Unchosen ending explained: What happens to Adam, the truth behind Sam, and the final twist
Only two characters get truly happy endings in Unchosen
Unchosen, Netflix’s psychological thriller about a British cult, doesn’t end with any divine intervention – but there is a happy ending… for some of the characters.
The new Netflix series follows Adam (Asa Butterfield), a newly promoted elder at the Fellowship of the Divine, and his wife, Rosie (Molly Windsor). They lead peaceful lives… apart from their penance – aka solitary confinement – when they step out of line.
When Sam (Fra Fee), an escaped prisoner, saves their daughter, Grace, from drowning, Rosie begins to question whether or not she can trust the sect to which she’s devoted her life.
By the end, this leads to some hard truths, betrayals, and changes for everyone in the cult. So, let’s break down exactly how Unchosen ends.
***Warning: spoilers for Unchosen ahead***
How does Unchosen end?
The consequences of Sam’s lies and manipulations come to the fore in the Unchosen finale.
Remember, Sam successfully manoeuvred almost everyone he met from the cult. He had Rosie wrapped around his finger, he let Adam perform oral sex on him (and somehow convinced him that he felt pressured into it), and he dispatched Isaac (Aston McAuley) when he was threatened.
However, the penny finally drops for Rosie. She realises how dangerous and self-serving he truly is, and after confessing to sleeping with him, she tells Adam she wants to leave and take their child with her.
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He agrees, and they get in the car. However, after being halted by a fallen tree in stormy weather, Sam confronts them. A fistfight with Adam ensues, but Sam overpowers him and runs after Rosie.
Rosie tries to reason with him, but he can’t trust her. “You lie and you leave me,” he says, just like all the other women in his life (even though he killed one of them).
He throws her into a skip filled with water and tries to drown her, but Rosie’s words about repentance come into his head, and he lets her live.
What happens to Rosie?
Not only do Rosie and Grace survive the events of Unchosen, but they get the best ending.
Earlier in the series, Mrs Phillips (Siobhan Finneran) becomes disillusioned with the cult and its leader, who’s also her husband (Christopher Eccleston). It’s revealed they have a son together who had been disavowed, and he’d hidden letters from him.
After a brief, tear-eyed visit from her son, she decides to leave her husband and the cult for good.
In one of the final scenes, Rosie and Grace arrive at a house – and Mrs Phillips opens the door! They’re welcomed with a warm smile, and it looks like everything is going to be okay.
Unchosen ending: Who’s left in charge of the Fellowship of the Divine cult?
Here comes the big twist: the last scene of Unchosen reveals that Sam takes charge of the Fellowship of the Divine.
The finale jumps ahead one year, with an ominous scene of Sam walking down the isle of the cult’s main meeting hall.
“And so, we will be with the Lord forever, for we are the chosen ones,” he says, grinning, before looking directly into the camera.
So, what happens to Adam?
This is probably the biggest unanswered question by the end of Unchosen. Adam’s fate is left unclear, but things certainly don’t end well for him.
After Sam lets Rosie and Grace leave, he returns to Adam, who holds Sam at gunpoint.
“Thou shalt not kill. Come on, even I know that one,” he tells Adam. “Just put the gun down and call the police on me,” he says, handing him the phone.
Don’t be fooled. Sam isn’t truly remorseful, nor does he plan on going anywhere quietly. When Adam looks at the phone, it’s playing the video of him performing oral sex on Sam.
“All I had to do was manipulate you Adam, because that’s who you are,” Sam says.
Adam can’t be seen anywhere among the cult’s congregation in the final scene, so it’s safe to assume he either fled on his own accord or Sam disavowed him to ensure he’d never return.
Why don’t Adam and Rosie stay together?
Adam and Rosie don’t have a healthy relationship at all throughout Unchosen. They’re effective co-parents, but they don’t have a good marriage.
For example, whenever they have sex, it’s cold, clinical, and unfeeling, serving a pure reproductive purpose (in sharp contrast to Rosie’s sexual encounters with Sam).
Worse yet, he rapes her in episode 3 as a punishment. This causes an irreparable rift between them; Rosie effectively tells him in episode 6 that it’s one of the main reasons she wants to leave.
There’s also the matter of his sexuality, given what he does with Sam (but Rosie never finds out about that).
Unchosen ending: What happens to Mr Phillips?
Things don’t end well in Unchosen for Mr Phillips, either (not that he deserved a happy ending).
It becomes clear over the course of the series that he’s an alcoholic, and he abuses his power with women. He makes an uncomfortable sexual advance towards Rosie, and enough is said and seen in other episodes to know that it wasn’t the first time he’s tried that with a younger member of the cult.
In episode 4, Sam offers to drive Mr Phillips home when he turns up at the sawmill drunk. This coincides with his need to kill Isaac, who’s trying to expose the truth of his crimes to Rosie.
So, Sam crashes the car into Isaac’s van, kills him, and then frames Mr Phillips.
Mr Phillips is stripped of his leadership. In episode 6, he holds Sam at gunpoint, but Adam and two (rather burly) cult members stop him and take him away.
The question is, where does he go? There’s a chance they took him to the police, but earlier in the show, Rosie says the cult doesn’t like the police, because they only believe in god’s judgement.
This could mean a bleaker fate for Mr Phillips, likely forced to endure a severe form of penance away from the Fellowship of the Divine.
Who did Sam kill?
Sam killed three people in total: his first girlfriend, Aisling, her cousin, and Isaac.
He was just a teenager when he murdered Aisling. After hearing a rumour that she’d cheated on him, he confronted her. He was drunk at the time, and when she admitted that it was true and she wanted to break up, he strangled her.
Her cousin was a fellow prisoner, and he tried to kill Sam when they were on day release together. He fought back in self-defence, but he ended up killing him too.
Isaac died in episode 4, when Sam crashed Mr Phillips’ car into his van.
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