The OA Season 2: What Does The Ending Really Mean?

In Season 1, Rachel explains that her NDE happened during a car crash which killed her sister. She was able to return with the singing voice of an Angel. In Season 2, Rachel’s counterpart has aphasia which means she is unable to form or understand words. She can’t speak and definitely can’t sing anymore.

This means that in dimension two, she still had the car accident as a teenager, but never had an NDE. The car accident gave her brain damage, resulting in aphasia. Prairie tries to find a way to communicate with her, causing Rachel to use parts of board games to help her.

Rachel does understand some things and can nod in agreement at times. It’s possible her dimension one counterpart who doesn’t have aphasia helps her understand things now and again.

Hap uses her as his lab assistant since she is unable to tell anyone what she sees. Eventually, Rachel enters Hap’s main lab room when she notices the locked door isn’t shut properly. What she sees is the brain garden and her commotion with Hap results in her accidental death.

Rachel’s death causes her to have an NDE. She manages to cross back into dimension one and tries to communicate with Buck through his mirror. Rachel has never seen the kids, but she knows what they look like because Prairie drew portraits of them during her stay at the clinic.

Rachel spells out her own name in Braille on Buck’s mirror and explains using the TV that it’s “only safe for BBA to go." This is because Rachel has seen that the others – Steve, Jesse and French – are dead bodies in Hap’s brain garden, so if they came into dimension two they’d inhabit their dead counterparts.

Rachel is likely to have remained in her NDE and will be around for Season 3.