Nina flees the apartment while Leda notices the blood coming from the wound.

That night, Leda gathers her things and flees the resort with belongings.

However, she stops her car and wanders onto the beach before collapsing.

She awakens the next morning to the crashing waves and gets a phone call from her two daughters who are relieved she is alive and how they feared she was dead.

The call is intercut with shots of Leda touching her wound before she goes on to say: “No, I’m alive actually.”

She is then shown to have an orange with her which she peels in the same snake-like motions he used to do when Bianca and Martha were little.

“Go on,” she replies to them as they begin to speak down the phone to her, “tell me all about it”

We then flashback a final time to Leda peeling the orange with her daughters as they whisper: “Peel it like a snake, don’t let it break.”

Over the credits, we see shots of Leda sitting on the beach peeling the orange while on the phone.

Does Leda die in the final scene of The Lost Daughter?

Despite the ambiguous and dreamlike nature of the final scene, we do not have it confirmed that Leda Caruso dies at the end of The Lost Daughter.

The final scene is portrayed in a slightly dreamlike way, intercut with shots from the past, Leda’s bleeding wound, the curious appearance of the orange for her to peel.

One would be forgiven for wondering if Leda was already dead or dying by the way the scene is portrayed and Colman’s bemused performance of her dialogue about being “alive”.

However, Leda is seen visibly to be alive at the conclusion of the film, having her bittersweet discussion with her daughters who she so struggled to be maternal towards.

What happened at the end of the novel The Lost Daughter?

The plot of the novel by Elena Ferrante ends in a similar fashion to the film with the confrontation between Leda and Nina, the confession and Nina reacting furiously by stabbing Leda with the hatpin.

The book, which is written in the first person from Leda’s point of view, sees Leda realise what Nina had done and notice the spot of blood on her side.

Leda waits for something to happen but she notes that the wound darkened and clotted and the pain faded.

She then begins packing her things and readied herself to leave the apartment when she gets a call from her daughter Marta who speaks to her in unison with her sister Bianca.

The daughters say: “Mama, what are you doing, why haven’t you called? Won’t you at least let us know if you’re alive or dead?”

Leda is moved and responds: “I’m dead, but I’m fine.”

It appears Leda is more content with her relationship with her daughters but the final sentence once again adds an air of ambiguity – or at least melancholy –  to Leda’s survival.

Why did Leda steal the doll? 

Courtesy of Netflix

We don’t get a definitive answer as to why Leda stole the doll belonging to Nina’s young daughter, Elena.

However, there are a number of reasons that appear to have contributed to her impulsive transgression.

Seeing Nina with Elena stirred memories of Leda’s own experiences as a mother, her struggling marriage to her daughters’ father Joe (Jack Farthing, her own adulterous affair with a professor (Peter Sarsgaard), and her subsequent abandonment of her children.

In addition to this, Leda recalls a time when wilful daughter Bianca briefly went missing as a child and also recall her own doll similar to Elena’s.

Leda appears desperate to reconnect with her own past, including her difficult relationship with motherhood through the doll.

Does Nina’s affair with Will get exposed?

Courtesy of Netflix

We never get any resolution to Nina’s affair with resort assistant Will and we never know if her husband Toni finds out.

It is clear that Will is a distraction from her struggles with motherhood but also from her strained relations with her husband and his criminal family.

The last we see of Nina is when she furiously departs after stabbing Leda.

What does the orange peel symbolise? 

Courtesy of Netflix

The peeling of the orange in a snake-like fashion was a treat that Leda did for her two daughters.

It is an example of a warm memory of motherhood for Leda who always struggled with the conventional idea of what it means to be maternal.

We end with the imagery of a younger Leda peeling an orange with her young daughters, a hopeful and happy image of her time as a mother.

The Lost Daughter is available now on Netflix.

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