Where the Crawdads Sing ending spoilers follow
Where the Crawdads Sing revolves around one important question that never quite gets a clear answer until the very end – did Kya kill Chase?
Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, this adaptation of Delia Owens' best-selling novel was originally released in 2022 with disappointing results, and it's now being rediscovered by viewers upon its arrival on Netflix UK.
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The story follows Kya (Edgar-Jones), known as 'the marsh girl' since she was abandoned by her family as a young girl and was forced to build a life for herself in the North Carolina marshes. The "civilised" people from town mostly ignore her, at least until she finds herself at the epicentre of a murder case.
Beloved local boy Chase Andrews (played by The Iron Claw's Harris Dickinson) has been found dead in the marshes, and Kya, with whom he shared a short romantic entanglement, is the prime suspect.
Was Kya really involved in Chase's death? If so, was it an accident or a deliberate murder? We delve into the ending.
Where the Crawdads Sing ending explained
Where the Crawdads Sing follows Kya's journey from living with an abusive father as a child to falling in love with a local boy named Tate. However, when Tate leaves town to go to university, she ends up meeting Chase, who drags her into a toxic and abusive relationship.
Once the murder takes place, Kya is brought in front of a jury as the main suspect since the crime was committed in the marshes (a place she knows better than anybody) and given their history together.
There is also the matter of Chase's shell necklace, which his mother brings up in court as an incriminating piece of information. Chase used to wear the necklace every single day after Kya gifted it to him, but the item was not found with his body.
According to his mother, Kya is the only person who would care to retrieve that necklace, but it's obviously not a strong piece of evidence against her.
During the trial, her lawyer Tom Milton proves that Kya couldn't have committed the crime since she wasn't in town at the time of the murder. She was staying in a hotel in a different town that day so, in order to kill Chase, she'd have had to take a bus in the middle of the night and travel back at 2am in order to wake up in the hotel.
There are no witnesses placing Kya on that bus and no more hard evidence, so the jury finds her not guilty.
Freed from all charges, she returns home to find Tate waiting for her. They are finally able to be together, build a life in the marshes and live happily ever after. In fact, it's not until Kya dies of old age that we (and Tate) find out the truth about Chase's murder.
Did Kya kill Chase in Where the Crawdads Sing?
Yes, she did! The truth is revealed at the very end of the movie, decades after the main story.
After Kya's death, Tate goes through her things and finds a notebook filled with her poems and drawings. He smiles as he goes over the pages, enjoying his lost partner's words and artistry, until he finds something hidden in one of the corners of the book. His smile freezes.
In a secret compartment, Kya hid Chase's missing shell necklace, which means she did kill him and Chase's mother was right – she did want to keep the necklace afterwards.
There is no doubt this was a deliberate murder, given that Kya went to the trouble of finding herself an alibi (staying out of town) and knew how important it was to keep that necklace hidden.
Her reasons are never explicitly explained but it is clear that Chase was becoming abusive and didn't want to leave Kya alone. Growing up with an abusive father, Kya was probably tired of being prey and became predator instead in order to ensure her own survival.
When Tate discovers the necklace, he is visibly shocked, but he ends up throwing it in the marshes so nobody ever finds out the truth.
Does Where the Crawdads Sing's ending change the book?
The movie adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing is pretty faithful to Delia Owens' original story, including the ending.
"We never considered changing the ending. For me, the ending is the story. That ending is everything to understand who Kya is and the choices that she was faced with," director Olivia Newman told The Wrap in 2022.
"You have to have that ending. That was always incredibly important to me."
In the book, Owens explores Kya's childhood in more detail, as well as her poetry work, which becomes an important narrative device throughout the story. Most of the poems in the story are signed by local published author Amanda Hamilton.
At the end of the book, Tate not only realises Kya murdered Chase but he also finds out that Amanda Hamilton is a name Kya has been using to publish her own work.
The book ends with one of her compositions, called 'The Firefly', which revolves around how female fireflies attract male mates through false signals in order to lure them to their deaths. It symbolises her own strategy to kill Chase.
"We did discuss shooting a slightly more explicit version of the ending," Newman added.
"The book leaves so much to the imagination – you get to understand who Kya is, but never fully. That's part of what's mysterious about her. We wanted to maintain that there's a mystery to it."
Where The Crawdads Sing is available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.
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Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
