‘Vladimir’: Do Rachel Weisz’s Protagonist & Vlad End Up Together?
What To Know
- In Vladimir, the unnamed protagonist (Rachel Weisz) becomes obsessively fixated on her colleague, Vlad (Leo Woodall).
- She wonders if he reciprocates her interest throughout the show.
Vladimir, Netflix’s limited series based on Julia May Jonas’ bestselling novel, isn’t a true romance. Rachel Weisz‘s unnamed university professor spends the entire series unhealthily fixated on her younger colleague (Leo Woodall), fantasizing over him while her husband John (John Slattery) faces Title IX allegations. Vladimir himself is a married father, but the protagonist can’t help but be enthralled by him. (Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Vladimir Season 1.)
The protagonist’s interest seems one-sided at first, but as they spend more time together, Vlad seems to be flirting right back. We found ourselves wondering just how reliable the protagonist’s point of view really is — the ending certainly suggests she’s not to be trusted — but the tension does finally erupt in the final episode. If you can’t bear to wait until the end to find out if she and Vlad end up together, Swooon has got you covered.
Do Rachel Weisz and Vlad end up together?
Long story short, the two don’t end up together, but that doesn’t mean nothing transpires between them. In Episode 7, Weisz’s protagonist manages to whisk Vlad away to her family’s remote cabin, with the intention of avoiding John’s trial. Their behavior is fairly innocent — or excusable, at least — as they discuss the protagonist’s book and bask in each other’s company. The protagonist doesn’t want the fantasy to end, so she slips some drugs into Vlad’s drink. On the verge of passing out, he asks, “You’re gonna take advantage of me?”
The protagonist desperately asks if that’s what Vlad wants, trying to revive him until he falls asleep. She chains Vlad to the chair (naturally) to keep him upright. She steals Vlad’s phone and texts his wife, Cynthia (Jessica Henwick), claiming that he knows about her affair with John. She destroys his phone. When Vlad wakes up, he accepts the protagonist claim that she locked him up because a drunken Vlad wanted to be dominated. He also believes her when she says John and Cynthia are sleeping together.
Against all the odds, Vlad stays, even knowing that the protagonist sent the text to Cynthia. Vlad, it seems, isn’t turned off by her behavior. He tries to initiate some student-professor role play with the protagonist, which turns her off. She goes to bed alone, but Vlad follows her there, admitting that he’s wanted her since their first faculty meeting. Her fantasy finally comes to life — but then she sends him away to the guest room so she can write.
John shows up at the cabin shortly after his wife and Vlad’s tryst. John denies that he ever slept with Cynthia. They were only ever writing partners. Though Vlad clears things up with Cynthia, their marriage is still in a bad state, so he asks the protagonist to meet him at the cabin once a week. No longer excited by him, she doesn’t immediately agree. She’s gotten all she needed out of Vlad: inspiration for her writing.
Does the protagonist stay with John?
The protagonist and John have a heart-to-heart about her affair with Vlad. “I thought it was about desire, but it’s not as much about that as about what desire did. It was invigorating. It gave me this,” she says, gesturing to her notebooks. She thinks the book will be a bestseller and change her life. John asks if she wants a whole new life. Her response? She wants choices and agency. She doesn’t get into bed with John when he asks. “You don’t like that ending?” he says.
She realizes Vlad and John are thinking of her as a character in their own stories, rather than her own. Before she can really make a choice, a fire breaks out in the house. The protagonist escapes with her notebooks, leaving John and Vlad trapped inside. She claims that everyone got out, and Vlad wrote a book about an affair with an older professor. (It underperformed compared to her own.) It’s unclear if the protagonist is lying about calling 9-1-1 in time. She also never clarifies what happens with either man, leaving her ending fully up to interpretation.
Vladimir, Streaming Now, Netflix
