Eyes Wide Shut ending explained

What happens

Bill confesses everything to Alice, and she says they should be grateful to have come through it. In a Christmas toy shop she proposes they stay together, then ends the film with a blunt suggestion about what they should do now.

The last image

The two stand in a toy shop at Christmas, their daughter nearby, and Alice's bluntly spoken suggestion is the last thing we hear before the film cuts to black.

Three readings

1 · AcceptanceThey face what they imagined and choose each other anyway.

2 · AvoidanceA blunt, practical answer lets them sidestep what has been said.

3 · A fresh startHonesty clears the ground for a marriage rebuilt on what they now know.

What it says

The film returns to marriage and ordinary life after the nightmare. Nothing is solved, because the point is the limits of knowing another person. The blunt last line leaves you to decide whether that is peace, retreat or a beginning.