SPOILER WARNING: The following article goes deep into what happens in the Blink Twice ending, so if you continue to read on, do not say we did not warn you.
The new 2024 movie, Blink Twice, originally held the title of Pussy Island, which, now that I have seen the movie, makes perfect sense. The moniker would have been, at least, thematically appropriate for the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz (who also co-writes with E.T. Feigenbaum), given that it is provocative and cheekily over-the-top, as well as a fun and twisty thriller according to our Blink Twice review. Furthermore, it provides a hint at the dark secret behind its seemingly idyllic setting.
The new movie, which is now in theaters, stars Naomi Ackie as young server Frida, who is invited to join tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum, Kravitz’s real-life fiancé) and others on his private island. She and her roommate, Jess (Alia Shawkat), are initially ecstatic about the opportunity, until concerning revelations lead her to suspect there is trouble in paradise. What sort of trouble is taking place and what does it all mean from a symbolic standpoint? Let’s go deeper into the unforgettable ending of Blink Twice and find out.
What Happens At The End Of Blink Twice
Frida begins to realize her “excellent memory” has been deceiving her when she notices Jess is missing, but Sarah (Adria Arjona in one of her best movies yet), Camilla (Liz Caribel), and Heather (Trew Mullen) suddenly cannot recall her being on the island. After Frida discovers her friend’s bedroom has been converted to a storage space overnight, Sarah confides in her that she is convinced something is amiss when evidence of Jess appears in the form of a lighter with her name written on it.
Frida realizes her memory kicked in after unwittingly taking a shot of non-lethal venom from the snakes Slater’s crew has been hunting, one of which had bitten Jess the night before, meaning it must be an antidote to the memory-suppressive chemical she deduces is in the island-exclusive perfume, Desiride. Frida and Sarah lace tequila shots with the venom to “wake up” Camilla and Heather before Frida tries to reclaim their phones, which proves to be a dead end, but she does find a box of Polaroid prints showing previous outings with different male guests. Around this time, her memories begin to fully surface and she realizes the male island guests spend the nights sexually and violently abusing the women, knowing that they will forget all of it by morning.
By nightfall, Heather and Camilla’s memories finally click on, driving them to violently retaliate against the men and, during the bloody commotion, another look at the Polaroids leads Frida to realize this is not her first visit to the island. Moments later, with many of the island guests dead or horribly injured and Frida tied up, Slater comes clean about his disingenuous apologies for past toxic behavior and hints at his own early experiences with abuse at the hands of his father. Unbeknownst to him, Frida was able to cut herself free and, while he leaves for a moment, puts Desiride in his vape pen, causing him to forget the carnage that transpired.
Slater falls unconscious after he slips and hits his head on a table, knocking over candles that start a fire which Frida and Sarah safely escape and rescue Slater from, as well. We then flash forward to a gala for Slater’s company, which Frida now serves as the CEO for. She is also married to Slater, whom she keeps wrapped around her finger by constantly drugging him with Desiride-infused vape juice.
The Philosophical Question The Perfume Leads Blink Twice’s Characters To Explore
In an interview for Collider, Zoë Kravitz says the idea for Blink Twice came out of her desire to tell a story that explores the concept of power and, especially, taking back power. That is essentially what Frida does to Slater, and by the same methodology he used to assert dominance over her and other women on the island. While this could be viewed as somewhat hypocritical, as far as I am concerned it makes for a very satisfying conclusion to one of the best movies directed by a woman I have seen in recent memory.
In the speech he delivers to a tied-up Frida after the bloody climax, Slater only briefly hints at the abuse he and his sister suffered from their father before explaining that he is perfectly content to suppress that memory. For that reason, he sees no trouble in causing women the same kind of harm, because he offers them the “gift” of forgetting all about his abhorrent behavior by dosing them with Desiride. Magic roofies do not, in anyway, excuse the unspeakable acts Slater and his friends have committed and that makes him, as an abuse victim himself, the real hypocrite.
As far as we know, Frida is not using Desiride as a means to take advantage of Slater in a sexual way. Even before crossing paths with the tech billionaire at the first gala, she was disillusioned by feelings of powerlessness and the struggle to really feel like somebody, which she professes to Jess when she tried to warn Frida about the island after her snake bite. Now, Frida has achieved the power she desired by taking away the power that her abuser used against her. In that regard, our hero and our villain each got exactly what they deserved.
What The Blink Twice Island Represents, According To Zoë Kravitz
Outside of its similarities to another private island owned by a certain disgraced financier, the setting of Blink Twice boasts much deeper allegorical meanings than what comes at face value. Kravitz reflected on the symbolism below the surface in her feature in the aforementioned interview with Collider.
For instance, she says that the island was largely inspired by the Biblical tale of the Garden of Eden, in which the first woman, Eve, commits the “original sin” by taking advice from the Devil himself, disguised as a serpent, and eating a forbidden fruit that will open her eyes to the difference between good and evil. Kravitz finds the concept of a woman seeking knowledge being deemed sinful to be a little “fucked up.”
Thus, she decided makes snakes the saving grace of Blink Twice, imbuing the venom with the power to open Frida’s eyes to the evil before her. This clever metaphor reinforces the film as one of most well-crafted, best movies of the year and, especially, a powerful feminist parable.
Blink Twice seems like the type of movie worth revisiting a second time, with all of its wild twists and turns and symbolism. While it may very likely be available with an Amazon Prime subscription later on, being an Amazon MGM Studios production, I also highly believe it is an August release worth seeing in theaters (perhaps twice), so get yourself to the cinema if you have not already before this crowd-pleasing thriller disappears in the blink of an eye.
