What Happens to Olivia Colman’s Leda At the End of The Lost Daughter?

Netflix’s The Lost Daughter has received a lot of appreciation and, rightly so. The psychological thriller film is the debut feature directorial project of Maggie Gyllenhaal. It is based on the novel by Elena Ferrante of the same name. The cast includes exceptional actors like Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, with Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris.

The Lost Daughter deals with Olivia Colman’s Leda Caruso (Jessie Buckley plays the younger version). Leda goes on a Summer holiday on a Greek Island only to become obsessed with another young mother (played by Dakota Johnson) and her daughter. The obsession prompts memories of Leda’s young motherhood. All three actresses are stellar. In fact, Olivia stands high and tall in the Oscar race with another groundbreaking performance. However, as easy as the plot sounds, the ending (or, rather the start) has gotten the audience contemplating about our protagonist’s fate.

– This article on The Lost Daughter contains spoilers –

What Happens to Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter?

By the end of the film, we realize through the storytelling and a confession that Leda is “an unnatural mother”. She took away the doll that belonged to Nina’s daughter to “play”, indicating how she wanted to hold onto the bittersweet memories of her motherhood and reflect on them.

The film starts and ends with Colman’s character wounded and lying on the beach. We reach this scene when we see Leda crash her car and wake up wounded on the beach. She then peels an orange and talks to her daughters over a phone call. The wound is fresh, and Leda has no rush to go to the hospital or be treated. It only means how she would just want to pass away after she has made peace with the best and the most traumatic moments of her life.

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Even though the ending is open to interpretation, the book’s writing where Leda says to her children that she is dead but fine could mean that she is finally ready to go away after resolving her relationship with her daughters. Whether Leda actually dies is still unclear. But we now know that after surrendering psychologically, she would be happy to.

You can watch the film The Lost Daughter now streaming on Netflix.

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