The Ending Of Matriarch Explained

"Matriarch" begins and ends with the image of a marsh. By the end, we know that the first figure to walk into the marsh and give their life is Laura's (Jemima Rooper) father and that he did it as a sacrifice to the "Queen of Rot and Rebirth" so that his wife Celia (Katie Dickie) could have a child.

At the end of the film, it's Laura herself who walks into the marsh, seemingly to die after freeing the dark goddess of the marsh from her mother's clutches and abolishing the strange system of worship of replenishment set up in the village after her birth decades earlier. By this time, Laura has accepted who she really is — the child of a dark goddess, and not a biological human born of man and woman — and has accepted that the woman who raised her was never going to truly love or understand her. It was all part of a dark bargain, and when the bargain went foul she became her mother's new bargaining chip.

Whether Laura walks into the marsh simply to die or to be reunited in some magical way with her true mother, we can't know. It's possible even Laura doesn't know. What she does know, though, is that all the pain of her life can be traced back to this marsh, so perhaps the only way to be rid of it is to return to the marsh itself.

"Matriarch" doesn't spend much time spoon-feeding its own mythology to viewers, but by the end of the film, we have a rough sense of what's happened to the village of Laura's birth. Celia trapped the goddess who gave her Laura, imbuing herself with its power, and then essentially set herself up as the "matriarch" of the entire village, granting the wishes of her neighbors who came to worship her and drink her milk in exchange for youth, vitality, and cures for illnesses. In the end, we learn that only the local priest and his wife were left holding out from the new way of doing things and that the priest himself, Ken (Keith David Bartlett), has grown bitter and angry because of it. In the end, he learns that even his daughter Abi (Sarah Paul) gave in to Celia's influence so she could be cured of cancer.

Of course, with the goddess freed, Celia's power isn't the only thing that dries up. Because so many people in the village have lived under her influence for so long, they're also beginning to rot away because the goddess' power is no longer under Celia's control. That means virtually everyone in this particular town will rot away and die. We don't know how soon, and we don't know exactly where that leaves each individual person, but eventually someone is going to find this disaster, and the discovery of a new ghost town will rock the United Kingdom.

We know from the film that Laura's parents ultimately learned of some secret magical knowledge that led her father to sacrifice himself in the marsh, drawing out the goddess and convincing the being to "seed" Laura in Celia's womb, while also allowing Celia to trap the goddess and use her power. The film doesn't tell us much about how this happened, or how long it took Celia and her husband to figure it out, but it's clear that they're not particularly rich or powerful people in terms of how much they had to offer in the way of resources. They just figured out a path and took advantage of it.

This, of course, suggests two possibilities — both of them fascinating within the world of "Matriarch." The first and most immediate of these possibilities is that Laura's parents learned this secret because other people had already discovered and exploited it somewhere in the past, and therefore there are other children of the goddess out there somewhere. Perhaps someone in the past of this very same village figured out this secret and was able to pass it on. Perhaps it was buried in an old book Laura's parents found. Either way, it's quite possible (even probable) that this wasn't the first time someone struck a bargain with this goddess.

Everyone in the village, including his own daughter, eventually chose to embrace the goddess' power, but Ken remained the lone holdout, convinced that he was on the right side and doing his best to try and talk everyone else in the village out of their sinful ways. Despite everything, he was confident that God would eventually prevail, even going so far as to declare God was "coming back" to the village as it seemed Celia's power was waning.

Though we don't know his entire story, it's clear that Ken has been paying attention to the changes in the village for a long time and that he's remained true to his faith even after losing his wife and growing bitter and angry. All of this makes us wonder: Has he simply kept this secret all these years, continuing to try and preach to the people who used to be his flock even though they refuse to listen? Or, has he perhaps told someone else, perhaps someone in the church with whom he's remained close? Will someone come seeking answers for Ken now that he's gone?

Ken spends much of the film as the lone holdout in a town that's long since given itself over to the worship of an ancient Earth goddess, using Celia as its new high priestess. Even as the film nears its end, and things start to get dire, he remains convinced that his God will win out, right up until he enters the greenhouse and sees the goddess languishing in her circle. Seeing the creature laid bare before him, revealing everything he thought he knew about Celia's power trip ran deeper than he ever imagined, Ken is overcome with despair. He dies by suicide rather than keep trying to fight, believing in the end that he was never right about God, that he'd misplaced all of his faith, and that he, therefore, had nothing left worth living for.

But of course, one of the big lingering questions of the film is whether or not Ken was right in that realization. God, at least in a Christian sense of the word, does not have a major presence in "Matriarch," but it's clear that Christian traditions are running up against something even older in the goddess. So, does that mean God isn't present, or that God is indifferent? This is a key part of the bigger, existential sense of terror running through the film, and the film's lack of an answer makes it even more frightening.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.