The new movie, Falcon Lake, helmed by the French-Canadian actress and debutant director Charlotte Le Bon, is an aching yet tender portrayal of young love. Having a fresh vision for an eerie and haunting story, the narrative is sure to leave you with a number of emotions which might take some time to be deciphered and processed. The story begins with the arrival of 13-year-old Sebastien and his family at a lodge near a lake for their holiday trip. The hosts are a decent couple who are parents to 16-year-old Chloe. Sebastien develops a crush on her, and she too indulges him, but her obsession with ghosts and interactions with elder boys have a turbulent effect on young Sebastien.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘Falcon Lake’?
Before Sebastien and his family arrive, Chloe’s unusual habit of pretending to have drowned in the nearby lake catches us off guard. The teenage mind of a young girl and the consequent behavior become the center of Sebastien’s attraction when the family arrives at the lodge. The family had visited the lodge some years ago, but Sebastien was very young then. Things are drastically different for him in his teen years now. He develops an intense crush on Chloe and begins hanging out with her. At first, she doesn’t pay much attention to him, making Sebastien wary of breaking out of his comfort zone. She takes Sebastien and his younger brother to the lake as a chore her mother tasked her with. The first real interaction happens when Chloe challenges him to swim in the lake. Chloe’s challenge makes Sebastien step into the lake, even though he almost drowned once some years ago. He resists swimming, and Chloe tells him the ghost story about the boy who drowned swimming in the deeper side of the lake and now haunts the place, making him more hesitant to join her in the lake.
Was The Story True?
Chloe’s mother had just started going out with another man, who had his own 19-year-old son named Oliver, making him kind of like Chloe’s stepbrother. He tells her that he looked up her story on the internet and found nothing to support her claims. He asks her the reason why she tells it like a true story, to which Chloe replies that she feels it intensely and believes it to be true. The answer doesn’t impress Oliver or Sebastien, who was sitting beside Chloe the entire time. Sebastien didn’t mind the probable fake ghost story as much as Chloe’s interaction with Oliver and his friends, who were constant interrupters of his bonding with Chloe. He felt insecure, jealous, and out of his depth whenever she left him and went to talk to the older boys.
Does Sebastien Remain In His Comfort Zone?
Sebastien was a shy young boy. Chloe constantly pushed him to explore different things. If she asked him to drink, he was up for it. If she asked him to step into the lake and swim, he would step in, even if hesitantly. If she asked him to click her photos while she pretended to be lying dead on the road, he wouldn’t deny the request. Little by little, she made him come out of his shell during the course of the holidays. Sebastien, whenever possible, kept moving further in his explorations, be it physical or mental. The fact that she was older and he had grown so infatuated with her made him do anything to gain her attention or spend time with her. He couldn’t even sleep unless she returned back into the room which they were sharing in the cabin. She had such a vice-like grip on his mind, which he was unable to shake off. He desperately wanted to be her friend, wanting to connect on a deeper level.
Do Chloe And Sebastien Become Friends?
Chloe is lonely in her own way, facing her self-doubts and insecurities. She grows a fondness for Sebastien, probably because he did whatever she asked her to do, couldn’t harm her in any way, and took part in her silly shenanigans of scaring each other or pretending to be ghosts. Once, he drank so much that he actually got sick, and Chloe had to wash him up after he hurled. These tender moments were sure to bring them closer. The fact that they shared the same room helped her share her own feelings with him about the myriad experiences she had on her escapades with Oliver and his friends. She tells him how an ex-boyfriend once spread rumors about them being physically intimate when, in fact, she was and still is a virgin.
They had become the best of friends. The once reticent kid Sebastien had opened up to her in such a way that he could tell her his greatest fears. Chloe trusted him as well and felt she could be her true self around him. Although she could sense the testosterone rising up in the newly teenaged Sebastien, it didn’t make Chloe uncomfortable. On the contrary, she was willing to explore it further up to the second base, which Oliver had previously described to her as being any activity apart from copulation. Sebastien, who was in seventh heaven, didn’t realize he had betrayed her trust, and it was going to have grave consequences.
What Grave Mistake Has Sebastien Made?
Gradually, Chloe and Sebastien had become friends, but it hadn’t been a smooth ride. Sebastien was going through turbulent emotions. He didn’t really understand what he exactly wanted out of this intense infatuation with Chloe. He was too afraid to communicate his exact desires to Chloe, perhaps suspecting the involvement of his parents in his private matters, which was also one of his greatest fears. He was essentially at the mercy of Chloe to guide the situation as she saw fit. It was going fine, with Sebastien getting the thrills of young adult life. The only thing that flustered him was Chloe’s closeness with Oliver. When asked by Oliver if he had gone past the second base with Chloe, he nonchalantly nodded his head to say ‘yes,’ basically confirming Oliver’s suspicion. This was, of course, a white lie. The exact same lie that had enraged Chloe once before as well, so much that it had become the reason for the break up with her boyfriend.
Why Does Sebastien Lie?
Sebastien was just a kid, after all. He couldn’t own up to his intense desire for Chloe. He had lied casually once before when asked by the brunette Chloe what type of girl he liked, to which he had replied that he liked blondes. He had lied to appear cool in front of her so as not to reveal exactly how intensely infatuated he was with her. Similarly, when Oliver posed his question to him, he wasn’t actually able to comprehend the severity of telling his lie. He thought he would look cool by bragging about it to Oliver. Underneath the cool act, however, was a kid so jealous and insecure that he wanted Oliver to keep his distance from Chloe. He must also have subconsciously thought that telling this lie would make Oliver leave Chloe for good. On a deeper level, he had stepped so deeply into this frenzy of this summer love that it would have been very hard to come out of it, making him feel like he missed out on his only chance of fulfilling his fantasies. He would essentially feel like a loser. By telling a lie, he had made his fantasy feel like a reality in somebody else’s mind, at least, if not his own. Oliver’s reaction validates his feelings as he appreciates his swagger, suspecting that he was just bragging.
Chloe had teased him so much, not realizing that it was only encouraging Sebastien to fantasize further and further. Changing clothes while asking him to turn around and not leave the room, flashing him after challenging him to swim in the lake and letting him sleep in her bed beside her, all these factors were only increasing Sebastien’s temptations. She had also pushed him away many times by leaving him at parties and going away with Oliver. This push and pull had created a complex in Sebastien’s mind, not letting him be at complete ease around her. The lie could also have been a superstitious measure on Sebastien’s part, whose complex mind was hoping it would turn into a reality.
What Does The Bleeding Deer Symbolize?
Before Sebastien had told his lie to Oliver, Chloe had taken Sebastien to a party where he had impressed everyone with his dancing. He should have been quite pleased about it, but seeing Chloe leave him alone and going with Oliver made him feel rejected. Getting a nosebleed after accidentally getting elbowed didn’t help. He felt terribly upset and decided to leave the party. On his way back, he saw a dead deer who had probably bled to death. Sebastien stopped to take a good look at it. The deer symbolized his inner state, and he felt connected to it. Not gaining Chloe’s attention was akin to feeling completely gutted. On the whole, it foreshadowed that something terrible could happen to Sebastien.
Why Does Sebastien Follow Chloe Into The Lake?
The rumor spreads and reaches Chloe, after which she is infuriated with Sebastien. She felt that her trust was broken and her behavior around him changed drastically. She stopped talking to him and left the room to go to a late-night party near the lake. Sebastien followed to explain his side or to justify himself as to why he told a lie. He doesn’t get that chance as Chloe jumps into the lake with Oliver while the others follow. The last time Chloe didn’t pay attention to him, he felt completely dejected. He didn’t want to leave again without talking to her. She had challenged him several times to swim in the lake, asking him to earn his moments with her. It was now the time to earn her trust back, which is why Sebastien stepped into the lake, risking getting drowned in the deep end.
‘Falcon Lake’ Ending Explained: Does Chloe See Sebastien?
Dawn breaks, and the next thing we see is Sebastien’s parents and younger brother leaving the cabin. The shoulders are sloped, and the sluggish good-bye hugs hint towards what had happened. Sebastien’s family drives up to the deep end of the lake where a shrine had been built to honor the memory of Sebastien, who had drowned that day.
Sebastien’s parents must have been devastated and ordered a police enquiry. The body must not have been found and they were now leaving the lodge. At this point, Sebastien’s ghost is seen watching his parents near the shrine. He runs to the pier and sees Chloe sitting there, probably mourning Sebastien’s death. He calls out her name and she senses something and tries to slowly look back, implying she maybe doesn’t see him, but senses his presence. Chloe mentioned in passing that legend has it that ghosts can’t communicate to living people to which Sebastien jokingly replied back that ghosts can only communicate to her given her obsession with them. This could mean that when Sebastien’s ghost called Chloe by her name, she could indeed hear it.
She also mentioned that some ghosts who died accidentally weren’t aware of their death. After Sebastien drowned, his ghost must have simply remembered coming back to the lodge, staying in his room and feeling empty when Chloe didn’t talk to him. But now, seeing his drowning spot and his parents mourning his death, the ghost realized that he had died. He ran straight to Chloe, most probably to apologize and gain back her trust, which he couldn’t do while he was alive. The ghost story about the boy drowning turns out to be Sebastien’s fate in the end. Sebastien’s ghost became the embodiment of Chloe’s obsession with her own story, forging an unfaltering bond between them.
