Wildflower Ending Explained


This article contains discussions of sexual abuse.



Despite the heartwarming nature of the Wildflower ending, it leaves many questions that need further analysis. The main cast of Wildflower includes Kiernan Shipka as Bea, Dash Mihok as Derek, and Samantha Hyde as Sharon — the three characters who make up the small Johnson family at the center of the film. Audiences first see Bea when she’s rushed into the hospital in a coma. The movie follows Bea’s recounting of her life as a teenager who helps support her two disabled parents.


The true story-inspired Wildflower explores the complex role and responsibilities that Bea has to shoulder. As she spends more time with her new boyfriend, Bea puts less time into handling her parents’ basic self-care, finances, and schedules. As problems start to arise with her parents, Bea questions her ability to ever leave home. This creates a rage inside which she handles with several unhealthy coping mechanisms. While Wildflower’s ending is hopeful, it still leaves some issues unresolved.



How Does Bea End Up In A Coma?

Bea Was Sexually Assaulted

At Wildflower‘s climax, Bea decides to drink a bottle of whiskey alone in her room. In her inebriated state, she goes out selling tickets for her school’s raffle on The Las Vegas Strip. Andy, a schoolmate’s college-age brother, pulls up and asks her to get in the car. She hops in and he sexually assaults her. She says she wants out of the car but Andy’s buddy only pulls over when she tries to jump out of the moving vehicle. Bea tries to walk away, but Andy follows her, begging her to get back in.


He starts pulling her arm, Bea throws up and then falls, hitting her head on the ground. Andy and Damien put her in the car, drive her to the hospital, and leave her on a bench. They don’t even bother to wait for anyone to come to get her, instead pulling away in their car as nurses run out to get her. The hit on her head is what put her in the coma. Though Andy seemed sinister earlier in Wildflower when he was hitting on girls at a high school party, this scene shows how truly predatory he was.

This points to the idea that predators tend to befriend other predators.


He doesn’t have any qualms about picking up a drunk high school student and sexually assaulting her. Damien also has no issues with Andy’s actions, only saying he doesn’t want to get caught with a drunk high schooler in his car. This points to the fact that predators tend to befriend other predators. Their concern for only themselves shows at the moment when they take her to the hospital. Rather than get in trouble, they put a high schooler’s life at risk, and their actions directly lead to Bea ending up in a coma.

At the end of the film, Bea wakes up from the coma and reunites with her family, who remained by her side while she was in the hospital. Despite their differences, fights, and struggles, her family was always there for her. They apologize to each other and look to move on as the film concludes.

Does Bea Go To College?

Bea Finally Decides To Enroll At UCLA

Bea's family celebrates her high school graduation.


Throughout Wildflower, Bea’s guidance counselor wants her to apply to college. She has the grades and extracurriculars to attend college, but she only applies to a couple of community colleges after he pressures her. Despite the potential to gain a scholarship or financial aid, she doesn’t consider leaving her parents. Bea believes they couldn’t survive without her physical, emotional, and financial support. Finding an old hat her uncle gave her, Bea realizes she wants to attend UCLA.

The credits show Bea’s parents driving her to college, singing a song about Bea going to UCLA.

In the last few minutes of the movie, Bea reads her college application essay to her guidance counselor. The credits show Bea’s parents driving her to college, singing a song about Bea going to UCLA. Her mom even wears a UCLA beanie and tells the person they pick up for a Lyft that her daughter is going to college.


This moment shows her mom’s pride in her daughter. It also displays that her parents support her dreams, even if it means she will be away from them. In a heartwarming moment, since Wildflower is inspired by true events, the movie ends with photos of the real family and an update that “Bea” is in her third year at UCLA.

Does Bea Attend The Prom?

Wildflower Shows The Prom Never Really Mattered

Bea holds up a cinched red dress in the store while looking for a prom dress.

Bea spends most of her time working to support her family. At one point in Wildflower, she puts aside money from each paycheck, so she can go to Disneyland and buy a dress for prom. While she shops for a dress, some kids convince Sharon to buy them beer. Sharon gets arrested, and they also arrest Derek when he causes a scene, so Bea has to bail out her parents with the money she saved. She loses all her money when she learns her father lost his job and stopped her mother from getting disability checks.


This part of the movie broadens the scope from familial dynamics to societal issues.

Due to this incident, Bea doesn’t attend the prom in Wildflower. This part of the movie broadens the scope from familial dynamics to societal issues. The teens’ behavior draws attention to wider societal abuse of disabled people. The police arrest Sharon and Derek without considering the circumstances. As for Derek, he is arrested for talking to the police about his wife’s crime. Lastly, the systems protecting people with disabilities allow a spouse to turn off benefits for their partner without their permission, again highlighting a pressing issue.


The True Meaning Of Wildflower’s Ending

WIldflower Is A Movie About Family Love & Support

The Wildflower movie ending shows families can come together to love and support each other, even in what seems like the most difficult of situations. By working together, Sharon and Derek set out to make sure that Bea can go to college without worrying about them. These scenes are some of the most impactful and heartwarming in Wildflower, in part because they provide a more rounded perspective.

Rather than focusing entirely on Bea, they also center on the perspective of Sharon and Derek. Unfortunately, the rest of Wildflower tries to tell a compassionate story but ultimately falls short by focusing primarily on a non-disabled point of view.


How The Wildflower Ending Was Received

Critics Were Lukewarm & Fans Loved It

Bea stands in front of her entire family at a restaurant wearing a floral dress.

Wildflower Review Scores

Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer

63%

Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter

92%

Metacritic

52/100

IMDb

6.8/10

Critics were mostly mixed on Wildflower, with the film sitting at 63% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. However, this was directly compared to the audience Popcornmeter, which was an extremely high 92% positive. One audience member wrote that the ending really helped tell the story of a family’s resilience: “This movie is also great in portraying the impact of supportive environment for a teen’s emotional development and career path. But most of all, it showed that our perspective always affect the way we live our lives.


The critics were not as overwhelmingly positive, though. While reviewing the film for RogerEbert.com, critic Christy Lemire only gave it two stars, writing, “A terrific cast can only do so much with superficial, maudlin material” and that “Wildflower” tries to cover so much in terms of time and emotion that it feels rushed, and the big, tear-jerker moments it seeks never come close to blossoming.” Teo Bugbee of The New York Times agreed:

“Shipka ably handles the responsibility of leading the story, but the director Matt Smukler has a harder time balancing the charming and empathetic ensemble performances with the script’s constantly judgmental tone. “Wildflower” is a nervy sit, a movie that eventually makes its way toward acceptance, but only after putting its disabled characters through the trial of dehumanizing questions.”


For the more positive reviews, William Bibbiani of The Wrap reviewed the film after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival and appreciated the story dealing with the challenges that Bea had to overcome. However, his biggest praise was that Wildflower is about acceptance and overcoming the odds, which the ending shows: “Smukler isn’t interested in darkness, even though there sure are a lot of creeps in Bea’s periphery. He focuses on warmth and acceptance, not suspicion and suspense.”

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