SPOILER ALERT FOR THE RECTIFY SERIES FINALE
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Rectify creator Ray McKinnon has opened up about the series finale of the SundanceTV drama, including the ambiguous final scene, per Variety:
How should we interpret the final scene? It’s left ambiguous as to whether what we’re seeing is a daydream or reality for Daniel, although it seems to lean toward fantasy.
Fiction is a different kind of truth, and however one experiences and interprets that is for themselves to decide. If they think about (the ending) a week later and it changes, it’s all valid. If it felt ambiguous to you, that’s probably exactly right for you.
Did you know when you started the series that Daniel would eventually be publicly exonerated for the murder of Hanna?
It was a possibility. What’s been so interesting in going on this serial journey with all of my collaborators is that I continued to be informed by the work of others. The striking example is that I knew some of Teddy Jr.’s arc early on. I didn’t exactly know how it was all going to play out, but Clayne (Crawford’s) manifesting Teddy and bringing him to life informed me further into Teddy’s arc. We were always being informed by these wonderful actors’ interpretations of the characters. As I continued to watch Daniel interact with these characters — and all of the characters who just kept loving him and pulling for him and trying to help him — I realized late in the game the one thing I didn’t want to do was give up on him and have him give up on himself. Once I realized that, there was no turning back.
As for whether alternate endings where considered, McKinnon told THR:
(Laughs.) Oh, you know. Lots of different avenues get explored in the writers room and that’s part of the reason to have a group-think on different avenues to go down. Part of the reason I was drawn to this story, part of the reason I have been drawn to telling this story is that in life we don’t always get the answers. I think in story, a lot of time we do. I think that’s part of the reason why the idea of story came around, is to give our fellow humans perhaps a deeper understanding or some kind of comfort and a closure or a denouement or whatever. That’s usually valid and it’s a device of storytelling that’s a part of story, but I just always felt that maybe part of this is the mystery that will never be completely solved, just like in life.
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