This article includes discussions of domestic violence and rape.
Spoilers for It Ends With Us lie ahead! Although the film is based on the best-selling book by Colleen Hoover, the film adaptation of End with us includes a powerful ending that alters the source material to strengthen the message about surviving and recovering from abuse. The story follows a woman named Lily Bloom, played by Blake Lively, who saw her mother suffer abuse as a child and never wanted to be in the same situation. Unfortunately, after her father's funeral, she meets a neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, who she is immediately attracted to. They reunite months later after Lily unknowingly hires Ryle's sister at her flower shop.
Ryle flirts with Lily, oversteps his boundaries and tries to approach her, despite her asking him to stop. Ryle wears Lily down and the two begin a relationship. Although their relationship starts well, Ryle begins to abuse Lily. She doesn't realize the gravity of the situation until she meets her childhood love, Atlas, again.that immediately recognizes domestic violence. After an attempted rape, Lily goes to the hospital with Atlas' help and discovers that she is pregnant. This revelation takes It ends with us' emotional and hopeful ending that shows the strength of abuse survivors.
Why Lily leaves Ryle and breaks up with us
Lily leaves Ryle after finding out she's pregnant and breaks up with us
The two most powerful moments in the film adaptation of End with us they are when she leaves Ryle physically after he tries to rape her and when she leaves him mentally demanding a divorce. When she leaves Ryle physically, it is out of fear for her life. His decision seems instinctive and motivated by a flight response. She later decides not to return to him, leaving Ryle mentally for the sake of her daughter. Although Lily loves Ryle, she realizes her responsibility as a mother to give Emerson a better life than she had.
Lily leaving Ryle is an incredible act of bravery, especially since the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence is when she leaves.
Plus, Lily knows how easy it is to get stuck in the cycle of abuse because that's what happened to her mother. In one of the most devastating moments outside of the abuse scenes, Lily talks to Atlas about how she shouldn't become his mother. She considered herself too intelligent to enter into an abusive relationship, not realizing that intelligence does not influence abuse. However, she became so desensitized to the warning signs of abuse because of her father that she didn't recognize them when it came to Ryle.
Ultimately, Lily leaving Ryle is an incredible act of bravery, especially since the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence is when she leaves (via JBWS). Fortunately, she chooses to announce the divorce in a public space, mitigating some of the risks. She also doesn't appear to be in a co-parenting relationship with Ryle in the film, which is a major change from the book's protective of her son.
Atlas and Lily's Back Story Explained
Altas and Lily were each other's first loves
In End with usAtlas is the first person to recognize that Lily is being abused by Ryle, and this is due to their history. The two met when they were teenagers. Atlas became homeless due to an abusive home life and developed a romance with Lily while staying in the abandoned house next door. Because of their relationship, Atlas saw and heard the abuse happening at Lily's house. He was also almost killed by Lily's father. Between her personal experience and the testimony of Lily's home life, Atlas was prepared to recognize the signs of abuse in a relationship.
Additionally, Lily and Atlas had sex when they were teenagers, which Ryle discovers the first day he meets her. Lily also has a heart tattoo that represents a hollow wooden heart carved from Atlas for her. This part of their history becomes important to the story because Ryle uses Atlas and Lily's romantic history as an excuse to abuse Lily.
To be clear, there is no acceptable reason to abuse someone. Even if Lily was cheating on Atlas – which she wasn't – Ryle's abuse would still be wrong. Additionally, Ryle shows a lot of red flags before Lily meets Atlas again, such as coercion, control, and overstepping boundaries. Lily and Atlas' past simply allows Ryle a way to justify his abhorrent behavior.
How Ryle parallels Lily's father
Ryle and Andrew Bloom are charming men with a need for control
Colleen Hoover's book and the film adaptation use subliminal messages to demonstrate the cycle of abuse. One of the most significant examples of this are the parallels between Ryle and Lily's father, Andrew Bloom. Ryle and Andrew Bloom are powerful men with high-profile jobs that generate accolades. Ryle literally holds people's lives in his hands when he goes to work. Meanwhile, Andrew Bloom had the ability to influence the lives of everyone in his city as mayor. Both characters have jobs that give them power and control, which prepares them for domestic violence.
In addition to these similarities, Andrew Bloom and Ryle are charming and charismatic, although the book shows Andrew's charm more than the film. Like these two End with us characters, abusers typically don't abuse everyone around them. They can be charming and charismatic, which allows them to attract victims and continue the abuse without intervention. Ultimately, These parallels play an important role in explaining how abuse works and why Lily gets stuck in the cycle.
Did Ryle's family know about his abusive nature?
Lily reveals Ryle's abuse to Allysa in the end, ends with us
The film adaptation of End with us makes significant changes to Colleen Hoover's book, including whether Allysa knows about Ryle's abusive nature. The source material does not make it clear whether Allysa knows that Ryle is capable of committing abuse. However, the film explicitly confirms that Allysa had no idea about the abuse during Lily's conversation with her at the end of the film. This change makes Allysa less culpable for enabling her brother's actions. It also makes everything more meaningful when she tells Lily that she will never speak to her again if she turns to Ryle.
The meaning of the oak ends with us
The oak tree in the backyard of Lily's childhood home is an important symbol throughout the world. End with us. In Altas and Lily's flashback, the pair discuss the fact that flowers, fruits, and vegetables depend on love to flourish; however, the oak grows regardless of how it is cared for because it is strong enough to thrive on its own. Although she believes it is more similar to the vegetables from her garden, the oak tree represents Lily as a character.
In the end, she is thriving as a woman and mother, despite her father's lack of love and the abuse she suffered at Ryle's hands. Furthermore, it is symbolic that Ryle bites the tattoo based on the heart made of oak. He tries to destroy every ounce of his strength, but in the end, both the tattoo and Lily are fine.
Does it end with us and resolve the book’s controversies?
It Ends With Us adds important nuances to the story
Colleen Hoover End with us faced controversy due to the romanticization of abuse, the use of domestic violence as a plot twist, and the book's ending. The first trailer made it clear that the film was trying to fix problems with the source material. Instead of painting the story as a love triangle or romance, the domestic violence storyline was quite clear. Happily, the film followed suit, correcting the other problematic elements.
The film presents the theme of abuse in a more subtle way, highlighting that the situation is not romantic, even though Lily romanticizes the relationship in her head. Atlas presents the option for Lily to abort the pregnancy using the word “if” instead of “when”, which the book never mentions. Ryle is not portrayed as the “abusing good guy” like in the book. It also shows more red flags early on. At the end of the film, Lily also won't let Emerson spend unsupervised time with Ryle.
The true meaning of this ends with our end
Victims are not defined by their trauma
The end of End with us makes two big changes to the book that are significant. Firstly, the film shows the time between Lily's birth and her reunion with Atlas. During this montage, Lily becomes more vibrant and cheerful, a dichotomy in the way she acts in her relationship with Ryle. His face is also no longer empty, regaining the expressiveness and life it had at the beginning of the film. This addition shows that it is possible to live a full life after abuse. The trauma may always be present, but it doesn't have to define Lily.
Lily is giving her daughter the life she would want at the end of End with us.
Secondly, the film adaptation's ending shows Lily raising Emerson seemingly alone, rather than co-parenting alongside Ryle. This change offers I hope people can escape their abusers and give their children a better life than they had. Instead of relying on her abusive ex, Lily finds a support system through her mother, Allysa, and eventually Atlas. The daughter will not be exposed to her father, who has a history of violence. Ultimately, Lily is giving her daughter the life she would want at the end of End with us.
How the ending of It Ends With Us was received
The ending of the film was received much better than the book
Although Colleen Hoover's novels have remained controversial among romance fans because of the large amount of trauma many of her characters are forced to endure in the name of romance, many of her readers enjoy her writing style. End with ushowever, it marks a novel in which many readers, including its fans, dislike the book's ending, meaning that even among fans and the general public, the film's ending was better received overall.
Reddit Topics discussing the novel they called the book's ending, in which Lily co-parents with her attacker without any kind of explanation about his change in behavior, “simultaneously cotton candy, happy fluff And unsatisfactory.“There is a disconnect between a happy ending for a survivor and her abuser, without the abuser actually experiencing any kind of growth or change. The team behind the film recognized this.
When talking to The wrap about the film, Justin Baldoni said the script originally had a version of the book's ending, but everyone involved didn't think it would work.. He explained:
The truth is, from our research and that of our partners, we know that the majority of men return to being abusers, and that is the fact. And so it didn't feel right to tell a story about a man who was a minority in this, because that wouldn't be honoring the original intent of why we were trying to tell the story.
So the best ending for Ryle was to look at his wife and son, and the life he could have had, the life he blew up, and walk out the door and we don't see him again. And that was, for me, what I thought was best about adapting the book and becoming a film was saying goodbye to it there.
Fans of the film would agree, as it gives Lily the chance to grow up and stand on her own two feet and not be defined by the abuse she suffered in the past. The Globe and the Mail in particular praised Blake Lively's performance in the film, saying that she “conveys its luminosity and strength, and reminds you how pleasurable it can be to watch a romantic thriller.” Lively's performance and the change at the end combined to make End with us work for the cinema audience.
Sources: JBWS, The hotline, Reddit, The wrapand The globe and the mail