'Unchosen' Ending, Explained: Breaking Down the Netflix Cult Drama's Eerie Twists

If you've just finished bingeing Trust Me: The False Prophet, Netflix has a new fictionalized cult drama for you to dive into next. Inspired by showrunner Julie Gearey's brief encounter with a young conservative woman, Unchosen follows Rosie (Molly Windsor), a young mother who becomes entwined with a mysterious, but charismatic outsider named Sam (Fra Fee) when he saves her daughter Grace (Olivia Pickering) from drowning.

Rosie welcomes Sam into their tight-knit community and begins a romantic relationship with him, and his presence ignites her desire to leave her abusive marriage and the strict confines of their sect. Soon, even her devout husband Adam (Asa Butterfield) takes a strong liking to their newest neighbor. But as details about Sam's life, including that he's an escaped convict serving time for murder, slowly come to light, it threatens everything they've built and believe in—for better or worse.

So does Rosie escape at the end of Unchosen? Is Sam's bad behavior a thing of the past? Here's how Netflix's latest series Unchosen ends.

Does Rosie escape her violent marriage to Adam at the end of 'Unchosen?'

Yes, Rosie does escape her marriage at the end of Unchosen. But, in the end, it isn't her husband, Adam, that she's running from. It's Sam, the outsider whom she fought for, and who was hiding his violent secret from everyone.

Do Rosie and Sam stay together romantically at the end of 'Unchosen?'

Rosie learns the truth about Sam's past while she's in town, as she frantically searches for his name online. A young woman steps in to help her, and their Google search is troubling: Sam was imprisoned for killing a young girl in his native Ireland. Moreover, Rosie's daughter, Grace, tells her that when she witnessed Sam fighting with Mr. Phillips (Christopher Eccleston), Sam threatened Grace if she opened her mouth.

Back in their community, Sam corners Rosie in the kitchen and offers her his undying love. Knowing the truth, Rosie is repulsed and makes an excuse to leave, finding her husband Adam instead. She confesses about her sexual involvement with Sam and Sam's threat towards Grace, and Adam is kind for the first time, committing to help them escape.

They try to leave during a storm but are cornered by Sam in the rain. He feigns needing car help and discovers suitcases in the back, quickly understanding that they are fleeing. Adam tries to attack Sam, but he's overpowered, and Sam tracks down Rosie before she can run away. Feeling rage about being "abandoned" again—the same feeling that led him to murder the girl in his past—he holds Rosie's head under water. But suddenly, her voice is in his head, preaching about forgiveness, and he lets her go. She takes Grace into town, landing on the doorstep of Mrs. Phillips (Siobhan Finneran) and her son.

Does Adam reconcile with his brother Isaac in 'Unchosen?'

Adam casts Isaac (Aston McAuley) out in the early episodes of Unchosen when it's revealed that he had a cell phone and was in a relationship with an outsider—two no-no's for their separated community. But before there is a chance at reconciliation, Sam seizes an opportunity to run Isaac off the road and kill him in a fatal car crash. Isaac had tried to warn his family about getting close to Sam, but was unable to get through to them before meeting his end.

In the aftermath of the car crash, Sam frames the community's leader, Mr. Phillips, by pulling him into the front seat of the car and placing a flask in his hand, playing into his known drinking problem. Sam seems to grieve what he's done by seeking absolution in church, but he never confesses to what he did, allowing Mr. Phillips to take the blame publicly.

Is Sam and Adam's romantic moment revealed at the end of 'Unchosen?'

Suspecting Adam's repressed homosexuality, Sam stages a moment of intimacy between them, recording the whole thing without Adam's knowledge. He holds this over Adam's head, considering he was recently named an Elder in the community, and this revelation would threaten his standing.

Luckily, the video was never released, even after Adam helped Rosie and Grace escape. And when Adam has the chance to attack Sam, he takes it. “I remember reading the script and thinking, ‘Yes, finally,’” Butterfield told Tudum. “Adam has all of this pent-up guilt and shame and rage. He’s finally able to really stand up for himself and for his family. It’s taken him a long time to be able to do that.”

What is Sam's fate at the end of 'Unchosen?'

Before the credits roll, Unchosen jumps a year into the future, revealing that Sam never had to pay for killing Isaac. Instead, he's been welcomed into the Church, where he is seen preaching to a congregation—just like Adam and Mr. Phillips did before him.

Showrunner Julie Gearey told Tudum that releasing Rosie was “a moment of proper redemption” for Sam. (“Otherwise it’s like, what has it all been for?” she said.) But the eerie ending reads more as an indictment of both organized religion and culture at large, which often fails to punish men with status for their wrongdoings.

What's next for Rosie, Adam, and Sam after the end of 'Unchosen?'

Of course, we don't know anything beyond what was shown on screen, but Gearey and the Unchosen actors revealed to Tudum what they saw next for their characters.

Windsor believes Rosie's next step would be to figure out how to integrate into society and learn to trust people again, while Butterfield hopes Adam would find the courage to leave the cult. "I think he’s still got a journey ahead of him, an internal journey to really confront his own truth, to confront the loss of his family, to confront Sam,” he told the Netflix site. “It’s so deeply ingrained in him, this life and this world. Unlike Rosie, who needs the change and who’s seen the chance to change, I don’t think Adam’s really opened his eyes to that yet.”

Fee, on the other hand, doesn't really believe Sam has changed; he's just riding the wave as long as he can. “He entered the fellowship as a hero. He saved Grace,” Fee said. “They all think of him as this hero, and he’s going to allow that narrative to play out for as long as possible. I think he’s very much on a high, high pedestal at the end of the show...[Maybe] he’s replaced that love with the admiration and devotion of followers, but we all know that that’s not real.”