Help me with the ending

She's conceding to her mom that yes, she is "strong", something she prides herself in immensely. But look where it got her. Now her strength will truly be tested for she is all alone, which is where her kind of "strength" got her.

I hate movies without resolution at the end where it's left up to the audience to make up their own end. And just as I was saying that to my husband it ended!! The intelligent part of my brain had to think, well, she's not going very far. She doesn't have her purse, or money or credit card or drivers license AND she's in her pajamas!!

Well, the sign on the road in the direction she's headed says Colorado or Denver. I think it's safe to say she's headed back to her family. Otherwise, there'd be no point in showing the sign. Also, as far as her pajamas, yeah it could be a new beginning - but I took very on the surface in that, since she's headed home, she's got clothes there. She doesn't need to go back for clothes. And she can have Joanna send her purse if its really necessary.

*This response has spoiler alerts*
To all that have answered previously it is all up to the viewers opinion of what everything means. What I took from it was, Barb realizes during the scene with her estranged husband where she asks him "You're never coming back to me are you Bill" then she followed with "I guess I and his response which was something to the effect of "I'll probably never really understand why will I?". To which he answers "Probably not". I think it's at that time she realizes she doesn't really know what's wrong with her. But later in the film when her daughter and her husband drive away it starts to sink in that she is like her mom. It's compounded when her sister responds to her statement of "I wasn't the one who told you it was Mom" with "What's the difference." After Barb's husband, daughter, sisters and the rest of the family take off because of all of the drama she realizes sitting with her Mom in an empty house, with her Mom acting stubborn as ever, that this is or will be her life if she does not change. When she leaves, she's leaving all of the negativity behind that her Mom represents. When she gets to the side of the road and gets out of her truck, she smiles and heads back towards denver. I think it's at that time that she lets go of all of the craziness that was her mother's influence in her life behind. That's just my opinion anyway.

Strange I didn't get any of this at the end. My happy ending was the mom crying on the stairs with the caretaker woman. It tied to the beginning as if the dad knew his family well enough that the mom would be left alone after he was gone. He knew the craziness that would come and that someone would need to keep things going; cooking etc.

I took her reamark "you're strong" to be condescending, to mean she wasn't and you'll realize after i'm gone. Which is exactly what happened when Vi realized she was all alone...

And Barb did pick up something before she left out the door of the house, which i'm assuming was her pocketbook.

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

The final straw was when Barbra realised that her mum could have saved her father. But Barbra had the good sense to know, in that moment, that her mother's and her father's reasons were complicated .... considering she realised that they were both 'flucked up' .... as she said to her mother.

There is way more than Barbra ever imagined .... in regard to 'truths' coming out during the coming together of the family. She can't judge her mother. And she can't judge her father. Because she hasn't walked a mile in their shoes...

Even though Vi let Barbra in on the 'secrets' involved in Beverly's final act ..... namely the note and Vi not contacting Bev, the motel, the locked box etc. .... Barbra knows that there is more to it than her mother is saying out loud ... there is more for Barbra to work out, with time.

She left her mother amicably ..... with a hug, and a throw away line 'Yes you are the strong one Mum' or some such.

There is a reason why Beverly left a note leaving Violet to work out whether or not she wishes to 'act' on the note, and contact him. Their relationship is complicated and there are probably very understandable reasons why Violet is soothing her pain with masses of pills, and the unbearable behaviour because of it.

I think in that moment, at the end, Barbra realises her parents relationship with each other is way more complicated than she can, at this time, fathom ..... namely in view of the secrets (which her father's funeral bringing all the family back for a brief time, together) ..... revealed. There is stuff there that even Violet has yet to figure out - about herself and about Bev.

It was a mixture of deep emotions and confusion that propelled Barbra out of that door to escape in the truck.... She didn't want to leave her mother in more of a mess than she already was. Hence the hug for her mother and her agreement with her, before she fled.


Matrixflower :)

After reading the comments, I have to say that I can see how Barb fled without a backward look or stopping to get anything if she was trying to get out of there. However, and I'll probably be quite alone in this, I think it was a rather lily-livered thing to do.

Frankly, had I been in Barb's shoes ... and I kinda am ... I think what might have been the more righteous thing to do would have been to realize that she was very like her mother and possibly accept her fate being there to prop up her mom. But, you know, things aren't usually like that, anyway. Most "Barbs" would have a job to go back to, which would demand that they at least clear things up. And a 14-year-old daughter? Okay, I guess the husband could raise her, and the daughter would probably prefer that. But she also wouldn't want to be abandoned by her mother. What the daughter needs is for her mother to show her that she's the most important thing in her life ... and for the father to show that, too, vis a vis his life. Barb did let her daughter know how much she loved her with the little speech in the back of the car when they went to identify Bev. I guess Barb; could accept her fate and stay with Vi, who might not live that much longer anyway ... or might live for decades more out of spite, lol. But I still think it might have been hard for the daughter. However, summers in that place might have been halcyon. What Barb needed to do was the right thing, which I'm not sure is what she did.

Howver, ... also, there was the little thing, or really the big, climactic, thing, about Vi revealing that she cared more about money or at least besting her husband at his own game or something than saving him. Which in a way makes the movie moot, when you really think about it ... why was Vi worried? Didn't she know what her husband was going to do? I had wondered how she, who had seemed so in love with him, could have taken his death so well. But this suggests she was nuts. And why would Bev off himself? Perhaps he loved her so much, he wanted her to show him that she loved him ... and that if she didn't save him, he would go to his grave with a broken heart but essentially have given up that his beloved was sane.