Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Delicious,’ the meaning of the phrase “eat the rich” is taken to a whole new level by a woman named Teodora and her group, who target a family of four. The film begins with a German couple, John and Esther, arriving in the south of France with their kids, Philipp and Alba. They set up camp at their villa, which belongs to Esther’s father, with the intent of loosening up and relaxing a bit. However, from the first day itself, it becomes clear that there is an unspoken tension within the family, especially between the couple. Despite being on vacation, Esther cannot seem to keep a distance from her phone and is constantly on call. Meanwhile, John keeps dodging calls on his phone due to something that has happened at work and has the potential to derail his personal and professional life. During their first night in the town, they go for dinner at a restaurant, where they catch the eye of a group of people.
Later, on their way home, a girl comes in front of their car. She isn’t hit badly and merely sustains a scratch (which, unbeknownst to the family, is self-inflicted). Instead of taking her to the hospital and going to the cops, Esther and John decide to take the girl home, patch her up themselves, and send her on her way with some money, hoping never to see her again. The next morning, when she is nowhere to be seen, they believe they have dodged a bullet. But then, she comes back and puts an offer on the table. The girl, named Teodora, claims that she has lost her job due to her injury and wishes for John and Esther to employ her as a maid, as they are clearly in need of one. Despite John’s hesitation, Esther decides to hire her, and slowly, Teodora creeps her way into their family, breaking them apart and leaving them isolated. She doesn’t simply do it for fun, but there is a grander plan behind her highly manipulative actions. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Whose Ring Does Philipp Find? What Does He Eat?
The last half hour of ‘Delicious’ presents a shocking twist where it is revealed that Teodora belongs to a group of people who eat human flesh. The whole thing about coming in front of the car and getting a job as a maid was a ruse to allow her into the German family and single out each member, making them vulnerable and easy prey. At the end of the film, Esther and John have paid the price of trusting a stranger, but their children see a more merciful side of Teodora. In a span of one night, the couple is gone for good, but their children remain unaware of their horrid fate, at least until the early hours of the next day.
In the morning, when Philipp comes back from his bike ride, he notices Cora’s car outside the house, as well as several of Teodora’s and her friends’ motorcycles. He doesn’t pay much attention to it and believes everything is going well when he finds his sister sleeping next to Teodora by the pool. He doesn’t look for his parents as he believes his father might still be sleeping, and his mother hasn’t come back from her outing yet. Hungry following the workout, he decides to eat something and finds a plate with a piece of meat in the kitchen. He takes a bite out of it but is taken aback when, with the bite, a ring comes into his mouth. It turns out to be his mother’s ring.
Considering that so far, Philipp has no idea what has happened to his parents, he seems mildly alarmed by the ring in the food. He could chalk it up to the fact that it might have fallen in while his mother was cooking. But then, it has been a few days since his mother left, and the meat has been recently cooked. One can only wonder how long it will take for him to realize what he has just eaten and how much longer it will take for him to discover the terrible fate that has befallen his parents. But, for the audience, the ring is proof enough that he has, in fact, partaken, though unintentionally, in the act of cannibalism and eaten his own parent, who was killed the previous night by Teodora and her group.
Why Does Teodora Leave Philipp Alive?
Considering the brutal death that John and Esther, and even their friend, Cora, receive at the hands of Teodora and her group, it makes one wonder why Philipp is left alive by them. With the scale of the crime that they have committed, it would seem logical for them to kill Philipp and remove any trace of evidence that could lead the cops to them. Instead, the boy is left to his devices, even though he can easily identify Teodora. The fact that she and her group of cannibals aren’t even mildly concerned about him shows how freely they have been operating so far.
It is clear from the way they work that this is not their first foray into trapping a rich family and literally eating them. Their disdain for the rich is clear from the first scene, where we see them in the hotel room, as Lucien pees into a wine bottle meant for the guests. They single out John and Esther as soon as they arrive at the hotel and can tell from their looks that they are rich but not rich enough. They also confirm that the couple is staying at their own house, and from experience, they know that villas of that kind are usually pretty secluded. This means that if anything happens to them, it will take a while before anyone finds out about it.
The intricate nature of their planning can be assumed from the fact that the waitress, who is part of their group, suggests that John and Esther have “a nightcap on the house” before they leave. This would keep enough alcohol in their system to scare them and prevent them from going to the cops when the accident happens on their way home. It doesn’t take Teodora long to find the sensitive spot in John and Esther’s marriage and tear them apart. However, when it comes to the children, she is not as ruthless.
The reason for leaving Philipp alive could simply be due to the fact that despite being cannibals, Teodora and her group have a sense of morality where they don’t hurt children. Moreover, their hatred is fuelled by class differences and how the rich couple treats the poor around them. While Teodora builds a facade of a friendship between them, she knows well enough that when Esther gets what she wants, she will not think twice about the maid she hired while on vacation to her summer house. So, when Esther is surprised by the true nature of her group and remarks that she thought they were friends, Teodora makes it clear that there was never any such thing between them.
As opposed to this, Philipp and Alba really do form a friendship, thin as it might be, with Teodora. In the beginning, they are wary of her, but slowly, they open up to her and even stop seeing her as simply the maid. Philipp is even attracted to her, and she knows it and uses it to her advantage. But there is never a sense of malice between them, at least not on the level she has with his parents. So, one could say that there is a grain of morality in Teodora’s twisted logic that prevents her from killing Philipp while devouring his parents.
Why Does Teodora Take Alba With Her? Will Alba Become a Cannibal?
If it seems a bit tragic for Teodora and her friends to leave Philipp to discover the devastation that has befallen his family, what makes it worse is the fact that they take his sister with them. It is one thing for the boy to discover that his parents are dead, and he has even eaten one of them; it is entirely another to live with the knowledge that the group of cannibals has taken his little sister with them and that she might never come home. Worse, she might become one of them.
Alba’s fate as becoming one of the group is hinted at from her first encounter with Teodora. While she uses her manipulative tactics on everyone else, she does seem to develop a genuine connection with Alba, who perhaps feels slightly alienated from her family. The girl finds a friend in the young new maid, but at the same time, she also knows that there is something off about her. Moreover, Teodora doesn’t seem too concerned when she discovers that Alba has been keeping an eye on her. Instead of becoming more careful about her acts of thievery, she becomes bolder and steals things from Esther, even when she knows Alba is watching her. Perhaps this is because she wants Alba to see her for who she is.
Apart from throwing a massive wrench in John and Esther’s already badly functioning marriage, Teodora also makes concerted efforts to further alienate Alba from her family. She tells Esther that her daughter is a liar and thief, and Alba is hurt by the fact that her mother doesn’t believe her, even when she is telling the truth. The worse things get between her parents; the more Alba feels removed from her family and drawn toward Teodora, who seems to be the only person she can connect with. In the end, when the group’s goal has been accomplished, they leave the villa, and Teodora takes Alba with her, proving that she had decided to make the girl a part of the group while she was still working her magic on John and Esther.
She could have left the girl with her brother, but she found a kindred spirit in her and decided that she belonged with her and her group rather than going back to her life in Germany, which would be considerably different now that her parents are dead. There is a good chance that Teodora hasn’t told Alba what happened to her parents. Perhaps the girl has been shielded from that trauma, or worse, Teodora found a way inside Alba’s mind and manipulated her into believing that her parents deserved to die. In any case, the girl is part of the group now, which means that if the cops don’t catch them, the possibility of Alba becoming a cannibal, if she hasn’t already, is pretty high.
What Happens to John and Cora? Are They Also Eaten?
One of the most shocking scenes in ‘Delicious’ is when the true nature of Teodora and her comes to light in all its glory. Esther, who is separated from her family after she desires freedom and runs away with Lucien for a while, starts to feel something off when she finds weird-smelling meat in her young lover’s fridge. If that doesn’t freak her out enough, she is visibly rattled when she discovers that Lucien works at La Fontaine and would have known Esther because she has frequented the place during the vacation with her family.
When they met at the bar, he claimed that he had never seen her before. Then, she finds blood coming out of the tap and catches one of Teodora’s friends eating a man. When Esther tries to flee, she is stopped by Teodora, which is also when she realizes that she is done for. She seems to give in to her fate as Lucien and the others bite into her. We don’t see her getting eaten up completely, but from what happened to the guy in the other room, it is pretty clear that she has become the group’s meal. Her husband meets the same fate, but the eating part is kept from the audience. After filling themselves up with Esther, Teodora and her friends come back to the villa, where they create a ruckus by the pool.
At the time, John is with Cora, who already seems to have had enough of Teodora and her friends. When she fails to get the group out of the house, Cora decides to do it by herself. She gets in her car, but later, the same car is seen abandoned right outside the gate. This proves that Cora never really made it out and was apprehended and killed by the group of cannibals. Before John can even think about what has happened to Cora, he is cornered by the group. All we see of him is getting hit by an iron rod, but there is absolutely no doubt about the fact that he, too, has been turned into a meal. Considering that Teodora and her friends might still be full with Esther, they would have kept the meat for later, having packed it up like we saw the chunks stored in Lucien’s fridge.
