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This serves two purposes. First, it compels Wendy to run out of the hotel so that Jack has no reason to go back inside. Second, it ensures that Wendy sees Halloran's corpse so she knows that Jack killed him. Incidentally, since I've already established that Danny is pulling these hallucinations from his victims' minds, that dogman scene says some really uncomfortable things about Wendy's personal life.

Once outside, Danny leads Jack into the hedge maze and then does a little hopscotch maneuver ...

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... buying him just enough time to lay one final command (which he does with his usual blank stare), forcing Jack to remain in the maze and freeze solid.

Now Wendy thinks Jack is a murderer, Jack's writing project has been turned into an insane echo of the same line over and over, and the only man who could have figured all this out is dead. The final scene with the mysterious photo, rather than being a ridiculous last-second twist, now adds one final terrible fate on top of all the rest. It reveals that Jack isn't actually dead -- just trapped comatose in his own mind in the terrifying delusion of the Overlook that Danny has created, transfixed like his own photogenic smile, and presumably forced to live a thousand mental torments every day.

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In conclusion: Don't mess with Danny Torrance.

What do Chuck Norris, Liam Neeson in Taken, and the Dos Equis guy have in common? They're all losers compared to some of the actual badasses from history whom you know nothing about. Come out to the UCB Sunset for another LIVE podcast, April 9 at 7:00 p.m., where Jack O'Brien, Michael Swaim, and more will get together for an epic competition to find out who was the most hardcore tough guy or tough gal unfairly relegated to the footnotes of history. Get your tickets here!

Psst ... want to give us feedback on the super-secret beta launch of the upcoming Cracked spin-off site, Braindrop? Well, simply follow us behind this curtain. Or, you know, click here: Braindrop.

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