Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Cape Fear‘ begins with the release of a man who has served seventeen years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Anna and Tom Bowden put Max Cady behind bars for the brutal murder of his pregnant wife, Melissa. He served seventeen years before his ex came forward to confess she did it, and he was let go. While he may not have killed his wife, it doesn’t mean he did not commit any other crimes or that he is not capable of murder. In fact, over the course of ten episodes, as he chases after the Bowdens, we see him commit all sorts of heinous crimes, including murder. In the finale, particularly, he shows just how brutal he can get when pure hatred takes him over. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Crystal, Luke, and Robert Bear the Brunt of Max’s Anger
In uncovering the backstory of Max Cady, we discover that he had a very violent childhood. After his mother died, he came to America to live with his dad, who would put him in a dog cage as punishment. He was raised alongside his stepsister, Crystal, who would torment him, only later for her to become obsessed with him to the point that she started killing people himself. No one knows how Max was before them, but having spent his childhood and adolescence being tortured by them had an indelible influence on his personality. So, for whatever Max has now become, he blames them for it. Still, embedded in this hatred is a deep-seated fear of his father and a complicated repulsion and attraction for Crystal, which is why perhaps he doesn’t kill them.
Or at least, he puts them second on his list. It is likely that he would have come around to them after he was done with the Bowdens. Or perhaps, he would have preferred to stay away from them for the rest of his life. Whatever his intention may have been, he falls back into the orbit of his tormentors, and this time, he decides to exact his revenge. In her desire to be with Max, Crystal offered him Anna on a silver platter. However, by the time he arrived at her boat, Anna had escaped. Instead of his former lawyer, he finds Crystal, Robert, and a strange boy fighting amongst themselves. Crystal knows he will be angry about not finding Anna, so she tries to reel him in differently.
Talking about their childhood, she asks for forgiveness for making his life difficult, but also points out that he wasn’t very good to her either. By now, Max has become so frustrated that he cannot bear to hear one more word from her mouth. So, he shoots her in the belly. When Luke, a boy Max has never seen before and has no idea who he is, speaks for Crystal, Max shoots him too. This leaves Robert, who thinks he still has a psychological hold over his son. However, Max is not afraid of him anymore. He punches Robert in the face, rendering him unconscious. When the old man wakes up, he finds himself in a dog cage. The roles have reversed now, and his son has no intention of letting him go. In fact, Max wishes never to see him or Crystal ever again. So, he decides to say goodbye for the last time.
Max Brutally Kills an Important Family Member
Max could have simply left Crystal and Luke bleeding and Robert in a cage. The two of them would have likely bled out, with Robert being forced to watch them die, while he waited for a rescue that may or may not come. That would have been torture enough. But Max has no intention of letting any of them. He throws Crystal and Luke into the cabin and shuts the door, leaving no way for them to escape. As Luke falls beside Crystal, Max gets a look at the scar on his body, but he doesn’t stop to think about how the boy may have gotten it. With Robert inside the cage, he pours gasoline over the entire boat, then sets it on fire. He cuts the anchor, so the burning boat drifts away on the river, while the cries of his victims ring out in the wilderness.
Given the circumstances, there is no way anyone on that boat could have survived. Being inside a cage and on the deck, Robert has no chance of escaping the fire. Crystal and Luke would have had a bit more time. Being trapped inside the cabin, they would have had a few more minutes before the fire reached them from the deck. Still, they are both fatally wounded, and even if they found a way out of the boat in time, they’d still have to swim across the river, and neither of them looks strong enough to be able to do that. So, if the bullet wound and the fire don’t get them, the water surely will.
Ironically, by killing the two people he hated most, Max also ends up killing the one person he would have loved best. It isn’t until much later that Anna reveals to him that not only is Luke his son, but he is also the son he had with Melissa. Crystal killed his wife and stole his child, giving it to his father, who put the boy through the same torture that he once inflicted on Max. Had Max stopped and taken a bit more time to understand things, he could have discovered that Luke was Adam, prevented his horrible death, and loved him as his son. Thus, in a sardonic twist of fate, once again, Robert and Crystal succeeded in ruining his life all over again.
Read More: Who Killed Melissa in Cape Fear?
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