Spider-Man: Brand New Day – What Really Happened Between Peter and Ned at the End?

This article contains Spider-Man: Brand New Day spoilers

An amazing and uplifting moment at the very end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day has got Marvel fans talking and unsure of what they really saw when Peter Parker (Tom Holland) finally shook his former best friend’s hand and revealed his real name.

Some people believe that Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) remembers who Peter is in that moment. Others strongly disagree, believing that their iconic handshake is just muscle memory and Ned is simply remembering that MJ let slip that Spider-Man’s real name is Peter earlier in the movie. As one of Spidey’s biggest fans, Ned would certainly be excited to suddenly know he’s actually meeting and making friends with Spider-Man.

So, does Ned remember Peter Parker in those final moments of Brand New Day, or doesn’t he? Let’s dig deeper.

What Do We Actually See Happen?

In the closing minutes of Brand New Day, Peter goes to buy flowers at the bodega after realizing that isolating himself is not the answer. His Spidey DNA has been taking over because he’s been neglecting his own identity, and Peter has decided to make more time for himself so he can find a real balance between being Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

He spots his erstwhile best friend Ned sitting at a table and plucks up the courage to go over and talk to him. Ned can’t remember his name. This time, Peter tells him the truth (not Maynard!) and reaches out to shake Ned’s hand. After they do a traditional handshake, Peter begins transitioning into their special “best friend” handshake moves, and Ned immediately mirrors him. Ned looks up with a surprised expression: “Peter!” Cut to credits.

Was Doctor Strange’s No Way Home Spell Broken?

Spider-Man: No Way Home saw Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell to make everyone forget Peter Parker. When MJ (Zendaya) unexpectedly discovers Peter’s letter explaining who he really is and why the spell was cast during the events of Brand New Day, she categorically tells him she can’t remember him and doesn’t love him. She reasons that the spell that Strange performed really did work, and nothing has changed. Being around Peter again, even seeing his face or being in his arms, has not broken the spell.

Ned also has no idea who Peter is, despite being obsessed with Spider-Man and creating a tracker to follow his every move. They build Lego together and banter like old times, but none of their interactions moves the needle. Ned and MJ clearly do not remember Peter, but when Peter tells the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) who he really is while they’re fighting, the Hulk suddenly pauses and backs down. Though Strange’s spell may have worked on Banner, it may not have worked on the Hulk, yet it’s also possible that Peter’s honesty in that moment with the Hulk changed something.

Jean Grey’s Psychic Bubble

We also meet the MCU’s version of the X-Men’s Jean Grey (Sadie Sink) in Brand New Day. At this point, she is in the midst of being able to harness just some of her powers. Jean is not yet an Omega-level mutant, but when she is faced with her sister’s killer at the end of the movie, her fury fuels her powers, and she creates a psychic bubble that traps everyone within a certain radius inside it. MJ and Ned are also trapped in this bubble.

Before this happens, Jean hops into MJ’s mind and possesses her body. She fools Peter into thinking she’s the real MJ, and romances him until they kiss. Peter is horrified when Jean reveals it’s not the real MJ kissing him, and she mocks him for thinking “true love’s kiss” will unlock MJ’s memories of him.

Yet, by the end of the movie, it’s clear that she has come to trust Peter, and even keeps him alive using her powers when he is fatally wounded protecting her from Frank Castle’s sniper bullet. Jean and Peter are perhaps far from friends, but she owes him her life.

Since Jean’s powers can canonically restore repressed or erased memories, it’s possible she may have given MJ and Ned back the opportunity to access their memories deliberately or accidentally, either when they were trapped in the bubble or afterwards, waiting to be unlocked by “true love’s kiss” (or “true love’s handshake” when it comes to Ned).

Ned’s Latent Magical Powers

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, we discover that Ned has some latent magical powers. While it took Doctor Strange months to unlock the simple sorcery of using the Sling Ring, Ned is able to immediately wield it and open interdimensional portals to other universes, bringing Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Men through into the MCU when he says he wants to find Peter. Ned’s grandmother always believed he was magical, and he tells Strange that he experiences tingling in his hands.

It’s unlikely that Ned remembers that he finds it so easy to perform real magic after Strange’s memory-erasing spell in No Way Home, but his lingering determination to track Spider-Man and his handshake connection with Peter may have unlocked Ned’s magical abilities on some level.

It’s definitely possible that Ned could have accidentally broken Strange’s spell in the handshake moment, but the same honesty Peter used on the Hulk also seems to trigger something in Ned when Peter tells him who he really is. Though that honesty didn’t work on MJ, it could have very well worked on both Ned and the Hulk.

MJ and the Black Dahlia

MJ states she has no memories of Peter, but we see her crying and touching the Black Dahlia necklace Peter gave her in Spider-Man: Far From Home when she is trapped in Jean’s bubble. It feels important that she is still wearing it, and her emotional reaction at this point in the movie suggests she is connecting with what the necklace means to her.

Whether this means MJ is regaining memories of Peter while trapped in the bubble remains to be seen, and there is certainly no clear proof that she has had any of her memories restored during the events of Brand New Day. However, she tells Ned during one of their conversations that she feels like she’s “waiting for something,” and is unable to make any big decisions. Her relationship with her new boyfriend also seems somewhat strained. On some level, she knows that Peter is missing from her life.

We will have to wait and see whether MJ ever unlocks anything beyond those vague feelings, and whether Ned really does remember Peter. Luckily, we have been promised that Spider-Man will return!