Girl at the end...

My take on this has always been that she's in the same post Syd was in when she started at Frame, so when Syd looks at her at the end she's kind of seeing herself and evaluating her own career and the choices she's made.

it was the same girl as in the beginning, who asked her what did she have to do to get the job as an editor.

and again i would like to quote "veludoudigrudi" --> makes sence perfectly


she(syd) leaves ,the receptiontist continues reading her novel with a satisfied/knowing expression as if something was answered for her

i think as "veludoudigrudi" rightly put -->

I think the recepcionist thought that the question she had asked syd at the beginning of the film had been answered by the cover of 'frame'. I think syd knew that was what she was thinking and that made her feel even more anguished. I do think the recepcionist looked at syd with admiration though, not really judging her.

You're all wrong about why Syd had a lingering look at the receptionist at the end. Syd went through a lot of serious education to get where she did (and even then she's buying sandwhiches and coffee for her pain in the ass boss) if her Foucault comments are anything to go by.

When Lucy is told who the editors are at the magazine she says that she remembers Dominique (I think it was her) when she was just a receptionist and comments on how she's moved up in the world.

Syd was probably reflecting on something along the lines of why does she bother when the receptionist is likely to do better than her.

It's a fickle world.

I didn't see any admiration at all from the receptionist. Everyone else was saying "good job Syd" and the receptionist pointedly did not. I think she was feeling rather smug and judgmental. Earlier in the film she asked Syd "What did you have to do to get this job?" I think she saw her as the "intern" or "gopher" who now had her own office. It's easy to see why she might resent someone like that if she's still stuck in the same boring job

Syd herself said earlier that she wasn't going to show the editor the pictures because she didn't think it was appropriate. I think the receptionist felt the same way about it.

I've read everyone's comments.

Since both Syd and the receptionist Debby are silent as they stare at each other, the viewers have to figure out both persons' thoughts.

The receptionist is an opportunistic dunce and someone who has accepted her role of a woman in a male-dominated society. Her idea of getting to the top is to accept the rules of the game and try to play it well: in her earlier question to the newly promoted Syd, her ex-equal in the Agency, "How did you get that job?!" – which she phrases and inflects in a very quizzical, investigative and judgmental way (well pulled-off by Charis Michelsen) – she is making an implication that Syd didn't aquire the promotion in a proper business ethics way. It's as if she were asking: "What trick did you use to get your own office? Why exactly are you the one they gave it to? Did you have sex with one of our superiors?" At the end of the movie, as Debby stares at Syd, she is certainly admiring her, as some of you have said. Of course, admiring her not for her professional integrity, the artistic sincerety and valiance (hm, maybe a bit for her physical beauty), or even for her success in some vague way. No, the receptionist's admiration is precisely for Syd's (supposed) sheer cold determination to profssionally get where she wants to be. "Wow, nicely done – to pull the best out of a lesbian artist, you went ahead and dug into lesbianism, and even got your pretty self on the cover! You're my hero and a role model!" But no matter how much Debby is accepting of amoral tactics, she knows they're bad. So, her stare also conveys gloating. "See, Syd? You've now done exactly what I was accusing you right after your promotion. You're no better than me." That sentiment comes accross in the last camera shot. Debby silently goes: "Ha!", and goes back to her reading, although manifesting with her body language a degree of jealousy as well.

Syd may be going through even more thoughts than Debby during that staring scene. Firstly, there's the disgust at Debby's cause of admiration. In Syd's conscious mind, the lesbian "photo session" with Lucy, as well as their entire relationship, was completely unopportunistic and unexploitive; it was real, genuine. It was high art – and that weekend with Lucy is one of the places in the film where the primary meaning, the least humorous one, of the tripple* entendre "High Art" comes into play. Love and lust of the two women was, surely, real, but, subconsciously, was it all absolutely and always unexploitive? I think Debby's stare drags Syd's possible inner conflict to the conscious surface, and that's why the reaction is not just disgust, but also guilt. You may not agree with that, but that's ok. So, Syd's unnerved look stems from disgust/guilt because of Debby's admiration/gloating. Third, there's the reflection on the job dynamics, which @cupersonally well pointed out: "Syd was probably reflecting on something along the lines of why does she bother when the receptionist is likely to do better than her." That reaction becomes apparent at the end of the stare, when Syd sullenly looks down and slips through the door.

I'm not sure Syd would've returned to work the next day. It is exactly because of the innability/unwillingness of the business to allow the whole artistic process to stay genuine, to stay high art – that Lucy decided to stop working. Which probably made her turn to drugs. Which, ultimately, killed her. From that perspective, the industry that endowed Syd with professional success is the same industry that took Syd's lover from her. That was perhaps the final Syd's thought. And her last emotion: the terrible feeling that she was a part of that. To Debby and to some others it may look, after they learn that Lucy died, that Syd used her. Maybe that's why Syd was given a male name (she also shares the name with Syd Vicious).


* Tripple entendre, because art also means crafty trick, and high also means doped.


P. S. I'm probably overthinking it.


no i am db