Vladimirs fiery ending, explained
After eight episodes of sexual tension and college scandals, Netflix's Vladimir goes up in smoke. Literally.
The series finale sees Rachel Weisz's unraveling, unnamed professor protagonist finally consummating her obsession with her hotshot colleague, Vladimir (Leo Woodall). The pair have sex at the protagonist's remote cabin, then her husband John (John Slattery) shows up, fresh from his Title IX hearing. (His accusers' complaints were dismissed.)
After a messy confrontation, the three retire, all to separate rooms. But while they sleep, a fire starts, caused by the space heaters that the protagonist pushed too close together. She, John, and Vladimir all try to escape. The men struggle with the cabin's stuck door, while she lunges to protect her handwritten manuscript. In a monologue delivered straight to the audience, she reveals that she makes it out alive, calls 911, and ensures everyone gets out.
"You don't believe me?" she asks as the cabin burns in the background, with no escaped John or Vladimir in sight.
Should we? Vladimir has often shown that its protagonist is an unreliable narrator. Remember the salad she made for the faculty meeting in episode 1? She claimed everyone devoured it, when in reality, it went untouched. So, is the cabin fire just a larger, more deadly version of the salad lie, and is she just sanitizing it to make herself look better?
On the other hand, did the fire even happen at all, or is it a fantasy the protagonist has cooked up?
Did the cabin fire really happen in Vladimir?
Based on its final question, it's clear Vladimir would like to keep things ambiguous. Perhaps everyone survived the cabin fire, perhaps not. Yet there's another option: Maybe the cabin fire is just the climax to the protagonist's book, which would explain the final sequence's dreamlike, somewhat disjointed quality.
Throughout the entire season, the protagonist's desire for Vladimir has reinvigorated her creative juices. It leads her to finally work on a new novel: a familiar story about a professor's desire for a younger co-worker. She just needs to figure out how it ends.
In the cabin, she's faced with two different endings: one with John and Vladimir. John wonders whether the two should revisit their open marriage agreement and recommit to one another. Vladimir wants to set up a weekly cabin hook-up, claiming the protagonist inspires him. Either of these options would have excited the protagonist we met at the start of Vladimir, who's so worried that she's "lost the ability to captivate." Yet neither seem to be what she wants anymore — both for herself, and for the story she's working on.
"You don't like that ending?" John wonders when she admits she's not sure whether she'll go back to bed with him.
So, what ending would she like? What's an author to do when faced with two unsatisfying conclusions? Maybe she blows up her narrative with something beyond anyone's control: a cleansing fire that will give her "a whole new life."
Whether the fire is real, the fantasy ending of the protagonist's novel, or some meta combination of the two, one thing is for certain: These last moments play out extremely differently in Julia May Jonas' original novel.
How is Vladimir's ending different from the book's?
The novel Vladimir ends not with the cabin fire but with its aftermath.
John and the protagonist recover from their burns and move to New York City. Vladimir publishes a fictionalized version of his experience with the protagonist, and while it doesn't sell well, it is long-listed for prizes. His wife Cynthia (Jessica Henwick) goes on to write a national bestseller. (In the show, the protagonist claims that her own book is the bestseller.) Through it all, the protagonist stays with John, essentially ending right back where she started.
The novel doesn't leave any ambiguity as to whether the fire actually happened or who survived it. However, it also boxes the protagonist back in. After all, staying with John hardly seems like the kind of "new life" the show's version of the character would want.
With the series, then, perhaps Jonas (who also created the show) is trying to reshape her own ending and give the protagonist the "options" and "agency" she so desperately craves.