Talk to Me ending explained: Did Mia really cross over to the spirit realm?

There's no denying that Talk to Me was one of the best horror movies to be released in 2022. It took spirit possession to a whole new level and kept viewers thoroughly entertained throughout. Fortunately, we have a prequel and a sequel to the film to look forward to. But in the meantime, we'll just have to rewatch Talk to Me. This is definitely the type of film that can be watched over and over again.

The story follows a troubled teen girl named Mia, who is still struggling with the loss of her mother two years after she died from an overdose of pills. Since she has been greatly depressed, most of her peers have distanced themselves from her. Well, she still has her best friend, Jade, and her family. One night, Mia visits Jade's house to drop off Jade's little brother, Riley, and she manages to convince Jade to sneak out to attend a party at a classmate's house. But it's at this party that Mia's life will forever change, and not for the good. She and a bunch of her peers start playing with a cursed, severed, and embalmed hand that has malevolent spirits trapped inside of it.

By following a specific ritual, the person who grabs the hand becomes possessed by an evil spirit. But there are rules that must be followed in order for things not to go wrong, with the most important rule being that the person can not hold the hand for longer than 90 seconds. If the time goes over, the spirit will attach to the person's body, which could lead to dire consequences. Unfortunately, Mia learns this the hard way.

Talk to Me has a shocking ending that can be quite confusing for some people. That's why we decided to give an explainer below of what all happened at the end of the film. So, now is your time to click off this article if you don’t want to be spoiled because we’re about to get into some serious spoilery content.

Spoilers ahead from Talk to Me

Let me start off by saying that a sinister spirit attached itself to Mia the very first time she grabbed the cursed hand because she went over the 90 second time limit. However, it wasn't affecting her as much until Riley's possession. When Riley let an evil spirit in the first time, the spirit pretended to be Mia's mother spirit because its goal was to eventually attach itself to Riley. The spirit knew that by pretending to be Mia's mother, Mia would want to talk to her and the 90 time limit would go over allowing the spirit to take over Riley. Sadly, this is what ends up happening and the spirit in Riley forces him to bash his head into a table repeatedly until he was all bloody and unconscious.

Riley survives and is taken to the hospital, but he's still possessed. Since Mia was the person who allowed Riley to play with the cursed hand, Jade and her mom blame her for what happened to him and pretty much shun her. This leads Mia down a dark path and she starts to lose her grasp on reality. She begins to hear the sounds of scratches on wood, and her dead mom's voice crying out for help. She even starts to hallucinate seeing her dead mother and other spirits without using the cursed hand. This is most likely because a sinister spirit is attached to her.

After losing the last person on her side, Daniel, Mia completely spirals out of control and uses the cursed hand to contact her mother's spirit. But once again, it's not her mom's spirit that she's talking to. It's an evil spirit pretending to be her mother's spirit. The evil spirit tells her that Riley needs help. Mia convinces Jade to let her try to contact Riley through the cursed hand, and what she ends up seeing is Riley being in an infinite limbo of torment by the evil spirits.

Later, Mia learns from her dad that her mom didn't accidentally overdose on pills but did it on purpose. He shares Mia's mother's goodbye letter that he had kept hidden. However, Mia refuses to believe that her mom committed suicide because of a previous conversation that she had with whom she believes was her mother's spirit. The evil spirit disguised as Mia's mom had told her that her death was an accident. After Mia's dad tells her the truth about her mother's death, Mia hallucinates seeing her mother and the spirit tells her that her dad isn't really her dad and that she must kill Riley in order to free his soul from the spirits.

Completely overwhelmed and believing everything the spirit impersonating her mother said, Mia imagines her father as an evil spirit and stabs him before leaving the house to go to the hospital. Her plan is to kill Riley just like the evil spirit told her to do, but when she tries to kill him at the hospital with a pair of scissors, she chickens out. She then tries to find another way. She puts Riley in a wheelchair and takes him to the edge of the highway where she plans to push him into oncoming traffic. Meanwhile, Jade appears and yells for Mia to stop. The evil spirit impersonating Mia's mother appears next to Mia and encourages her to push Riley, and while it looks like that's exactly what Mia is going to do, she instead throws herself onto the busy highway.

Mia gets up from the ground and looks around, leading viewers to believe that she is alive. But then we cut to the hospital and no one there seems to see or hear her, including her dad. It's confirmed that Mia is dead when she follows a lit candle that leads her to a hand reaching out to her. She grabs the hand, and then suddenly, she finds herself sitting in front of a group of people who are using the same cursed hand to conjure spirits. Mia has crossed over to the spirit realm and is now another spirit trapped inside the hand.

How did she become a spirit, you ask? Well, it's because she died with a spirit attached to her. That was one of the rules. If a person dies with a spirit still inhabiting their body, their soul will forever be lost in limbo. Unfortunately, that's how Mia's story comes to an end. Mia's dad survives his stab wound, and Riley recovers from his posession.

What did you think about Talk to Me's ending?

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