How Terry Gionoffrio Really Died In Rosemary’s Baby

Warning! Contains major spoilers for Apartment 7A.

This article contains mentions of suicide, violence against women, and murder.

Terry Gionoffrio takes a drastic step in Apartment 7A‘s ending, which finally reveals how she died in Rosemary’s Baby. Serving as a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby, Apartment 7A begins a few months before its parent movie. In its opening moments, it shows how its main character, Terry Gionoffrio (Julia Garner), breaks her ankle during a dance performance. Four months after the ankle wound heals, Terry still struggles to find new dancing gigs as her injury significantly limits her from performing effectively.

One thing leads to another, and she somehow ends up in the Renaissance Revival apartment building central to Rosemary Baby‘s story. This is when she encounters Roman and Minnie Castevet, who offer her a place to stay in the apartment building till she stands on her feet. Pleased by their kindness, Terry accepts the offer, without realizing the sinister deal she is signing up for. With what follows in Apartment 7A, Terry gradually learns what the Castevets and other residents want from her, forcing her to make one dire decision in the movie’s ending moments.

Terry’s Final Decision In Apartment 7A’s Ending Explained

Terry Feels Helpless In Apartment 7A’s Closing Moments

When Terry finally starts understanding that she will give birth to the Anti-Christ, she attempts to get an abortion. However, that does not work out when the woman who tries to abort her child gets attacked by a dark invisible force. In Apartment 7A‘s ending arc, Terry even threatens the Castevets that she will stab herself. However, to her dismay, the dark demonic force she bears instead of a human child stops her from harming herself. With this, Terry initially seems to accept her fate and agrees to conform to the coven’s expectations.

She gives a final dance performance in the coven’s meeting room in the apartment building, making everyone believe she will help them with their goal of bringing the Anti-Christ to the human world. However, before anyone in the room can process what she plans to do, Terry goes up to a window and jumps out of it. To ensure she does not serve as the gateway for the arrival of the Anti-Christ to the world, Terry sacrifices her life by dying from suicide. She takes this step because she feels helpless after not being able to abort the child, forcing her to make the ultimate sacrifice.

How Terry’s Decision in Apartment 7A’s Ending Differs From Rosemary’s In The Original Film

Apartment 7A Flips Rosemary’s Baby’s Ending

While Terry goes against the cult’s wishes by sacrificing her life in Apartment 7A‘s ending, Rosemary agrees to help the coven raise her demonic child. The two characters’ narratives differ significantly because Terry never wanted to have a baby in the first place. She dreamed of becoming an accomplished dancer and realized that her pregnancy would get in the way of her ambitions. However, Alan Marchand and the Castevets ultimately manipulated her into keeping the child while trapping her in their sinister schemes.

Even towards the end of the 1968 movie, Rosemary’s motherly instincts take over, forcing her to care for her child, despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to its sinister nature.

When she finally understood the cult’s motive, she realized that she could not be the gateway to evil in the world. Therefore, she took the drastic step in Apartment 7A‘s closing moments. Rosemary, in contrast, always wanted a child, which prevented her from believing her child could be the Anti-Christ. Even towards the end of the 1968 movie, Rosemary’s motherly instincts take over, forcing her to care for her child, despite the overwhelming evidence pointing to its sinister nature.

The Coven’s Purpose & Indoctrination Process In Apartment 7A Explained

The Coven Cleverly Traps Women In Its Evil Plots

As seen in both Rosemary’s Baby and Apartment 7A, the coven’s members initially lure unsuspecting women or couples to their apartment building by acting friendly and kind. Once the new tenants in the building start trusting them, they perform the first step of their ritual, in which Satan impregnates the targeted women by force. With women like Rosemary, who accept their pregnancy, the cult members only keep them in control by ensuring they do not get too paranoid about who their child actually is.

Guy Woodhouse’s story in Rosemary’s Baby also shows how the cult members strike a deal with the targeted women’s husbands by offering them power and recognition in return for their compliance. When it comes to women like Terry, however, who refuse to bear the child, the cult members offer them a deal. They promise they will help them achieve their biggest ambitions without truly revealing the sinister details of what they are getting them involved in. Despite their best efforts to escape the coven, both Terry and Rosemary get trapped in the cult’s web of lies and manipulation.

Why Terry Initially Agrees To Keep The Baby In Apartment 7A

Terry Is Blinded By Her Ambition

Terry’s narrative in the Rosemary’s Baby prequel movie is driven by her pursuit of achieving material success. Despite severely injuring her leg, she refuses to give up on her dreams and continues to audition, hoping that she will get to be in the spotlight someday. During an initial dance audition, she even tells Alan Marchand that she is willing to do just about anything to land an opportunity but will not put her self-respect on the line. Sensing her desperation, Marchand sees her as the perfect target for the coven.

In the original book, Rosemary, much like Terry, considers killing her child and dying from suicide. However, she eventually gives in, hoping that she can raise him to become a good human being before the cult corrupts him.

After Terry finally learns about her pregnancy and considers getting an abortion, Roman and Minnie Castevet convince her to keep the child by claiming that they are willing to offer her anything in return. They assure her that since they never got the opportunity to parent a child, they would be willing to do it for her. In exchange, they tell her they will use their connections and wealth to help her rise in the ranks as a dancer and achieve stardom. Since they never tell her that her child is the Anti-Christ, Terry initially accepts the deal, believing it will pave the way for her to succeed as an artist.

Why The Satan In Apartment 7A Looks Different From The One In Rosemary’s Baby

The Satan In Apartment 7A Serves As A Metaphor For Something Different

In Rosemary’s Baby, Satan seemingly has a typical appearance, where his skin is red while his eyes are predatory and bloodshot. The movie seemingly settles for this look because it intends to reflect on the rise in the West’s obsession with witchcraft due to significant cultural shifts and counterculture movements in the 1960s. The movie also uses the devil’s eyes as a narrative device to show how Rosemary recognizes something is wrong with her child when she sees his bloodshot, demonic eyes.

When Terry first sees him, he is dressed in black and has shiny gemstones on his body, reflecting how Terry must sell her soul to him to achieve the glitz and glamor that comes with fame.

The demonic figure in Apartment 7A seemingly serves a different purpose. When Terry first sees him, he is dressed in black and has shiny gemstones on his body, reflecting how Terry must sell her soul to him to achieve the glitz and glamor that comes with fame. Terry even falls for Satan’s trap after initially agreeing to keep the child. However, she ultimately defies him when she understands the price she will have to pay to achieve material success.

How Apartment 7A Is Thematically Different From Rosemary’s Baby

Apartment 7A Is More Like Black Swan Than Rosemary’s Baby

Rosemary’s Baby dabbles with themes surrounding the pains of motherhood and the troubles a woman faces when her selfish husband sacrifices her well-being for his career. Despite the supernatural horror elements in its narrative, Rosemary’s Baby presents a solid allegory surrounding the oppression of women and the prevalence of patriarchy in marriage systems. It also subtly dabbles with ideas surrounding female autonomy and reproductive rights with its portrayal of Rosemary’s struggles.

While Apartment 7A also touches upon some of these themes and ideas, it primarily unfolds like Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan in its opening arc. It shows how far a character like Terry is willing to go with her obsession with achieving material success before realizing that it is not worth the cost she has to pay. Unlike Rosemary from the 1968 film, Terry seemingly crosses some moral boundaries before understanding she is on the wrong path.

When Apartment 7A’s Ending Takes Place In Rosemary’s Baby

Rosemary Meets The Castevets Right After Terry’s Death

After Terry dies in Apartment 7A‘s ending, the coven’s members realize that they will have to target a new woman to bring the Anti-Christ to the world. Therefore, as seen in Rosemary’s Baby, the Castevets pretend to know nothing about Terry’s demise and use her death as an excuse to warm up to the Woodhouses. Moments after Rosemary offers some kind words to Minnie after Terry dies in Rosemary’s Baby‘s opening arc, Minnie shows up at her home to thank her.

Ira Levin also published a sequel to Rosemary’s Baby, titled Son of Rosemary, in 1997. Both books were adapted into the NBC miniseries Rosemary’s Baby, which starred Zoe Saldaña.

Unfortunately, Rosemary and her husband fail to see beyond her kindness and ultimately fall into the coven’s trap. To highlight its narrative intersections with Rosemary’s Baby, Apartment 7A features blink-or-miss scenes where Rosemary and Terry cross paths. In some scenes, Rosemary and Guy can also be spotted in the background, highlighting how they had already moved into the apartment building a few days before Terry’s death.

Apartment 7A’s Ending Sets Up Rosemary & Guy Woodhouse’s Story In Rosemary’s Baby

The Woodhouses Move To The Building After Lily Gardenia’s Death

After the cult performs the satanic ritual on Terry in Apartment 7A, Lily Gardenia shows up at her home and attempts to murder her. She claims that she must prevent the cult’s plans from coming to fruition. However, before she can kill Terry, someone else seemingly murders her. In Rosemary’s Baby‘s opening arc, Guy’s agent reveals that the central home was previously owned by Lily Gardenia, who died only a few days ago. With this connective thread, Apartment 7A paves the way for Rosemary to face the same troubles and terrors as Terry Gionoffrio in Rosemary’s Baby.