‘Vladimir’: How the Show’s Ending Differs From the Book
What To Know
- In Netflix’s Vladimir, the protagonist’s obsession with her colleague leads to a brief affair and an ambiguous ending.
- The show is based on Julia May Jonas’ 2022 novel of the same name.
- The book concludes more definitively, determining who she ends up with between her husband and Vlad.
We need to talk about Vladimir. On March 5, Netflix dropped the limited series that’s based on Julia May Jonas’ bestselling novel of the same name. In a world full of adaptations, how faithful (how fitting) is the show compared to the book? (Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Vladimir Season 1.)
In both versions, Vladimir‘s unnamed protagonist (Rachel Weisz) does eventually have her way with her younger (and very married) colleague (Leo Woodall). Not only does the professor’s obsession with Vlad inspire her to write again, but when she informs him that their spouses are having an affair, Vladimir reciprocates her interest. (Never mind that she drugged him and tied him to a chair beforehand.)
The protagonist and Vlad get hot and heavy at the former’s remote cabin, her escape from her professor husband’s (John Slattery) Title IX trial. Once John finds out the charges against him have been dismissed, he arrives at the house and interrupts his wife’s fantasy. A short while later, things literally go up in flames. The show’s events line up with the book’s on that front — but Netflix ends the protagonist’s journey on a much more ambiguous note.
Was the protagonist lying about the ending? Did John and Vlad really survive? Who does she end up with? Swooon is breaking down Vladimir‘s show and book endings below.
How does the Vladimir show end?
Once John clarifies that he isn’t sleeping with Vlad’s wife (Jessica Henwick) — they’ve only been doing drugs and writing together — the three of them fall asleep. The protagonist wakes up to the house on fire, sparked by a space heater was left on overnight. She wakes up John and Vlad. They struggle to open the stuck front door while she saves her notebooks, which contain her novel. After, she makes it out of the back door, leaving the two men behind.
As she walks away from the burning house, the protagonist breaks the fourth wall again, explaining that she eventually finishes her book about a woman’s obsession with a younger colleague. Vlad publishes his own about a tender affair with an older professor, but it doesn’t perform as well as hers does. She claims she called 9-1-1 and everyone got out of the house, before cheekily adding, “You don’t believe me?” Sirens wail in the distance.
Netflix
How does the Vladimir book end?
The book has a much more clear-cut ending. It’s not the protagonist who first notices the space heater-induced fire, but Vlad, who was on a kayak ride. Vlad runs back into the house to help the protagonist escape, circling back for John after. The protagonist and John both wind up in the hospital with severe burns covering their bodies, taking months to recover. In Jonas’ novel, the protagonist’s book is destroyed in the fire.
At the rehabilitation center, they’re visited by their daughter, Sid, and her partner, Alexis. Sid reveals that she’s pregnant, and the father is the man she hooked up with at the train station. The couple is happy about it because they know nothing about the man and can pretend he doesn’t exist. Alexis’ law school friend helps the protagonist sue the space heater company, leading to a hefty settlement.
The protagonist could use the money to get her own place and leave John, who was honorably discharged from the university after the fire, behind. Determining that something “simpler” could be arranged, she doesn’t. She determines that “ease can be one of the greater forms of freedom,” so they use the settlement money to buy a place in New York City.
Vlad, we discover, does write an underperforming book about the affair, just like he does in the show. His wife writes a national bestseller and gets the narrator’s tenure-track position, leaving Vlad jealous and proud, and they stay together. The protagonist, now a grandmother, starts working on a book about a female pirate. The book closes with the protagonist meeting with one of the students John had an affair with, so she can’t quite escape the past.
Vladimir, Streaming Now, Netflix
