What Midsommar’s Ominous Final Shot Really Means For Dani

Ari Aster’s Midsommar ends with and ominous shot of Dani (Florence Pugh) smiling as she looks upon her ex-boyfriend being burned alive, but there’s more to that scene than meets the eye. Aster and Pugh have different interpretations for the character moving forward. Both of their ideas have elements that offer an honest, albeit tragic, look at what’s ahead for Dani after the events of Midsommar.

Midsommar follows Dani as she endures one trauma after another. The film kicks off with the murder/suicide of Dani’s family at the hands of her sister. Dani seeks comfort from her aloof boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor), who begrudgingly invites her along to a trip with his friends to midsummer festival in Sweden. It quickly becomes clear that the quaint village they thought they were visiting is in fact a cult. All the while, Dani’s relationship crumbles around her.

It’s once her relationship is truly over that Dani grins as she witnesses Christian burn to death in Midsommar‘s ending. Pugh argues that Dani is disoriented and unaware of what’s actually happening, while Aster believes it’s a sign that her sanity is slipping away. Examples from the movie point to the fact that it is actually both. In Midsommar‘s ending, Dani is in a disoriented state because her sanity is slipping away. Dani got to that point because she suffers from a mental illness, and never received support from those around her.

Dani Suffers from Mental Illness in Midsommar

Midsommar‘s opening scene demonstrates that mental illness runs in Dani’s family. Her sister, Terri, suffered from bipolar disorder. Once Dani receives an ominous email from her sister and is clearly distressed, Dani takes medication to help calm her down. While it was never explicitly stated, it seems that whatever Dani was taking medication for is more manageable than Terri’s bipolar disorder. Due to that, it’s safe to assume that their parents likely spent more time supporting Terri than they did Dani. Not to mention Midsommar demonstrated time and again that Dani could not turn to Christian for support, as he was emotionally distant. That means she likely never got the support she really needed, giving way to the horrific events of Midsommar‘s ending.

Christian is what pushed her to essentially giving into her mental illness. Even after dealing with the traumatic death of her family, Dani was constantly putting the needs of others above herself. Once she saw Christian having sex with another woman in the Hårga cult’s fertility ritual, Dani’s sanity finally slipped away. That betrayal drove her to that state of disorientation on display as Christian meets his fiery end. Dani likely never recovered emotionally or mentally from the events of Midsommar, so she probably happily continued on as a member of the Hårga cult.

Both Pugh’s and Aster’s interpretation of the ominous final shot in Midsommar are correct, but it’s all because Dani wasn’t able to reach out and address her mental illness; it’s a stark commentary about the treatment of people with mental illness, especially in the United States. Dani’s eerie smile at the end is an indication of someone who reached the point of no return

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