// KOTAKU — GAMING
Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Ending Has Split Fans On What It Means
Part of Peter Parker’s internal struggle during Spider-Man: Brand New Day is that he has essentially lost himself in being a superhero. He has forsaken friendship and any connection with others for over four years, ever since the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home erased him from everyone’s memory. While he may not be close with his best friend Ned or his ex-girlfriend MJ, he still checks in on them through social media and even crashed a house party they were hosting. As events unfold, the two of them are put in danger and he meets them as Spider-Man, his first step toward rebuilding a connection with the pair. However, the final scene of the movie has fans wondering if somehow Doctor Strange’s spell removing Peter from everyone’s memory has been broken.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day ends the way most MCU movies do, in that Spider-Man has saved the day and is settling back into his daily routine of heroism. Jean Grey, who essentially held part of the city mentally hostage after learning that the Department of Damage Control killed her sister, has left the city to places unknown, but Ned and MJ were also caught in Jean’s psychic, mind-hijacking blast, and were once again saved by Spider-Man. After things have calmed down, Peter sees Ned at a store and goes to introduce himself, and the two, without missing a beat, do their signature elaborate handshake seen in previous movies. Ned is clearly confused as to why he knows how to do this with a guy he has no recollection of meeting beyond a brief appearance at his house party, but when it’s done, he looks up and says Peter’s name, and it’s left ambiguous as to whether he remembers his old friend or he’s just putting some things together, having heard earlier in the film that Spider-Man’s name was also Peter.
THE handshake. #spiderman #nedleeds #fyp #handshake #spoiler
There’s a lot to unpack in this scene. My initial reading was that Ned’s muscle memory had kicked in and he was able to do the handshake because he’d done it hundreds of times before. If you’re reading Kotaku, you’re probably very familiar with the concept because you use it to play video games all the time. Your body gradually learns the rhythms of something and reacts accordingly. It’s a habit that has embedded itself into your neural pathways. Musicians are also very familiar with it, as it’s how they learn to play songs without having to stop and think about every chord change. So if you’ve done a weirdly elaborate handshake numerous times over the years, that sequence probably sticks with you, even if your memory of the person you did it with has been erased.
So on its own, Ned remembering the handshake isn’t enough to tell us whether he remembers Peter, but it’s certainly got Spidey fans debating what it all means. One prevalent theory is that Jean may have unintentionally resurfaced these memories when she telepathically mindfucked millions of people in the city. After the climax, MJ is seen sitting on a rooftop where she and Peter used to hang out while holding onto a necklace he gave her in Far From Home, implying that she might remember Peter fully, or at least be reflecting on her newfound knowledge that there was a version of her that did love Spider-Man and that she forgot a major part of her life.
SHE REMEMBERS || #spidermanbrandnewday #peterandmj #foryoupage #viral #zxycba
However, earlier in the film, when Jean was controlling MJ as a way of manipulating Peter, she makes it clear that his ex has no memories of him whatsoever in her mind. Doctor Strange’s spell worked, and it was thorough. Jean is shown to be an exceptionally powerful telepath, so I doubt she overlooked a space in these characters’ minds where memories of Peter were locked away. Could the power of friendship and a psychic rattling be enough to undo a magic spell? It’s unclear, but it’s the theory a lot of fans are running with right now.
Another wrinkle in this is that Ned seems to have some level of latent magical capability. As ill