The Unforgivable Ending Explained: Who Killed Sheriff? Why Katherine Doesn’t Remember Ruth?
The Unforgivable is now available to stream on Netflix! In the film The Unforgivable on Netflix, director Nora Fingscheidt attempts to shed light on the obstacles former inmates face as they attempt to re-enter a society whose laws they have defied and accepted definitions of right and wrong. An adaptation and condensed version of Sally Wainwright’s critically acclaimed three-part miniseries “Unforgiven”, the film stars Hollywood stars Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis and Vincent D’Onofrio.
While the first two-thirds of the film plays out as an exercise in character development and social commentary, the final third turns into a ’90s thriller that could have starred Ashley Judd, Robert Downey Jr. or Sandra. Bullock. While it has been more than criticized for its muddled focus and rushed / overly convenient plot twists, the ending of The Unforgivable highlights its initial intentions.
The The Unforgivable Ending Explained: Who Killed The Sheriff?
From what Emily tells her, Ruth learns that Katherine is playing at a recital nearby. Excited to finally see her sister, she rushes to find her lawyer, but is confronted by his wife, Liz. In the middle of their argument, Ruth receives a call telling her that her sister has been kidnapped. Horrified, she and Liz rush to the address the kidnapper gives them, and Ruth goes alone to confront him.
Inside, we see Steve mistakenly kidnapped Emily, thinking she was Ruth’s sister. While threatening to kill the young girl, the former inmate reasons with him. Eventually Steve lowers his gun and Liz calls the authorities. At the end of The Unforgivable, Emily’s family comes looking for her, and Ruth sees Katherine. When their eyes meet, Katherine walks over and hugs her older sister, watched by her adoptive parents.
The multiple flashbacks and rare conversations of the protagonist teach us that her parents have passed away, leaving her alone to take care of her little sister Katherine. When authorities arrived to evict young Ruth and her sister from their family home, the overprotective older brother barricaded himself inside with a gun. In the movie’s big reveal, we find out that the Sheriff was not killed by Ruth but by her little sister Katherine. In order to prevent her 5-year-old sister from being accused of the murder, Ruth took responsibility for the crime and was sent to prison for twenty years.
Rather than fully embracing her initial ‘sympathy for the devil’ scenario, The Unforgivable performs a major pivot, and the protagonist’s redemption does not come from a lesson learned or a major sacrifice, but from the fact that she was never a killer to begin with. The sacrifice was made years ago, by a caring and overprotective sister, terrified of what could happen to her young protégé. The Unforgivable, which wraps up the social commentary of its first part, pivots once more to achieve an ending that has less to do with redemption than with the cyclical mechanisms of violence.
Whether or not dividing the film into two genres and speeding up the plot achieves its goals, the ending of The Unforgivable exemplifies its attempt to study both the cyclical nature of violence and incarceration and the ease with which which society ignores these factors in its black and white judgment of those who commit violent acts.
Why Katherine Doesn’t Remember Ruth?
It is revealed earlier that Katherine only has flash memories of her time with Ruth and does not remember her older sister. This could be the result of the mental and physical trauma that the young girl suffered. However, the embrace the two siblings share at the end of The Unforgivable seems to resurface some old dormant memories in Katherine.
It would also match how Ruth fondly remembers taking care of her younger sister and describes the happy times they had. So it’s highly likely that Katherine doesn’t remember Ruth clearly yet, but realized that Ruth was a person who loved and cared for her, and continues to do so.
