'Marama' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: What Happens To Nathaniel?

Debut director Taratoa Stappard’s gothic film Marama explores the horrors of colonization from an individual’s perspective. Mary Stevens desperately wanted to know about her family’s history. She was born a Maori and was named Marama, but ended up being adopted by an Englishman and his French wife, who named her Mary. She learned Maori from her father, who traded with Maori people, and she also had Maori friends growing up. Mary decided to travel to Yorkshire, England, when she received a letter from a man named Thomas Boyd, who claimed to know all about her family. Although Mary didn’t know the man, she was curious enough to travel for 73 days just to find out who her parents were. Without the complete knowledge of her identity, Mary felt quite incomplete; she needed to know where she came from and the history of her family.

Spoiler Alert

Did Mary find out the truth?

Thomas Boyd wrote a letter to Mary and sent her a ticket to travel to Yorkshire so that he could finally share her family’s history with her. Although Mary had no idea who this man was, she courageously traveled across the world just to learn about her roots. When she arrived at the small hut where Thomas apparently lived, she was disappointed to find it empty. There was something odd about the place; Mary had this special gift of seeing beyond what met the eye, and she was certain that something tragic had happened there. After the long journey, Mary decided to rest, when suddenly a woman, Peggy, showed up and asked her to accompany her. They arrived at the Hawkser Manor, where Mary was introduced to Nathaniel Cole. He claimed to know Thomas, and offered to let Mary stay at his place for as long as she needed to recover. Mary didn’t know what to make of Nathaniel Cole at first, but her instincts told her that he wasn’t a man she could trust. There were haunting spirits in the house, and Mary was certain that they were trying to communicate with her. Mary eventually found out that Thomas Boyd had died of the pox. She was disappointed and had every intention of leaving, but Nathaniel insisted that she stay and work as his granddaughter’s governess. He mentioned how his son was a completely hopeless alcoholic, and since his daughter-in-law had also passed away, he thought Anna needed someone to look after her, and he believed Mary was the right fit for the role. Mary was hesitant at first, but she eventually accepted the proposal. Anna, the nine-year-old, was a smart kid, who spoke both English and Māori. Mary noticed the scar on Anna’s arm; it was the same as hers but she didn’t think much about it. 

Gradually, over the course of the film, Nathaniel revealed that his daughter-in-law, Emilia, was Mary’s twin sister, Te Haeata. Mary had been having these vivid visions of a woman who looked just like her, and she finally realized that her sister had been trying to communicate with her all along. Nathaniel had adopted Emilia in New Zealand from a missionary, and then brought her with him to England and had her christened. He named her Emilia Cole, and after his wife passed away, he raised Emilia and his son, Arthur, on his own, and eventually got them married, but unfortunately, Emilia died in childbirth.  Nathaniel apologized to Mary for keeping the truth from her. She was deeply upset and she didn’t hesitate to slap him. He expected Mary to stay with him in the manor and look after Anna, but Mary wasn’t sure if she could trust Nathaniel at all. 

In her dreams, her mother visited her, telling Mary that she was a seer and she must keep searching for the truth. She saw a whaler in her dreams, and she figured that maybe she would find her answer in Nathaniel’s office. Nathaniel was a whaler; he owned ships built for whale hunting, and had men like Thomas Boyd and Jack Fenton working for him. While going through the documents in his office, Mary came across a picture of Emilia; she was pregnant and had the traditional Maori chin tattoo, ‘moko kauae,’ and the photograph was taken just a year ago in Runswick House. We discovered that Emilia gave birth to her son there, and she killed the baby soon after he was born. Mary later courageously entered Nathaniel’s secret room, where she found a miniature of the traditional Maori house that he had shipped from New Zealand and kept in his estate. Mary tried to reconnect with the spirits of her ancestors, and that’s when she was transported back to the past and discovered that Nathaniel was deeply intertwined with her family. 

The house in the estate was the same one where her mother and grandmother used to live. Nathaniel had raped her mother, Hinemoana, and demanded to take her and the twins with him to England. When Hinemoana and her mother protested, Nathaniel killed them and took one of the twins away. Thomas Boyd found the other twin helplessly crying. There are two possibilities: it is either Nathaniel who’d decided to let a European couple adopt Mary, or perhaps it was Thomas who had handed over Mary to her adoptive parents. If the latter is true, then maybe Thomas never told Nathaniel about it, and he had no idea that his other daughter was still alive. Maybe after Thomas had the pox, he confessed the truth to Nathaniel, and Jack shot him for keeping it a secret for so long. 

Why did Nathaniel kill Emilia?

In Marama’s ending, Mary discovers that Nathaniel was her birth father, and he was the one who’d destroyed her family and killed all her female ancestors. Not only that, he didn’t even spare Emilia. He’d groomed her, abused and raped her, until one day, she decided to take a stand for herself. He’d married Emilia to his son, Arthur, so that no one would suspect what was actually going on in the family. Nathaniel wasn’t Anna’s grandfather, he was her father, and therefore Anna was Mary’s sister. Arthur knew his father’s secret, and he’d taken to drinking to cope with the shame and guilt of living under the same roof as him. He’d even asked Mary to take Anna with her before he was eventually killed by his father. Nathaniel didn’t appreciate Arthur’s guts, and since he’d dared to go against him, he thought it was time he got rid of his son. So why did Nathaniel kill Emilia? Well, he’d proudly told Mary how Emilia had, over the years, become a proper English woman. He enjoyed having complete control over her, subjecting her to humiliation and using her body to fulfil his darkest desires. But when Emilia dared to exert her autonomy, he freaked out. Emilia had killed her newborn because she was terrified of the environment her child would grow up in. She possibly hated the fact that Anna was close to him, and she blamed herself for bringing her daughter into this evil world. She didn’t wish to repeat her mistake, and unfortunately, murdering her newborn was the only option she had. Nathaniel realized that he had lost control over Emilia; even if he forced her to be obedient, she had lately started to get things done her way. So, with Jack’s help, he got rid of Emilia as well. 

Why did Nathaniel destroy the family?

By the time we reach the climax of the film, Mary slashes Jack’s throat when he attempts to sedate her. Both Jack and Nathaniel had learned the language, which helped them win the trust of the indigenous people. Jack had even gotten Maori tattoos on his face, since the markings made him feel exotic. Neither Jack nor Nathaniel had any respect for the Maori tribe; what they did was purely cultural appropriation. They took what was sacred to the Māoris and incorporated it into their everyday personal style without any context. They enjoyed being treated differently by their White friends, and at parties, their Maori expertise often acted as a source of entertainment. 

In Maori culture, whales are deeply sacred, and they are said to represent the connection between the spiritual world, the tribal lineage, and the ocean. Some also believe that whales are descendants of Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and are therefore their ancient ancestors. The fact that Nathaniel was a whaler and his entire business revolved around killing whales draws an obvious connection between the oppressor and the oppressed. He and his men destroyed what was significant to the people of the land, and they experienced immense joy in taking away everything that mattered to the Maori people. Behind every action is the colonizers’ desire to dominate, and that was what Nathaniel tried to do with Mary’s family. Nathaniel was so obsessed with dominating Maori women in his bedroom that he had Peggy mark her face just so that he would get the same thrill. He fetishized these women to the point that he simply wanted them to exist sans personality, as obedient servants, voiceless and weak. When Hinemoana and her mother, Arorangi, protested, he killed them. When Emilia stood up to him, he decapitated her. And now that Mary wanted to avenge her family, he offered her two options: she could either comply or die. 

Did Marama avenge her family?

At the very end of the film, Mary enters the basement that had a Maori artwork that Nathaniel called ‘Stairs to Heaven.’ As it turned out, the basement was connected to the Maori house in the estate that was always kept locked. Nathaniel stored the decapitated heads of the women of Mary’s family there. She saw her grandma’s and her mother’s heads kept on a shelf. She remembered her grandma asking her in her dreams to take them away from the manor, and everything started to make sense to Mary. Nathaniel was in the room with her, he told her that he was the one who wrote the letter to her. He figured she would be curious to know more about her family, and it was the perfect excuse to bring her home. He added that she was the warrior he’d always wanted, and that Emilia wasn’t as strong as her. As her birthfather, he thought that he lived in her blood and there was no way she could get rid of him. He boastfully stated that she belonged to him, and the only option she had was to stay with him. 

The moment Nathaniel turned around, Mary stabbed him with a sharp tribal weapon, and she told him that she only belonged to her ancestors. She finally avenged her grandma, Arorangi; her mother, Hinemoana; and her sister, Te Haeata. She removed the whale tooth pendant that he wore around his neck, it belonged to her family. Mary ultimately decapitated Nathaniel, she wanted to do to him what he’d done to her family. She carried the decapitated heads of her grandma, mother, and her twin sister out of the house. She told Te Haeata that the worst was over, and they were finally free. She burned down the house before walking out of the door and collapsing on the ground. Peggy and Anna reunited with Mary, and Mary named her sister (Anna), Anahera. Since Anahera is the only family she has left, Mary intends to hold her tight and look after her. 

Marama, Anahera, and Peggy pay tribute to Arorangi, Hinemoana, and Te Haeata after burying their remains and laying them to rest. Marama is ready for her new beginning, she had found answers to all the questions that had been bothering her for years, and although the truth was agonizing and humiliating, she chose to be brave and avenged her family. Amidst all the madness, Marama found her reason to live, she had Anna to look after, and she surely wanted to protect her from all the evils of the world. 

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