Left on her own with nobody aware of her location, Barrera’s character, Liv, must battle the elements—and her demons—to survive.
Keep Breathing has proved to be a huge hit with viewers, but many have questions about the show’s ambiguous final scenes. Newsweek has everything you need to know about what happens at the end.
What Happened to Liv?
At the beginning of the series, Liv is traveling to Inuvik, a small town in the Northwest Territories of Canada, to reunite with her estranged mother, but her flight gets delayed. Desperate, Liv overhears two men in the airport talking about getting a private plane to the location she’s trying to get reach. She pleads with them to let her come along and they agree, but things take a horrifying turn when the plane crashes in midflight, killing the men and leaving Liv stranded.
Viewers then see Liv deal with multiple injuries, a bear and a near drowning, all while memories come back to haunt her. Those memories offer some insight into her life and why she was going to Inuvik. During the series, it is revealed that Liv is pregnant with her boyfriend Danny’s child. Because her mother was absent from her life, Liv wanted to speak with her and make peace before becoming a parent herself.
In the final episode, a broken-legged Liv, having managed to get herself out of a cave she had fallen into, gets to a river that she previously believed/hallucinated may have been a road that could return her to civilization. After standing on the water’s edge, she decides to get into the river and grabs onto a log for safety. The fast-running water makes her lose her grip, and she begins floating downriver, closing her eyes as she falls unconscious.
Speaking about her character’s harrowing journey, Barrera told NBC News: “This tough and intense experience forced me to stretch in ways that I normally don’t, and it changed me as both an artist and person outside work. The Melissa I was coming into Keep Breathing and the Melissa that left after those three months was very different, and I’m a stronger woman because of it.”
Is Liv Alive at the End?
At the end of the final episode, two men rescue an unconscious Liv from the river, and she finally wakes up, gasping for breath. Viewers then see scenes of her giving birth in a hospital, with boyfriend Danny by her side.
Fans are not sure, however, if these scenes were real or another of Liv’s hallucinations. Show creators Brendan Gall and Martin Gero have now confirmed that Liv is alive at the end of Keep Breathing, but whether her visions are real is a different story.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Gall said, “The ending is literal in that she survives. We see her wake up again and take that breath.
“The ambiguous part, the part up for interpretation, is whether the images of her and Danny going to the hospital are flash-forwards or her imagined future when she believes she’s dying. Both are valid,” he said.
Gall, who is also a writer and producer on the show, also spoke about how Liv was seeking some form of validation from her mother by going to visit her, but the real lesson she learned throughout her ordeal was about her own strength.
He explained, “She’s going after something she thinks she needs, which is some form of validation or closure from her mother, but ultimately she finds out there, through very active tasks, is that she’s strong enough to be on her own.
“Not only is she a smart lawyer, but also she can emotionally withstand basically anything that is thrown at her. Personally, I like to think the stuff we see with Danny is real, so for me it’s also that she is capable of love and being loved,” Gall said.
Keep Breathing is available to stream on Netflix.
