Whether it is the Trickster having fun with Dean Winchester, Frank Grillo fighting Mel Gibson, or Bill Murray stuck on Groundhog Day, living the same day again and again is a funny trope in movies and TV shows. Travon Free employs the same tactics but to a different conclusion and that ending of Two Distant Strangers on Netflix needs to be explained.
Two Distant Stranger is a Oscar nominated live-action short movie directed and written by Travon Free. The story centers on a young black man by the name Carter who wakes up one morning, gets out the house and gets into a fatal interaction with a police officer. After dying he wakes up again on the same bed to restart the sequence again, but all he wants to do is get home to his dog.
The short movie is a commentary on the hundreds of police shooting where black men and women are targeted and murdered by the police. Starring Joey Bada$$, Zaria, and Andrew Howard, the films puts a black man within his worst nightmare and despite all the adversity still he manages to rise up. So, before we get started on the ending, a huge Spoiler Warning for everyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet.
Netflix’s Two Distant Strangers Ending Explained
Two Distant Strangers ending was the story of being black in America. Get to know why.
Image Source: Two Distant Strangers Instagram
Carter (Bada$$) just wants to get home to his dog after a one night stand with Perri (Zaria). He is a cartoonist who went ended up at a girl’s place, someone who he met the night before. And he has a dog waiting at home which means he needs to leave, but as he walks out the door, he is confronted by a white police officer who pins him to the ground and chokes the life out of him.
If that incident sounds a little too close to reality, Two Distant Strangers has numerous such murder scenes where Carter is killed just like some black people have been killed in recent times. He is cooking in the kitchen and the police knock down the wrong door, killing him. He is running and is chased by the same cop, killing him, he is an unrelated bystander and police kill him just because he “fits the description.”
All these incidents are pulled from real life and encounters involving black people and murderous police. Travon Free uses the viseral killing and not-so-subtle imagery to show that this is the truth of being black in America. No matter who you are or what you have done, if you are black then the rules are different for you.
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After over a 100 times dying at the hands of white police, there finally seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for Carter. He builds a connection with Officer Merk who agrees to take him home. We finally get his side of the story and what has led to him becoming a cop. But it all came to a screeching halt at the end when Merk explains he loved Carter performance and kills him there.
The ending shows Merk knows about the loop and he has been toying with Carter. A dead Carter wakes up again on the bed and tells Perri that he was not going to give up and that he was getting home to his dog. This ending where Merk knows about the loop tells so much about the police and the black experience in America.
Carter tried to stand his ground, reason, talk, build a bond, fight, resist, just not even go out, but to no avail. The multiple time loop shows the similarity of all these police murder cases, it is always the same, an unarmed black person is killed and police get away with it. It is a constant in African American lives, there may be one reasonable cop but unless the the system changes, the death pile will kill climbing.
Watch: The trailer for Two Distant Strangers on Netflix
The every day brutal death Carter endures is Black America taking in all these murders. Him waking up and telling Perri about the incident every time is Black America not letting themselves forget. And Carter determination to get home to his dog is the determination of the African American community to never bow down to the oppressive and murderous police and waking up every day with the resolve to find a way through a racist cop.
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Joey Bada$$ Netflix Travon Free Two Distant Strangers
Last modified: April 10, 2021
