{"id":51102,"date":"2024-05-09T15:07:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T13:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2037984"},"modified":"2024-05-09T18:30:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T16:30:27","slug":"where-the-crawdads-sing-ending-explained-does-kya-kill-chase","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/where-the-crawdads-sing-ending-explained-does-kya-kill-chase\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the Crawdads Sing ending explained: Does Kya kill Chase?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2022 film adaptation of Delia Owens’s best-seller is finding a new audience on Netflix. <\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 09 May 2024 at 13:07 PM<\/p>

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Delia Owens\u2019s novel Where the Crawdads Sing<\/a> became a best-seller almost immediately after it was published in 2018, so much so that the prospect of film adaptation swiftly became not so much a possibility as an inevitability.<\/p>\n

That film eventually arrived in 2022 \u2013 with Normal People\u2019s Daisy Edgar-Jones and The Iron Claw\u2019s Harris Dickinson in starring roles \u2013 and despite a fairly lukewarm reception from critics, it went on to perform admirably at the box office.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s enjoying a second wave of popularity thanks to its recent addition to the Netflix library<\/a>, meaning a new audience can experience Kya\u2019s story for themselves \u2013 not to mention finally learn what a crawdad actually is.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say that the film doesn\u2019t exactly skimp on the twists and turns, so if you\u2019re one of the viewers to have taken advantage of its newfound availability on streaming but still have a few questions left unanswered by the film\u2019s climax, read on to have the Where the Crawdads ending explained.<\/p>\n

But be warned: there are obviously major spoilers<\/strong> ahead, as well as discussions of sexual assault that some may find distressing.<\/p>\n

Where the Crawdads Sing ending explained: Does Kya kill Chase?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The film follows the story of societal outcast Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who is accused of murdering her former lover Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson) after he had been persistently harassing and \u2013 in one horrific moment \u2013 attempting to rape her.<\/p>\n

After that incident, Kya yells that she plans to kill Chase \u2013 with the threats heard by a local fisherman \u2013 and just a matter of days later, he is found dead after an apparent fall.<\/p>\n

Although the crime scene does not contain any evidence pointing to a killer, and Kya had supposedly been away meeting a book publisher at the time of the death, the locals nonetheless immediately assume her to be guilty.<\/p>\n

However, when it comes to the court case, there is ultimately insufficient evidence to convict her \u2013 only the fact that Chase was missing his necklace and the testimony of the aforementioned fisherman \u2013 and so she is found not guilty and the charges dropped.<\/p>

But at the very end of the film, we jump forward in time to Kya\u2019s death, following a long and seemingly happy life with her husband Tate (Taylor John Smith).<\/p>\n

In the final scenes, Tate is sorting through her stuff and, while flicking through her journal, he finds a shocking passage in which she writes that to protect the prey, sometimes a predator has to be killed.<\/p>\n

It is accompanied by both a drawing of Chase and the missing necklace, proving that she actually had committed the murder after all<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Exactly how she carried this out is never explained, but as for her motive, it seems very clear: she felt unlikely to receive any protection from the townspeople against Chase\u2019s repeated unwanted advances, and so took matters into her own hands.<\/p>\n