What Was Really Happening on Slater’s Island?

Zoë Kravitz is a well-known actress, having made her name with her roles in prestige TV, like her stint on HBO’s Big Little Lies, and major motion pictures like 2022’s The Batman. Recently, though, she’s made her debut behind the camera as a director with her recent release Blink Twice. Although the movie has only been officially out in the theaters for a few days, having premiered on August 23rd of this year, it’s already proven to be a standout for the summer movie season.

There’s been a lot of talk, and at least as many reviews and articles, about the film’s subject, its darkly humorous writing and tone, and that enigmatic ending that many are still trying to parse out. In the end, whatever audiences might think of the movie itself, it’s safe to say that Kravitz has done what all first-time directors can only hope to do – she’s made quite a splash with her very first project, and she’s got everybody talking.

What Is Blink Twice About?

Blink Twice boasts an impressive cast full of talented, well-known actors – Christian Slater, Kyle MacLaughlin, and Geena Davis, to name a few. Perhaps the most recognizable face for many moviegoers, however, and certainly the one most focused on in promotional material, is that of Channing Tatum, playing the mysterious and superficially charming Slater King. King is at once the obvious villain of the piece and the catalyst for the story itself – he is the cryptic billionaire who owns a remote island where the majority of the movie takes place.

The film’s protagonist Frida, played brilliantly by Naomi Ackie, seemingly has an obsession with King from the very beginning, and it is her fascination with him that leads to an invitation to that unknown island. This island serves as the gorgeous and chilling setting for the intricately woven story that has left many moviegoers uncertain and pondering as to the meaning of it all. It is the perplexing nature of the story that has, perhaps, led to Blink Twice being on so many viewers’ minds and in so many headlines since its release.

What Happened on King’s Island?

Since the release of Blink Twice, the parallels between Tatum’s Slater King and the real-life figure of Jeffrey Epstein have been made apparent and have been widely discussed. King is a rich and powerful man who bought his own island so that he and his inner circle would have a remote place where the laws of man had no standing, and they wouldn’t have to worry about their darkest fantasies or most depraved deeds ever being exposed.

The connection between these two figures is self-evident, but that is not the only similarity to real life that viewers can take away from the character of Slater King. Slater is, in a sense, all rich and powerful men who have abused that power to do whatever they please without fear of any real fallout. The worst thing that could happen, in the minds of such men, is that they might be exposed for some of their deeds and might face possibly being “canceled” – in which case, all they have to do is give the appearance of remorse and make a plausible apology.

King paints the purchase of his island as an act of self-improvement – allowing himself the space and freedom to meditate on what he’s done and how he can be a better person, a place to unplug and heal. And when the group first arrives at the island, it seems as if this might actually be what it’s for. On the surface, it appears to be a paradise where the guests King brings along can revel and lose themselves in freedom from the constraints of normal life. They spend their days by the pool drinking and smoking, and their nights eating incredible food and pleasantly tripping on Psilocybin. King even makes a big deal that first night about taking psychedelics with intention — so that it’s more than just doing drugs — by making sure Frida has her intentions in her mind before he gives her the first dose.

As the days bleed into one another, however, and the guests seem to lose time, lose memories, and even lose themselves in this haze of eternal leisure and aimless fun, there starts to be a sense of unease. Viewers might start to sense that there’s something sinister behind all the beautiful scenery and endless gifts that this island seems to provide – the fact that there were clothes already waiting for all the women, that those clothes had them all dressed the same as one another, that there was this mysterious perfume waiting in their rooms for them to use. Then, one night, Frida’s friend Jess gets bitten by a snake, and suddenly all of that underlying tension seems to break.

What’s Going on With Frida?

The snakes and their potential danger are foreshadowed when the group first gets to the island – King remarks that they’ve been having a pest problem, and some of the workers on the island can be seen killing the bright yellow snakes with machetes. It isn’t until Jess gets bitten that that bit of foreshadowing pays off, however, and that audiences start to get a real sense of just why these snakes are a problem, at least for King and his friends.

The day after she’s bitten, Jess is suddenly mysteriously absent – and what’s weirder, it seems that the only person who remembers she was there at all is Frida. The other women seem to have no idea who Frida is talking about, and the only tangible proof that Jess ever existed is the lighter she left behind. Slowly, Frida starts to realize that the only thing she’s done differently – the only thing that could explain her being the one to remember – is the snake venom she drank after it was offered by the odd maid who has been cryptically hinting at the sinister reality of the island throughout the movie.

From this point on, the audience gets the chance to unravel the mysteries and truth behind the island and what’s been happening on it right along with Frida. She finds an unlikely ally in the character of Sarah, the one person who believes her about Jess and the fact that all is not as it seems on the island – and together they find a way to remember all that they’ve been forced to forget, and to get the other women on the island to remember as well.

Through flashes of memories, the audience can finally piece together the ugly truth of the abuse and torture the women have been forced to endure at the hands of King and his friends. And, as is revealed in an unpredictable twist, for Frida, it is not the first time she has survived such trauma, as she had been on a similar trip to the island the year before but had previously been unable to remember any of it.

What Does the Ending Mean?

It quickly becomes evident that the men are putting something in the perfume to make them forget whatever happens to them at night on the island. King himself asserts that the worse what they experience is, the more they forget. As he’s said throughout the film, forgetting is a gift. It all comes to a head as Frida and Sarah start to remember more and more – and when Camille and Heather, the other two female guests on the island, start to remember as well. When Camille and Heather attack the men who have abused them, all hell breaks loose.

“We’re such nice guys!” is the confused cry of Levon Hawke’s Lucas during the film’s climax – a statement that could not only serve as the thesis for the entire film but also as the key to understanding Tatum’s Slater King. Abusers never think of themselves as abusers, they don’t view themselves as the villains of the story – they’re the misunderstood nice guys. Even when they enact incredible pain and trauma on others, even when they kill the women they’ve hurt the same way that he easily kills Jess and Camille to protect himself and his own secrets.

Although King and his friends have put Frida and the women invited to the island through unspeakable trauma, they’ve given them the “gift” of forgetting. And if there is no memory, no proof, of the sins they have committed, then there is no true harm done. At least that’s the logic these so-called nice guys seem to be using to justify their abuse.

In the end, Frida and Sarah are the only two women left standing after an incredible fight for survival. And in a surprising twist, although they kill the other men who have victimized them, Frida allows Slater King to live. The last scene of the movie shows her and King back at the very gala that started everything at the beginning of the film – only this time, Frida is sitting as the CEO of King Enterprises and speaks for Slater as though she is the one in charge. This compelling ending to the story appears to show audiences Frida taking back her power in the only way she can – by using her abuser’s own methods against him, as a way to control him and rewrite the narrative. Instead of seeking the revenge of letting him suffer, or of killing him like the others, she has found a way to reverse their roles and put herself in the seat of dominance.