The end ofA day, the Netflix series, is faithful to that of the book. But the showrunner hesitated for a long time. Concerning the final scene, two sequences were shot, but only one was kept.
After the film with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, the famous book by David Nicholls has just had a new adaptation: the series A day has been on Netflix since February 8, 2024. It is a critical success, in addition to having conquered the top of the top 10 on the platform.
The series owes its qualities to its excellent adaptation of the deepest themes of de Nicholls' novel… right up to the same poignant ending. The latter almost was different, in many ways. Spoiler alert: we advise you to have seen the entire series before continuing.
A line of text was cut for the final scene
David Nicholls' novel upset many readers also for its tragic ending: Emma dies. This final uppercut was kept in the Netflix series. The showrunner, Nicole Taylor, confided to The Wrap that it was not such an easy decision as she was so attached to the character. “ I didn't want to do that to him because I love him, and the public doesn't want that (either). Everyone who has read the book remembers how they felt when this happened. We want to throw the book out the window. »
But Nicole Taylor quickly realized that adding a happy ending risked distorting the work. “ I thought of other endings, but, this ending is fundamentally integrated into the whole work. The story sort of has its own thematic integrity, its own structural integrity. I feel like the overall meaning of the work demands it, and I feel like any changes to the ending would be gratuitous and detract from the overall impact of the work (…),” she explains, adding that she still believes that he was “ good to think about it “.
Episode 14 serves as an epilogue to Emma's disappearance, in Dexter's life in particular. Nicole Taylor says she spent “ a lot of time » to think of this episode. So much so that, in doubt, two final scenes were filmed. In the one that we were able to see on Netflix, Dexter is content to descend in silence to the hill of Arthur's Seat – where he joins his daughter Jasmine.
“You were the whole story”
In the other version filmed by the team of the series, Dexter remembers the moment they spent together in this place — in episode 1. Then he declares, looking at the hill: “You were the whole story ” (“You were the whole story”), in response to what Emma said to him during this episode: “I don't want to be a footnote in the story of your life” (“I don't want to be a footnote in the story of your life”).
This sentence was therefore ultimately not kept. But sometimes the silences are more powerful. The interpreter of Dexter, Leo Woodall, is in any case very satisfied with this ending: “ Fortunately, his relationship with his daughter is excellent at this time. We know that he will still be grieving and will miss her (Emma), but that he is somehow out of the difficult phase. He has taken control of his life and he will move forward as best he can. »
