Weathering (2023) ‘Netflix’ Movie Ending Explained & Themes Analysed: Netflix’s latest anecdotal horror offering “Weathering” is all about twenty minutes in length. But a lot happens in that little amount of time, and most importantly a lot more happens which you probably fail to notice. In fact, I found myself to be in a state of confusion right after finishing it. Only after marinating what I saw inside my head for several hours, I got a clearer picture.
Directed by Megalyn Echikunwoke, whom you have seen acting in so many things (Most recently in the Aubrey Plaza starrer Emily the Criminal), “Weathering” comes off as so many essential metaphors wrapped in one single narrative, centered around a black journalist. Alexis Louder plays the part fantastically and manages to showcase her talent even within the time constraint.
In this article, I’m going to write a short synopsis of what happens and then follow that up with what it really means, by shedding light on the underlying themes of it. There are several actually, which makes the movie both confusing and compelling.
Weathering (2023) Plot Synopsis & Movie Summary
So, here is what happens.
Gemina has a miscarriage during her delivery, resulting in losing her son. She does tell about feeling something weird inside her prior to her delivery to her doctor who seems competent enough but ignores her concern by labeling it as anxiety talking (although he doesn’t actually say it).
Post the tragedy, Gemina finds managing her life really difficult. Her partner/boyfriend Shawn apparently leaves and instead of being supportive and understanding, her mother pretty much judges her life choices and throws her a “I told you so”. Having continuous hallucinations manifested by guilt of not being able to save her child, Gemina tries to find support in her friend James who seems to be nice at first, but turns hostile when Gemina rejects his sexual advances.
Confronting the doctor who didn’t pay attention to her concern before delivery also doesn’t go well as the doctor spins it around and indirectly makes it about Gemina’s bad behavior to him. Moreover, Gemina suffers from writer’s block, but lies to her boss about her assignment coming really good which makes her feel like a loser even more.
Weathering (2023) Themes Analyzed
While “Weathering” puts the focus on the main narrative, it successfully manages to hide so many relevant themes in the plain sight. Let us look into those one by one.
Bad Parenting
Gemina’s mother not being much of help is a huge deal here. Although the mother and daughter have only one scene, it is evident that the mother is the kind who questions and judges every action of their child and never lets them feel safe or loved. In a time when Gemina is already miserable because of what has happened, not getting much moral or emotional support from her mother only makes the situation worse for her.
There is another deeper aspect regarding this thing. Gemina’s internal guilt of being responsible for what happened to her unborn child comes from the place of being unworthy of her mother’s love, effectively making her a bad mother as well. You can argue here as these two things are not exactly related and a lot of people turn out to be perfectly fine despite having awful parents. However, in this particular context, this actually makes a lot of sense, if you think about it.
Casual Racism (and sexism)
The doctor ignoring Gemina’s legit concern is a clear case of casual sexism as he believes in his male superiority over a female which is so obvious, for so many men like him. Gemina being a woman of color also plays a role here as the doctor probably would have taken her a bit seriously and definitely not accuse her of “bad behavior” (especially if you consider her situation) if she was white. This is an absolutely terrible, problematic thing that is still very much relevant in the world we live in. The doctor calling her “Gemma” instead of “Gemina” also implies how callous his approach towards the whole thing is despite the fact that he has at least a bit of responsibility for what happened.
Gaslighting
I’m sure you have heard this term already, unless you are living under a rock. This is the most definitive term for what you call victim blaming.
In what I consider the cringiest moment of the entire movie, Gemina’s friend James makes a sexual move at her by clenching her (I’m gonna write bottom but you know what). What leads to that is James visiting Gemina’s place and her getting scared fueled by the hallucinations and nightmares she is already having. James appears to be a decent guy who helps Gemina compose herself by bringing a sense of calm to the situation. But when Gemina refuses his physical advances, the “nice guy” disappears. Instead, he blames Gemina for setting up an atmosphere where he got the idea of her desiring something like that. In reality of course, Gemina doesn’t do anything.
This is also a very typical and common male behavior where the nice guy does his nice things with the agenda of getting into the pants of the woman he desire. Doing nice things also gives them a sort of false entitlement, which is even more dangerous. Naturally, when the woman refuses, all the niceness vanishes and the guy turns into a bitter, whinny asshole like James.
Weathering (2023) Ending Explained
What happens to Gemina in the end?
I was really glad to see that Gemina does find some light at the end of the tunnel she was going through.
Nothing magical happens though, which is something you wouldn’t expect in a movie like this. The world is cruel and unfair but what we probably need is the realization of exactly how bad the situation is an becoming a voice. In the very last scene, we see Gemina opening her laptop and finally starting writing her article titled “What will it take to save a black woman”. We see bright white light, compared to the much darker tone we have been seeing from the first scene. This only indicates that things are finally going to change for Gemina, as it really should.
