Have you ever dropped something on the floor unthinkingly? I have; at least one hundred times. However, I cannot imagine someone holding a baby in their arms and dropping it on the floor, even accidentally. Therefore, the life-changing event at the epicenter of Hulu’s The Drop (2023), directed by Sarah Adina Smith, is equally intriguing and mind-boggling. It opens with emerald-colored waves crashing against rocks, preparing us in the fashion of The White Lotus Season 2 for some dark comedic drama.
The premise itself is ingenious – Lex drops a baby on a wedding getaway of her friend’s, throwing her life into a topsy-turvy of realizations about herself, parenting, and her relationship with her husband, Mani.
This is a wonky drama that soon spirals out of control because of its ambitious nature. It does a fascinating thing by bringing to life some smart conversations among people in their 30s, giving us a peak into how their lives have turned with marriage and parenting.
Lex is a queer protagonist who has formerly been in a relationship with Mia, one of the brides at the wedding, and Levi, a hotblooded teen, is given the full freedom by his foster parents to openly explore and inquire about the world of sex and pleasure – small aspects of the plot like these give the story a fresh, contemporary zeal.
Fairly simple, some plot points in The Drop (2023) may be difficult to comprehend because of its packed story-line, so we have attempted to unpack its ending and answer a few questions for your ease. SPOILERS ALERT!
The Drop (2023) Movie Synopsis and Plot Summary:
Lex (played by Anna Konkle) is a baker who runs a cafe in Los Angeles called ‘Carbs’. She and her husband, Mani (played by Jermaine Fowler), are trying to conceive a baby. The film begins with them having sex and discussing the upcoming marriage of one of Lex’s friends as a scope for a tropical island getaway.
It seems to coincide with the birthday of Mani’s mother, who lives in Brooklyn. Lex is responsible for the wedding cake and writing their wedding vows, apart from handling most of the wedding preparations; hence, she must attend this wedding. Soon, the couple set out toward their destination.
On the aircraft, they are joined by the rest of the company – Mia (played by Aparna Nancherla), a lawyer and new mother to a beautiful baby girl who carries a gun in her luggage; Peggy (played by Jennifer Lafleur), a gynecologist and Mia’s would-be-bride; Shauna (played by Robin Thede), one of Lex’s friends with an air of self-importance around her; Robbie (played by Utkarsh Ambudkar), Shauna’s husband and one of Lex’s ex-lovers who doesn’t stop name dropping; and Levi (played by Elisha Henig), the adopted son of Shauna and Robbie who is a freshly-turned teenager discovering the world of sex and sexualities. They are putting up at the new resort run by their friend and her husband, Lindsey (played by Jillian Bell) and Josh (played by Joshua Leonard).
While the party is about to set out for the resort and everyone is busy boarding the car, Mia hands her baby to Lex and Mani when the former accidentally drops her on the concrete floor.
The baby is taken to the hospital and survives with minimal injuries. But an air of awkwardness takes over the troupe as they try to look past the incident and enjoy their time. Each of the couples in their room contemplates the incident, wondering whether or not they’d have dropped a baby mistakenly.
On the other hand, Mani is seemingly shaken up by the incident. He even calls his mother to ask if she had ever dropped him as a child. Lex, who has been crying a lot and feeling visibly guilty, tells Mani that she was stung by a huge bee which is why she dropped the baby. Mani, in turn, narrates this incident to the rest of the company later in the day.
Lex wanders to the ocean, gets shooed by a local woman because of the bad vibe she has brought along, and is seen unclothed and trying to commit suicide. She quickly backs out and is discovered by Mani soon after, who brings her back to the safety of the resort.
The next morning, Lex tries to convince Mani to have sex with her to continue with their plan of conceiving a child. However, Mani seems to be mentally and physically checked out of the act by now. All of them gather for breakfast when Mia and Peggy bring their daughter to the table, and Lex almost succeeds at making up for the previous day’s accident.
Later, they ride out on a yacht to the middle of the sea, where all of them individually open up about their ambitions, beliefs, partners, and sex lives. Tired of the conversation, Mani expresses his desire to go back to the coast and jumps into the water to swim toward it.
It takes him three hours to make it back, just in time for the rehearsal dinner. As the night progresses, chaos breaks out and threatens to crack up Lex and Mani’s relationship, but the director knows better than to disappoint the audience.
Why did Lex Drop the Baby?
Initially, Lex tells Mani that there was a large bee that had stung her arm when she was holding the baby. The pain was so bad that it distracted her, and she accidentally dropped her. Mani narrates the same story of a bee sting to the rest of the company. But he is quickly made to wonder about the truth of the matter. He had, after all, not seen the sting, and Lex never precisely told him where it was.
It is only towards the end of the film that Lex confesses to Mani that she is scared of a bee or large insect that is buzzing around her and is only trying to swat it away. In the process, she had become unmindful about the baby in her arms and accidentally dropped her. The story about the bee sting was a lie she made up to hide the fact that she had prioritized herself over a baby during a brief moment of crisis.
Does Lex get pregnant in the end?
The film opens with Lex and Mani engaged in the act of conceiving a baby. We quickly come to know that they have been trying for a while to start their own family. However, the incident of dropping the baby causes an unspoken rift between the couple to the extent that Mani and Lex decide to separate in case their family planning goals don’t align. In the end, Lex and Mani make up. Mani observes that Lex may be showing some bodily transformations. Cut to around nine months later, Lex is seen undergoing labour pain and sitting in a water bath for the delivery of a child.
Why is Mani distant from Lex after she drops the baby?
Lex’s unmindful behavior leading to the drop of the baby, makes Mani feel disillusioned about Lex being the mother of his child. Since they were actively trying to start a family, Mani feels more confused about whether or not they are even prepared to raise a child. He even rings his mother to ask her if she had ever dropped him as a child.
However, in the course of the movie, he opens up about how weird he thinks the accident is. He also comes to understand that it was an isolated incident that in no way reflects their ability to be future parents. His mother’s confession about having dropped him a couple of times as a child is a reassurance about the same. Moreover, the incident forces them to address the few issues that have been bothering Mani about their relationship.
The Drop (2023) Movie Ending, Explained:
At the rehearsal dinner of Mia and Peggy’s wedding, each of the couples put up a show for the brides. Robbie hosts the evening and sings a song with Levi on the guitar. Shauna performs a poetic (?) piece on herself. Lindsey and Josh try to convince their friends to invest in their resort and Lex-Mani dance. On the other hand, Levi seems to be in the act of masturbation at the dinner table, and Peggy tells Mia that everyone thinks she is a Republican because of the gun she carries in her purse.
During Lex and Mani’s performance, Mani walks away from the stage. In a fit of frustration, he destroys the wedding cake that Lex had carefully curated for the couple in front of everyone and walks out, with Lex following him closely behind. Everyone takes this opportunity to speak out some truths – Robbie tells Shauna that he has been faking his orgasms, Levi agrees to invest in Josh and Lindsey’s business using Dogecoins, and Mia announces that she is a Libertarian.
Lex confronts Mani about the awkward silence between them since the baby’s unintentional drop, confessing that she was afraid of a bee buzzing around her, which is why she unwittingly dropped the baby, and that the story about the bee sting was a lie she made up.
She tells him that she is not ready to become a parent anytime soon, and if it interferes with his family planning goals, they should consider separating. Mani wanders away to the beach in grief, still indecisive about his feelings for Lex. He comes across a group of locals who translate his disheveled state as a result of the death of his wife by a shark attack. He accompanies them and frolics away the night, drinking and eating with their families.
Mia and Peggy get married at the beach to Robbie the next morning. They read the vows written by Lex, who is sitting at a distance on one of the rocks with the baby in her arms. Soon afterward, when everyone is leaving the resort to go back home, Mani returns to Lex and demands a conversation with her. They agree to move to Brooklyn. Mani confesses that he’d like to be each other’s most important thing in life but also live closer to his family. They make up and joke about some bodily changes in Lex.
Before the film draws down its curtains, we are shown that Lex is in a water bath and undergoing labor pain while her mother and Mani’s mother are cheering for the safe and sound delivery of their baby from outside the door. Overall, The Drop is a quirky little drama that is all things odd and strangely nice to watch.
Read More: The Drop (2023) Review: A cringe-comedy that suffers due to its incoherence
The Drop (2023) Trailer
The Drop (2023) Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
The Drop (2023) Cast: Jermaine Fowler, Anna Konkle, Monnae Michaell
Where to watch The Drop
