After ‘Reprise’ (2006) and ‘Oslo, 31 August,’ ‘The Worst Person in the World’ is the third and likely final instalment in Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier’s ‘Oslo Trilogy’ (2011). The films have little in common in terms of plot, but they do have themes such as longing, drug use, love, bereavement, and adulthood. They are also love notes to the Norwegian capital.

In ‘The Worst Person in the World,’ Trier explores the complexities and whimsy of love through the lens of a protagonist on a journey of self-discovery. Julie (Renate Reinsve) is amazing in every way. She is indecisive, impatient, and apathetic, but the film avoids vilifying her and does not lead its audience in that direction. Here’s everything you need to know about ‘The Worst Person in the World’ finale. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Plot Synopsis for The Worst Person in the World

‘The Worst Person in the World’ is broken into 14 chapters, including a prologue and an epilogue. Julie, a 20-something living in Oslo, is perpetually restless. She is a medical student at the start of the film. But then, one day, she begins to feel as if she doesn’t belong there. So she ditches her boyfriend and pursues a career in psychology, with her mother’s enthusiastic backing. Julie then has a sexual encounter with her professor.

While scrolling through images of him on her phone, she comes to the realisation that photography is her actual calling. This time, her mother is less enthused. Julie uses her college loan to purchase a camera and lenses. This time, there is no turning back. She needs to stick with it and make it work. Photography introduces her to a whole new world populated by models, artists, and performers. She begins dating a model and then dumps him in favour of Aksel, a comic book creator (Anders Danielsen Lie). Although Aksel is 15 years older than Julie, the age difference does not seem to be a major concern at first.

When Julie pays a visit to Aksel’s parents’ home with him, the truth of their situation begins to settle on her. They are in quite different stages in their life. Aksel, who is in his forties, wishes to settle down and start a family, but Julie isn’t ready. Her mother reared her as a single parent. Her father is still alive, and they maintain contact. He was, however, never completely involved in her life. As a result, she is at a loss for words when it comes to Aksel’s family. When she overhears Aksel’s brother quarrel with his wife one night, everything changes for her. Everyone has challenges, even those who appear to have worked everything out.

Julie meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), an easygoing barista who would play a crucial part in her life, while crashing a wedding. Despite the fact that they don’t have sex, they spend the night together, dancing, joking, and enjoying every moment. Aksel and Eivind could not be more dissimilar. Aksel is both an artist and a thinker. Julie comes to believe that a relationship with him requires too much of her and uses this as an excuse to end it.

Julie later starts dating Eivind, who abandons his own girlfriend, Sunniva, for her. Eivind is everything Aksel was not. He, like Julie, does not want children and is not constrained by the rigid idea of the future. This romance, however, comes to an end when she realises Eivind is not her intellectual equal. She realises she is pregnant before she can do anything about it. Julie meets Aksel’s brother at work and discovers that her ex-boyfriend has terminal pancreatic cancer.

What Happens to Julie’s Baby When The Worst Person in the World Ends?

Julie becomes ill in ‘Chapter 11: Positive.’ She takes a home pregnancy test, and her suspicions are confirmed – she is pregnant. She has no idea what to do at first. Eivind is Julie’s father, but their relationship is gradually worsening, and she is looking for a way out. Furthermore, she has only recently learned of Aksel’s sickness.

She goes to see Aksel while battling with escalating inner turmoil. The following moments could be seen as the protagonist’s frantic attempt to find solace from a dying guy and affirmation for her abilities to be a mother from the man who sincerely wanted to start a family with her.

Julie’s reaching out to Aksel may be both selfish and selfless on her part. However, we can fairly infer that her presence made his final days more bearable. Julie eventually tells Eivind about the pregnancy, and they split ways so she may determine what she wants to do. But she is not required to make a decision. Julie has a miscarriage one day when she is in the shower. She truly appears relieved afterward.

Why doesn’t Julie go back to see Aksel one more time?

Even if Julie mistreated him, it’s evident that Aksel has been a significant part of her life. He had been on her mind since she saw the interview. A substantial portion of her has come to regret her decisions. She seemed to have begun to consider the prospect of reconciliation, but then she learns of his illness.

Julie is a flawed character with many flaws. She has a tendency to be quite egocentric and even nasty. Because she feels stuck in her relationship with Eivind, she lashes out at him when he tries to compliment her writing. It follows the same pattern as her scorched earth mindset, which she displayed before when she broke up with Aksel. In an interview, Trier noted that his protagonist is “in that perpetual period of existential crises that some of us go through.” She is in her early thirties and has no idea what she wants to do with her life, both professionally and personally.

The film ‘The Worst Person in the World’ emphasises the value of making errors in life. Not everyone has it all figured out by the age of 30. Often, it takes a life-changing experience to restore a sense of self-worth. For Julie, Aksel’s death and the miscarriage appear to play that role in her life. She does not pay Aksel one last visit after discovering that he will not survive the night. Instead, she spends the night strolling through Oslo’s streets and alleys, dealing with her sadness on her own. When the sun rises in the morning, it lights her face, signalling a bright future ahead of her.

What Is the Importance of the Film’s Epilogue?

The epilogue cements Julie’s transformation. It does the same for Eivind in a minor way. A voice-over, the mushroom-trip scene, and the time-freeze scene all examine Julie’s self-doubts and inner problems. Some time has gone between Aksel’s death and the epilogue. Julie is now a successful photographer, and Eivind has a family. Both have clearly changed since the last time we saw them. Julie, in particular, has come to embrace herself and found peace as a result. Unlike in the past, her identity is not dependent on others. She has faced her fair share of adversity and uncertainty, but she has triumphed.