Linda Cardellini Explains the Symbolism of Judy’s Dress in the ‘Dead to Me’ Finale
The finale of the Netflix series Dead to Me pulled at fan’s heartstrings when Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) succumbed to her cancer. Judy’s death is a subtle one, but the character appears for a final time in the series as Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) drives home from Mexico. That scene contains a significant choice made by showrunners in the form of Judy’s wardrobe. Find out what Cardellini said about the importance of the dress Judy is wearing in her final scene from Dead to Me.
Judy dies in the finale of ‘Dead to Me’ according to creator
After being diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer, Judy dies in the final episode of Dead to Me. While some fans of the Netflix series think Judy staged her death to give Jen closure, showrunner Liz Feldman says otherwise.
“I wanted to give you a reflection of what it feels like to go through the loss of someone, where it feels like they just took off,” Feldman explained to Vulture. “You’ve just been hanging out with them and they got in their car and they left, or they walked into the other room, or perhaps they jumped on a boat and floated away.”
Because Dead to Me doesn’t give fans closure in the form of a funeral or a body, some believe Judy didn’t really die in the end. But Feldman didn’t need the conclusion to Judy’s story to be “stark.”
“I didn’t think we needed this black-and-white, hit-you-over-the-head ending that brought you in a very confrontational way to your relationship with death,” Feldman added. “I really wanted it to be a softer landing.”
Judy is wearing her’ favorite dress’ the last time Jen sees her in the ‘Dead to Me’ finale
After Jen finds the empty rowboat floating out at sea, she leaves Mexico to return home to her family. She starts a new life with Ben (James Marsden) and their baby Joey, along with Jen’s two sons Charlie (Sam McCarthy) and Henry (Luke Roessler).
As she’s driving back from Mexico, Jen imagines a conversation with Judy about taking the car that killed her husband. Jen’s vision of Judy says the car was always meant to be hers. More than this conversation, this scene holds a pivotal clue about Judy’s fate in Dead to Me.
“Did you notice the dress that I’m wearing?” Cardellini told Vulture. “There’s a line in an earlier season when Judy says, ‘Oh, this is my very favorite dress.'” Showrunners made sure Judy was wearing the flowing black, floral printed dress for that very moment for that reason.
Linda Cardellini says Judy’s wardrobe in the finale episode was a ‘huge thing’
In that same conversation with Vulture, Cardellini says Dead to Me’s wardrobe designer put an emphasis on Judy’s wardrobe, especially in regards to that scene. “We really concentrated on that piece of her with our wardrobe designer,” said the actor. “But for that final moment, [Judy’s dress] relates to the idea of somebody always being with you regardless of where they go.”
Cardellini elaborated: “When you do lose somebody, you always hear them. If they mean a lot to you, you hear them in certain situations or you see them in certain situations or you feel them in certain situations. When somebody does leave, there’s a hole. There’s something that you can’t quite explain. You can only feel.”
Watch all three seasons of Dead to Me on Netflix.
