Ending of Passing

I was very surprised by the ending of Passing and overall very confused by it as well. I was confused at how unsurprised Clare was by the sudden appearance of her husband and the fact that he had succeeded in discovering her secret. In my mind I had two possible conclusions about this.
First was that Clare might have lied to Irene and Brian that John was going to be out of town for work, and might have dropped some hints of where she would be to John. This would make sense then why she was smiling because he figured out her hints and her plan worked as she wanted it to. Clare was making comments at the end indicating that maybe she wasn't as happy in this life as maybe she could have wanted to be. If she was found out by John that would give her the freedom to start a new life without him. This also lends way to the possibility that if Clare and Brian were having an affair that after John found out that they could both move to Brazil together and start a new life. This fits in nicely with the fact that Brian invited Clare to this party without permission or asking Irene first. If they did have a plan this would make sense why he invited without asking because they could not risk being shutdown. 

My other theory is that after seeing Irene and Felise on the street together he became suspicious and knew of the party that Felise was throwing and assumed Irene and Clare would be there. He then lied to Clare saying he was going on last minute business trip to ensure that she would be at the party since he would be absent. The only reason Clare wasn’t surprised was because she was more pleased that he finally figured it out. She had been dragging him along and lying to him this whole time and she was just finally down and happy that he figured it out so she could be free.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 3, 2017 at 1:46 PM

    I agree with you that the way Clare wasn't really surprised when her husband showed up at the black party. When he found out her secret she was in a way relieved that he had finally found out that she is also black. Clare lived a terrible life trying to hide her true self and she free to be who she was when John found out. That is another good point that Clare and Brian might have had an affair and maybe he wanted to move there with Clare to escape hiding that she is black. Brian inviting Clare to the party was a key indicator and him not really minding Clare or smiling every time her name was mentioned. I think Clare had what was coming to her when she died in the end because that is what she gets for meddling in peoples lives and making Irene's life complicated.

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