Netflix’s Unchosen has been the latest show on the streamer to captivate audiences, and it’s not difficult to see why. The slow-burn thrillr builds tension across six episodes until we reach the final rain-soaked one where everything goes down.
Revolving around all of this is Rosie, a woman who is trapped inside a controlling Christian sect and spends the whole series trying to find a way out, only to discover that the man she thought was her escape route is far more dangerous than the life she was trying to leave. So the question everyone has is the same one: Does Rosie make it out alive?
Short answer, yes she does, but pretty narrowly. The finale builds to a brutal confrontation in the woods after Rosie, having finally learned the full truth about Sam’s violent history, decides to take Grace and run. Adam, despite everything, agrees to drive them to the station, which is its own kind of redemption arc for a man who spent most of the series being completely useless. The road is blocked, Sam shows up behind them, and Adam makes the decision to fight him off and give his wife and daughter a chance to get away. He gets overpowered pretty quickly and Sam chases Rosie through the woods alone.
What follows is the most intense scene in the whole series. Sam catches Rosie, drags her to a pool of water, and holds her under and it genuinely looks like she’s not going to make it. But instead of fighting back physically, Rosie appeals to whatever is left of Sam’s feelings for her and tells him that if he actually cares about her, he has to let her go. He hesitates, and then she gets out, grabs Grace, and they run.
The escape route itself was quietly set up earlier in the series through Mrs. Phillips, the cult leader’s wife, who had already left the Fellowship after discovering her husband had been hiding letters from their disavowed son Matthew. Rosie knew where Matthew lived, which is where she and Grace end up, taken in by Mrs. Phillips in what is about as close to a hopeful ending as this show allows.
What else happens in the finale of Unchosen?
The final gut punch comes in the last scene of Unchosen, set a year later. Sam walks into the Fellowship’s church and delivers a sermon as its new leader, ending the episode by looking directly into the camera with a smile that implies he has absolutely no intention of changing.
Which means, Rosie and Grace are safe but Sam has simply found a new group of people to manipulate.
Unchosen is streaming now on Netflix.
Edited by Nibir Konwar