Deep Water Ending, Explained: Why Did Vic Kill Melinda’s Lovers?

‘Deep Water’ takes an intensely darkish, psychological take a look at a married couple’s imploding relationship and the unconventional strategies they each resort to for launch. Vic (Ben Affleck), a brooding and rich tech inventor, tolerates his spouse Melinda’s (Ana de Armas) frequent affairs in an try to carry their household collectively. Nonetheless, his passivity seemingly takes a sinister flip when one among Melinda’s “buddies” is discovered lifeless, dividing the couple’s buddies as as to whether Vic may have really killed his spouse’s lover.

A wholly new, sinister rigidity enters the connection, made all of the more strange by their 6-year-old daughter Trixie’s harmless hypothesis about her father being a assassin. Adrian Lyne’s tightly balanced and understated erotic thriller has a becoming climax that may’ve left you with a few questions. We’ve gone in deep with the movie so permit us to interrupt it down for you. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Deep Water Plot Synopsis

The movie opens with Vic coming back from a cycle journey to seek out Melinda staring intensely at him earlier than getting up and retreating into their dwelling. The palpable rigidity between the 2 units the tone for the rest of the movie, which then introduces particulars of their life. Their vivacious six-year-old, Trixie, is the apple of Vic’s eye whereas the mom appears faintly indifferent from the daughter. The couple, rich from Vic’s invention of a microchip utilized in army drones, has a wholesome social life. Nonetheless, the events they attend normally have Melinda inviting one other (usually youthful) “good friend” with whom she disappears for lengthy durations, making it fairly apparent what she’s as much as.

At one such get together, Vic, annoyed and provoked into talking, tells Melinda’s present good friend Joel that he (Vic) killed her earlier acquaintance Martin McRae. Joel is spooked and ultimately leaves city, however not earlier than spreading Vic’s declare. Quickly, their buddies’ circle is abuzz although most of them are positive of the husband’s innocence. Nonetheless, when one other one among Melinda’s buddies, a pianist named Charlie De Lisle, mysteriously dies at a celebration, the suspicion on her husband is heavier. Melinda herself proclaims that Vic is behind the homicide, and Don, a mutual good friend, appears to agree. Nonetheless, with no proof, the investigation dies out.

Melinda then begins seeing Tony, an ex-boyfriend from the previous, and invitations him over for a meal. As soon as once more, Vic watches silently as his spouse flirts with their visitor and ultimately disappears right into a room with Tony. A couple of days later, Vic picks Tony up on the pretext of exhibiting him a property Melinda is fascinated by. The 2 go into the forest the place the husband kills his spouse’s ex-boyfriend and present lover, weighing the physique down and pushing it into the river. At a picnic quickly after, nevertheless, Vic notices Tony’s corpse floating again up and tries to cover it once more, solely to be noticed by Don.

Deep Water Ending: Why Does Vic Kill Melinda’s Lovers?

The movie’s climax begins reasonably abruptly, with Don attempting to recklessly drive away and reveal what he has seen whilst Vic provides chase on his mountain bike. The forest filth roads are slippery, and Don ultimately skids and drives off a cliff, ending up in a brutal accident. Vic then rides his bicycle dwelling and arrives to see Melinda sitting on the steps, gazing him.

It then turns into clear that the movie’s closing scene is identical because the opening, with one essential distinction. When Vic now returns, Melinda reveals to him that she’s “discovered Tony,” alluding to the lifeless man’s pockets that she’s found hidden in Vic’s greenhouse. ‘Deep Water’ then closes with a fast shot of the spouse burning Tony’s ID, primarily signifying that she’s turn out to be an confederate within the homicide.

And so, it seems that Melinda has made her peace along with her husband’s crimes and is presumably going to remain again with him. Nonetheless, for all their marital bother, the ultimate equilibrium that the couple reaches is a remarkably darkish one, main us to marvel why Vic would go on his killing spree in any respect as a substitute of simply strolling away from the connection. Nonetheless, because the movie particulars, the husband is just too connected to his spouse and daughter to tear the household aside. He additionally strongly believes that since he fell in love with Melinda for who she is, he mustn’t try to change her.

The one possibility left appears to be to both scare away her lovers (as he does with Joel) and, since that doesn’t work too nicely, to only kill them. As an attention-grabbing apart, it seems that Vic’s connection to snails presumably symbolizes his unfathomable attraction to one thing (on this case, his devoted relationship with Melinda) that most individuals would discover unappealing.

Vic’s first homicide — that of Charlie, the pianist, is a mix of built-up frustration and alternative (discovering the would-be sufferer alone and inebriated in a swimming pool). Nonetheless, a number of different components result in the crime. Vic continues to be smarting from Joel’s belligerent habits. The boys Melinda picks are quite a bit like her — unapologetic and brash (although they appear to successively tone down from Joel to the pianist Charlie to the sustainable housing visionary Tony). The truth is, Vic even compliments Tony, telling Melinda that she’s lastly picked somebody with brains. In fact, the truth that Vic has actually bludgeoned Tony’s head moments in the past places a macabre spin on his use of the phrase “brains.”

The husband’s frustration is simply worsened by Melinda’s occasional sexual advances on him, which rapidly flip chilly. Apparently, the murders appear to behave as a type of launch for Vic, as is obvious from his celebratory demeanor after killing Tony. In a approach, Melinda additionally appears to love the truth that Vic is killing for her. Having commonly blamed him for missing in ardour and being unexpressive, she later says (reasonably proudly) that she is the factor Vic killed for. Maybe she causes that by going to the lengths he does to have her for himself, Vic is her most passionate lover, in any case. Thus, in a twisted approach, killing the spouse’s lovers appears to be a becoming answer for the movie’s central couple.

Does Vic Get Caught?

Vic’s blatant murders, regardless of seeming dangerous, don’t get him caught even because the movie closes on an unsure notice. With Melinda burning Tony’s ID, it seems that the commonly vocal spouse has determined to turn out to be an confederate to her husband’s crimes. There’s nonetheless an opportunity that Don survives his brutal automotive accident and ultimately reveals that he noticed Vic with Tony’s physique. Nonetheless, there’s solely a really slim probability that anybody may survive a wreck of that magnitude.

The principle hazard of Vic getting caught stems from Tony’s physique being found, which might be calamitous for the husband. Contemplating one among Melinda’s lovers (Charlie) has already been discovered lifeless, one other one among her “buddies” ending up lifeless would put an inescapable quantity of suspicion on the husband. Moreover, and maybe somewhat foolishly, Vic makes use of his belt and his pet’s leash to tie rocks to Tony’s corpse, which means that if the physique is found, it’ll be even simpler to attach the crime to him. Thus, Vic isn’t caught but, however the chance stays open.

Why Does Melinda Burn Tony’s ID?

Melinda burning Tony’s ID within the movie’s closing scene signifies a serious shift in her character. From vocally distancing herself from any type of violence linked to Vic, be it the drones his microchip powers or him doubtlessly killing Charlie, the spouse now turns into an confederate to Tony’s homicide.

Although Melinda initially packs her baggage and decides to go away Vic, their daughter Trixie stays adamant about not leaving. This appears to stir a change of coronary heart in Melinda, who lastly realizes that she, too, doesn’t need to tear their household aside. Thus, her subsequent logical step turns into stopping her husband’s crime from being found to keep away from him going to jail for all times, main her to burn Tony’s ID, which is an alarmingly incriminating piece of proof.

Burning Tony’s ID additionally has a deeper which means and appears to indicate Melinda presumably departing from her outdated methods of taking over a number of lovers and consequently torturing her devoted husband. Nonetheless, the couple’s new dynamic is left a thriller, and it’s doable that Melinda may, sooner or later, use her information of Vic’s crimes in opposition to him. Nonetheless, contemplating she is aware of he’s able to homicide, it’s unlikely she is going to push him too far.

Learn Extra: Is Deep Water Based mostly on a True Story?