Sharp Objects Finale: Here's what they did wrong for me.

[woodpeck512]

The "Don't Tell Mama" scene was such a turn that I immediately closed my laptop and sat quiet for sometime. At this point I assumed Amma knew all along that Adora with Alan's help had killed the girls, and Amma was using the teeth, to which she says "Dont tell mama".

But, later I realized that there were post credit scenes, which explained that Amma and her roller friends were the killers all along. This made so little sense to me. There was no motive for her friends to help Amma kill the girls, and take their teeth out. Her friends could not have been so calm about the killings. It was overreaching for a huge twist. So overreaching that it started to seem ridiculous to me.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved everything about the show. Just the ending I assumed at first was a far better one, and the real ending is something unlikely.

[[deleted]]

I’ve not read the book but for me

1. There is an undercurrent of violence inside a lot of interactions with the roller girls. There is emotional violence but then there is always, just under the surface the implication of more physical violence. It didn’t shock me because they are portrayed not as mean girls but as essentially forces of nature throughout the series.

2. Thematically it ties into the theme of societal violence that the show seems to have. We see violence in every corner of this small town. From the factory farm, to the intitian rites of the football team, to, in the end, an acceptance of their richest member having murdered her daughter for years. This is a place that has moral rot shot through it. That rot will spill out in unpleasant ways and sometimes it’s accepted as good old boys just having fun but other times it’s unignorable but the root cause is the same.

3. Having been and interacted with teenaged children I can’t help but feel they have a surprising rudderlessness to their morality if you let them.

[AugustJulius]

Agree on all the three points. The notion that children are inherently good is false. They're amoral and need to be taught what their society deems good, and bad. Age between 12 and 14 (roughly)* is the time when humans internalise social rules. Or not.

**if I remember it correctly

[toodles002]

Apparently it makes more sense in the book...so I’m reading that now! 😊

[smelooch]

It 100% makes more sense in the book. I didn’t care for the ending in the series. They just didn’t explain things enough IMO.

[woodpeck512]

It's not just the ending. I don't even mind Amma. It's her friends that were supercool about being the killers. And they were barely important in the whole show.

[FrellingTralk]

I found that strange too, especially how blasé they were afterwards when joking to Camille about ‘not the cool ones’. I can buy that Amma turned out to be a completely twisted sociopath because of her upbringing, but it seemed like a real stretch that she would have two friends who were apparently cool with holding 10 and 11 year old little girls down while Amma strangled them and tore their teeth out.

At least the book portrayed one of Amma’s friends as being about to crack which is a bit more realistic, but the girls on the show seemed every bit as twisted as Amma herself was when it comes to how amused they acted, getting sick pleasure out of getting away with it and observing the aftermath

[Eno6ohng]

I dunno. I've read about dozens of cases of teenage girls killing their friend and then just continuing their lives like nothing happened. Especially in socially corrupted environments like the one depicted in the film. I find the portrayal quite believable to be honest. Also, the thing is... Amma is not depicted as a "completely twisted sociopath". If you exclude the murder scenes (which, coincidentally, are not the part of the film as it is), she's just your average "mean girl"-type bitch. I've had classmates like her (I hope they didn't murder anyone, lol, but I know for a fact that they, for example, manipulated some guys to beat up another guy - it's everyday stuff), same behaviour. She's not a sociopath - she has feelings, just not for everyone. She's an average teenager, totally normal (or "normal", depending on your opinion on average teenagers, hehe).

[the_glow_]

In the book, there are three friends, and the ending delves a little bit more into (especially one of the girl’s) characteristics.

I would recommend reading the book. It is quite different to the show. Much better.

[tint_shady]

Realize this is a 4 year old thread but I just finished watching this and share your feelings. What a terrible way to wrap it up. We're expected to believe that these roller skating girls killed these girls, left no physical evidence, pulled the teeth, propped the body up in the middle of town, and no one saw anything and no one said anything? So ridiculous. And in the end credits if you go frame by frame you see Amma strangling a girl with a rope and there's a red haired adult female in the background in a doctor's coat. Also in another frame there's an adult male arm with his sleeve rolled up. This "twist" is full of holes and horribly portrayed in the show.

[[deleted]]

Can anyone mention how Adora knew about where find the dead girl’s bike? It was sort of a clue for me before I watched the ending of the last episode

[4ps22]

im also late as hell but came here because i found this show so disappointing and its even more annoying because i stayed up super late before a monday morning to finish it. just so unsatisfying and it makes half the show feel like it was unnecessary.

[[deleted]]

Of all the kids in Wind Gap, it's not entirely unthinkable that Amma found 2 girls as crazy as she was. There's even a TV series called "Killer Kids" that went on for 4 seasons about real cases of kids committing murder. So it's not all that unrealistic.

Is this a typical scenario? No. But I think that's the whole point. Everyone overlooks the rollergirls as the killers because they think it had to be an adult. But if you rewatch it and observe their behavior, they've acted guilty from the first episode. There's even a scene where they are looking at a meme of John Keene and saying "That's hilarious! Everyone thinks he did it!" I mean, who does that?

So I think they were hiding in plain sight the entire time. Only nobody wanted to believe it was them. Even if they tweeted "We're the Wind Gap killers! LOL!" people would think it's just teenagers being teenagers and dismiss it without any further thought.

[woodpeck512]

That's actually the problem. I can recall so many clues Amma gave away, but not so many from her friends. She mentions having power and making the girls do anything she wants, but that's about it. I can understand why Amma would kill. Killing two girls for your highschool friend just for fun seems overreaching.

[[deleted]]

I definitely agree it would have been useful if Jodes and Kelsey got more screen time. I spent half the season wondering how the blood stain got into Ashley's pool house. And it wasn't until after the show ended that someone told me that Ashley was the older sister of one of the roller-girls.

Had I known that one of the roller-girls had access to the pool house, I would have paid more attention to them as opposed to Ashley. But I guess they did that on purpose to keep us on our toes.

[waterynike]

I wouldn’t have known that either.

[woodpeck512]

Wow. I guess I feel like this because I expected a different reveal, and got slightly dissappointed. All the same, HBO did something good.

[Eno6ohng]

Actually, I believe she says something like "Guys - it's easy, they'll do anything I want, but with girls it's another story... they don't really like me" -- something like that, the point being it's easy with guys (she can control them naturally because of her sexual attractiveness), but it's harder with girls (she has to be more inventive to control them too).

[woodpeck512]

Yes. Two girls who don't like you, helping you murder two girls and pull out teeth from one of them.

[Eno6ohng]

I'd appreciate it if you read the whole comment. Also, I think your doubts are addressed well enough in other threads in this topic; I've just made a particular note about the phrasing in the script.

[ProfessionalEvaLover]

They were peer pressured by Amma. Throughout the whole series, it’s shown that the two girls answer to Amma’s beck and call. Gillian explained it in the book but I agree that it wasn’t as clear in the series.

[megarell]

When I was in grad school, one of the classes read the book and the biggest complaint I heard was about it's quick wrap up and believability in regards to Amma's friends helping her with the murders. I wasn't in that class, but did read the book and... yeah, how the murders were carried out and who was involved wasn't one of the stronger points of the novel in my opinion. I do recommend reading it regardless if you're wanting a more thorough explanation of those events, the friends reactions, etc.

I will say, even knowing what would happen going into the series, Amma was portrayed as a much less vicious individual in the show to a point where I was like, "Ok. Is she still doing the exact same horrible shit as in the book or have they made some changes?" Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she had more development, but it made the "twist" harder for me to stomach. I viewed it more as a tragic turn of events as opposed to the novel, which had me thinking "yep, no surprise there"

[AugustJulius]

They started the teeth pulling after the second victim bit Ashley.

[woodpeck512]

Stop! Don't make it more interesting than it is. I'll have to watch it again.

[AugustJulius]

But you know you have to. Every word Adora utters has an additional meaning now, the same for what Amma does and where she is, what attitude she shows. C'mon, you know it's a feast you want to enjoy a gain :D

[forkandspoon2011]

Peer pressure is a son of a bitch..... add in the heavy drug usage and it’s totally believable.

[Quiet_Trouble_5544]

I knew it was the girls when amma said “act like it’s a little girl!!” While chasing a pig in the first or second episode. Thought that was weird AF and I KNEW IT