If you've already watched 'Us', there's no doubt you'll have some pressing questions about what exactly happened in that ending.
For example, what precisely was the goal of the Tethered? Was it just to murder their copy above ground? What about the mother and son at the end? Was the son actually a Tethered as well, as some people are claiming?
While not all of these were answers, Jordan Peele discussed a lot of the topics and themes at length in this week's edition of the Empire Podcast. Specific to our interests, however, is the ending. As you'd expect, the movie is about the monster being you, and us as a society.
"The protagonist in the movie is the surrogate for the audience, so it felt like at the end of the day, I wasn’t doing my core theme any justice if I wasn’t revealing that we have been the bad guy in this movie. We’ve been following the villain. I say ‘villain’ lightly because I think there are many experiences of the film, and I think a lot of people go through a question of what is good and evil? Does that even exist? Both characters are lovable and terrifying, based on the lives they’ve led they’ve just sort of inverted the paths," Peele explained.
As you'd expect, the very final moment - that creepy little smile between Adelaide and Jason, played by Lupita Nyong'o and Evan Alex, respectively - was left purposefully ambiguous. "Adelaide and Jason sharing that moment at the end, I’m purposefully leaving it a bit vague as to what exactly he knows or how far he’s come in figuring out what, if anything, he’s figured out," said Peele.
"I think the little smile she gives him is a lot of things. I think it’s a connection to the evil smile she once had as a little girl, but also a sort of understanding that her family unit was stronger from this experience."
Personally, we think it's her revealing herself to him as a Tethered - just as he is himself. Worth pointing out that Pluto and Jason were the only two who didn't try and kill each other immediately. In the father and daughter's case, this was immediate. For Adelaide, it was the same thing. All other cases - the random people on the news, with Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker's family, it was immediate.
Ergo, vis a vie, they're both Tethered at the end. Jordan Peele, please prove us right or wrong because the suspense is eating away at us.