. Obviously, the implication here is that this is not the first time this has happened.

The movie ends with Jacob chopping up Millicent’s body. Rebecca says she will need to find another babysitter and that they will need to buy the plot of land behind the house. Indicating that they plan to keep allowing Johnny to kill both babysitters and bunnies.

A final scene shows Millicent buried under the ground. As the camera pans along, we see a number of other bodies all of which belong to young women. Likely babysitters of Johnny’s in the past because…

Johnny is a serial killer

All along Johnny has been a serial killer. Rebecca and Jacob are aware of his psychopathic tendencies and are more than willing to aid him in his quest for a high kill count. As Millicent alluded to earlier in the movie, family is more important than anything.

With this in mind, Rebecca and Jacob have been providing victims to Johnny. Hoping it will satiate his blood lust and keep him from harming them. He has already had many victims and he will likely have many more. The family are already planning on purchasing another lot purely to bury the bodies in.

Rebecca does love her child, it’s just a weird kind of love. She will do anything for him in the worst way possible. Rebecca and Jacob’s relationship is also strong but in a bit of a warped way. Their sexual issues are the same as many parents. Sex has to take something of a back seat if you have children and jobs. Finding the time can be difficult for parents, even if they love and desire each other.

Rebecca believes the family are stronger now for having gone through the tough times. She knew Jacob wouldn’t fall in love with Millicent and knew Johnny would eventually kill her. That’s why she hired Millicent and why she didn’t care that she wasn’t an ideal candidate. She overlooked all of that because, at the end of the day, her being a foster kid with a lack of connections was more important. She could be murdered and few people would even care.

Did Johnny Love Millicent?

That might be the ultimate question here. He referred to her as mommy and seemed very attached to her. Did he love her and believe she was actually his mommy? Well, that’s unlikely. I think the overriding message here is that Johnny isn’t capable of love.

Even if he saw her as his mum, that wouldn’t stop him killing her. He wants to kill animals and people and doesn’t love anyone at all. It doesn’t appear to be something he is capable of. At the end of the day, the most important thing to him is the people that feed his blood lust. In this case, Rebecca and Jacob. If they didn’t provide him with victims, Johnny would kill them too, hence why they are scared of him.

His situation sort of parallels Millicent’s. Millicent has proved to be incapable of loving anything. The only thing she could potentially love is something that validates her and loves her unconditionally. In this case, a child. She never loved Jacob, he was a means to an end.

When she had a psychiatrist that truly cared about her well being, she didn’t a rat’s right nut and murdered him in cold blood. Much like Johnny did to her. She was a ruthless killer incapable of anything other than that which satisfies her. In the end, she just happened to love someone even worse than herself, resulting in her becoming another victim.

And that is that

I really enjoyed the end of this movie, it was a nice surprise. After thinking Millicent would probably end up with a ready made killer family, it was fairly obvious that Johnny was probably a psychopath. It was apparent from early on that Millicent had likely killed her foster parents, too.

I didn’t expected it to flip in the way it did, though. Morgan does a great job of subverting expectation. I was actually shocked when Johnny stabbed Millicent; it was great fun and executed really nicely. It’s a bit of a shame the rest of the movie wasn’t as great. I do recommend director Mercedes Morgan’s most recent film Bone Lake, though. It’s actually a ton of fun in a 90s erotic thriller/chaotic splatter-horror way. Click the link to check out our review.

Thanks for reading. I know this was a mammoth read but I like to deep dive on ending explained articles. It’s fun to explore every facet of the movie, not just the ending. If you read all of this, you are a hero. Take care and I hope you will stick around.

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