The Best Explanation of Speak No Evil (2024)

What is the point of Speak No Evil?

Speak No Evil has two primary themes. The need for healthy honesty and the impact parents have on children. Ben is someone who struggles with healthy honesty while Louise learns to embrace it. Paddy and Ciara represent the consequences of not having healthy honesty in your life and the ruination it can bring. Speak No Evil uses Agnes and Ant as parallels for their grown up counterparts and the adults as potential destinies for the children, which gets to that theme of how kids either become like their parents or become the opposite of them.  

Cast

• Louise – Mackenzie Davis
• Ben – Scoot McNairy
• Agnes – Alix West Lefler
• Ant – Dan Hough
• Ciara – Aisling Franciosi
• Paddy – James McAvoy
• Mike – Kris Hichen
• Based on – Speak No Evil by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup
• Written by – James Watkins
• Directed by – James Watkins

Plot Summary and Analysis of Speak No Evil

Set-up

• First shot is from inside a car, Ant visible in the rearview mirror. We see Paddy and Ciara exit the vehicle and join hands.
• We then switch emphasis to the Dalton family and stick with them for the rest of the film. By the time you’re 30 minutes in, an hour in, it’s easy to forget that the opening shot emphasized Ant. But that dynamic between Ant and Paddy comes roaring back at the end. Ant-centric moments bookend the film, so it’s something to keep in mind. 
• First thing we see with the Dalton family is Agnes wanting attention from her parents and Louise patronizing her daughter.
  • Notice the distance between the family. Louise and Ben are shown in a two shot but opposite sides of the screen, with a table between them. They’re together but not. And then Agnes is off on her own, feet in the water, waiting for her parents to join her. This visually establishes the state of their relationships with one another. 
• Then Paddy enters and asks “Is this chair free?”
  • This is a test. He’s checking Ben’s passivity. The chair clearly has stuff on it. It’s in use. A more “active” person would say, “Yeah, we’re using this” and Paddy would know that person wouldn’t make a good mark because they’re not as easily manipulated. But Ben gives in. He removes his daughter’s stuff and allows Paddy to drag the chair away. Paddy recognizes someone he can work. 
• There’s an important moment where Ben watches a server bring Paddy and Ciara two beers. Inspired, he asks Louise if she wants a beer. She responds, “It’s a little early, but if you want one…” And he shuts down the idea. Paddy then somersaults into the pool.
  • This introduces a bit of a Fight Club dynamic between Ben and Paddy. Ben feels stuck. Paddy is the kind of carefree “dude” he would like to be but can’t let himself be. 
• For the rest of vacation, Paddy and Ciara put on a performance. Part of it is making Louise and Ben feel like they’re all wealthy equals. The other part is continuing to test how amenable the Americans are to peer pressure. “Coincidentally” running into each other in town, after Paddy and Ciara “find” Hoppy. You get that line when Agnes wants to ride on the moped, Paddy says, “It’s hard to say ‘no’, isn’t it?” 
• Ben has lost his confidence after losing his job.  
• There’s that moment when Paddy chases off the Danes who keep trying to hang out with Ben and Louise. It reinforces the dynamic between Paddy and Ben. Ben didn’t want to be around the Danes but wouldn’t speak up so kept getting stuck with their company. Paddy is friendly but introduces a discussion about toilet paper that’s such a turn off that the Danes make an excuse to leave. Both want the same thing, but only one is willing to act to make what they want happen. Ben wants to be like that.
• There’s a line later in the movie about parents shaping kids. Agnes needs Hoppy and is scared because she has parents who are scared. 

Escalation 

• On the drive to stay with Paddy and Ciara, the strained communication between Ben and Lisa reveals more about their relationship and that there’s a deeper tension between them. 
• Huge house but Ant’s room is in a sad attic. Notice Ant only wears the one shirt, too. So they aren’t taking care of him. 
• Louise gives a candle that smells like a log fireplace. Paddy jokes about putting it next to the log fireplace. Seems a bit throwaway but gets at the divide between the couples. The artificiality of Ben and Louise versus the “authenticity” of Paddy and Ciara. 
• Paddy forces Louise to eat goose, despite her vegetarianism. It’s another test to see how pliable Louise and Ben will be. They won’t just be honest and say how they feel, what they want, which allows Paddy and Ciara to take advantage of them. 
• Poor Ant spends the next hour of the film trying to get everyone to figure out he’s a victim. 
• Thematic point by Paddy: Modern medicine. It is amazing but too often we treat the symptom, we don’t treat the cause. Technology’s advanced incredibly but emotionally speaking we’re all still just cave-dwellers. So all this perfect-life-Instagram-Facebook-bullshit—everybody talking, but nobody being honest has left us…impatient, stress-y.
• Louise mentions how weird that a doctor lives in a house like this. The next day, Paddy “coincidentally” addresses how they don’t spend money on material items but on experiences, soothing the concern. Points to Paddy and Ciara spying. 
• Paddy and Ciara sing a song about England. Ben and Louise are American. Should we be reading into that as commentary about the lifestyles between the countries? I’m just brainstorming that idea rather than actually suggesting it. 
• Fox introduced. Paddy talks about predator control and a balanced ecosystem. Is Paddy, in this case, the predator? 
• Difference in parenting techniques becomes more apparent. 
• Why if Ant can’t swim doesn’t he resist jumping into the water a bit more? 
• Louise not jumping in is a sign of resistance. Ben keeps acquiescing to everything, from the dirty bed to jumping in the water. While Louise shows more resistance. She keeps wanting to speak up and he keeps stopping her. 
• Muhjid presented as “good guy”. But Ant is clearly terrified of him. Makes you wonder what had previously happened. Agnes never reports anything weird with Muhjid and the character doesn’t return as a villain later (like Mikey). Was there supposed to be more to the character? 
• At the “chef’s table” dinner, Louise brings up being vegetarian. Shows honesty. Reinforces her character as the one standing up. We then get into the pescatarian debate. Paddy and Louise go back and forth. And Ben, once again, tries to placate everyone with the platitude “It’s complicated.” Paddy reiterates the film’s theme, quote: And complicated is good. Too many people these days are afraid of honest debate, aren’t they? We’re all too f***ing polite.
  • OH, I JUST CONNECTED THIS TO THE TITLE. SPEAK NO EVIL. It’s ironic about society and how everyone is afraid of saying the wrong thing, of speaking their truth, because they don’t want to be thought of negatively by someone else. And that’s not necessarily political. But just in the everyday things we see in the movie—standing up for your family, letting people know how you feel. It’s especially true with Ben and Louise and their relationship. Because they won’t talk about what’s really bothering them, they pretend like everything is good, which makes things actually being good between them impossible. Wow. Nice. Okay. 
• We then get the next major thematic point. Louise says, “They say you become like your parents or you go the opposite way, right?” Ciara says she never met her parents. And then Paddy says his were “a couple of c***s.” To which Ben jokes, “So you went the other way, or…?” The irony is that Ben, at that time, truly believes Paddy is a good guy. Paddy laughs knowingly then says, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had. Then add some extra just for you. But they were f***ed up in their turn by fools in old-style hats and coats that half the time were soppy-stern and half at one another’s throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out, as early as you can, and don’t ever have any kids yourself.”
  • Paddy didn’t just make up poetry on the spot. It’s a Philip Larkin poem called “This Be The Verse”. It’s another instance of Paddy being incredibly refined and “proving” that he can play the part of the wealthy, educated man. 
  • But this idea that our parents affect us deeply ties back to the issues Agnes has. She’s the byproduct of Ben and Louise not being honest with themselves or each other and creating this atmosphere of tension and worry that causes Agnes to then be tense and worried. 
  • Also sets up the climactic moment between Ant and Paddy and explains why Paddy proudly says “That’s my boy” in response to Ant’s violence. 
• Ciara mentions they’ve been together 17 years. You can see Louise immediately clocking how off that is. 
• Sexual openness of Paddy and Ciara contrasts the coldness between Ben and Louise. 
• Back at the house, Ant gets a little closer to revealing the truth to Agnes. Paddy thinks Ant might be up to something. And Ben’s reading Unleash Your Inner Cowboy, based on Paddy’s recommendation. That book gets at the whole Brad Pitt and Edward Norton dynamic between the two characters. Ben’s looking to be more “cowboy” and like Paddy. 
• Louise makes a passive aggressive joke. Ben speaks up. He gets honest, finally, and brings up Louise’s emotional infidelity with a dad from Agnes’s school. She calls out Ben’s bitterness and overall anger and negativity. Louise concludes with not knowing if Ben’s with her because he loves her or because he can’t stand to fail. They end on a good note. We see Paddy looking through the window in the door. 
• Louise finds Agnes in bed with Ciara. Immediately wants to leave. They sneak out. Sneaking out gets back at the theme of people not being honest, not saying how they feel, etc. 
• The family would have escaped safe and sound, but Agnes doesn’t have Hoppy (because you know Paddy made sure it was missing (or maybe it was Ant?)). This ties back to the earlier discussion about parents and children. Agnes is the byproduct of her parents. Her inability to cope without Hoppy is, according to the film, because of them. So even though on the story level it’s Paddy stealing Hoppy to lure the family back, on the thematic level it’s the flaw in Louise and Ben’s relationship that’s caused Agnes to be this way and thus brings them back to the house. 
• Ben turns the car around. 

Pay-off

• Back at the house, Ben goes inside first. Louise follows and finds Ben trying to lie to Paddy about what’s going on. Paddy says “Be honest.” And Ben, in true cowardly fashion, says “Some things happened that made us feel like it was best that we head back home.” And Paddy, because he enjoys this, because this is what makes the whole thing fun for him, pushes Ben to explain. And Ben gives an even weaker excuse by saying Agnes doesn’t like sleeping on the floor. Louise finally is disgusted enough to speak up and say the truth: Agnes was in your bed. 
• Ciara tells a story about them having a deceased daughter. Which might be a lie or might be true. But it works to quell even Louise’s concerns. 
• Ant’s note isn’t in English. 
• Paddy and Ben in the car. Paddy’s open enough to sing. Ben won’t sing.
• Ben has a fox scoped but won’t fire. Apologizes to Paddy, when the fox escapes. Paddy has dialogue that serves as a meta explanation to the audience about his motivation and why he didn’t just immediately rob Ben and Louise. “It’s not even about the kill for me. It’s always been about the hunt. Getting them into the crosshairs. Luring the fish onto the hook. That’s the game. That’s what I live for.” 
• Paddy has more thematic dialogue about how the emotion Ben’s holding onto is eating him alive. The two then go to the ridge and scream into the empty countryside. Ben finally drops his sense of control and gives over to his emotions. He lets himself feel. And we get the two men laughing, connected, head to head. We see Ben becoming more like Paddy. 
• Ciara asks Agnes to set the table. She’s slowly claiming ownership over Agnes. Happens again during lunch. Louise and Ciara argue about parenting someone else’s child. Then we get the super awkward dance scene where Paddy goes at Ant in order to make Ben and Louise interfere, so then he can make them feel hypocritical. All the themes come back. Ben gives in to Paddy’s demands for the kids to resume dancing. Paddy also says something about lessons his dad taught him. Ben finally stands up to Paddy. And then we get the “Now you’re parenting our child.”  
• Louise wants to go. Ben keeps making excuses, saying he wants to get coffee in him first. And Louise finally says what needs saying, “Jesus, Ben, you have no problem standing up to me but you won’t say shit to him.”
• Ant steals the keys. Shows Agnes the cellar in the shed with all the belongings from the various robberies. Nice touch by having Ant use Ben’s gifted football as the cover for being near the shed. Filmmakers also made sure to have Ant’s tongue out in the picture to show he had had one. 
• To get her mom alone, Agnes fakes having her period. But metaphorically this is a coming of age moment for Agnes. It represents her loss of innocence and arrival into the adult world. When Agnes says she won’t be able to fake a story, Louise tells her to be honest about how she’s feeling, because it plays into the narrative of what’s going on. It’s a little moment but it ties back to the whole “honesty” theme.
• Flat tire, just part of Paddy’s game. Then Hoppy on the roof. Instead of asking for it, Agnes says “I just want to be home.” Another sign of her loss of innocence. Ben climbs the ladder, although he knows Paddy wants to kill them. Paddy has fun with it. Then mentions sending a “little text” then gives another “honesty” call out. And Louise drops the act, kind of. She says she and Ben are not together. That she betrayed him because she was deeply unhappy. And that the two might not be able to get past this. And Paddy says “Wow, honesty. Finally. We believe honesty is the first step to fixing things.” Even though he means it sarcastically, the movie means it earnestly.
• Seems like they can leave but then Paddy throws Ant into the pond. Pretense is done. The  cards are on the table. 
• Doesn’t make sense why Louise doesn’t just try to drive through the gate. Seems like a pretty weak gate.
• Paddy makes them transfer £200,000.   
• Ben asks, “Why are you doing this.” Paddy responds, “Because you let us.” This is the most explicit the theme gets. All of Ben’s politeness, all the lack of honesty, is what allowed Paddy and Ciara to keep taking advantage and bring everything to this point. 
• Louise resists. Takes out Paddy and Ciara. Ciara says she was Paddy’s first, was just Agnes’s age. They don’t help her.
• Movie goes full Home Alone. 
• Ben cowers. Louise yells at him. “Your family needs you.” 
• Mike chastises Paddy. “Why do you do this, play with your food? You’re like my mom’s cat.”
• There’s a moment where Paddy, still outside the house, talks to Ben. He says, “If it was just you and him, and you’ve got a gun against his head…what would you do?” The “him” is a reference to the guy Louise was texting. He’s essentially asking if Ben would stand up for himself or not. 
• Ben hides, waiting to attack Mike. Louise has multiple fights with Paddy, wins both, then has to save Ben from Mike. Fitting that Mike was going to impale Ben on the shards of a mirror. Mirrors usually represent the truth about someone. And Ben’s truth is that he’s weak. 
• It’s Louise who knocks Ciara from the roof. 
• Ben can barely lift Agnes back onto the roof. But he does. First sign of strength. He then drops from the roof to pick up the ladder for the others. Bravery! Hurts his ankle in the process but doesn’t make a big deal of it. Maybe there’s hope for Benjamin. 
• Ben waits with the rifle. But Paddy doesn’t come around the corner. It’s a fox. Third instance of the fox. The film had previously established the fox as a predator that needs culling so the ecosystem can work appropriately. Then Ben wasn’t able to pull the trigger on the fox they saw later. Now we go from the fox to the film’s true predator: Paddy.
• Paddy says he’s going to make Agnes the new Ciara. Before he can fire on Louise and Ben, Agnes injects him with the veterinary-grade ketamine. He immediately collapses.
• Ben approaches with the rifle. Doesn’t fire. He tells Ant to come on. But Ant doesn’t listen. Ben repeats the command. And Ant still doesn’t listen. Instead, he picks up a rock and mounts Paddy. Paddy, quite proudly, growls, “That’s my boy.” Then Ant brings the stone down. Once, twice, three times, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and more and more; unleashes a guttural scream each time. The screaming recalls the earlier scene with Paddy and Ben on the hillside. Getting the poison out. 
• We’re back in a car, like at the beginning of the movie. Except it’s not dark like it was then. It’s light. And we see each character’s face clearly. Agnes gives Hoppy to Ant. And the last shot is of Ant, no longer in the rearview mirror. 

Speak No Evil’s themes, ending, meaning, and real-life application

Speak No Evil has two primary themes. One is the fear of honesty.

Ben and Louise

Ben is someone who is afraid to “speak evil”. In other words, he doesn’t want to offend. So he constantly compromises himself and thus his family. And it results in others taking advantage of him, in the world taking advantage of him, in him not really ever getting his way, which, in turn, makes him angry, which has impacted his marriage and thus his daughter. We have a pretty huge indictment of Ben’s character when he asks Paddy “Why are you doing this?” (referring to the robbery/murder/kidnapping) and Paddy responds with “Because you let us.” It’s Ben’s refusal to take a stand that puts him, Louise, and Agnes in such a bad situation. The butterfly effect of it all is that had Ben not given up the chair in the very beginning, Paddy probably chooses a different mark. 

So on the metaphorical level, Paddy and Ciara are a consequence of Ben’s cowardice. Which turns “speak no evil” into an ironic title. You don’t have to go full Karen and complain about everything but you also shouldn’t be like Ben and avoid healthy honesty.  Louise finds the ability to stand up for herself in a way Ben never does. Which is why she drives most of the action, solves most of the dilemmas, and physically defeats all of the villains. 

That can create a divide in perspective about the state of the marriage at the end of Speak No Evil. While Ben gains a degree of backbone, he ends the movie having made little progress in terms of his confidence and capability to defend his family. Louise takes out Michael and Ciara. Agnes stops Paddy. And Ben even opts to spare Paddy at the end, leaving Ant to “predator control the fox”. Ben’s big action is jumping off the roof to get the ladder. Which is helpful but relatively less compelling.

Louise coming into her own can be read as her being done with muting her needs and wants to appease Ben, something she had alluded to during their big argument. It would also tie into what she told Paddy about how she and Ben probably won’t be married after this trip because this weekend put their relationship into perspective. That might have only been a line she was saying to appease Paddy so they could leave. But Paddy did call out that she was finally being honest and it was delivered pretty convincingly and is never actually addressed/corrected. So the glass half-empty reading is that Louise will leave Ben. And everything that plays out is symbolic of her reaching that point of independence.  

On the flip side, Paddy, right after Louise’s “admission”, says that honesty is the “first step to fixing things.” And the family does end up together, in the car. If you’re going with this glass half-full reading, then the whole final Home Alone sequence represents Louise essentially taking over as the leader of the family. And, together, the family banishes the metaphorical hurdles that had haunted. That turns the entire movie into a defamiliarization of how a relationship reaches a tipping point where you finally say all of the “evil” stuff, the honest stuff, that you had been scared to say. Only then can you fix what’s broken. 

And now the other theme. Kids. 

But is Speak No Evil really about Ant? 

With all that said, Speak No Evil begins and ends with Ant. That decision is usually pretty meaningful. Many filmmakers intentionally bookend (bracket) stories to make sure things come full circle. For example, the opening scene of The Godfather has us in the room as Don Vito Corleone takes a meeting with someone who wants the Don’s help. The final scene has Michael Corleone, the new Don, in Vito’s old office, a meeting about to start, except this time we’re outside the room, from the perspective of Michael’s wife, and the door shuts on her and us. There’s power in that juxtaposition between being on the inside then getting kicked to the outside. The denial we experience speaks to what Coppola was saying about America and the new zeitgeist established by the generation coming into power, a generation Michael Corleone represented. 

If you think that’s a reach on my part, Coppola himself had said that “It seemed to me that Michael Corleone in the first Godfather, like America, started, really, with some ideals…” What happens to Michael over the course of the movie? He loses his ideals. By the transitive property, Coppola’s saying America, following World War II, did the same.  

You could imagine if James Watkins wanted to emphasize the marriage that he might open the movie with a shot of two hands. One of Ben’s, on one side of the screen. One of Louise’s, on the other side of the screen. They’re near each other but not touching. And then the camera zooms out and we see them on the loungers, by the pool, near each other but not touching. Then the final shot, in the car, might return to their hands, on opposite sides of the screen, but this time both move towards one another then clasp. The end.

Except Watkins didn’t start and end with Ben and Louise. He started with Ant. Initially, Ant is just in the rearview mirror. And purposefully lit in a way to call attention to his face in the mirror. It’s dark. He’s with these awful people who kidnapped him. But at the end? At the end, the camera is on him. It’s daylight. And he’s with people who saved him. 

The way to check if this has meaning is to ask “Is there dialogue or anything thematic in the film about kids?” And the answer, of course, is a resounding yes. You have multiple speeches about the impact parents have on children. Speeches that imply that Paddy, Ben, and Louise are all byproducts of their parents and passing their trauma down the line. Agnes’s anxiety and need for Hoppy is a result of Ben and Louise. Remember the introduction to the Dalton family? It’s Agnes waiting in the pool for her parents. And when she tries to get her mom’s attention, how does Louise respond? By playing semantic games, telling Agnes to use her indoor voice, then returning to listening to music. Ben doesn’t even engage at all. Agnes’s parents make her feel small. They isolate and reduce her. And so she relies on Hoppy to soothe her. 

And then Ant. I want you to remember the scene where Paddy talks to Ben about getting the poison out. So much of Speak No Evil focuses on the adults, especially on Ben, that it’s easy to simply apply what Paddy says to Ben…to Ben. But that scene where Ben screams and screams isn’t just for that character. Because the thematic emphasis is as much about the kids as it is the adults. So everything thematic that’s relevant to Ben and Louise also applies to Agnes and Ant. Agnes’s coming into her own mirrors Louise doing the same. And Ben’s effort to become more “cowboy”, more like Paddy, trickles down to Ant. 

As much as Ben grows, he’s pretty much an old dog who isn’t quick to learn new tricks. But Ant isn’t as set in his ways. Recall the line Paddy had to Ben, at the start of the Home Alone section. He said “If it was just you and [the guy Louise had been texting], and you’ve got a gun against his head…what would you do? It foreshadows the very end where Ben does have the gun on Paddy’s head. And Ben “shows mercy” by walking away. Don’t think about that on the literal level. Think about it as a metaphor for being honest. We know Ben’s angry. Who wouldn’t be angry at a serial killer who had attacked you and your family, after having already killed dozens of people, including children. Instead of expressing that anger, “speaking” that evil, he stays quiet. And then wants Ant to do the same. “Ant, come on,” he says. Then, again, more exasperated, “Ant, come on.” 

Except Ant doesn’t bury his emotions like Ben. He picks up a rock and is “honest”. Which is why Paddy says, “That’s my boy.” In that moment, torn between two father-figures, Ant rejects Ben and embraces Paddy. 

Again, don’t think about what Ant does on the literal level. The point isn’t what he does. It’s what it represents. Ant is a character who lost the ability to speak because Paddy cut out his tongue. He suffered extreme trauma. And hasn’t been able to express it. In any way, shape, or form. It would be easy for Ant to repress all of that trauma the same way Ben has. And let it poison him over time. Caving Paddy’s head in with the rock is just a metaphor for letting all of that pain and anger and grief out. It’s Ant’s equivalent of screaming into the empty English hills. It’s a way to close this horrific chapter of his life, Paddy’s influence on his life, so he can move on, unencumbered by the influence of a toxic parent. 

That brings us back to the opening and closing shots. When Ant was a prisoner, under the thumb of Paddy and Ciara, we saw him “trapped” in the rearview mirror. Riding in the backseat. That whole scene becomes a microcosm of the speech about how parents shape kids. We just didn’t know it then. So, at the end, Ant no longer being in the rearview means he has more autonomy. This is the start of him having the opportunity to shape his own destiny. To decide if he’s going to “become like his parents or go the opposite way”. 

Ultimately, I think Speak No Evil reminds people of all ages (and by that I primarily mean teens, young adults, and adults) that you don’t have to become like the worst part of your parents. You can scream out the poison. Embrace honesty. And make positive changes. 

And, on the societal level, Speak No Evil takes the position that healthy debate is a good thing. Having a voice is good. Don’t be rude just to be rude. But don’t, for lack of better phrasing, “eat shit” just because you’re scared to stand up for yourself and your loved ones. If you’re using a chair, it’s okay to say you’re using the chair. If you don’t want to eat with the Danes, it’s okay to not eat with the Danes. If your bed sheets have awful stains, ask for new sheets. If you’re a vegetarian, you can refuse to eat the prized goose. If you’re having issues in your relationship, speak up and be a partner rather than an anchor. 

Two roads diverged in a yellowed wood

One thing I wanted to point out real fast is that the film, through Louise, makes the comment about how kids “become like [their] parents or you go the opposite way.” That establishes a binary. By the film’s logic, if a parent is very structured and a-type, then the child will either be similarly structured or have their head-in-the-clouds and the kind of person who is late to everything, forgetful, etc. Personally, the acceptance/rejection dynamic is something that feels broadly applicable to many people I know. But that’s neither here nor there. I’m just trying to say it’s not a foreign concept. 

What’s cool is that the film essentially recreates that binary for Agnes and Ant through Louise/Ciara and Ben/Paddy. For Agnes, Ciara and Paddy serve as opposites to her parents. And for Ant, Louise and Ben are the reversal (even though Paddy and Ciara aren’t his real parents, they “are” in the scope of the film’s metaphor). 

Louise is independent where Ciara is obedient. Ben is passive while Paddy is active. If Agnes had ended up with Ciara, it would have represented her becoming obedient in opposition to her mom’s independence. In fact, there’s a brief moment where Paddy says he plans to have Agnes become the new Ciara. That line is something like “She’s all I’ll have to take care of me.” Obedience. But Agnes rejects that by actively fighting back. And then she passes Hoppy to Ant, a sign she’s now ready for independence. 

Ant has a more complicated dynamic than Agnes. But, as I said earlier, I do think the film actively wants to position him as someone who is “free” from parental influence and is ready to start fresh. He became like Paddy so he could reject Paddy’s influence. As much as Agnes giving Ant hoppy was a sign of her coming of age, Ant accepting Hoppy re-establishes his innocence.