What happens to Lee and Gene?

Warning: major spoilers for Queer, by Luca Guadagnino.

The romantic drama Queer tells the story of American expatriate Lee (Daniel Craig) and young Gene (Drew Starkey), while exploring the complexities of love, attraction and the gay lifestyle in the 1950s. Directed by Luca Guadagnino and based on 1985 novel of the same name by William S. Burroughs, Queer takes audiences to 1950s Mexico City to meet Lee, an outcast among other queer people, who spends his time visiting the city's clubs and trying to find new (and younger) sexual partners.

One day, Lee sees Gene in a bar and is instantly attracted to him, but to his surprise, he finds himself unable to approach him until Gene finally approaches him. Lee and Gene begin a sexual relationship, but Gene remains emotionally distantwhile Lee craves emotional intimacy while dealing with substance use disorder. A trip to South America that takes them into the jungle for a yagé/ayahuasca experience ends up being a turning point for Lee and Gene, and their connection and relationship aren't the same after that.

Why Lee and Gene Don't End Up Together on Queer

Queer doesn't have a happy ending

Before Lee met Gene, Queer shows that Lee tends to go after guys and trick them into having sex with him, with one of them telling his friend that Lee has been trying to sleep with him for a while and can't understand friendship between queer people. Lee's problem isn't that he's incapable of making friends with other queer people because he absolutely can (he's friends with Joe, played by Jason Schwartzman), but that he craves love, care and intimacy in every waywhich can make him seem desperate or clingy.

Lee's attraction to Gene is unlike any other he has ever experienced, as he doesn't even know how to approach him, and it's only when Gene talks to him that he finally lets go and enjoys the experience. However, Lee and Gene's relationship is merely sexual, and although Gene cares about Lee, the emotional intimacy that Lee seeks is not present in Gene. Lee inviting Gene on his trip to South America is an attempt to get closer to him, but Gene doesn't really change his ways.

One of the reasons Lee decides to go to South America is due to his interest in telepathy and the yagé plant, which he read was used to improve telepathy. An expert on the subject sends Lee and Gene into the jungle to meet Dr. Cotter (Lesley Manville), a scientist who has studied the plant for years and can oversee its use. Lee and Gene's yagé “trip” is eye-opening for them, and when it ends, instead of being closer, they are further apart than ever. Lee and Gene leave and go their separate ways, and Lee remains single until his last day.

Why was Lee so interested in telepathy

Lee went to the jungle to experience this

Lee's interest in telepathy is first mentioned at the beginning of Queerwhen you talk about it with one of the young people you are interested in. Lee mentions that he believes in telepathy and is interested in experiencing it and, to do so, he would like to have the experience of consuming yagé. Lee even mentions that he read that the US government and the Russians were experimenting with yagé for mind control purposes, which placed some stigma on the plant.

Lee is so interested in telepathy not just because he believes in it, but because it would be a much easier way for him to communicate his feelings to his partners, especially Gene. Lee struggles to connect and communicate with Gene, and his desire for intimacy with him is beautifully illustrated with a ghostly Lee physically approaching Gene, so telepathy would allow him to say what he feels and needs to Gene in an easier way. and direct. .

What Lee and Gene's Yage Experience Means

The Yage experience was eye-opening

Lee is warned more than once that taking yagé doesn't get you high and is unlike anything he could get from any other drug. Lee is addicted to opioids and uses heroin regularly, and during the trip to South America he goes through intense withdrawal. Lee manages to stay clean during the trip, but insists on trying yagé, even after being warned that Taking it will not take you to another “dimension” like other drugs and instead is a mirrorforcing the user to truly look at themselves.

Gene agrees to take yagé with Lee and they go through it with the help of Dr. Cotter, and just when they think the plant hasn't hit, they begin to have a very strange but very intense experience. After vomiting their own hearts out, Lee and Gene sit in front of a campfire and they gradually disappear while communicating telepathically. Gene tells Lee that he is not gay and is instead disembodied, a line Lee had previously said in Queer in a dream. Although Lee says he already knew, he is heartbroken, but halfway through the yagé journey his screams go unheard.

In a final attempt to get closer to Gene beyond a sexual relationship, Lee and Gene's bodies begin to merge as they embrace, and this is their last moment together. As the effects of the yagé wear off, Lee tries to reconnect with Gene, but Gene just wants to sleep. The next morning, Gene does not speak to Lee and when they leave Dr. Cotter's house, they are separated for good. The yagé journey is intensely eye-opening for Lee and Gene, with the latter finally being free enough to tell Lee that he's not gay and therefore can't love him the way he needs to.

Lee gets what he wants from the “trip” by experiencing telepathy and can finally communicate with Gene, but at the same time, he doesn’t get what he wants. he realizes that Gene will never love him and will leave him. In a final moment of symbolism in QueerWhen Lee returns to Mexico City two years later, he has another dream in which he finds a snake eating its own tail (the Ouroboros) and Gene wearing a centipede necklace that comes to life.

The Ouroboros is a symbol of the cycle of life and rebirth, but more than that, in Lee's context, it is more about how he consumes himself, in the same way that Lee will continue in his own vicious cycle of loneliness, desire for love, use of substances, and being queer in an intolerant and repressive world. On the other hand, the centipede simply leaves, just as Gene does, and moves on while Lee remains the same.

What happens to Gene after the trip to the Yage

Gene and Lee's relationship was never the same

As mentioned above, the yagé trip allows Gene to finally be completely honest with Lee and tell him that he is not gay and therefore will not love you the way he loves you. Even that night, Gene doesn't want to talk about what happened and chooses to sleep while Lee stays awake, and the next morning he doesn't talk and refuses to open up even to Dr. Cotter. Gene is a few steps ahead of Lee as they leave Dr. Cotter's house, but he suddenly disappears, and that is the last time Lee sees him.

Two years later, back in Mexico City, Lee finds out from Joe that Gene returned to the city but left six months earlier with an army colonel for South America. to be his tour guide, and even mentioned the possibility of meeting Lee. Gene never returns to Mexico City or Lee leaves at some point, but they never see each other again.

What happens to Lee at the end of Queer

Lee's story has a brief time jump

Lee continues his journey without Gene after the yagé experience and returns to Mexico City two years later. Lee reunites with Joe at his favorite bar, where Joe tells him Gene left six months ago. After that, Queer Cut to the aforementioned dream with the Ouroboros and the centipede, in which Gene is sitting on a bed in the local hotel where Lee had previously had sexual encounters with other men. Gene puts a glass to his head and Lee shoots, hitting Gene in the head.

Although Lee smiles at first, he rushes to Gene's body, kissing him one last time. Lee has now freed himself from Gene, but not completely, as a part of him will continue to love him – or, perhaps, what he loves and holds on to is the idea of ​​what could have been if Gene had loved him back. Queer makes one last leap to an elderly Lee in the same hotel room, and instead of wearing his trademark white suit, he's now wearing a black one.

Lee lies on the bed, on his side, shaking, like he did when he was going through opioid withdrawal, but this time without Gene. Memories of her time with Gene continue to play in her head, and Lee dies alone in that bedwith QueerThe final scene is with lights flashing in different colors.

The true meaning of queer

Queer has some emotional themes

Although the one-sided love between Lee and Gene is the focal point of QueerThere are other major themes covered. Lee longs for emotional intimacy but doesn't know how to get itso he is content with purely physical relationships. While Lee lives a freer life as a queer man, Gene is the opposite, as he has succumbed to the social pressure of the 1950s against queer people and does not allow himself to live his truth, and as a direct result of this, he does not know what wants, which leads him to play with Lee's feelings.

Even though Lee lives more freely, Queer It also shows how lonely it can be to be a queer personbecause there is still an emptiness in him that he cannot fill, and this loneliness was more present in the 1950s. It is not known whether Gene will be able to live his life freely, be himself and find someone with whom he can be himself and who can love back, but at least for Lee, that loneliness remains until his last day, as does his love for Gene.