SPOILER DISCUSSION

1. The fact that both Peter and Sarah’s mother are fine with going along with Sarah’s double’s plan is telling of the way they see Sarah’s role. For them, “Sarah” is an ideal that is meant to resolve their alienation. For Peter, the proper Sarah gets him and soothes him emotionally. For Sarah’s mother, the proper Sarah talks to her and reaffirms their relationship constantly. Neither of them view her as anything more than a panacea and they opt for the “Sarah” that can best perform the functions they desire; thus, Sarah’s double is forced to live up to the persona of Sarah that she gives life to but never embodied to begin with. She ends up becoming reclusive and desperate to opt out of both relationships, much like Sarah herself. The ending has “Sarah” end just as she started – alienated.

2.Every institution fails Sarah immeasurably along her journey. Her doctor leaves a detailed voice message with private health information and never checks to ensure Sarah got said message – even more relevant given the nature of the message. She knows she messed up because she asks Sarah to not mention it. Even though Sarah is dying, the doctor is only concerned with her reputation.

At the cloning facility, Sarah’s double comes out and isn’t a perfect replica. Her eyes are different and her weight is slightly lower. This doesn’t even get to the personality changes. Yet, Sarah has to pay an exorbitant fee and doesn’t get what she paid for (except she does in a roundabout sense because the Sarah double is most likely going to end up ignoring Peter and Sarah’s mother in the same fashion).

Sarah’s lawyer has her pay a consulting fee, but at the end of the film, he can’t even identify that his client isn’t present and ends up giving Sarah’s double the final bit of confirmation she needs.

All the institutions make much larger mistakes, but the only one who ends up paying the price is the individual. Sarah is expected to pay every fee, but the institutions in charge of helping her never have to take responsibility for flaws in their oversight. This is where work on connecting Sarah’s personal life to the bureaucracy around her would help in enforcing the nature of the relationship between persons and their legal and socio-economic surroundings.

3.The nature of the ending is poetic justice. Trent sets up the poison being used as a weapon at the start of Sarah’s training. He mentions that poison isn’t used because it denies the audience (of the duels) a chance at witnessing battle. As the duo walks into the forest after Sarah’s ingested the poison, the film cuts to shots of the trees. The forest feels endless and it becomes hard to tell what the purpose of these shots is; they seem to suggest something grander but don’t pan out into anything. It’s at this point that Sarah bleeds from her mouth and falls down dead. This move subverts the idea of a physical, visceral battle in favor of a psychological one. Consequently, the weapons here are trust and deceit and Sarah picks the wrong weapon, losing as a result.

When the film cuts to as shot of the forest after Sarah’s double (now as Sarah) sits in her car crying, we, as an audience, are immediately suspect and think that perhaps the original Sarah is going to rise up again. But nothing happens. We just watch the view of the forest as the credits come down. The cut tricks us into thinking there’s something more when there’s nothing present. A fitting, nihilistic end that fits in with how Sarah’s’ double feels with the life she’s now usurped.