Baby Reindeer's creator confirmed fans' worst fears about what happened in the series' ending.
Richard Gadd's Baby Reindeer stage play is reinvented in a new Netflix series, telling his real story about an experience he had with a stalker.
First hitting Netflix on April 11, the true-story-turned-TV-thriller gave fans insight into a real experience people can go through, setting up some truly terrifying realizations along the way.
Baby Reindeer Creator on Series' Ending
Speaking with GQ Magazine, Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd shared his thoughts on how the series came to an end, tying it back to his own experience with stalking and sexual assault.
At the end of the series, Gadd's character reunites with his abuser, Darrien, and accepts a job offer from him.
Gadd described this scene as "almost the most truthful scene" of the series, explaining how abuse "leaves an imprint" psychologically and physically:
"I think that was almost the most truthful scene of the entire show. What abuse does is it creates psychological damage as well as physical damage… Abuse leaves an imprint. Especially abuse like this where it’s repeated with promises. There’s a pattern where a lot of people who have been abused feel like they need their abusers. I don’t think it was a cynical ending, it was showing an element of abuse that hadn’t been seen on television before, which is, unfortunately, the deeply entrenched, negative, psychological effects of attachment you can sometimes have with your abuser."
Gadd looked specifically at the final scene of the show with Radio Times. He broke down his character Donny trying to get a drink from a bar but being unable to pay for it. There, the bartender covers him, which mirrors the initial moment where Donny covered a drink for his eventual stalker when she could not pay for it.
Gadd enjoyed "the ambiguity of the ending" and did not want to attach any specific meaning to it, loving how it can be interpreted by different people in so many ways:
"I quite like the ambiguity of the ending, I sort of don't want to put a meaning on it. I think it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. I know what it is in my head – that ending's my favorite thing in the whole series, the way it ends.
He even called that moment his "favorite bit in the whole series," looking forward to seeing how viewers interpret what happened:
"From plugging in the headphones to going all the way to the end, hearing the voicemail, looking up, that's my whole favorite bit in the whole series. I think it can be interpreted in multiple ways, and I like that it can. I'm quite keen to see what people think, actually."
Baby Reindeer is now streaming on Netflix.
Read more about Baby Reindeer below:
Is Baby Reindeer on Netflix a True Story? What's Real vs. Fake
Baby Reindeer: Who Is the Real Martha? New Details Shared by Lead Actor
