The Favourite has an ending that's stayed with us since the movie's release in 2018, and it's something fans of the movie still debate.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the movie saw Olivia Colman win her first Oscar (so far…) for her role as Queen Anne, who finds herself dealing with a battle between her closest friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and new servant Abigail (Emma Stone).
Both of them scheme to become Anne's favourite after Sarah takes Abigail under her wing. There can only be one winner, but even after the battle is over, can the winner really claim to have won?
It all builds to a haunting final shot that leaves you wondering what happened to Abigail and what the ending of The Favourite means, so let's delve into it, including what Anne's 17 rabbits – one for every child she lost – have to do with it all.
Major spoilers ahead, of course.
What did the ending of The Favourite mean?
After Abigail marries Colonel Masham to restore her status as a Baroness, she continues to scheme to usurp Sarah as Anne's favourite. It turns out that she ends up getting a helping hand from Sarah herself.
Sarah threatens to reveal her correspondence with Anne, which would reveal their sexual relationship in turn. She ends up not going through with it, but angers Queen Anne enough that she sends Sarah away.
In order to restore their friendship, Sarah sends an apology letter to Anne, but Abigail intercepts the letter and burns it. She also tells Anne that in her new role of Keeper of the Privy Purse, she has learned that Sarah was embezzling money.
Anne doesn't believe Abigail, but uses the lie as an excuse to exile Sarah and her husband when she doesn't receive the apology she is expecting. But Anne realises the error she has made as, once Sarah is out of the picture, Abigail ignores Anne and uses her new position of privilege to do what she wants.
The final straw comes when Abigail begins to physically abuse one of Anne's rabbits, cruelly stepping on it. Anne sees it and then demands that Abigail massage her leg, with Anne gripping Abigail's hair to steady herself as she refuses to lie down.
In the final shot of The Favourite, Abigail unwillingly massages Anne's leg, but both look pretty miserable about the whole situation. Lanthimos then superimposes their faces on each other, before blending in a shot of Anne's rabbits as the movie ends.
It's a trippy and bleak ending, fitting of Lanthimos's work, but it could leave you wondering what he's trying to say. Essentially, it's that despite Abigail thinking she's won, she's really only just become another of Anne's pets.
If anything, she's lower than the rabbits as she's not a surrogate for one of Anne's lost children. Ouch.
What happened to Abigail in The Favourite?
As Sarah tells Abigail in their final confrontation before she's exiled, "Oh my God, you actually think you have won." Abigail replies by taunting Sarah ("Haven't I?"), before Sarah tells her that "We were playing very different games".
Despite everything Abigail has done to get back to a position of privilege, she has no power over Anne because Anne is the Queen. Sarah likely knew the same, but by remaining friendly with Anne, she was never treated as badly as Abigail is in the final shot.
Abigail might be the unhappiest, but Anne isn't exactly chuffed with the final outcome of The Favourite. She got rid of the one person who would at least care for her and replaced her with somebody who's just in it for power.
The final shot of The Favourite is a snapshot of both Abigail and Anne coming to terms with their new unhappy arrangement, one that doesn't really benefit either of them.
In real life, Abigail remained as the Queen's favourite until Anne died on August 1, 1714. Abigail retired into private life at her country house, while her husband Samuel became the King's Remembrancer under George I in 1716.
Abigail died on December 6, 1734 and Samuel died a long while later in 1758.
The Favourite is available to watch now on Netflix and Disney+ in the UK.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
