Like Atlanta – the series that both Swarm’s Donald Glover and Janine Nabers wrote and worked on together – the penultimate episode of Swarm is like an episode within an episode.

Episode 6 is very meta, but is important for the overall understanding of the Swarm timeline and finally gives Dre a backstory.

Framed like a true crime documentary, we follow detective Loretta Greene as she uncovers the truth behind Dre and is seemingly the only person to connect her to the crimes. Unlike the other episodes, it does state at the beginning that “some names have been redacted for legal purposes”, which is in clear reference to the way that those interviewed say the name ‘Beyoncé’ but have their mouths blurred.

Episode 6 is important to understand the finale as we learn about Dre’s past in the foster care system, how she was taken in (and then left) by Marissa’s parents and also, most importantly, where we meet her in the finale.

At the end of episode 6, Loretta gets a break in her investigation into Dre and pulls up a picture, who the British producer thinks is a man. She says: “She’s going by Tony now… I know it’s her but no one believes me.” We then see a news article flash up about a man who stormed the stage at a certain redacted artist’s concert in Atlanta.

Loretta says that she has asked the police to hold Dre in custody until she gets there and has a chance to question her. We then see the last scenes flash up with text explaining that Loretta is still pursuing Dre for at least eight murders, which would make her one of the most prolific female serial killers.

Prior to episode 6, the last we saw of Dre was when she was driving away from the commune after having killed Eva and many in the female empowerment group she found herself in. In the finale, it’s now 2018 and Dre is setting up roots in Atlanta as Tony.

We see as Tony/Dre stands outside a nightclub and meets Rashida (Kiersey Clemons) after offering to drive her and her friend home. Although the pair hit if off almost instantly, Dre does tell Rashida that Ni’Jah is her favourite singer in the whole world, something that Rashida doesn’t agree with and says she “cannot stand” her.

Although you think that would be enough to anger Dre, the episode follows Dre and Rashida’s love story as they go from their first date to meeting Rashida’s parents and eventually becoming a couple very much in love.

Just as we think Dre could have finally changed for the better, we later see her surprise Rashida on their anniversary with Ni’Jah concert tickets for that evening, but Rashida states that they aren’t going and says plainly that she doesn’t like Ni’Jah. She then reveals: “It is one of the top five trending topics in our relationship.”

As she shouts about how the money could’ve been put to better use, especially seeing as she works two jobs and Dre is unable to pay rent, Dre strangles Rashida. Different to how we’ve seen Dre kill others in the past, Dre can be seen crying as Rashida tries to tell Dre that she loves her.

We then see Dre drive out to a field and burn Rashida’s body but there, she realises that Rashida had the Ni’Jah concert tickets in her pocket and now, the tickets have been burned too.

Unable to get into the venue, Dre rushes to the box office but is unable to retrieve the tickets as they’re in Rashida’s name and obviously doesn’t have ID. She goes over to a ticket tout and in his car, Dre stabs and kills him for the tickets. Now inside the venue, Dre pushes her way to the front and climbs over the barrier, climbing onto the stage and running towards Ni’Jah who has her back turned to her.

When security pulls her away, Ni’Jah tells them to stop and as she walks up to Dre, we see the face of Marissa (Chloe Bailey) instead. They then run out into Ni’Jah’s car where Ni’Jah embraces a tearful Dre but it’s very much a case of reality versus Dre’s imagination.

Speaking about the finale to Vulture, Nabers said that the idea for the finale was originally pitched by Glover and is “bittersweet” because they give “her this sweet and beautiful ending”. “Obviously, in reality, that’s not how that would play out,” she continued. “What’s sad is that, in her head, that moment will always exist as something real and meaningful and purposeful.”

The decision to augment Marissa’s face onto Ni’Jah’s was intentional to show how Dre conflates the two. Speaking about the decision to the LA Times, Nabers added it was important “because they’re one and the same”. “These two women were the catalyst for her story. It begins with Chloe and it ends with Ni’Jah.”

Does Dre get arrested at the end of Swarm?

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While we don’t see the arrest pan out in the finale, we know from episode 6 that Dre is arrested for storming the stage at Ni’Jah’s concert. But Dre’s version of reality in the finale sees her meeting her idol, being embraced by her and they drive off together.

Nabers states, though, that the events of the finale were based on a true story. She said: “Well, that moment is taken from a very real moment that exists in history. There is a person that ran onstage at a concert in Atlanta for a certain pop star. That was recorded, and that person’s name was Tony. What happened to that person in reality? I’m pretty sure they were arrested. Who knows who that person is today.”

In terms of seeing Dre in jail, we’re left to conclude the series as we please and that kind of open end is reflective of the similar way that nobody really knows what happened to the real person who stormed the stage a few years ago. Nabers explained: “We wanted to give that very ambiguous ending where people can put their own thought process onto it if they want to.”

Fishback, who leads the cast as Dre, also said: “I think it was an interesting way to end it. What happens to her? Does she go to jail? Is she still on the run?”