Showrunner Marti Noxon and director Jean-Marc Vallée walk us through the final chapter of Camille’s journey.
Sharp Objects ended its hauntingly beautiful eight-episode run on Sunday with a series finale that will leave many viewers reeling. Let’s just say, if you thought the reveal that Marian (Lulu Wilson) died as a result of Adora’s (Patricia Clarkson) Munchausen by proxy was only scratching the surface of the truth, even you probably didn’t predict the episode’s final moments.
To get the inside story on the chilling culmination of Camille’s (Amy Adams) story, TV Guide had Sharp Objects showrunner Marti Noxon and director Jean-Marc Vallée walk us through the finale, sharing their insights and addressing some of the episode’s lingering questions along the way.
CAMILLE FACES THE TRUTH
The finale begins as Camille arrives at the Crellin home, still emotionally raw from the recent revelations about Adora and terrified for Amma’s (Eliza Scanlen) life. While she plays along with Adora’s performance of domesticity initially, politely partaking in tense conversations about the death penalty and the underworld over dinner, as soon as Adora suggests giving Amma more “medicine,” Camille fakes sick, allowing Adora to give her the poison instead.
While many viewers were probably shouting at their TVs, “Go to the cops!” when Camille allowed herself to be poisoned, Vallée sees Camille’s actions as a misguided attempt to right the wrongs that have been haunting her for her entire life.
“There’s a death wish. And the death wish [exists] in order to do finally the right thing. ‘Maybe it should have been me instead of Marian? It should have been me. I’ve never been loved. It should have been me. I’m going to sacrifice myself in order to save Amma,'” the director explains.
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Though it nearly kills her, giving herself over to Adora’s deadly caretaking allows Camille the opportunity to finally confront her mother about Marian’s death and find closure within the pair’s most intimate discussion yet. It all happens while Camille sits naked, incapacitated and helpless in a clawfoot tub while Adora pretends to dote on her ailing daughter. It’s the closest we’ve seen the pair get, and the closest we’ve probably seen Camille get with anyone up until that point.
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
After Adora’s arrest, we see how Camille and Amma pick up the pieces in a montage that shows Camille returning to St. Louis with Amma in tow, Camille turning her apartment into a real home, and a tearful Amma visiting her mother in prison while Camille waits outside. Gone are the surreal interruptions of Camille’s memories and singular point of view, as well as the muggy claustrophobia of Wind Gap. Everything feels lighter and more open; there’s a feeling of peace and cathartic release that culminates in Curry (Miguel Sandoval) reading aloud Camille’s article, in which she grapples with her new role as Amma’s caretaker. And though, Camille admits, there are times she worries she has her mother’s disease, for now she believes she enjoys caring for Amma purely because of kindness.
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It’s a beautiful speech, and the first time viewers have gotten that kind of direct insight into Camille’s interior life. And after eight episodes spent in the swampy depths of the darkest corners of her subconscious, Camille’s uplifting words feel like a much needed dose of hope. “Her internal monologue is so strong and beautiful … in the book. And you hear it there for the first time,” Vallée says. “There’s such a beautiful humanity to this speech, to this paper that she wrote, which is where she says she tends toward kindness after all, but she doubts that [she doesn’t have] her mom’s disease of taking care too much of Amma. But that’s not how she feels. And we feel there’s some hope.”
But just as you begin to adjust into this new, idyllic reality, Sharp Objects pulls the (dollhouse) rug right out from under you once again.
You can stream all of Sharp Objects now on HBO NOW and HBO GO. Don’t have an HBO account? Download the full season at iTunes, Google Play and other retailers.
(Excerpt) Read More at: TVGuide.com