Summary
The ending of Keep Breathing is an emotional finale as Liv ventures towards the closure of her healing journey with one last push for survival.
This recap of the Netflix limited series Keep Breathing episode 6, “You Are Home” — the ending explained — contains spoilers.
Read the spoiler-free review of Keep Breathing.
As we reach the end of this exciting limited series, the question pursed on the lips of the audience is — does Liv survive? Does she make it back home? And what demons does she need to process first before reaching safety?
Netflix’s Keep Breathing episode 6 recap – the ending explained
The finale begins with Liv falling from a cliff edge, hitting many tree branches on the way down, which probably softens the fall and saves her from death. In a flashback, Liv’s doctor tells Liv to find de-stressing activities while she is pregnant. She questions whether she will be a “great mother” and gets angry at the doctor. In the present, Liv has hurt herself badly, bruising the right side of her body and showing signs of internal bleeding. She’s in a state of shock as she remembers the love of her father, who used to encourage her to “get up” every morning. This memory helps Liv in the present as she holds herself up using a firm tree branch.
And so, Liv gets her bearings together to find north. Her body looks broken at this point, and she feels the journey is impossible, but her father’s words challenge her, and she strolls on.
Further flashbacks see Liv taking on painting as a young girl, replicating her mother’s talents. And then it flits to Liv as an adult, looking after her dying father.
In the present, Liv continues to walk, and she witnesses a bucket list moment; the Northern Lights. In the daytime, her hallucination has changed; she’s now accompanied by her lover, Danny. He tells her she should have told him she’s pregnant and believes she will be a good mother. Of course, this is a conversation with herself; she realizes she is a good person and can harbor a child’s life.
But when it rains, it pours in the wilderness, and a heavy downpour soaks Liv. Flashbacks show Liv talking to her dying father; she wants to know why he never gave her the postcards sent by her mother. The father tells Liv that the postcards were not for her but a reflection of her mother. But Liv markedly states that it was not for him to decide what to do with those postcards.
Eventually, Liv kisses her father on the forehead in what we can presume is an act of forgiveness. She tells her father that it’s okay to rest as he keeps trying to live — he reassures her that he remains by her side as Liv’s eyes fill with tears. Liv’s father dies. The man who never left her side stayed with her until his dying breath.
In the present, Liv thinks she hears cars nearby, and she speeds up her limped walk to find an aggressive river. The thunderous water sounds like cars; she was again deceived by nature. With all hope lost, Liv hallucinates and sees her father, who tells her he can feel her mother amongst nature. Liv admits that she thought by finding her mother, she could look her in the eyes and see the truth.
Liv realizes her journey to see her mother was impulsive, just like her mother. The hallucinated father tells Liv she’s like her mother with her “eyes and smile,” but nothing else is like her. At this moment, Liv realizes that she did nothing wrong in her life and that she was a lost little girl — that’s the answer she needed; she doesn’t need to see her mother, who abandoned her. Her hallucinated father tells her to rest and passes her a pile of postcards.
The ending
Like father like daughter, Liv gets up, refusing to give up. She grabs a log and enters the river’s flow, hoping it brings her somewhere where this hellish scenario ends. The water feels reflective of her trauma healing; one last struggle as she becomes consumed by the water — she imagines a life with Danny, having that baby with him. As her potential life flashes before her, she’s found in the river by two medical professionals. She looks dead, but then she coughs up water. It seems like she can have that life after all — she breathes again.
The ending of Keep Breathing is an emotional finale as Liv ventures towards the closure of her healing journey with one last push for survival.
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