MovieChat Forums > Peacock (2010) Discussion > An explanation of sorts *Major SPOILERS*

An explanation of sorts Major SPOILERS

posted 14 years ago by deathbymelody
14 replies | jump to latest

Usually for a mystery/thriller type show, someone already has posted a lengthy and satisfactory summary by the time I get on imdb. But no one has done so for this movie and I think it deserves one, so I thought I'd offer my perspective for all those people going "WTF did I just watch??"

This isn't an easy movie to follow I guess. There are only subtle hints, no obvious answers. We are introduced to John who cross-dresses but assumes his normal personality when he goes to work. But John isn't a cross-dresser, he has no desire to be a woman.. in fact I don't think he has much control over it. We know he's had a traumatic childhood because of the things that his mother did to him. The movie unfortunately did not go into detail there, but it was enough to screw up mind.

I imagine his mother was very controlling and also a big part of his life, so when she died, it triggered a split personality within his fragile mind. This alter-ego Emma(whether that's his mother;s name is not known) wears his mother's old clothes, makes breakfast for John and does the laundry and chores. She even leaves notes for him like mother. It could be that assuming the role of his mother is a way his mind is coping with the death.

All goes fine until a year later when a train crashes into his backyard and his Emma personality captures the attention of the entire town. I think the shock awakened the Emma personality and inspired by Fanny Crill's talk about woman's independence, Emma decides to become more active.

John gets very agitated to find out that Emma has talked to people and made changes to his life. He sees her as his mother trying to take control of his life again, and he believes she is capable of evil. When Maggie and the kid shows up, they have different agendas and a struggle for control occurs. It ends with Emma, the more calm and calculative one faking John's death, so he can't show his face around anymore.

At the end of the show, after Emma takes the snapshot of Jake, it seems like a few posters here think that she had a change of heart. I think that during the flashback his mind went back to the traumatic experience and caused it to switch back to John's. Remember, Emma only faked John's death in the outside world but John is still alive inside, sharing the same space in his/her mind. When he gives Maggie the money and tells her to leave town, he's actually pretending to be Emma just like how Emma was pretending to be John earlier over the phone. This is evident because he says to her "it's not safe here", because he knows its just a matter of time before he suffers another relapse.

I like this movie because it's something different but you really have to fill in the blanks to make it worthwhile.

[–] aznfx 14 years ago

Awesome insight. The last point you make is actually very interesting and I'm not sure too many people (including myself) caught onto it.

First thing, though, is that I don't necessarily think John believes Emma is capable of evil. At first he probably believes this, but when he learns that Emma is doing good things (particularly with Maggie), I think he's a little unsure of Emma's agenda. But this doesn't matter to John -- all he wants is full control and, as he says countless times, for things to go back to how they were.

But, again, your last point is very interesting and actually brings a dark overtone to the ending of the movie, now that I think about it. If, in fact, that is truly John at the end, and not Emma, then - WOW - it actually brings a pain to my heart that John now has to live as Emma.

Truly truly disturbing.

[–] deathbymelody 14 years ago

I believe that Emma is a manifestation of his mother's personality. It's part of John BECOMING his mother. Why else would she use the little boy to recreate the snapshot of John? She even gives him his old toy plane and dresses him up the same way. John knows this and that's why he's afraid for Maggie and the little boy. But whether Emma really has ulterior motives for wanting to be close to the boy, we'll never know. But we do know she's capable of evil. She did kill an innocent man after all.

[–] tempestadycalma 14 years ago

Great points! I agree and I felt it might be John posing as Emma towards the gripping end only because of John shaving his eyebrows...Emma would have had no reason to do that. Either way, it was very interesting and actually pretty riveting witnessing the two characters in their internal struggle.

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I think I may be beginning to disappear.

[–] divorcing_jack_ni 14 years ago

Just to say i hope this is not forgotten by the time the next academy awards come round as its quite original imo.

The ending left me a little confused my guess was that no matter how hard emma tryed to keep john away so to speak she could'nt as he is the original personality, john created emma as almost a comfort blanket to replace his mother without john emma would not excist.

And at the end its just emma's realisation that she will never be a real women or alone, john will always be there.

[–] Vicky_and_Dre 14 years ago

Emma did it to make it harder for John to come back. Its harder to live as a man without eyebrows. She wanted full cntrol by that point. I cant think of a reason why John would do that.

http://vickyanddre.wordpress.com
come, talk =)

[–] Devans00 14 years ago

Thanks for the breakdown of what I just watched. I hardly had a clue past the part where John was fulfilling his dead mother's role.

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

[–] magusxxx_2000 14 years ago

While taking the child's picture he had a flashback to his mother who took his picture when he was young. But the realization wasn't only that he was becoming his mother.

I think all of you missed one subtle hint at the beginning of the movie. Someone said, 'we barely ever saw your mother.'

It was the fact that his mother was in fact a man as well. And that he didn't want to put the boy through the psychological confusion he went through. Hence, he wanted the cycle of abuse to stop.

Care killed the cat…but satisfaction brought it back

[–] divorcing_jack_ni 14 years ago

That sure is possible that his mother may well have been a man i guess we can only speculate but im pretty sure who ever it was is a mental case.

We know john was severly abused mentally and in other ways maybe his mother knew that she had created a monster and this was the reason she paid to keep the young girl and his daughter away.

I know most films fall into different genres and this has been described as thriller or drama but and this is only my opinion that this is just a tragic story of one person's struggle with themselves for happiness and peace but in reality john and emma are on a journey that neither can deviate from to their mutual destruction.

[–] jeannie-45 14 years ago

His mother was a woman. The mortician would certainly have noticed when she died. Also, John says he met Emma when his mother died; he created her the day he could. Emma took care of him. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. JOhn wasn't the monster, his mother was. She held his head under water, locked him under the stairs, and other abuses only alluded to. This abuse created the disassociative state that allowed John to create Emma, and find a loving partner to care for him. They communicated through loving notes.
I think dear old mom was paying Maggie child support for JOhn's son.

I like to watch.

[–] loks1999 14 years ago

I agree that John's mother was a woman for the reasons jeannie-45 lists. Also, I would like to mention that it is not uncommon for people with dissociative idenity disorder (DID) to have a personality that has the same or similiar characteristics of the person who abused them. (Nearly all suffers were subjected to horrific abuse as a child.)

In fact, the most famous sufferer of this disorder, Sybil, had a personality that sounded exactly like her abusive mother. If you ever read the book, there is an incident where her psychiatrist plays back a tape where that personality is talking, and Sybil becomes very upset and demands to know how the doctor got hold of her mother's voice.

My reading of "Emma" was that she shared similar personality traits with John's late mother. However, I think she was a lighter version of her in that she was not abusive. Perhaps Emma represented the best of John's mother. It is possible he had a very complex relationship with his mother. She clearly abused him and subjected him to terrible things but at the same time, it is possible he loved her, too.

[–] Mr_Carl_Spackler 14 years ago

Question: why did john tell Maggie that Emma wad NOT his wife?
Another thing-johns mom got him a Hooker (Maggie) and forced him to have sex and do inapprpoethings to Maggie while she watched? Icky.

Also, john was a weirdo- was everyone in town aware of Johns abuse? I mean john was a strange creature, yet everyone acted like his behaviors were normal. Just curios. ..

my dad, never liked you..

[–] joygu1 14 years ago

I believe John’s mother abused him every way possible. That most explains the D.I.D (if you really could call it that since there was only one other identity) and Maggie clearly knew his mother abused him, and that is why she felt sorry for John, but she also was willing do anything for Money, but was her child really Johns just because she said so for the birth certificate? Does not mean it was true. She knew she could black mail the mom, because the mom while being abusive, etc. would not want a scandal to get out in that small town. I do not think Maggie was as sweet a character as we were lead to believe. I mean she still was entertaining gentlemen after already have the child. (The Cupcake line that John uses later)

I think Emma was in the beginning what the ideal woman would be in Johns head. The taking off the shoes to sit in the chair (what was that??) Not what the Mother was. I am not sure if she would have taken care of John the same way. The first poster said the same notes, and stuff as the mother, but I do not remember seeing notes from the Mother. Maybe I missed that. But, as the movie went on, I believe Emma learned from the women around the town (IE Mayors wife) that there was more women could be than just a housewife.

At the end, I think the two were integrating, I think it was both John and Emma who eyes we were looking into. John knew what could happen because of the abuse he suffered and did not want to inflect that on someone else. Emma also did not want to hurt anyone, and I never saw true evil in Emma, but than maybe that was the point, sometimes you never know where the evil will come from.

I also believe as someone said, that John was a weirdo, well most small towns have odd balls (bo radleys), who everyone knows and are just, oh that is so and so and they are always like that. So if John was always a bit off in school and growing up (example of when he was buying grocery and the clerk knew that the candy had to go in it own separate bag) no one really thinks much about their odd quirks.

Evie Decker: Did you ever feel like it wouldn't matter if you lived or died?

[–] drale 14 years ago

I had figured his mother knew he liked to dress up like a girl and thats why she paid Maggie to force sex with him thinking it would straighten him out. But he didnt dress like a woman until his mom died. So that doesn't completely make since. I suppose he could have been gay anyways. Maybe that helped aid in his split personality of dressing like a woman.

[–] mathco 9 years ago

peacock musings:

Maggie realizes John has a split personality:
John as his mother personality hired maggie. Both the John personality and the mother personality were present during the encounter with Maggie. John killed his mother long ago - he had to - as his mother personality and his real mother could not co-exist within John's mind's logical sensibilty. Maggie says John was sending her checks, which he doesn't know about.

John's maturity is stunted, that's why he cries during his encounter with maggie.

John is a killer, and he also killed the mother personality. And created Emma on the same day

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Emma