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Sharp Objects ending explained: The truth behind the shocking twist

The terrifying twist about the dollhouse had fans shocked

Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
August 28, 2018
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Sharp Objects has become of the most talked about series of the moment thanks to its creepy setting and storyline, and a powerhouse performance from Amy Adams as a damaged, alcoholic journalist forced to return to the root of all of her troubles – her hometown – to cover the murders of two teenage girls. As the finale came to a close on Monday, fans were shocked at the final five minutes of the show – particularly the mid and end-credit scenes. So what did those terrifying few minutes mean? Find out here but warning, spoilers ahead! If you haven't yet, head over to Sky or Now TV to catch up...

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Amma was revealed to be the real murderer

As far as a disturbing show like Sharp Objects can be, it seemed like the season finale was going to end on a somewhat happy, and if not happy then at least hopeful, note. The real murderer of Natalie and Ann was thought to be Camille and Amma's mother, Adora, who had been slowly poisoning Amma and killed her other daughter, Marian, due to her Munchausen by proxy disorder, a condition where a caregiver deliberately keeps their charges ill so they can take care of them.

sharp objects adora

Adora had been poisoning her children

After the dramatic peak of the finale seemed to be over, Camille took her little sister to live with her, and the pair seemed to build some sort of stable family life together. However, this came crashing down in the final moments of the episode when Camille hears that Amma and her new friend had their first fight, and notices that Amma has thrown away a blanket for her beloved dollhouse that her friend was seen making earlier in the episode. As Camille opens up the dollhouse to put it back, she notices that the floor of the bathroom, designed to be a perfect replica of the ivory-covered floor of their childhood mansion home, was half completed with teeth (which were taken from the murdered girls), revealing that it was actually Amma who was responsible for the gruesome killings all along, and took the teeth to match the real bathroom floor. In the final moments of the credits, you then see Amma murdering the two girls, and her dressed in white at the edge of the forest, confirming the little boy's accusation from the beginning of the show, that he saw one of the murdered girls follow a 'woman in white' before her death.

READ: Sharps Objects: Everything you need to know about Amy Adam's haunting new drama

Although the show finishes without any explicit explanations, the novel explains Amma's motives, revealing that her two friends became too close to finding out that Adora was poisoning her, but that she was also jealous of them and their relationship with her mother, who had taken the two girls under her wing. The excerpt of the book reads: "'I was friends with them for a while... But then she' - as always Adora's name went unsaid – 'got all interested in them. I could never have anything to myself. They weren't my secret anymore... They started asking me questions about being sick. They were going to ruin everything. She didn't even realise it."

READ: Bodyguard viewers impressed with tense show… but were disappointed with one plot point

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