Martha Marcy May Marlene Ending Explained-The Byproduct Of A Shattered Mind

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a devastating look inside a broken person. Elizabeth Olsen, who plays the title character, is escaping a cult. We first meet her living with the cult just before running for her life to the nearest town. Through a series of disjointed and disorienting flashbacks, we learn what happened to Martha and see how deep the damage goes. Sean Durkin’s nonlinear storytelling is as chaotic as Martha’s mind. Memories that may or may not be real are filtered through a hazy fog of trauma and bone-chilling fear. The brilliant and effecting movie uses a handful of powerful performances and an unreliable witness to create something that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

The ending of Martha Marcy May Marlene

After Martha unexpectedly runs away from the cult she had been living with for two years, she calls her sister Lucy. She and Lucy have not spoken in years, and despite what happened in their past, Lucy drives three hours to collect her fragile sister. But unfortunately, Martha’s wounds are too deep, and it becomes increasingly clear that Lucy, played by the always reliable Sarah Paulson, and her husband Ted(Hannibal’s Hugh Dancy) are not equipped to help Martha.

When Martha’s erratic behavior turns dangerous, they decide to seek professional help and have her institutionalized. As Lucy and Ted drive Martha to the facility, Martha catches a glimpse of a man watching her from their house. She then sees him follow them down the road. The film ends with an ambiguous question. What is real, and what is severe paranoia coupled with psychosis? The answer depends on your point of view and who you trust.

Martha is not as unreliable as she appears

The old adage is true here that just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you. The cult’s leader Patrick(John Hawkes), has complete control over his little kingdom. The patriarchal society he has built leaves little room for autonomy and even less for women’s worth. As the film closes and Martha slips further and further into madness, she sees a man watching her swim from the shore. We don’t see this man clearly, and because of her erratic behavior, it is assumed this is another delusion. Later as she is being driven with her sister, she sees another man in a brown car following them. Writing these encounters off as tricks of her terrified mind would be easy.

It is possible, however, that Patrick is having her followed. He might be waiting for the right time to pounce and bring her back into the fold. If Martha’s memories can be trusted(this is a big if), when she was asked to kill the random homeowners earlier in the movie and failed, she may have run because she knew intuitively what was happening was wrong. Just as with Julia Garner’s Sarah, though, just because she knows the right thing to do doesn’t mean she is capable of making those choices. Martha ultimately prepared Sarah to be raped because she has been so brainwashed into believing Ted’s nonsense she had no independent thought.

Using this perspective, Martha sees the man and chooses to stay silent because she knows it is a matter of time before they come for her. She is resigned to her fate and, worse yet, might be complicit in crimes against her sister and brother-in-law. We know the cult takes money from wealthy family members and has killed and stolen before, so it would not be all that far-fetched to assume the cult is setting up Lucy and her husband as the next victims. Martha’s final look could be construed as a smile that she has found a way back into the good graces of the cult by sacrificing her sister. This is why Watts told her to take care of herself when she ran away. This was her purpose all along, even if she didn’t realize it initially.

Martha is exactly as fractured as she appears

Martha probably had a mental illness before coming to Patrick’s cult. Her sister alludes to this fact when the two women try sometimes unsuccessfully to reconnect after Martha leaves the cult. You also get the impression that Martha was searching for something she wasn’t getting from her family. Her outburst at a party proves that she can’t distinguish reality from delusion.

The title of the film says it all. Martha is the daughter and sister she once was, Marcy May the devout following of the cult, and Marlene a powerless cog in the wheel of Patrick’s machine. Everything we see her do is a product of her mental illness and a group that took advantage of her vulnerability. The cult gave up on her and erased her existence from their past when she ran away. They don’t care what she might say because they don’t think she will talk, and even if she did, she is so unstable they think no one will believe her.

There is some truth to that, and the fact that she is being institutionalized will further shield them from prosecution. As with most groups like this, control and leverage are wielded over the vulnerable. No one is chasing her because they don’t have to. Patrick has so convinced her of his power she will never betray him. Instead, she will likely live the rest of her life in fear. Martha may learn to cope, but she will always be tainted by what the cult did to her. She will carry pieces of Martha, Marcy May, and Marlene with her forever.

If this is true, the man watching her from the shore either doesn’t exist or is a random man, and the same is true of the car she is convinced is following her. Her terrified final look seems to say as much. she is scared of the cult finding her but is beginning to be even more scared that all of it is in her mind. The idea that her brain is betraying her is almost as frightening as the cult chasing her down.

She is also haunted by her role in perpetuating the abuse in the cult. She feels intense guilt for allowing Sarah to be harmed and must come to terms with her active role in the cult. However, Martha has taken the first step by agreeing to seek help. Hopefully, with time and treatment, she will be able to reconnect with her sister and live a normal life.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is impactful in its simplicity and its horror. Rather than a slasher hacking his way through a camp of boozed-up horn dogs, this could be a real girl escaping an actual situation. But, as with real life, most things are shades of gray. What really happened to Martha and what happens after the film ends depends on your perspective. I believe the real monsters are the ordinary-looking human kind. They live among us and prey on the weak. Despite Martha’s enabling, she is a victim and hopefully will find the forgiveness and strength necessary to confront Patrick someday and save the others. That is a movie for another day, though. You can stream it on Hulu right now.