'Shelter' Movie Ending Explained: Why Did Mason Give Jessie A Black Queen?

[Spoiler Alert] Shelter’s ending finally explained the reason why our guy, Michael Mason, had been living a secluded life on an island for the past 10 years. Raised an orphan, Mason was an SBS commando who was recruited by MI6 chief Manafort for an off-book program, Black Kites. The sole purpose of this program was to create an army of deadly assassins who would carry out their orders without asking a single question. Mason was a prodigy. One of the first Black Kites operatives, and one of the best, and therefore Manafort sent him to Iran on a highly sensitive mission titled “Operation Prospero.” An Iranian scientist was helping MI6 by sharing confidential information on Iran’s nuclear program, but instead of protecting the asset, Manafort ordered Mason to kill him for deniability. However, Mason refused. He chose his conscience over blind obedience and abandoned the mission. 

Manafort saw Mason’s breach of loyalty as betrayal and listed him as a high-value target on MI6’s watch list. So in order to protect himself, Mason cut all ties with the human world and started living on an abandoned Scottish island with a dog. Once in a while, his former colleague from the Royal Marines, credited as the Fisherman, visited the island with his niece, Jessie, to deliver him supplies. Things were going fine until the Fisherman’s trawler got caught up in a violent storm. Mason ran to their aid but could only save the young girl. He brought her to the island and found that she had broken her ankle, but Mason couldn’t take her to the hospital, as it would expose his identity. He decided to take the boat to a local market to buy some meds, but as soon as he set foot in the human world, a camera scanned him and alerted the agency. So, Manafort found out that his prodigy was alive. But he knew too much, which was why he sent operatives to get rid of Mason and the girl with him. Yes, that’s where he fumbled. He shouldn’t have given orders for an innocent girl to be hurt. Mason’s conscience wouldn’t allow him to abandon an orphan girl, and therefore, he decided to bring her to safety by any means possible. So, how did he do it? Well, allow me to break it down further.

It was no longer a surprise that Stephen Manfort was a pathetic human being. During his term, he used his agency’s resources to harvest the personal information of British citizens in order to develop an advanced surveillance network, Total Human Engagement Analytics (THEA). What I am trying to say here is that a person who had no qualms invading the privacy of his own countrymen wouldn’t have any sympathy for the nationals of other countries. Maybe it was his job that robbed him of his humanity. Or maybe Stephen Manafort had never been an empathetic human being. This was the reason why Michael Mason rebelled against him. The Iranian scientist had put his family’s lives at risk to leak confidential information about the nuclear program. But instead of acknowledging his contribution, Manafort ordered Mason to eliminate him. Well, that’s not how you pay your debts, is it? 

Mason was a killing machine, yet he too understood what real loyalty looked like. Hence, he refused to follow his orders. He had some contacts at the agency who helped him disappear off the face of the Earth. One of his close friends, Booth, who helped Manafort build his surveillance machine, tweaked some code to change Mason’s identity to an oil rig worker so even THEA couldn’t find him, but it was likely that Manafort found out about it, and before he left the agency, he swapped Mason’s identity with a high-risk terrorist so as not to leave behind any loose ends. Some 10 years after Mason’s disappearance, a public inquiry brought Prime Minister Fordham under investigation for authorizing Manafort to steal the private data of their countrymen. The scandal became a national embarrassment, and Fordham knew that someone had to take the fall, which was why she asked Manafort to step down from his post and let his junior, Roberta Frost, take command of MI6. But that was just a ruse. Manafort still controlled the agency from the shadows, and had access to THEA’s mainframe, through which he was able to keep an eye on the entire country. Furthermore, Roberta didn’t know a thing about the Black Kites program, which meant all the operatives were still under Manafort’s command, and after Mason surfaced, he sent one of the deadly operatives after him.

After a bit of a cat-and-mouse chase, Mason became convinced that Manafort would never let Jessie be in peace. She was still a young girl, and she couldn’t spend the rest of her life on an abandoned island like him. Mason had to do something to secure her future and give her the life she deserved. That was the reason why Mason decided to put an end to the mess he had started 10 years ago. After dealing with Manafort’s operative, Workman, Mason went straight to Manafort’s mansion in London and shot him dead. The thing is, Mason could have done the same thing years ago, which would have allowed him to live a more comfortable life, but he didn’t want to kill anymore. He tossed his weapons aside and buried his previous life completely until he was forced to pick up a gun to save an innocent life.

Mason knew that Jessie didn’t have any family left to fall back to. After her mother died from cancer, her uncle was the one who looked after her, but with him gone too, Jessie had become an orphan like Mason, and someone who had been through such a life wouldn’t wish the same for another. Mason wanted to give Jessie a better life than he’d had, which was why he wanted Booth to take her in, but when he refused, Mason had no other option but to make a deal with the devil to send Jessie out of the country so that MI6 could never find her. In London, he contacted Kamal Shah, a trafficker who once worked as an MI6 informant to get rid of the competition. But only two people knew his secret: Mason and Manafort. Mason had already betrayed his country, so his testimony didn’t matter, but Manafort was a tricky fish. He could have blackmailed Kamal in the near future, so Mason offered him a deal. He asked him to get the girl out of the country, and he would finish what he had started.

In Shelter’s ending, we saw Jessie sitting in a cozy cafe in Ronda, Spain. Before leaving London, Kamal had given Jessie a new passport, ID, and 20,000 euros so she could rebuild her life in the new country. However, if you think everything has gone back to normal, think again. Roberta and her team were still keeping an eye on Jessie, waiting for Mason to contact her. But why? I guess it’s because Mason is still a wanted fugitive, and she wants to capture him alive to find out what his old master was up to. Mason shot Manafort dead, so maybe Roberta wanted to bring Mason to justice so he would be charged for killing a British official. Whatever the reason might be, MI6 couldn’t arrest or bring Jessie back to the UK, because she hadn’t committed any crimes, and that was likely the reason why Mason wanted to maintain a safe distance from her; for her own safety. However, some three months later, he sent Jessie a black queen. Remember, at the beginning of the film, after Jessie had broken her ankle and Mason was taking care of her, she saw Mason playing chess alone. At this moment, Jessie saw the board and said, “black queen to F2,” putting Mason in check. He was quite impressed by her skills and told her that he had found a worthy opponent to play with. So, Mason sent her the black queen just to remind her that he has been keeping an eye on her and will come out of the shadows anytime she needs him in the future. Yes, this could also suggest the possibility of a sequel, but I don’t have any theories on that because I think it will likely follow Mason and Jessie on a completely different mission, so I think it’s best to wait for an announcement. With that said, these are my thoughts on Shelter, but if you have anything to add, feel free to drop a comment below.