Then, mysteriously, in the final scene of the film, she has both her cell phone and the orange. When Leda stumbles from her car in the night, she is carrying nothing on her person.
The orange’s inexplicable appearance in The Lost Daughter ending, however, provokes the idea that Leda is dead on the beach. That Leda returns to this memory in The Lost Daughter ending while peeling the orange on the beach, in addition to her saying, “ Dead? No, I’m alive actually,” may suggest that Leda is alive, has finally accepted her role as a mother, and has thus achieved the perfect peel. While the scenes stand out because they are pleasant memories for young Leda (played by I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ Jessie Buckley), the act of peeling the oranges without the peel breaking is what is important as it points to Leda’s distaste for chaos and imperfection. The orange is a major through-line in The Lost Daughter, with young Leda and her daughters chanting “ peel it like a snake, don’t let it break” as they peel the fruit in one long curl. When Leda wakes, her first thought is of her daughters as she recalls a memory of her peeling oranges with them. What Happens at the End of The Lost Daughter?īy far the biggest question about The Lost Daughter ending is if Leda is dead in the final scene. Here are possible explanations for what happens in The Lost Daughter ending. With the film’s message left open to interpretation, The Lost Daughter is something of a psychological expedition, with the film trekking through Leda’s psyche and posing questions about motherhood that are at once necessary and taboo. It is unclear in The Lost Daughter ending, however, if Leda is dead and the viewer is watching her in some sort of afterlife, or if she did, in fact, survive the stab wound inflicted by Nina (played by Dakota Johnson from the brutally-reviewed Fifty Shades Freed). Related: What You Learn From Netflix's 2021 Top 25 Movies When Nina’s daughter, Elena, goes missing, Leda is the one to find her and return her to the family, but Leda steals the girl’s beloved doll-a move that, when discovered, brings Nina to stab Leda the night before Leda is to return home. Leda watches Nina and her young daughter closely, their interaction sparking memories of her rocky relationship with her own daughters, Bianca and Martha. The Lost Daughter, new to Netflix December 31 st, follows Leda on a solo holiday in Greece where she experiences a strange connection with a young mother, Nina, vacationing on the island with her dangerous, gangster family.
Gyllenhaal’s adaptation is based closely on Ferrante’s book, which also ends ambiguously, with both the film and the book offering a visceral and heartbreaking journey into both motherhood and womanhood. The Lost Daughter is the debut film by writer and director Maggie Gyllenhaal and is based on the book by the same name by author Elena Ferrante. Netflix’s The Lost Daughter’s ending has left many viewers wondering if Leda is dead or alive and what the movie’s message is.
Warning! SPOILERS ahead for The Lost Daughter