The Ending Of Doctor Sleep Explained

Much of the lore established in Doctor Sleep is focused on building up the "raw power," as Rose the Hat puts it, inherent in Abra Stone. At one point, while discussing Abra's power, Rose goes so far as to say that trying to dampen Abra's gift with medication would be to "put Saran Wrap over a searchlight." 

Abra spends much of the film getting to know the extent of her own strength, and it's clear that on some level she's quite pleased with the things she can do. Once she understands who the True Knot are and what Rose wants, Abra goes so far as to stage an elaborate trap in her bedroom, which terrifies Rose and leaves her severely wounded, despite only appearing in Abra's house in astral form. To add to the horror of the scene, it's clear that Abra enjoyed hurting Rose, and she even brags about it to Dan later. 

During their final encounter at the Overlook Hotel, Rose tells Abra that she reminds her of her younger self, because there's a darkness in Abra that hasn't reached its full potential yet. It's something Rose says in an attempt to distract Abra, but it's nevertheless also apparently true. Will the darkness start to take her over as she ages, or will she be able to handle it? As we see from the look on her face in the final shot, the film makes it an open question.

When Dan and Abra meet in person for the first time, they discuss the shining in detail, and Dan explains that a lot of people have a little bit of a shine, but he's only met a handful in his life who knew they had a gift and understood how to use it. Abra is one of those people, of course, and so is Dick Hallorann. Brad Trevor, the "Baseball Boy" Abra has a vision of just before he dies, is another with an uncanny gift that he is only just beginning to understand when he's murdered by the True Knot. 

The film makes it very clear that Abra's powerful shine is the reason the True Knot is defeated, because she was able to figure out who and what they were in a way that no one else necessarily could. Now that she's defeated the Knot, with Dan's help, it stands to reason that she won't simply stop using her power for good. Though there's darkness in her, there's also tremendous light, and it's easy to imagine her using her mighty gift to track down others who shine — particularly children — and make sure they're safe from the places and things that want to eat what shines.

In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, we learn very early on that the Overlook Hotel was built atop a Native American burial ground, setting the stage for a legacy of violence that carries on throughout the hotel's history (and illustrating the movie's themes about the genocide of indigenous people). Of course, that violence seems to culminate in Jack Torrance's rampage. In Stephen King's original novel, the Overlook burns down at the end of The Shining, but the film leaves it standing, seemingly waiting for the next caretakers.

The movie version of Doctor Sleep reveals that after the Torrance family incident, the hotel was boarded up and left to rot, as Dan puts it, but the ghosts don't cease to exist. That legacy of violence and terror is alive and well, and comes to the fore when Dan and Abra go back to the Overlook to "wake it up." 

The hotel burns to the ground at the end of Doctor Sleep, but the ghosts don't die with it. At least some of them are still present, trying to follow Abra Stone instead of Dan. With that in mind, what happens to the site of the Overlook itself? What will the owners of the land do with it now that the rotted old hotel is gone? Will it be turned into a mobile home lodge, as it is in King's novel? Will it be preserved as a heritage site in an effort to calm down the negative energy there? Will the peace be maintained?

Dan Torrance is well aware of the imprint his father made on him. He was so traumatized by what happened at the Overlook that he didn't talk for some time afterward, until Dick Hallorrann taught him how to deal with bad ghosts, and he ultimately took up his father's alcoholic habits later in life. In one of Doctor Sleep's most moving scenes, he dedicates one of his sobriety anniversaries to his father, who'd once tried to get better and failed. 

This conversation between Dan and his father's memory comes to a head in one of the most stirring scenes in the film, when he meets the ghost of his father — now "Lloyd" the bartender — in the Gold Room at the ruined Overlook. They have a direct confrontation over a glass of whiskey that Dan refuses to drink, while his father's ghost fumes over the life he claims his family stole from him. Dan must turn to other matters before he can confront his father further, but his defiance is a clear rejection of Jack Torrance's own destructive path. 

With the Overlook gone, is Jack Torrance able to find peace? He does find a version of it in Doctor Sleep the novel, but Doctor Sleep the film leaves that question open. Was he beyond saving, or did Dan free his father by burning the hotel?

Though Rose the Hat sees a certain darkness in her, Doctor Sleep makes it clear that there's inherent goodness in Abra Stone, and one of the ways it does that is through her treatment of Bradley Trevor, the "Baseball Boy" whose murder she witnesses. Abra is determined to track down his body, to the point that she's willing to subject herself to reliving Brad's trauma at the hands of the True Knot to do it, and she begs Dan Torrance for help. At one point Abra is so concerned with Brad that she even pleads with Dan to find him just so the boy can have a proper burial, regardless of what the True Knot might do in response. 

This suggests a compassionate side of Abra Stone that mirrors Dan Torrance's own gift as "Doctor Sleep" in the hospice. As he guides dying people over into the next life, so too might she guide the spirits of those killed by the True Knot to their final resting place. We don't know the full extent of her future as a shining person, but it's easy to see her using her gift to track down the hidden victims of the True Knot, and bring them a little closer to the light.