'The Whispers' Finale Reveals Drill's Motive

Although we've known for a long time on The Whispers that Drill is an unseen, alien force who is targeting the human race through its children, his actual motive has been unclear to viewers and FBI agents. However, many of us assumed that he wanted to take over the planet. Then on Monday night, we finally learned during The Whispers Season 1 finale that Drill wants to take the world's children back to his own planet.

The true race against the clock began in Episode 9 when Wes and Claire realized that Drill's plan was to carefully select a child and take over his or her body entirely. During last week's penultimate episode, Wes' daughter Minx was incorrectly identified as Drill's host and she barely escaped death. At the same time, the President held a live press conference to assure the American people that the showdown was over and the human race had been victorious. Drill, whose actual host is the First Daughter, stood in front of the camera and screeched. When Claire questioned Drill (via Cassandra's body) in the finale, he told her that the screech symbolized "the beginning" of domination. It was Drill's signal to those remaining on his planet that their planned domination had begun. Sean and Ron Harcourt attempted to decode the signal, but all the adults spent most of the finale working under the assumption that Drill and his kind were on their way in order to take over the planet — not steal their children.

Minx and Henry remained under Drill's control throughout the episode, and they helped facilitate the kidnapping of Claire and Sean. The pair were held hostage by nameless adults who were befriended by Drill as children back in 1982. When pressed by Claire, one of the women described Drill's plan as one of "progress" and compared it to when the Pilgrims came to the New World to make it a better, more civilized place. This furthered everyone's belief that Drill's goal was to take over the planet, therefore the FBI focused on preventing an invasion — not a mass abduction.

But in the final moments of the finale, Henry translated for Claire that Drill's message was a question: "Are they ready?" As everyone finally realized that Drill's goal all along has been to take the children from the planet, it was too late to stop what had already begun. Wes still had a map taken from the compound with marks all over it — and each mark symbolized where various children were being taken. Henry lead Claire, Sean, and Wes to the woods where Minx had gone to participate in the plan, but it was too late for a happy ending for any of our main players.

Wes rushed towards Minx, but she disappeared before his eyes just seconds before he could get to her. At the same time, Claire pushed Henry out of the way at the very last minute and she, too, disappeared from the planet. Wes, Sean, and Henry stood helpless in the woods as they watched their family members disappear — and, via news reports, we learned that they were far from the only ones. Drill's plan had succeeded and countless children were taken from their families and back to his planet. Despite everyone's best efforts, Drill outsmarted all the adults and he was victorious as Season 1 came to a close.

Image: Eike Schroter/ABC