Source
r/Midsommar•
Communizer

Possible alternative theory for the ending?(Spoilers)

Spoiler

What if Pelle was controlling and manipulating Dani the entire movie. What if Dani was actually the one suffering from mental illness(which is why she was tripping out while on psychedelics) and Pelle knew this from his talks with Christian and decided to exploit that to alienate her from all her loved ones so he could have her to himself in the cult. This could be why she kept having flashbacks of things she wasn't even there for/seeing her parents and kept feeling a sense of guilt(that she had killed her parents and sister)

What if he convinced her to kill her own family and eventually kill Christian by playing to her fears that no one around her was "her home" except for him and his cult? He did draw her as the May Queen long before the competition and kept talking about how excited and happy he was that she was coming.

Posted Jul 3, 2019, 8:19 AM UTC

119
gehrigL•

There is some truth to Pelle grooming her to be May Queen. He basically says it to her before they leave and the other women were obviously purposely losing the dancing game to make her be May Queen.

What’s certain is that the cult/family(?) had clear plans for each of the outsiders

9
the_talai_lama•

That was a theme that kinda reminded me of hereditary. They showed up to the festival naively thinking that they had a choice of how much they can partake in the rituals and festivities but in actuality, their fate was already sealed.

3
veeds85•

I don't think she killed her family. It seems like her sister's problem was an ever growing issue based off her convo with Christian at beginning.

My take is Pelle started his manipulation during his conversation with dani on the couch. It felt like he was trying to weaken her emotionally, isolate her from familiar people, then assimilate her to his group since the scene in the couch but not before then.

I like the idea of the plan going deeper but it seemed like a quick change in plans by a smart guy (Pelle).

I wonder if the original plan was for connie to be the original May Queen, but then Dani decided to join.

3
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1
Watashiwajoshua•

nope

-2
CommunizerOP•

Convincing.

1
Watashiwajoshua•

You are way overthinking it.

-2
CommunizerOP•

I don't think it's the intended storyline, but I like to play around with Derrida's death of the signifier and come up with alternative plot lines and whatnot and thought this might be a coherent one.

2
MayISpeaks•

A fellow literary critic! What did you think of the emphasis on affect?

Also you're not overthinking it. Considering the level of manipulation in Hereditary, your alternate theory is feasible.

1