‘Clock’ Ending Explained: Does Dianna Agron Die At the End?

Clock, the new horror movie on Hulu that began streaming today, is the ultimate scary story for women who don’t want children. Written and directed by Alexis Jacknow, Clock features former Glee star Dianna Agron as a woman approaching 40 who is perfectly happy with her life the way it is. The only problem? She doesn’t want to be a mother.

Also starring Melora Hardin, Jay Ali, and Saul Rubinek, Clock explores the dire consequences that can result from the societal pressure on women in their 30s to procreate. The film first premiered at Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans in March, before streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally a month later.

Clock is a harrowing watch for anyone, but especially those who are wrestling with the decision of whether or not to have children. That said, like many horror movies that rely heavily on symbolism, Clock can also be confusing at times. If you found yourself at a loss as to what it all means, don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for an analysis of the Clock plot summary and the Clock ending explained.

Clock movie plot summary:

Ella Patel (Dianna Agron) is 37 years old and she doesn’t want kids. Her friends insist her biological clock will kick in soon. Her father, Joseph (Saul Rubinek) is not so much dropping hints as flat-out stating he wants a grandchild, to continue their family line. (The pressure is double because she’s an only child, Jewish, and the descendant of Holocaust survivors.) Her husband, Aidan (Jay Ali), wants kids, but insists he doesn’t want to pressure Ella, and that he’s fine without them. But Ella feels like she’s letting everyone down and fears there is something wrong with her.

While at a breast cancer screening at a doctor recommended by her husband, Ella learns about a clinic for women who don’t want children. The clinic is testing out a new hormone drug intended “fix” these women; aka, make them want a baby. Ella decides to give it a shot, but, just in case it doesn’t work, she doesn’t tell her husband. Instead of going to her work conference, Ella quits her job and spends a week taking this experimental drug and undergoing talk therapy with Dr. Elizabeth Simmons (Melora Hardin).

Through therapy and a disturbing Rorschach test, we learn that Ella feels pressure to carry on her family line—as symbolized by a grandfather clock, her family’s only heirloom from before the Holocaust—and we also learn that she carries the trauma of her family’s suffering, as symbolized by a family of dead spiders, representing the way the Jewish people were exterminated like bugs. She also sees a mysterious cloaked woman, but she has no idea what that means. After some trials and tribulations, Ella leaves the clinic with an implant in her vagina and strict instructions not to have sex for three weeks. With any luck, she’ll be baby crazy in no time.

Ella goes back home, and the treatment kinda, sorta works—except for the fact that she is hallucinating and eating raw eggs. But Ella is desperate to make it work, so she keeps her deteriorating health to herself. Things come to a head when Ella realizes the tall, cloaked woman who’s been haunting her is her grandmother. She tells her father she doesn’t want to hear about her grandmother’s suffering anymore, and they get into a huge fight. Later, she comes to her father’s aid when he falls and can’t get up. The sound of the ticking grandfather clock overwhelms Ella, and she snaps. She pushes the clock to the ground and tears out its insides.

Clock movie ending explained:

Ella goes home to her husband and confesses she destroyed the grandfather clock. Aidan comforts her, and the two start to have sex. But, wait, it’s only been two weeks since the implant, and she was supposed to wait three! Aidan gets his dick cut on something sharp, and yes, you do see a quick shot of his bleeding penis. In her rush to help her husband, Ella realizes Aidan has a bag with the symbol of the clinic on it. Wait, what? It turns out, Aidan knew about the clinic the entire time. He purposefully nudged Ella’s doctor to suggest the clinic. Aidan admits this is true, and tells Ella he just wanted her to have the choice.

Furious, Ella drives to the clinic to confront Dr. Simmons. She demands that Dr. Simmons remove the implant. Dr. Simmons refuses, on the grounds that if the implant is removed, Ella will never be able to have a child. Ella realizes that her desire to have a child is all an illusion, just like the visions of her grandmother. Ella rips out the implant on her own—after a quick battle with her inner trauma, aka the hallucination of her grandmother. Ella screams, “I can do whatever the fuck I want!” and clocks her grandmother over the head. Then she takes a pair of pliers and rips out the implant. Her dress changes color, symbolizing the fact that Ella has finally become her own person, having overcome the guilt of not continuing the family line, despite her grandmother’s suffering.

Ella races away in her car, closely followed by a squad of police cars. She eventually pulls over and takes a call from Aidan, who tells her that he was the one who called the cops, after seeing what she did to her father. Huh? Cue the flashback, which reveals that Ella, drugged out of her mind and hallucinating, didn’t tear apart the grandfather clock limb from limb. She tore her father apart, limb from limb. All because he had the audacity to apologize and accept the fact that Ella didn’t want children—after she went and permanently altered her body. Horrified by the reality that she brutally murdered her own father, Ella runs out of the car and off the edge of a cliff, presumably killing herself.

Does Ella die at the end of Clock?

Yes. The very last scene in the movie shows Ella on a rock in a body of water. She slowly opens her eyes and witnesses a slimy fish with tiny legs crawling out of the sea. This is a callback to something Ella’s father said, before she killed him, when he was describing his near-death experience: “I saw them all, the whole family line, even the fish that crawled out of the sea.”

Therefore, we can surmise that the vision Ella is seeing now—the fish crawling out of the sea, her very first ancestor—means that she has died. With that final image, the movie ends.

But what does it all mean? Clock leaves that up to the audience, but my interpretation is that Ella, now dead, is grieving the fact that her family line, which has survived so many hardships, is dying with her. It’s a somewhat mixed message, given that much of the film is focused on validating her decision not to have children. Or maybe the fish symbolizes the fact that the cycle of life will continue, whether or not Ella passes on her genes. Either way, I think we can all agree that Aidan sucks.