The Power Of The Dog: Ending Explained! Who Killed Phil? Why Rose Sells The Cowhide?

The Power Of The Dog is available on Netflix! In Netflix’s The Power of the Dog, Oscar-winning director Jane Campion turns her camera and commentary towards the viewer in a masterful and powerful cinematic sleight of hand. The film was adapted for the screen by the director of the novel of the same name written by Thomas Savage in 1967. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirstin Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee, this next Netflix western is set in the early 20th century in Montana and follows cattle rancher Phil Burbank, a brutal and menacing “manly man” who psychologically terrorizes his brother George, George’s wife, Rose, and his son, Peter.

The Power Of The Dog unfolds in a series of five chapters whose story is told chronologically and the tension mounts and then releases as audiences learn more about each character’s psychology and motivations. On the surface, Campion’s latest film deals with the horrors of toxic masculinity. And what it means to “be a man” in a button-down, old-fashioned society that forces people to fight, hide and suppress their sexuality. In its final reveal, however, this film proves that it has as much to say about our contemporary beliefs and interpretations as it does about those we believe we have surpassed. We tell you all about the end of The Power Of The Dog on Netflix!

The Power Of The Dog Ending Explained: Who Killed Phil?

After tormenting and roughing up the effeminate Peter in front of the ranch workers, Phil begins to take the teenager under his wing and they spend more time together. The proximity of Phil and Peter leads Rose into a spiral of alcoholism. As they take part in the ranch business, Peter slowly opens up to Phil, revealing to him that he has found his father’s corpse after committing suicide. Phil, meanwhile, begins to braid a lasso for Peter, but when Rose sells the cowhides that Phil used to buy gloves in a bid for revenge, he can’t go on.

Peter produces a dead cowhide for Phil to use and slowly Phil begins to open up about his closeness to his late mentor, Bronco Henry, whom he still idolizes. Phil also cuts his hand off during a fencing session with Peter. The next day, Phil is seriously ill and is taken to the doctor. However, he could not be saved and died in the hospital. At the funeral, George and Phil’s mother kiss Rose and give her jewelry, which makes Rose very emotional. However, it is revealed that Phil’s death was a mystery and is believed to have had anthrax.

The Power of The Dog ends with the revelation that it was Peter who actually killed Phil by putting anthrax in the water that Phil used to make the rope. Peter did this to help his mother and wanted her to have a happy life. As soon as Phil dies, she gets sober and smiles again, because it was Phil who made her feel bad. So Peter got closer to Phil so he could take his life and fill his mother’s life with happiness so that she doesn’t commit suicide like her real father did. The end of The Power Of The Dog will leave everyone speechless because no one could have thought about it. The film can be called a revenge drama.

Netflix’s The Power of the Dog is a layered look at the duality of intolerance, sexual orientation, and male toxicity. The ending of The Power Of The Dog shows that this is a fascinating character study of how societal oppression unintentionally turns the marginalized into oppressors. It’s a western on a vicious cycle that never ends and nobody knows where it started.

The Power of the Dog is an atypical western directed by Jane Campion, adaptation of a 1967 Thomas Savage novel: if you expect shootings, sheriffs and a very clear story in its interpretation you will be disappointed by one of the most powerful and ambiguous films of 2021, which I strongly advise you to recover.

However, it would be wise to approach the film with the right expectations. Dog Power works as a slow but unforgiving thriller about the evolution of the relationship between the two Burbank brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons). In the background of this relationship there is an entire world in the process of transformation: that of the American frontier which, after the conquest of the white man and the progressive partition of the wild and uncultivated lands, is on the way to becoming a space regulated by trade and money. Much to the dismay of generations of fortune seekers, cowboys and adventurers, society is progressively moving away from the wild lifestyle. and in contact with the nature of its founders, for a more bourgeois and technological development.

What’s Between Phil And Peter?

In the meantime, however, he has already won Phil’s trust. Watching the film carefully, it is very clear how Phil immediately notices the boy, in which he sees a lot of himself. Unlike him, however, Peter does not want to hide his polite and sensitive side, as Bronco Henry taught the protagonist to do. Phil is a sadistic person but also a soul tormented by the memory of his mentor, for which he clearly felt and has feelings of love. Peter found homoerotic photo magazines with Bronco Henry’s name on them. Probably the man of homosexual tendencies took Phil with him and made him his own, presumably on that night when the two slept naked in the middle of the snowstorm to save themselves.

This is the most ambiguous part of the film: just as it is not clear what happened between Phil and Bronco Henry and what the latter’s feelings were towards him, so we do not know what happens in the fateful night between Phil and Peter. The next morning the protagonist is taken to the doctor and dies, poisoned by anthrax. We do not know, however, if something took place between him and the boy, who sensed the sexual tastes of the enemy. We do not even know if the boy makes veiled hints of admiration towards Phil to feed his feelings or if he too is all in all attracted to a man so repulsive, brutal but with whom he shares a certain sensitivity.

The real mystery of the film is Peter. In light of what happens with Phil, there is also the doubt that he did not limit himself to finding the body of his suicidal father hanging on the rope (a powerful symbol of the relationships between Peter and his mother’s lovers). His truest feelings are those for his mother, whom he treats and watches over with an almost morbid attachment. At the beginning of the film we see him bringing the flowers to the grave of his father, who, however, was an alcoholic and probably made Rose suffer. Did Peter really love him or had he already “saved his mother” in the past?

In Jane Campion’s interpretation of the novel, it is the viewer who decides how to interpret the story. What we know exactly is that Peter killed Phil and decided to keep the poisoned rope as an heirloom of his victory (or what happened between him and Peter?), Hiding it under his bed. In the closing scene we see him watching his mother and George from above, watching them kiss. We do not know, however, if he is happy with the bond.

• How Does The Power of Dog End?

Peter kills Phil making him look like an accident. He gives him the strips of skin obtained from the carcass of an animal infected with anthrax, which he has specifically gone to look for in view of the right opportunity.

Phil dies in terrible spasms and everyone thinks of an accident. At her funeral, the Burbank parents let Rose know that now that Phil is gone, she is welcome.

Peter keeps the poisoned rope as an heirloom and reads a Bible verse explaining the title of the film. She watches George and Rose kiss from her window, but we don’t know her feelings about it.

• Did Peter kill Phil in The Power of The Dog?

Yes, it’s a premeditated murder passed off as an accident. Peter kills Phil to save his mother.

• Is Peter Homosexual in Dog Power of The Dog?

It is not clear. Surely the boy has a morbid attachment to his mother (whom he always calls by name) and uses Phil’s feelings to deceive him. It is not revealed whether Peter pretended to be interested in Phil or if anything happened between the two.

• Is Phil Homosexual in The Power of The Dog?

Probably yes. His admiration for his mentor Henry Bronco leads to adoration and, from his stories, it is easy to understand how he feels a love affair even years after his death.

Phil also finds some homoerotic pornographic magazines with Bronco’s name on it: it is likely that the man was looking for relationships with other people of the same sex, so it is not excluded that something happened between him and Phil.

• Is Phil and Peter Having A Love Affair In The Power of The Dog?

The film does not show the fateful night between the two, in which Phil makes the subtext of his relationship with Bronco Henry more explicit. The film is deliberately ambiguous about it and we don’t know exactly what Peter’s thoughts are about it.

In this analysis you will find all the clues and allusions scattered throughout the film.

• Is Peter In Love With His Mother in The Power of The Dog?

It is one of the many obscure points of the film: certainly the boy has a morbid attachment to his mother, whom he calls by name and often praises her for her beauty, keeping an eye on all the men around her.

his filial love would be enough to explain why he decides to kill Phil and save the woman from alcoholism, but in the final scene, when the boy watches her kiss with George, we are not shown his reaction. The film leaves ample room for interpretation in this regard.