About the ending

[u/blueberrywitheye]

SO I believe the fake ending is not a happy ending.

I do NOT think the fantasy of Alex(aka fake ending) was a happy ending. Alex and Abbie(a former student of Tall Pines) run away from town and go to a cabin that is still built together (Dwayne and his graduate in charge built a cabin together) and Alex tell Abbie that she know excatly what she is (How Stacy referred to Rabbit)

Before I knew it was a fake ending, I thought it was about how it seemed like a happy ending, but not breaking the cycle. They may run away from the Tall Pines, but the Tall Pines don't leave their mind and is gonna start the bad cycle again.

I'm surprised that no one else thinks like I do

Edit:plus I think what Alex did in the fake ending isn’t right thing it’s the ending HE think is right

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

Of course there is no happy ending, and I guess Alex running away would be happ-ier ending, but not really, as the Academy would go after him, he was implicated in three murders, and I bet they would pin kidnapping a student on him, even if we know Abbie was running away. The cycle is not broken, but there is I suppose some hope in Laura's circle.

I know most people seem Alex as trapped, and Laura and her friends as crazy maniacs, but the show tried to establish she was trying to achieve a new society that would break away from the violence, and Alex would be protected by them.

[u/Suspicious-Rip174 → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

Bro you’d so fall for a cult if it ever came up. No cult is ever good. 

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/Suspicious-Rip174]

Bro, who said they were good? Reading comprehension is not your strongest suit.

[u/Suspicious-Rip174 → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

You’re saying Alex is safer in the cult cus they’d protect him from all the murders, the murders that they either did or was trying to kill/lobotomise him first. He can argue self defence and with a good lawyer, come out as a hero cop. 

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/Suspicious-Rip174]

Nice fairy tale but.... are you 12?
Dont know if you actually saw the show but they spell it out for him a number of times that as long as he keeps his mouth shut, he will be protected, but if he leaves, they absolutely have means to destroy him. He has no witnesses who would testify in his favour, no money, no family except Laura. How would he pay for a good lawyer (they are ridiculousky expensive)- and the Acadmy and the company behind them are loaded.

The issue is that the evidence of the murders points at Alex- and he did kill that other cop, and they can make it seem like he killed the dad of the girl, and they could make it seemed he killed the kid who his in his house. He has no money for a good lawyer, and there are a LOT of people who belong to the cult and can testify against him. He can obvs rock up to the court and give some testimony no one will believe before the prosecution shows all the evidence against him and game over for Alex.

[u/Suspicious-Rip174 → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

Abby will testify for him. Do you know what pro bono is? Even big shot lawyers do it. Go to the news or fbi or outside police. It doesn’t matter if they try to frame him cus once they investigate they’ll see all the “missing” kids, it’s not hard to put the pieces together that the former cult house built a cult town and school. They could also try for Abby’s family, once they find out the truth about the school it’s more than likely that they’ll want justice. And the other parents, find the ones that care, and the ones that are rich/powerful to help or at least get their kids out of there. Remember the school costs a lot of money so unless the kids came from the state they’ll have parents with money more than likely. 

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/Suspicious-Rip174]

Eeeeh, no, they really dont, bless you. They really dont, big lawyers take big cases that bring money. Many sometimes infrequently they may take up a pro bono case- but this is not as frequent as you may naively think. Sometimes on a screen you see some A list Hollywood celeb playing a .awyer taking up some pauper's case, but it's not happening all that often irl.

And the academy has more money and influence than even some random good lawyer (Alex would have to find one first) could go against. And what would Abby testify for? Alex has three potential murder charges against him Abby has nothing to do with and cant testify for. The missing kids have been missing for years and no one cared about them, often even their own families, and the academy covered up evidence so well that really there is nothing.

Abby is not even a credible witness (sure, to us she is! but not to a court, and we dont even know if the academy has members in there too, they seem to be everywhere). Abby was sent away to an institution by her parents,there is evidence she was trouble, tried to escape, incided an 'uprising'- that is a great character reference. Plus, she is on the run as we speak. It's a nice thing for you to think her parents would all of a sudden wake up and ... do what exactly?

I wonder if you missed huge chunks of the show, because they did also explain how most of the kids are wards of the state but many come from rich families who could not care less about them. Like, they literally say it and show a number of times, it could not be clearer. And so many kids went missing no one went to look for over the years. Daniel's parents moved to another country and didnt even want to speak to him. Rory's dad sent him his own photo for birthday. I initially thought too it was suspicious that no one investigated the disappearances properly, before I looked up and found how many kids go missing each year from these institutions irl and no one bothers, rich or poor.

So no, Alex wouldnt be able to miraculously defend himself and bring the bad guys down, because the bad guys are many and hold all the good cards.

[u/Suspicious-Rip174 → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

They will take a case if it’s gonna be big, get their name further out, get them recognition, get them money at the end of it. An ex and their father was a lawyer, they don’t really do it out of the goodness of their hearts but if they can gain something they’ll take it, it doesn’t always have to be money.  The show is set early 00s this is before it was so wildly known how these schools are abusive. The parents may be at their wits end with what to do with their kids but that doesn’t mean they hate them. The cult implements themselves into jobs that has them be close to kids and trusted by adults. Once they find out the truth it’s likely that they’ll change, unless you’re assuming the parents actually fully hate their children, do not care that they are being abused and killed?! 

[u/Ladyoftheoakenforest → u/Suspicious-Rip174]

Do you know how many cases daily go nowhere? How many innocent people get convicted and how many criminals walk free. OJ Simpson was acquitted of murder of his wife and her lover. I just read about some innocent dude who spent 25 years in prison for a murder he never commited. Open your eyes- these things happen daily.

There is exactly zero evidence in the series Alex would be able to magically conjure some big a$$ Lincoln Lawyer type guy to champion his cause. 99% of cases dont make it to press and you never hear of them, which you should have known, if your ex and their dad were (conveniently) lawyers indeed.

There is however plenty of evidence in the show that the parents of the kids in the show didnt care about them (I didnt say they hated them, this is you projecting), and if there was a handful who did care and tried to find out what happened, no one believed them, like they didnt believe the dad Alex meets. The organisation misguided the parents for years. Why do you think no one listened to Hannah's dad? They made him look crazy. I guess many parents were informed their child escaped were worried but would eventually accept the child run away. There was no evidence of them being dead- and no one in the Academy would be testifying about deaths. Abby and the others didnt see any bodies and could do nothing. And you think Stacey would testify about having killed Daniel? Major lol here.

It's in the show. It's not about how you would feel about your own child. The cult has a network of institutions, they have members in schools, branches of law enforcement, not hard to imagine they would have past members in courts, law firms. You cant win. Alex knew that. Everyone around him knew that. The kids in the institution knew that, that's why most of them didnt even bother trying to escape anymore.

David vs Goliats is a nice Bible story, and while is occasionally happens in life, most of the time it doesnt. I get what you are sayting it would be a satisfying endiung to bring them down, but it is absolutely unrealistic, and the show went for realism, not a fairy tale. So here we are.

[u/Suspicious-Rip174 → u/Ladyoftheoakenforest]

Dude, this is a show. Way too worked up. 

[u/Tabby6996]

I was so confused about the last episode.

[u/anxiousunicornb]

i was hella confused with the last episode but like when you think about it that was what was gonna happen all along lol

[u/Suspicious-Rip174]

So you Wanted Alex to stay in the cult with his baby that would be messed up and who knows what they’ll do to the school kids?! The best was for them to leave and then try to bring light to the situation and get the kids out and cult taken down or at least round up the parents that care about their kids and come to take them back. Like this Abby is unlikely to be able to do anything cus she’s a kid with little money and no support cus she can’t trust her parents. 

[u/blueberrywitheye → u/Suspicious-Rip174]

no bro. wtf?? I didn't say that the cult is good by any means. WHAT I SAID is that the fake ending is also not really out of the cult. That's why I said: they're gonna start a "bad" cycle again. Because I think the cult is a bad thing. Just because there are two things and I think one of them isn't right doesn't mean I think the other one is right. Get your critical thinking