Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez (Image via Netflix)

Emilia Pérez ending explained: What happens to Emilia?

Modified Nov 13, 2024 21:03 GMT

Emilia Pérez is a multi-lingual French musical drama film written and directed by Jacques Audiard. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2024, and was theatrically released in France on August 21, 2024. It got a limited theatrical run in the United States on November 1, 2024, before releasing on Netflix on November 13, 2024.

Emilia Pérez is loosely based on Écoute, a novel by Boris Razon. It tells the story of Rita Mora Castro, a lawyer unhappy with her environment. She helps a cartel boss Manitas change his gender and fake his death so that he can leave the cartel life behind. Years later, they meet again, and Rita helps Manitas, now Emilia Perez, get close to his children and wife, Jessi.

The film ends with Emilia, who has become possessive about her children, getting kidnapped by Jessi and her lover Gustavo. Jessi realizes that Emilia is Manitas and tries to stop Gustavo. In the struggle, the car digresses from the road and kills all three.

The film is produced by Why Not Productions, Pathe, Page 114, France 2 Cinema and Saint Laurent Production and stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir and Édgar Ramírez.

Jessi and Gustavo kidnap Emilia for ransom in Emilia Pérez

Emilia Pérez by the end of its runtime becomes a tale of poetic justice. Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a cartel kingpin played by Karla Sofía Gascón, turns into a woman with the help of medical professionals and a lawyer, Rita Mora Castro, played by Zoe Saldana. He fakes his death and lives his life as a woman away from violence and crime.

However, after a few years, Manitas, now Emilia Pérez, meets Rita again and expresses her desire to reunite with her wife Jessi and children. Rita introduces Emilia to Jessi, played by Selena Gomez, as a distant cousin, who wants to help raise the children.

After the tragic death of her husband, Jessi found comfort in her previous lover Gustavo. Interestingly, Emilia didn't show any objection to their relationship. She herself gets in a relationship with, Epifania, a woman whose abusive husband was killed in cartel violence.

Things take a turn when Jessi reveals her plan to marry Gustavo and take the children away. Emilia asserts her dominance and becomes physically aggressive. Jessi and Gustavo formulate a plan to get money to start their new life. They kidnap Emilia and demand ransom from Rita.

Did Jessi find out that Emilia Pérez is her husband?

Jessi, in her own right, is a tragic figure who lost her husband and raised her children alone for four years. But this is just the tragedy she knows of.

The actual truth about her husband, that he felt gender dysmorphia since childhood and covertly underwent gender-affirming surgery to start a new life without informing her was hidden from her till the last part of the film.

Later, when Emilia volunteers to help her raise her children, Jessi starts planning a new life with Gustavo. But, when Emilia becomes possessive of the children, she's baffled. Even more baffling was the fact that Emilia had access to her money and cut off her bank accounts. In her desperation and Gustavo's persuasion, she ends up doing what her husband used to do: make people disappear.

After receiving Emilia's three fingers from the kidnappers, Rita comes to the designated destination with a bag full of cash and an armed team. In the ensuing shootout, Emilia reveals her true identity to Jessi in a song. Before Jessi can fully comprehend the situation, Gustavo puts Emilia in the trunk of the car, and they drive off.

Rita offers to be Emilia's children's guardian in Emilia Pérez

While driving with Emilia in the trunk, Jessi slowly realizes that she's her husband Manitas Del Monte. She asks Gustavo to stop, but he refuses. She then held him at gunpoint, and the two started struggling for the gun. In their struggle, the car veers off the road, killing all three.

Manitas had started a non-profit to find the remains of the victims of the cartel. But in the end, the cartel boss, who destroyed many lives, ended up as a helpless victim. Rita gives the devastating news to Jessi and Manitas' children and offers to become their guardian.

The film ends with Epifania and the community coming together in the streets to sing 'Las damas que pasan,' as an ode to the ones lost in cartel violence, and to Emilia.

Emilia Pérez is streaming on Netflix.