Now, girls, we come to what the Internet has been buzzing about ever since it was aired--the finale of "Sharp Objects." People either loved it or hated it. I actually LOVED it! The final line will become a classic movie line, in time. I think those who did not read the book were more confused, which is why they did not like it. Those of us having read the book had more of an understanding of things, because we could fill things in, but also were able to sit back and go with the understated style the series was going for. And showing the murders in a montage was preferable to showing each killing, literally!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But, remember, this is me, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As far as I am concerned, this episode was "The Amma Show!"
Camille nearly dies from her mother's treatment. I loved the family dinner sequence, straight out of Tennesee Williams--a bounteous meal, Adora and Alan acting like nothing wrong, and asshole Alan even ordering Camille to sit down and eat, and then to come back, as she walks from the room. Hah! As if anyone would listen to this wuss!
Amma is dressed in a white gown and a garland of leaves atop her head, representing Persephone, who is sent to Hell for six months, to live with the God Of The Underworld, which is why we have Fall and Winter. My favorite explanation for the seasons. But she is also the Queen of Death, and metes out punishment, which, as Amma begins to unravel, shows that this is something she turns out to be extremely good at!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't mess with Amma! But I can relate to her, because, having been bullied when I was this age, I wanted so much to be mean, to be feared by those who bullied me. But I did not have the nature for it, though I have outed a number of folk on here, and I have no regrets. I may never be Amma--and thankfully now so, I think--but Karma is a bitch, and revenge is served cold, and I have no regrets at having dealt it out to those who made my adolescence unpleasant. So, a part of me admires Amma.
Meanwhile, Camille and Amma are both to the point of death, thanks to the nursing of mother Adora. It is not so much she wants to kill Amma and Camille, she just has no control over herself, in how far to go with her addictive attention needs. But Camille, thanks to what she knows about Marian, realizes, and dispatches Amma to leave and get help, never to come back here. Twisted as she is, Amma complies, but is circumstantially stopped by her father, Alan, who entices her back to the room, with a piece of cake. Doting father, or Adora accomplice? There is room for both here; there was not, in the book.
During the aforementioned dinner scene, Camille, who wants to save Amma, requests she come to stay with her in St. Louis. The parents protest, but Camille really offers them no choice, with what she knows, and so, goodbye to all, Amma heads for the big city. She roller skates, makes new friends, is probably a good student--another attention getting device--and finds a new friend, Mae, who roller skates with her.
In the book, she is called Lily Burke. Things go fine with she and Amma--until Mae starts standing up for herself, telling Camille how much she admires her writing, and Camille's editor, Frank Curry, how she loves reading the editorial page. Camille and Frank are impressed, but Amma definitely is not. Mae is encroaching on the attention she--Amma--craves!!!!!!!
As soon as Mae's mother appears, to tell Camille that Mae is missing, viewers should know, by now, that something is up. Especially having seen that eerie foreshadowing scene in the apartment alley, where Amma pretends to be a hanging victim, herself, by placing her neck within a semi-noosed rope!!!!!!!!!!
Camille tells Mae's mother she will ask Amma. She roams through the apartment, sipping coffee, going over mail, wandering into Amma's room, where that iconic dollhouse still rests. That must have been a bitch to transport from Wind Gap to St. Louis, without it breaking. She looks at it, and suddenly notices a figure propped in a window--just like Natalie!!!!!!!! Then, in a wastebasket, she finds a bed blanket Mae had made for Amma's dollhouse--discarded, like trash! Camille still does not get it--until she sees the tooth, picks it up, and notices it is a human tooth. Then, she looks at the replica of Adora's room in the house--noticing its floor is tiled with other human teeth!!!!!!!!!!
The look on Amy Adams' face is priceless; this shot alone should earn her an Emmy. She now sees the tragic truth--Amma cannot be saved, she killed Natalie and Ann, she killed Mae, and while Adora killed Marian, Amma is letting her own mother take the rap for two murders she did not NOT commit. And wait till you see Patricia Clarkson in an orange jump suit, and Amma' s still dependent need on her, as she visits her in prison, but Camille does not.
All this is passing through Camille's mind, as Amy brilliantly conveys. There is a shadow, and then Amma appears in the door, pictured as in the beginning of this post. The look on her face tells her that Camille knows, and that Amma knows she knows. What happens next is more chilling than any histrionics. The psychotic turns to the one living with a psychotic, and says, with slurred understatement--
"Don't tell Mama."
Fade to Black, and people went crazy! Of course, book readers know that Amma does not get away with it, especially after Mae, that she is committed to a youth psych facility, and will be probably transported to an adult one for the rest of her life, because this is an up and coming serial killer, and, had Camille not discovered the truth, there would have been more victims.
Instead, it subtly comes across, both in book and movie. who Amma's next victims might be.
First, there is the sequence at the pig farm. Clearly, Amma is fascinated by the slaughter, and can watch this with the composure of a housewife watching reality TV. Classic serial killer behavior. Second here, when Amma is shown holding the baby pig, it was clear to me she was going to kill it, either by stabbing it herself, and dumping it into the pond, or by throwing it in the slaughter pile, and watching it die!
And the pond was where Amma dumped Ann's bicycle!
But, then come the end credits, where the true Amma is seen!!!!!!!!!!
Here is the REAL Amma! Enraged, but happy to be killing! This is the montage, where she kills Mae, whose painted fingernails are seen before this shot, to illustrate Amma is killing Mae, and that, if left at large, she will continue to kill. Natalie and Ann are killed in two earlier montages, run during the closing credits, and there is one profile shot of Amma that is simply as scary as this shot.
Just take a look at this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As if this is not enough, the book and movie make clear, that, had Amma not left Wind Gap, there would have been two more victims--her roller skating friend, Jodes, whom she seems to treat dismissively, throughout, and Ashley Wheeler (called Meredith in the book) who, in soaking up all the fame and attention she can go after, has no idea she is encroaching on Amma's territory, and what might befall her, had Amma not left Wind Gap!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!! And if there was any doubt that episode 8 was "The Amma Show," then take a look at who gets the final shot!
Amma, of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You just GOTTA love her, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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