Lord Of The Flies Recap And Ending Explained: What Happened To The Survivors?

Away from the purview and constraints of societal order, stripped of conditional moral and ethical scruples, humanity’s inherent evil and greed emerge in all its violent glory and purges every pretense of civility—as William Golding’s timeless classic, “Lord of the Flies,” vividly highlights. Through the years, there have been quite a few adaptations of the novel, but I don’t think they have come close to capturing the uncompromising, visceral vision of post-World War despair and hopelessness the author wanted to capture. In that regard, screenwriter Jack Thorne, who shocked and amazed viewers last year with his topical drama, “Adolescence,” has managed to pull off something unbelievable in his TV series adaptation of the novel, reflecting the fear of degradation of the younger generation in the novel’s iconic setup of survival horror. The spectacle of violence and the horror of the devolvement of the human psyche in BBC’s “Lord of the Flies” is made believable by the superb acting of a cast of young actors, whose performance is bound to evoke mixed feelings of sympathy and dread. It should be mentioned that some creative liberties have been taken in the series’ narrative, which shouldn’t be dealbreakers and for the most part add to the thematic significance.

Spoilers Ahead

Establishment of Order: What Is the Beast?

A plane full of young pre-adolescent schoolboys crash lands on an unnamed island in the Pacific, and even though the timeline is not specified, the conversation among the boys mentioning pride in their families’ military background indicates the Second World War as the backdrop. Nicholas, the smartest, sharpest boy in the group, who is bullied for his looks and is nicknamed Piggy, wakes up in the dense forest and tries to find his way out, seeking help. Piggy comes across Ralph, a kind boy who quickly becomes his good friend, and offers to teach him to swim. Piggy finds a conch, which he gives to Ralph, and as he blows it on the seashore on Piggy’s suggestion, the rest of the surviving boys respond to the call. None of the adults onboard the plane have survived the crash, leaving the kids to survive on their own. 

Piggy instructs Ralph to draw the attention of the boys by blowing the conch again, and in the absence of grown-ups, tries to coordinate with the survivors and organize a meeting. Right then, a group of choir boys, led by a pretentious, preppy boy named Jack, arrive at the scene, and almost immediately Jack tries to assume the role of the leader. However, Piggy asks for a vote to determine the role of the leader, and except for the choir boys, all of the survivors vote for Ralph. Needless to say, the conch plays a key role in this; to the survivor boys, it symbolizes a conduit of power and order. However, the power is not autocratic in nature, as later seen, Piggy allows everyone who wants to share their suggestion to hold the conch and speak. Jack becomes content with the role of chief of the hunters, comprised of the choirboys who decide to hunt down pigs as an act of bravado. Piggy is concerned with feeding the populace, caring for the younger ones, and establishing an order, something Ralph can’t make any sense of. Viewers also meet Simon, one of the choirboys who is considered somewhat of an oddball character by his peers just because he has the courage to accept his weakness instead of showboating like them.

Ralph has grown up in a strict household with neglectful parents, where stringent adherence to norms and toxic masculinity is prioritized over  moral integrity. Jack tries to stand apart by holding onto these problematic values, as seen when the group of boys discovers the corpse of the pilot while scouting the island, and Jack refuses to give him a Christian burial by mentioning the pilot doesn’t deserve it. He considers the pilot’s death to be a punishment for his mistake in not doing his job properly, and convinces the rest of the group to throw the corpse off of the cliff into the sea, much to Piggy’s dismay. Simon sings a prayer for the soul of the departed. 

As the group returns to the survivors, one of the younger boys with a birthmark on his face shares his fear that a beast will hunt them down at night. While Ralph mentions that they have not seen any such creature on the island, like the rest of the survivors, he feels frightful about the possible presence of this so-called beast. Jack takes this chance to assure the survivors that his group of hunters will hunt the beast, trying to strengthen his position amidst the kids. While no beast appears in the course of four episodes, and none of the kids actually know what it would even look like, it symbolizes the fear of the unknown, which is gradually overwhelming the minds of the survivors. At the same time, as the narrative highlights the innate savagery of humankind, the beast also symbolizes the primal, violent instinct within the kids, which gradually comes to the surface as the narrative progresses. Jack exploits this fear of the beast to assert domination, and out of the fear grows a power that subjugates. Piggy calls out Jack after witnessing him unable to hunt a trapped piglet, and shares his doubt over Jack’s lofty stories about his upbringing, which he deems as a concocted narrative to suit his false bravado. Jack, knowing of Piggy’s bond with Ralph, threatens to sabotage it, ensuring Piggy’s silence regarding the incident. 

Descent to Savagery and Chaos: What Does the Pig Head on a Pole Represent?

It is decided that a fire has to be lit on the top of the mountain, as the smoke will act as a distress signal. To start the fire, Jack orders his followers to forcefully seize Piggy’s spectacles, and eventually, as the fire erupts in a blazing flame that takes over almost half the jungle, the boys are unable to control the situation. The act of starting a fire is linked with humanity’s first step to becoming a civilized species; in that context, Piggy’s spectacles symbolize a tool of enlightenment, free thinking, and reason, but in the hands of Jack and his followers, who are eager to give in to their baser instincts, the tool can become a destructive weapon. The fire claims the life of the young boy with a birthmark on his face, much to the dismay of Piggy and Ralph. 

Jack’s desperation to prove himself as someone worthy to be considered a leader by constantly trying to present himself as a fearless individual. Simon, the sensitive choir boy, who knows Jack is as scared as the rest of the survivors, tries to assure him that it is alright to express his feelings. Jack and his followers are finally able to hunt down a pig, but as its piglets are left abandoned, some of the hunters wonder about ethical questions regarding their action. At the same time, the hunt changes Jack’s followers in such a way that the desire to escape the conventional norm and order grows stronger in them, and by sticking the pig head on a pole, they create a macabre display of their machismo. Jack expects the hunt will strengthen his position in the group, but instead faces harsh scolding from Ralph. As Jack and his followers neglected the fire signal while remaining preoccupied with the hunt, the fire went out; a ship, which was close to the shore, couldn’t notice the signal and left. A humiliated, distraught Jack leaves on his own to set up camp in the mountains, and eventually all the choir boys (except Simon) join him. In the ensuing days, the fear of the beast grips the survivors, and with Jack’s assurance of providing safety from the beast and food from the hunt, the majority of the survivors join Jack’s group.  Simon faces extreme disdain from Jack and his followers as he didn’t join them till the very end, despite being part of the choir group. At one point, Ralph and his followers approach Jack with the proposition of joining hands to hunt down the beast, given the survivors’ dwindling morale is getting affected by fear each passing day. After mistaking the torn parachute attached to the remains of the pilot, who was thrown from the cliff—for the beast, Jack, and the rest of his followers rush back to the survivors and trigger their fear even further. Simon, who knows that Jack and his followers are mistaken, lacks the courage to share the truth with everyone else. Simon tries to convince Ralph and Piggy to stick to their ideals and not give in to the allure of better life Jack is luring others with, to no avail. The guilt of wronging the pilot in the past and not being able to gather courage to share the truth gets to Simon, and he goes to the forest and experiences a terrifying vision of the pig head communicating with him. 

The gratuitous display of the pig head on the pole symbolizes the barbaric, lawless, hedonistic way of life Jack and his followers have chosen by giving up on their morals and ethics. The display directly alludes to the iconography of Beelzebub, the eponymous lord of the flies who represents greed, decay, and the inherent vice associated with Jack and his tribal cult. A terrified Simon rushes back to the beach, where Jack and his followers have become engaged in a frenzied dance ritual, and in the dark of the night, they kill Simon by repeatedly stabbing him with their weapons. The absolute degeneracy of their action stupefies Ralph, who has given up any effort to stop them after realizing how helpless he truly is. 

What Happened to the Survivors in the End?

Jack’s group raids Ralph’s camp and steals Piggy’s spectacles, but overwhelmed with self-doubt, Ralph can’t bring himself to oppose them. He reminisces about the past, his relationship with his parents, which differs a lot compared to that of Jack’s. Piggy still believes in Jack’s leadership, and with the handful of followers still left at Ralph’s side, he takes Ralph to confront Jack and demand the return of his spectacles. Surrounded by Jack’s men, who don’t feel the need to adhere to Ralph’s command, Piggy tries to assume control by blowing the conch when Jack and Ralph engage in a brawl, but his efforts fail as one of Jack’s followers, Roger, hits him with a rock, breaking the conch in the process. Utter chaos erupts as Ralph’s followers are captured by Jack, and Ralph somehow manages to escape with a fatally injured Piggy. 

After Piggy succumbs to his injuries, a crestfallen Ralph buries him and tries to free his followers, but to no avail. Jack’s crew completely give in to a feral, demonic rage to hunt down their prime adversary, and in their desperation to flush Ralph out of hiding, they set fire to the jungle. Giving up every hope for survival, a pent-up, injured Ralph decides to surrender and is shocked to witness two British naval officers on the shore who have located the island upon seeing the billowing smoke. Jack and his bloodthirsty followers arrive at the beach while chasing Ralph, and they too are equally shocked upon seeing that a chance for safe rescue has finally arrived. 

One of the officers makes light of the situation by asking what kind of frivolous acts the kids have been engaged in. Having nearly lost his mind after going through the series of horrid experiences, Jack is unable to form a proper answer. Even though he identifies himself as the leader of the survivors, he cannot state the number of the survivors, resulting in the officer belittling his leadership. The officer, proud of his British colonial heritage, is shocked to learn two of the survivors have perished, and seeing the tribal attire and savage demeanors of the kids, he is somewhat startled, speculating what could have happened. The so-called decorum, etiquette, and modesty upon which the White colonizers took so much pride are shattered in the face of horrors of survival. The officer takes the kids to the boat, promising a safe return to their homeland. It goes without saying that with their psyche forever altered under the situation they were put in, the kids will never be able to ‘reach home.’ 

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