Penelope ending explained: Does Penelope survive the wilderness?

Penelope is a coming-of-age drama series, written and created by Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn. The show stars Megan Stott in the titular role of a teenager who decides to abandon her normal life and live in the wild.

Mark Duplass and Shuli Harel are executive producers of the show under the Duplass Brothers Productions. It was obtained by Netflix for streaming in May 2024 and was released on September 24, 2024.

The show ends with Penelope suffering wilderness trauma, but surviving after being rescued by some campers, who get her to a hospital, where she meets a social worker, Jen. She hesitantly peeks at her past life through social media, where she finds a post revealing that her parents have passed away.

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Penelope hallucinates due to wilderness trauma

The show follows the teenage protagonist, who decides to abandon her normal life and settle in the wild. She buys some camping gear, hops on a train, and trespasses past the authorities to get inside the forest, which has around 200 camping sites.

She struggles to be comfortable in her new home among the giant trees and flesh-eating beasts, but someone always comes along her way to offer assistance, either manually, or through potent advice.

However, her biggest challenge comes in the form of weather and a hungry cougar, who injures her. In the opening scene of the finale, we see Penelope hallucinating due to the injury and other wilderness trauma. Eventually, she passes out after colliding with a tree and is taken to a hospital by a group of campers.

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She struggles to decide between going home or back to the jungle

A social worker, Jen, attends Penelope in the hospital and tells her that she was unconscious for four days. Politely, Jen tries to make her comfortable and offers her help. However, Penelope is most concerned about the hospital bill as she doesn't have any money, and doesn't want to tell her parents about her whereabouts.

The social worker tells her that she doesn't have to pay anything, but she must provide someone to contact, in case something happens to her. After getting discharged, Penelope doesn't contact her parents but just wanders around. She helps an old man chopping and stacking wood and spends the night at his place.

Later, she goes to a library, where the show ends with a piece of shocking information.

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The show ends with a shocking revelation

The show ends with Penelope hesitantly going through her social media account which is filled with messages from her friends and loved ones. However, soon she reaches a post that reveals that her parents have passed away. At this shocking revelation, the finale credits roll, setting up the story for the next season.

In most parts of the finale, Penelope is at a crossroads to either go back to her parents or go back to her new life in the wild. But now, there might be no normal life left for her in the suburbs after her parents' death.

The ending has even sparked speculation that her parents had died before she left for the forest, so the entire journey is about her dealing with the grief of her parents' tragic passing. This might explain why she made the drastic decision to leave everything, and perhaps this is why she is putting herself in a vulnerable position with strangers, trying to find kindness in an unkind world.

However, there is no official confirmation for that theory. The ending is tragic for the character, who was longing for her family throughout the series, but ends up never getting to see them again.

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The show is currently streaming on Netflix.