What happens at the end of 'May December'? You're not the only one asking

It's been nearly a week since "May December" premiered on Netflix, and if you can't stop thinking about its final few seconds, you're not alone.

"May December" stars Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) as an actor researching her upcoming role as Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) in an independent film. Elizabeth travels to a small town on the coast of Georgia to spend a week with Gracie and her husband, Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), to learn more about their relationship for the film.

The twist is that Gracie and Joe, now happily married with three children, met more than 20 years earlier as coworkers in a pet store when Joe was just 13 and Gracie was 36. Gracie later served a prison sentence after she was caught having sex with Joe, and Elizabeth's arrival quickly breaks down the story the couple had told themselves (and others) about their relationship.

From the film's campy scene in which Gracie worries she doesn't have enough hot dogs for an outdoor get together, to viewers finding out it's inspired in part by a true story, the buzz surrounding "May December" has been hard to escape.

Many can't stop talking about the unsettling ending of the film, starting with Elizabeth and Joe's shocking meeting and its consequences at the high school graduation of two of Gracie and Joe's children, to a look at Elizabeth's portrayal of Gracie in her film. Here's what to know about the final scenes of "May December."

Elizabeth completes her transformation into Gracie, and Joe is caught in the crossfire

While "May December" appears to focus on the relationship between actor and subject, it is Joe's story that comes front and center as the film progresses, director Todd Haynes told TODAY.com at a press junket.

"Initially, you're confronted with this dual, double portrait of these women," Haynes said. "But then, what becomes a single portrait then turns into a double portrait and ultimately becomes a triple portrait. By the third act of the film, the energies open up and there's a space that opens up for Joe, to start to step into the center of the story and begin to find the means with which to look at himself and his situation."

Melton told TODAY.com Elizabeth's arrival forces the couple, their children and those around them to look at the hard facts around the origins of their family.

“(Elizabeth) is almost this catalyst for Joe’s own awakening and acknowledging and coming to terms with his own identity — despite the roles he’s carried for such a long time in his life,” Melton says.

The actor's unraveling of Gracie and Joe's relationship comes to a fever pitch when she asks Joe to come back to her place to help her fix her asthma nebulizer. She ends up seducing Joe, and the pair briefly have sex — an act that's consensual, but feels deeply wrong.

After sleeping together, Joe says, "I thought you actually liked me, and that we had a connection." Elizabeth unconvincingly says she does, and Joe asks why she bothered to pursue him.

"This is what adults do," Elizabeth cruelly replies — a chilling implication that he isn't one.

As soon as Joe leaves, Elizabeth immediately goes back to her portrayal of Gracie and reads a love letter Gracie had written Joe more than 20 years earlier.

"You think you’re going to be in a trustworthy position with the character of Elizabeth, who will be a reliable narrator, navigating us through this story," Haynes told TODAY.com. "But as it starts to unfold, the position has destabilized, and the security that we once felt toward Elizabeth becomes muddled by other things that she reveals and how craven she is in her motivation as an actor and how she’s going to keep doing what she does at any cost."

Once Joe returns home, he confronts Gracie in their bedroom — a place where Joe had provided comfort to his wife in her moments of need. Instead of showing her husband similar support as he begins to question if he was ready to start their relationship at such a young age, she storms out of the room.

'Two white knights'

The second to last scene, set at graduation day, begins with Gracie spending the morning hunting in the woods while Joe gets the kids ready for the ceremony. He drops the twins off at the school and watches them from the field.

He appears to have a moment of release when he starts crying — for the first time, he's no longer held down by the weight of having to perform the role of a father.

"It really came to me, just looking at Joe and this immense responsibility given to him at such a young age and how he navigated that as this adaptive, adult child," Melton told TODAY.com of playing the role of Joe. "This loving father who loved his wife and was doing the best he could to just give them everything before he gave anything to himself."

This marks the last time Joe is seen in the film, leaving an unanswered question of what happens to Gracie and Joe now that their kids have grown up.

"May December" costume designer April Napier told TODAY.com Samy Burch, the film’s screenwriter, envisioned Gracie and Elizabeth meeting at the twins' high school graduation ceremony like "two white knights."

"Like a duel," Napier added.

At the ceremony, Gracie reveals her son Georgie told her that he told Elizabeth that her brothers sexually abused her. But she says Georgie was lying, and that it never happened. Gracie adds that she actually has a good relationship with her son, and that they talk every day — which contradicts what Georgie told Elizabeth.

Gracie asks if Elizabeth's research will make a difference for the movie, and then tells her: "Insecure people are very dangerous, aren’t they? I’m secure. Make sure you put that in there."

And with that, their power dynamic shifts again. Was Georgie lying about Gracie's brother? Or is Gracie backpedaling and trying to make it appear that she has control over the situation? The movie never explains.

"Then she walks away and then (the camera) just holds on Natalie, and you see her whole shell like, breaking apart. I mean, I’ve seen the film four times now, and I read the script, and I dressed them, and I was there. And every time, I’m still like, 'Ah! Oh f---, that scene,'" Napier said.

Seeing the movie within 'May December'

The final scene shows the fruits of Elizabeth's research — a glimpse at the movie within the movie.

Elizabeth, sporting a blond wig and Gracie's signature lisp, is seen on screen with another actor portraying Joe, as she repeats the same lines over and over again.

"It’s getting more real," she says as she asks for more takes, leaving the viewer questioning what exactly Elizabeth had gained from her research and interviews.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com