Totems (2016) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Kellie kills Bernard by depleting his inhaler during the crisis. While the entity attempts to abduct Abby, Kellie stages a deception to redirect blame onto Robin and protect her own secrets. She uses Bernard's inhaler to fake concern but actually empties it completely, leaving him to die from respiratory failure when he desperately needs it. This act is driven by Kellie's desperate need to maintain control and prevent anyone from discovering her role in the escalating supernatural events.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Kellie's pattern of manipulating situations to protect herself becomes evident when she blames Robin for the chaos and hides Todd in her room.

• kellie
• bernard
• death
• inhaler
• killing

Kellie kills Todd after he arrives at the house with knowledge about how to destroy totems. When Todd tries to help the family, Kellie sees him as a threat to her connection with the totem and her control over the situation. She ambushes him with a heavy object, killing him instantly. This murder is motivated by Kellie's increasingly paranoid need to protect her bond with the supernatural entity and prevent anyone from destroying it.

Foreshadowing: Kellie's protective stance toward the totem was established when she threatened to burn it but then refused to let anything actually harm it.

• kellie
• todd
• death
• killing
• totem

Kellie tries to drown Robin after Robin discovers a hidden wedding ring in one of Kellie's trophies. When confronted, Kellie reveals her true feelings: she believes her mother Lexy was weak and that her father James needed someone stronger. This confrontation triggers Kellie's violent response as she pushes Robin into a bathtub, where she hits her head and appears to drown. The attack stems from Kellie's resentment toward Robin for replacing her mother and threatening the family structure Kellie is desperate to maintain.

Foreshadowing: Kellie's discomfort with Robin moving in and taking over household duties was established early in the film, showing her resistance to this change.

• kellie
• robin
• drowning
• wedding ring
• trophy

The totem necklace is a piece of jewelry that once belonged to Lexy, Kellie and Abby's deceased mother. After Lexy's death, Kellie discovers the necklace has the ability to move small objects on its own, demonstrating a will of its own. The film presents this as a sentient supernatural presence, an entity tied to Lexy's spirit that uses the necklace as its vessel. The totem responds to threats and can influence the physical world, eventually becoming violent when Kellie threatens to destroy it.

Foreshadowing: The necklace's power first manifests when it knocks down trophies in Kellie's room, signaling its presence early in the story.

• totem
• necklace
• lexy
• supernatural
• spirit
• power

Kellie hides her father's wedding ring in the base of one of her trophies, though the exact reasoning isn't fully explained in the film. When Robin discovers the ring and confronts Kellie, Kellie responds with cold logic: she tells Robin that her mother was weak and that James needed someone stronger. This suggests Kellie may have hidden the ring as a way of preserving her mother's memory while also acknowledging the change in her family structure, or perhaps as a token of possession over her father's loyalty.

Foreshadowing: The hidden ring represents the tension between Kellie's loyalty to her dead mother and her resistance to Robin's presence in the family.

• wedding ring
• trophy
• kellie
• james
• hidden

Kellie blames Robin for the escalating chaos as part of her psychological deterioration and her desperate need to protect herself. When Todd arrives with knowledge about destroying totems, Kellie hides him in her room and deliberately shifts blame onto Robin, presenting Robin as the source of the family's problems. This deflection allows Kellie to maintain control and prevent anyone from discovering her own increasingly violent and erratic behavior. Kellie's psychological state, corrupted by grief and the supernatural entity's influence, makes her see Robin as an intruder threatening her family.

Foreshadowing: Kellie's discomfort with Robin moving in and taking over household duties was shown early, creating tension that Kellie later exploits.

• kellie
• robin
• blame
• manipulation
• todd

Kellie dies at the end of the film during the final confrontation. As she pursues Robin with reckless violence to prevent her from saving James and Abby, Kellie's mother's spirit suddenly appears, startling her. In the chaos, Kellie stumbles and is fatally impaled on a jagged piece of art, a symbol of the family's haunted past collapsing into the present. Her death marks the end of her violent rampage and the breaking of the totem's influence over the family.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Kellie's obsession with the totem and her increasingly violent behavior set her on a collision course with a fatal outcome.

• kellie
• death
• finale
• mother spirit
• impaled

The ending shows the surviving family, James, Robin, and Abby, moving to a tiny mobile home in a remote, serene location. They appear to be finding fragile peace, but Abby continues to speak to someone beyond the frame, suggesting the supernatural presence may still be with them or that the family's trauma continues. The ambiguous ending implies that while the immediate threat from Kellie and the totem has passed, the healing process is far from complete, and the presence they faced may still linger in some form.

Foreshadowing: The totem was described as a sentient presence tied to Lexy's spirit, suggesting it cannot be easily destroyed and may persist beyond physical boundaries.

• ending
• abby
• presence
• haunting
• peace
• healing

Kellie's mother's spirit appears during the final confrontation when Kellie is about to kill Robin and prevent her from saving James and Abby. The appearance of Lexy's spirit startles Kellie, causing her to stumble and fall onto the jagged art piece that kills her. This supernatural intervention effectively saves Robin, James, and Abby from Kellie's violent attack. The mother's spirit seems to finally intervene to protect the living family members she left behind, suggesting her spirit was connected to the totem but not fully controlled by it.

Foreshadowing: The totem was described as tied to Lexy's spirit, implying her consciousness remained connected to the necklace and could manifest when needed.

• mother
• spirit
• lexy
• appearance
• intervention
• saved

Kellie's violence stems from a combination of grief, psychological instability, and the supernatural influence of the totem. After her mother Lexy's death, Kellie discovers the totem necklace and becomes increasingly obsessed with it. The entity appears to corrupt her perception and judgment, leading her to view threats everywhere, particularly in Robin, who represents a new figure in her father's life. Kellie's descent into violence includes murdering her grandfather Bernard, attempting to drown Robin, and killing her boyfriend Todd, all driven by a desperate need to protect her family bond and control her surroundings.

Foreshadowing: Kellie's disturbing vision of a corpse at track practice and her escalating experiments with the totem signal her deteriorating mental state.

• kellie
• violence
• grief
• psychological
• totem
• corruption