Joe Biden s inauguration on Wednesday marks not only the historic beginning of a new presidency, but also, for countless Americans, the devastating end of a yearslong grift.

For believers of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that holds Donald Trump as a deity-like figure secretly battling a deep state cabal of pedophiles who control the government, things werent supposed to go down this way. Month after month, year after year, they had been told by Q, the groups shadowy online leader, and Qs army of social media influencers, that a symbolic storm was coming. The mythology held that on Wednesday, at long last, the Bidens, Obamas and Clintons would be rounded up and executed for child sex trafficking, treason and other crimes. Trump, having finally conquered evil, would remain in power.

This was the moment they had desperately been waiting for.

Inside digital safe havens for far-right extremists, such as Gab and Telegram, massive QAnon groups turned into virtual watch parties reacting to Wednesdays ceremony in real time. As the event began, members could hardly contain their joy or their desire for bloodshed.

WELCOME TO THE GRAND FINALE!!! someone cheered in a 185,000-member Gab group. Anyone else wanna puke with excitement?!?!?! another person asked amid a rapid stream of messages coursing through a 34,000-member Telegram channel. Others salivated over the idea of decapitations and sexual violence against prominent Democrats. Several messages were too grotesque to publish.

By 11:45 a.m., though, as Kamala Harris took her vice presidential oath of office, the crowds grew anxious.