Netflix's 'The Power Of The Dog' Ending Explained: Silent Ruthlessness

In Benedict Cumberbatch’s most recent Oscar-nominated film, he plays a highly toxic-masculine bully in The Power of the Dog. The story follows said bully, Phil Burbank and how his estranged brother George (Jesse Plemons) brings home a wife, Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) and her fully grown child Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) studying to become a surgeon. The film is set in 1925 Montana on a ranch that Phil operates and takes care of. Phil is unusually put off by Rose’s presence and really takes his time to needle his way under her skin so much that she starts drinking to numb all her anxieties. At this point, Phil has no respect for anyone his brother brought home, including the to-be surgeon Peter. 

When Rose sells some extra rawhide to a couple of travelers, Phil goes livid. He has never sold the rawhide he carved. He will burn them but never sell them. In an attempt to mend some relations with Phil, Peter hands him the rawhide he carved up himself. However, there has been an anthrax outbreak in the ranch and we see that Peter carved up an infected animal very carefully using his gloves. Putting two and two together, we now know that Peter is the one who infected Phil with anthrax as the coroner reveals causing him to pass away soon. 

What makes this betrayal even more satisfying for the audiences and Peter alike is that Phil had started to see some of his relationship with his mentor Bronco Henry reflected in this one. While Bronco Henry and Phil’s relationship was never explicitly stated, the writer and director left enough clues for audiences to pick up on the fact that it was an erotic and/or a romantic relationship. The intimacy and affection that Phil starts to develop for Peter make it easy for him to weasel Phil out of his shell. In the end, it is quite visible that it was Phil’s own hubris and foolishness that caused his death. 

What the director and writer Jane Campion, has done so beautifully is sown the seeds of each character’s quirks that became foreshadowings for what would happen next. For example, we should have known that while Peter may be perceived as a quiet, ‘sissy’ boy, he is trying to establish his own sense of masculinity by owning up to the agency and committing violence. The swift breaking of a rabbit’s neck or the slow painful killer anthrax became for Phil, Peter had managed to bide his time before making a move. The more this film could be analyzed the more easter eggs we find in the storyline. The dog shadow in the mountains, the poem Peter reads at the end of the movie, his mother Rose’s alcohol problem gone, the larger theme of what masculinity is and do the characters conform to it and so many more. 

To find them all, watch The Power of the Dog currently streaming on Netflix.