Deadly Illusions ending explained: What in the hell did all of that even mean?

Here we are again, with another wild and twisted Netflix movie which has left us all wondering what the hell just happened. From about 10-minutes into Deadly Illusions, when it introduced shady character Grace and then her and Mary went bra shopping together, it was clear this film had some explaining to do – and that was before we’d even got close to the ending.

The movie opens with Mary – a best-selling novelist who is offered two million dollars to create another book in her series. She describes how she “becomes another person when she writes” and decides that if she is to write another, she will need a nanny for the kids. She interviews a whole bunch of young women, before settling on Grace – a seemingly pleasant girl who loves novels and seems to get on with the kids already. And that’s where the normality ends. The story then spirals out of control, and leaves you with no idea of what is actually happening, and what is just a – deadly illusion.

So, because you’re probably wondering what the hell you just watched, here’s a recap of the ending of Deadly Illusions and everything from within it explained.

*Contains spoilers*

via Netflix

The Deadly Illusions ending was nothing short of batshit, so here’s it all explained

In true Behind Her Eyes ending style, it looks like Grace is not the person we first might have thought. So we thought Grace might have wanted to mess up Tom and Mary’s relationship and seduce them, but then it looked like this might have all been in Mary’s head – aligning to when she said she is a “different person when she writes” and is having wild illusions and thoughts.

Elaine, Mary’s best friend, sees Tom and Grace out together, and sees red. She informs Mary that she thinks there’s something gone on between them, which Mary seems to brush off (probably because she knows that it’s actually Grace and her who have been having a thing). Next moment, Elaine has been murdered and it looks like Grace is framing Mary for it. Did she kill Elaine for sticking her nose in her plan? What is Grace’s motive in the entire film?

At the end we begin to see the true Grace unravelling. At first it looked like everything might have been going on in Mary’s head, hence “Deadly Illusions”. If everything we’ve seen is how it looks, but god knows if it actually is, Grace isn’t even a registered nanny, has killed Elaine, tried to kill Tom and then went for Mary. It looks like Grace can’t control voices in her head, stemming from a childhood trauma, and has a second killer identity called Margaret.

The childhood trauma explanation is problematic to say the least, but the film seems to suggest that “Margaret” was created in Grace’s head to deal with the abuse she suffered as a child. It looks like now this has spiralled out of control for her. So all along it has been Margaret in Grace’s head plotting and scheming against Mary and Tom, and attempting to seduce them. Grace/Margaret even says she “always gets what she wants” in one of her episodes, but we are never really sure what it is that she wants from it all. Perhaps just a family life that she is in control of after her own wasn’t?

via Netflix

At the end, Grace is now in some sort of secure (or not so secure) mental facility. Mary goes to visit her, before we see someone in Mary’s clothes leaving the hospital. But, this person is wearing the exact same clothing which, who we assume was Grace, wore when she framed Mary for Elaine’s death. So is it just Mary leaving the hospital after visiting Grace? Or has Grace locked up Mary and done a runner herself?

One of the main theories of what the ending was hinting at is that the entire movie was in Mary’s head. Grace/Margaret was made up, Elaine was made up and what we watched was just the inside of Mary’s brain as she wrote her novel. This is hinted again when Mary goes to visit Elaine’s grave and leaves behind an “Untitled” book, which could in fact be Deadly Illusions.

This doesn’t quite explain the ending with who left the hospital and why Grace would be there if she is a figment of imagination. So, assuming there’s an alternative where some or all of the film was meant to be real, it is most likely Mary who we see at the end. The fact the woman leaving resembles Grace’s disguise previously is probably just to shock us, because let’s be real, another movie where Grace is free and all this happens again is very far fetched, even for Deadly Illusions.

Deadly Illusions is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, quizzes, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• 27 times Deadly Illusions was the most unhinged thing Netflix has ever created

• Just 29 memes which sum up how wild Deadly Illusions on Netflix truly is

• If you enjoyed having your mind blown by Behind Her Eyes, watch these nine shows next