The Queen’s Gambit: Did Elizabeth’s Mom Kill Herself?

In Netflix’s chess drama miniseries, The Queen’s Gambit, Elizabeth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) is haunted by her mother’s memories, and to an extent, molded by her worldview. While it is established early on in The Queen’s Gambit that Beth is orphaned at age eight after the death of her mother, Alice, due to a supposed accident, there are numerous indications throughout the show that that is not the case. Did Elizabeth’s mom choose to kill herself, and if so, why?

Episode 1 of The Queen’s Gambit, “Openings”, hints at the fact that Elizabeth, or Beth, hails from a broken home, due to which, chess assumes the only form of escape for her later on in the narrative. Due to the absence of a father figure, and the death of her mother, Beth arrives at Meuthuen Home, an orphanage for girls, wherein she meets Jolene (played by Moses Ingram), who asks her what her mother’s final words were to her. Beth has brief flashes of the day of the accident, in which she remembers being in the car with her mother, who tearfully asks her to close her eyes. As the events of the narrative unfold, Beth receives chess lessons from the orphanage’s custodian, Mr. Shaibel, and gradually develops an addiction to tranquilizer pills that are handed out by the orphanage.

Although Beth proves herself a chess prodigy and rises up the ranks with the aid of her adoptive mother Alma, there is a void within her, which is exacerbated by her inability to trust another human being. Beth exudes awkward shyness and a sense of preternatural self-containment, the latter most likely instilled by her biological mother, Alice, since Beth was a child. Beth inherits her brilliance from Alice, who held a Ph.D. in Mathematics – however, it is also clear that Alice was struggling with mental health issues of her own, which were heightened after childbirth and the absence of Beth’s biological father. It is revealed in the Netflix series finale, “End Game”, that Alice, driven on edge with no one to turn to, had attempted to ask Paul for help, who had turned her away as he now had a family of his own. Perceiving no way out of this “problem”, Alice runs her car off the bridge on purpose, in an act of suicide, along with Beth inside it.

Beth’s initial awkwardness and uncertainty about her own self stems from the fact that prior to the accident, Alice had referred to Beth as “a rounding error”, reducing her to a mere mathematical glitch that needs to be rectified. While Beth survives the collision, she is enveloped in almost feral loneliness, that she later attempts to drown in her passion for chess, substance abuse, and liquor. The fear of becoming like her mother consumes Beth, which explains her tranquilizer-fueled escapes, which, at first, turn into visions of tentative chess moves towards victory, and then plunge her into an abyss of emptiness.

Upon visiting the orphanage after Jolene informs her about the death of Mr. Shaibel, Beth grieves the only father figure in her life. In the closing episodes of The Queen’s Gambit, Beth also has to deal with the loss of her adoptive mother Alma, who, despite being a flawed mother figure, had genuine affection for Elizabeth. However, due to her resilience, and the aid of her friends, Beth chooses her own family in the people who care for her, which provides her with the strength to prevail, both on the chessboard, and in life.

About The Author

Debopriyaa Dutta
(328 Articles Published)

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Apart from being a features writer and critic at ScreenRant, Debopriyaa is a news writer at /Film. She is also a contributor to High on Films & Fansided, and an editor at Digital Mafia Talkies. Her poetry has been published in a wide array of journals, such as Gideon Poetry, White Noise Magazine, and Literaria. Find her on Twitter @angelusatani.

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