Caddo Lake ends in tragedy for one particular character, someone who only wanted to get back home to their family––but sadly died instead, stranded in an unknown world.
The new Max film takes place on Caddo Lake, a real lake in both Texas and Louisiana.
Unbeknownst to most viewers at the movie's start, the narrative unfolds across multiple timelines. One of the key elements of the story is that during local droughts throughout history, a weird phenomenon occurs: pockets of warped space-time that allow those entering them to transport to another year.
As the story unfolds, Dylan O'Brien's Paris is one of the few who end up getting stuck walking through time itself, entering Caddo Lake during different decades than his own.
By the film's end, Paris, originally from 2003, gets trapped twenty years in the future. In a desperate attempt to get home to his family, he jumps off the bridge into Caddo Lake to escape the cops––only to drown due to the flooding damn.
Caddo Lake Ending Explained: Why Paris Always Had a Tragic Fate
In an exclusive interview with The Direct's Russ Milheim, Caddo Lake directors and writers Celine Held and Lorgan George commented on why the ending for Dylan O'Brien's Paris would always end in tragedy.
When asked if there was ever a version of the story where Paris would have lived instead of unknowingly jumping from the bridge to his death (thanks to the flooding damn), Held strongly felt that "he could not live."
George added that due to the "predetermined timeline," Paris "always meets that end:"
"He was always trying to get back. He'd have found a way back, unless something stopped him from coming back. So in the predetermined timeline that we established, where everything that happened happened, you can't change your time or fate. He, ultimately, always meets that end."
When posed with the possibility of Paris staying in the future but still alive, Held questioned what that life would even look like for the character:
"I mean, he wanted to get back. Because he felt like he could, he felt like these things were answered for him. What would happen? He'd go to Celeste, he'd say, like, "It's me, Paris." I mean, she's not, you know, he's also so much younger than her now. I don't know. That world was not his own."
While there "was so much that was unfulfilled for sure in his life," George offered the silver lining that Paris was "a little bit redeemed" after "[saving] his mom in so many ways:"
"There's definitely a finality to it for us, and how he, you know, closed the loop in so many respects. There was so much that was unfulfilled for sure in his life, but he's a little bit redeemed in the sense that he saved his mom in so many ways when she was so young, and has given her her whole life, and is responsible for the birth of everyone we see in the film. So he does fulfill a huge destiny in so many ways. And you know, that's his arc, really."
In talking about the many small hints sprinkled throughout the movie about the story's twists and turns, Held pointed out how they made sure to have the alligator, the hope, the piping from early in the movie, and the stick that wounds Anna all get "cut with this diagonal angle," which hinted at that physical divide between the timelines:
"A lot of little tiny pieces. The alligator and the rope get cut at this kind of a diagonal angle. So is the stick that is what Anna gets hurt on... The trees are littered with these. And the pipe, when Dylan [O'Brien's] Paris first steps into the crossing, the pipe is also cut with this diagonal angle, so that's kind of littered throughout the film."
George made sure to explain that they were very cautious of where they dropped those hints because "the idea of tipping your hat too early was not worth it in so many respects:"
"I mean, we did want to be sure that these were small, subtle things because it's such an important reveal that the idea of tipping your hat too early was not worth it in so many respects. So we really tried to keep that card as close to the chest as possible. And it comes up against the reality of having to engage an audience, with the marketing of the film, and sort of like, what is exactly happening on this lake. But for us, that was one of the most important things. Once you hit that marker in the film, we feel like you're off to the races."
The full interview can be seen below:
Untangling The Twisted Timelines of Caddo Lake
It's clear that Dylan O'Brien's Paris could not have made it back home. If he did, then basically, his entire family history would have been erased from existence.
Speaking of his family tree, the time-travel shenanigans in this movie are mind-blowing—though some might not have fully understood those many twists.
It turns out that Anna, the little girl who Paris rescued in 1952, was actually his mother. She would go on to live her new life, now starting in 1952, eventually having Paris and raising him, only to still die in the fateful car crash over the bridge that started the film.
This meant that Paris was also Ellie's (Eliza Scanlen) father, whom her mother (Cee, played by Diana Hopper) claimed had died years and years ago. In reality, Paris had gotten lost in Caddo Lake's time traps, as seen throughout the movie.
This led the younger Cee, going by Celeste (Lauren Ambrose), to raise Ellie alone and never have an answer about what happened to Paris.
For those wondering if this means the family is filled with incest, the answer is no.
Anna was Ellie's step-sister, meaning that there was no blood relation between the two. Eric Lange's Daniel, Anna's father, was Ellie's great-grandfather and Paris' grandfather.
While O'Brien's Paris may not have been able to go successfully make it back to his timeline without screwing everything up, it's still hard not to think about what life could have been like for him in the present day. Sure, it would have been complicated and awkward at times, but time itself wouldn't have fallen apart.
However, it's completely understandable why Paris acted the way he did and jumped out of desperation.
Caddo Lake is now streaming on Max.
