The Prodigy’s message: weird kids are creepy. Monsters chat in their sleep and put too much paprika on their meals, and then you discover dog corpses in the basement and pruning shears in your spleen. The Prodigy seemed to like “strange kids” jump scares.
Underneath this narrative of terrifying children comes a deeper story of a mother’s love, a child’s role in the world, and even some Buddhism. Maybe you watched The Prodigy until its gruesome finish, or you were too stunned by the stomach bleeding to follow the turns. You may have questions. We’re analyzing The Prodigy’s finale for spoilers.
Soul Train
The Prodigy’s fundamental idea is established early on. However, the entire unveiling takes a bit. A montage shows cops invading a serial killer’s compound while Sarah (Taylor Schilling) gives birth in a hospital. The baby emerges after the guy is shot. His soul now belongs to the infant down the hall (or hundreds of miles away across the state line, in this case).
This scene introduces Chucky as a genuine boy. It also prepares the spectator for the movie’s odd themes of reincarnation and soul transference. By revealing the main surprise before the opening credits, The Prodigy may toy with concepts without slowing down to explain how they occurred. Miles has a serial killer’s soul. He’ll mess up.
Reincarnated Ideas
The Prodigy mainly relies on the spiritual notion of reincarnation – after you die, you reincarnate. In this movie, the process is like a ghost haunting an old home; it’s only there because it left unfinished business. You can discover evidence online that The Prodigy didn’t invent these concepts. Meher Baba taught that humans are reborn to satisfy unfulfilled wishes and then leave their reincarnated bodies.
He believed he was God reborn. Who could blame him? The Prodigy’s narrative draws from more than gurus. The DVD that Arthur Jacobson (Colm Feore) offers Sarah in the film stems from a true news story about a youngster who claimed to be a reborn World War II pilot. The objective was to show these far-fetched ideas as offshoots of the actual world, grounding Miles’ problem and resolution in reality. Kind of.
Miles Apart
The Prodigy, Miles (Jackson Robert Scott), proves that youngsters shouldn’t apply their own Halloween makeup. This youngster has two souls, each influencing his mentality. He’s no prodigy. Edward Sarka, the killer who died at the start and became Miles’ soul, gave him his intelligence.
The film is dualistic. From Miles’ heterochromia to moments with his face in the darkness, we can never forget he’s a murderer. Miles, 8, washes off part of his skeleton Halloween makeup. He sees half a regular boy’s face and half a twisted skeleton visage that loves hacking off women’s hands. Sarka’s thoughts consume the youngster at this point, leading to violent behaviour.
Unfinished Business
The Prodigy’s last act finds a clear path. Once Sarah acknowledges that Sarka’s spirit possesses Miles, she believes he has unfinished business. Once she discovers Miles/Sarka’s reading material in Miles’ bedroom, she realises what that business is: Sarka needs to murder Margaret St. James, the young lady who escaped him and led the police to his home in the film’s opening scenes.
To rescue her kid, how far would a mother go? Sarah helps Sarka accomplish the assignment so he can leave Miles for good. Sarah buys a gun and brings Miles/Sarka to Ohio to face St. James. The Prodigy moves away from Bad Seed with this choice. This isn’t a family struggling to survive their wicked offspring; it’s a mother who will kill to defend her kid.
Stabbing Season
Sarah’s emotional struggle to kill Margaret St. James worsens when she learns she has children. Sarah would safeguard her kid by shooting another mother. The movie mirrors Miles’ Halloween paint with a physical mirror. Sarah loads her pistol in Margaret’s bathroom and finds… herself. Face-to-face! She understands she’ll destroy someone like herself to save her own life. Sarah fails.
She lowers the gun and surrenders. Miles will always be horrible. Miles rushes into the kitchen with a huge knife and stabs Margaret St. James, completing the deed Sarka began in the Ohio woods years ago.
But He Was Drugged
Sarah understands Miles isn’t a good passenger. The youngster attacked his dad with lawn scissors, causing him to smash into a tree. She gives Miles a motion sickness tablet before the long trip to Margaret St. James to prevent any unexpected belly stabbings. It’s working.
Miles is still sleeping when they arrive at St. James’ residence so that Sarah may do business without him. Unfortunately, she ignored Arthur Jacobson’s foreshadowing: Sarka is great at acting and sleeping.
He mentioned this day before Sarah drugged Miles. The evil genius has the youngster, so he’s awake. Sarka was in charge the entire time, waiting for the proper opportunity to attack when Miles appeared. We soon discover how much power he has.
The Masterplan
Sarka is stronger than we thought, and Sarah is a lousy parent. When combined, the hidden plan is revealed. Sarka meticulously organised everything Sarah had done to assist her son, including forcing her husband out, going to Ohio, and killing St. James. Why? As Sarah suspected, he wants to assassinate Margaret St. James, but he’s locked in an 8-year-body.
He can’t drive himself. He’s been manipulating Sarah from the beginning. Remember when Sarah discovered Edward Sarka on her laptop with Miles nearby? Sarah’s understanding didn’t help her stop Sarka, as the audience believed; Sarka let her learn the truth on purpose.
These clues appear throughout the movie. Sarah finds St. James’s information buried under an uneven baseboard. Miles appears as a timid, innocent kid when Sarah is weak, giving her faith she can rescue him. Sarah performed Sarka’s pawn role to perfection.
Too Late
The film’s final surprise shows that murdering St. James wasn’t Sarah’s magical healing. Sarka still controls Miles’ body and has no plans to leave. Sarka has Sarah to thank for getting him to St. James. Sarah is the final person who can jeopardise John’s new existence, with Jacobson cowed into quiet. Sarka manipulatively tells her Miles is gone. Too late. He says Miles hasn’t been involved since the movie’s midpoint. Sarka killed Jacobson’s Miles half.
Thus his discourse about a “battle of souls” was meaningless. Sarah threatens her kid with the pistol she’d use on St. James. Sarah may have planned to pull the trigger, but a farmer shoots her before she can. He observed a mother shooting a child. Sarah’s late again. Perhaps she’ll reincarnate as someone more committed.
Sarka Lives
Miles is handed off with his foster family at the film’s end. The youngster greets his new parents with joy and innocence. Miles’s hand fetish goes into overdrive as his foster mother offers her hand in greeting. Miles’ new bedroom mirror reflects old guy Sarka since ambiguity is for dummies.
Sarka may kill repeatedly. He’s no longer a chubby Hungarian. His kindness makes him the ideal wolf in sheep’s clothes. But is it the end? No matter how many mirrors are in the room, there may be more to this.
Liar Liar
The Prodigy has an unsolved question. When did Miles lose to the killer within him? When Sarah meets Arthur Jacobson, he’s blunt. He tells Miles to hurry. Miles is trapped in a mental and spiritual war with Sarka, and Sarka will soon win.
The spectator is left wondering when (or if) Miles will ultimately buck the parasitic old guy. Miles’ redemption is fiction. Sarka-Miles informs Sarah her son is dead after killing his last victim. Since Miles asked Sarah whether she’d love him forever, he hadn’t been there. Idiot! The Prodigy contains numerous falsehoods. Who knows where Sarka’s falsehoods end?
Jacobson called him a master liar and master manipulator. Would he tell Sarah Miles is still alive? Not if he wants her to wield a pistol at him so the hero farmer would intervene. He pretended to control the boy’s body. How?
Still Hope
Miles controls Sarka throughout the film. Especially when Arthur Jacobson hypnotise him. Miles scratch a message into a leather sofa with his fingernails, despite Sarka’s apparent control. That’s not simple, and it shows Miles’ thinking may be greater than Sarka understands. Sarka may have done so as part of his intricate strategy to reach Margaret St. James, but why?
If he desired quiet, he could have merely told Jacobson his name. Same result. Miles might be able to stop Sarka in the future if he left the message. Maybe he’ll learn some skills from his imaginary companion. In this movie, everything is conceivable, regardless of logic.
