Abhiroop Das
Directed by Tyler Perry, Netflix’s ‘Doing Life‘ follows an uncommon dynamic between a former correctional officer and a former prisoner. Some months ago, a prison riot broke out at the correctional facility Anika Morrison worked at, and she almost lost her life before Carousel White, then a prisoner himself, put himself between her and the violent rioters. Now out on parole, Carousel hopes to turn his life around, and the first step in that is to meet Anika, who is herself finding new beginnings after becoming a single mother.
Carousel and Anika’s budding friendship gradually turns into a romance as they come to find moments of happiness with each other. However, social prejudices soon begin to impinge on their relationship, until they are forced to confront the doubts that might not be wholly external. As the romance drama movie reaches towards an end, these fissures come out into the open, and whether Carousel and Anika’s relationship might survive them becomes a question in itself. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Doing Life Plot Synopsis
‘Doing Life’ begins with a chilling scene of a prison riot unfolding within the span of minutes. As a group of inmates takes two correctional officers hostage, Officer Anika Morrison locks the control room and makes a last-ditch attempt to save her life. This proves to be futile, however, as several inmates break the door down and try to sexually assault her, only to be knocked out by another inmate, named Carousel White. After freeing Anika from the scene, he drags her to his own cell and holds the gate down from the inside, even getting stabbed numerous times in the process. While help eventually arrives and the riot is subdued, Anika can only share one last glance with Carousel as she is taken away.
As the story jumps a few months forward, we meet Anika again, this time as she delivers her baby girl, Nia. With Anika’s partner having fled the city, it is up to her and her sisters to raise Nia. The sisters’ mother, Cathy, is also revealed to be battling with cancer, and as things grow increasingly dire and money runs thin, Anika has no choice but to work at a retail store. In the meantime, however, she begins exchanging letters with Carousel, who expresses a sense of happiness and redemption at having saved her life. As it turns out, Carousel shot someone at the age of 14 and was tried as an adult. It’s been more than a decade since, and when he is finally let out on parole, the first thing he does is to meet Anika, and their chemistry is apparent from the very first instant.
As Anika and Carousel begin hanging out more often and eventually go on dates, the feelings between them only grow stronger. However, things take a turn when Anika’s family discovers her relationship, especially with Cathy taking offense to the fact that Carousel is an ex-convict. As the couple separates from the family, time goes by fast, until months later, Anika’s help is needed again in taking care of Cathy, who is on her deathbed. In the days that follow, Carousel takes exceptional care of Cathy, bringing her to eventually change her mind about him. At the same time, he looks into her property dispute to learn that all is not what it seems, but throughout all of this, his relationship with Anika hangs in the balance.
Doing Life Ending: Do Carousel and Anika End Up Together?
‘Doing Life’ ends with Carousel and Anika getting their happy ending after years of struggling through their individual lives. In a powerful moment toward the end, Carousel introduces Nia as his daughter, showing that in his mind, there is no such conception of othering Anika and her family. While we don’t see the duo get married in the movie, it is clear that they have decided to continue this journey as a pair, and nothing in the world can stop them anymore. Despite Anika’s family loathing the relationship and discriminating against Carousel at the beginning, by the end, it becomes apparent that his love for Anika is far more potent than any other relationship she has in the story.
Despite coming from entirely different backgrounds, the thing that ultimately binds Anika and Carousel is the simple fact that they know what it’s like to feel lonely. It isn’t just something they feel on a personal level either, as their whole world is centered in a way that systemically alienates both ex-convicts and single moms, in their own ways. Over the course of the film, the two create a relationship where they can heal each other’s invisible wounds and grow stronger together. Despite being rejected by family and society at large, at the end of the day, they still have each other, and that is all that seems to matter. A wrench almost comes into this picture-perfect relationship, however, when Anika begins to suspect that her partner might be having an affair.
When Anika learns from her sister that Carousel was at an expensive restaurant with another woman, she briefly begins to have doubts about their relationship. Upon asking him, however, she learns that the woman is actually a lawyer who’s been helping him out. Reflecting on her missteps, Anika confesses that she was triggered, and interestingly enough, Carousel states that everyone is. While it fits into the context of Anika having recently lost her mother, it also serves as a broader piece of social commentary. A lot of ‘Doing Life’ is about believing in second chances, and the fact that both Anika and Carousel give each other that crucial second chance is what allows their love story to bloom in full.
Will Anika Get Into Medical School? Does Carousel Become a Paralegal?
A major reveal that comes in the final moments of the film is that Carousel has been secretly collecting money to pay for Anika’s med school, so that she can pursue her dream of becoming a nurse at long last. The seeds of this arc are planted well in advance, when Carousel tries to bridge things between Anika and her mother, only to receive the latter’s scathing remarks about how he has killed Anika’s potential with this relationship. While it has always been Anika’s dream to be a nurse, her life struggles, be it an insufficient income or the stress of juggling personal and professional work, force her to abandon that dream, seemingly for good. When Cathy rebukes Carousel for essentially killing Anika by not allowing her to pursue her dreams, it is, on some level, also a comment on herself, indicating the extent of self-hatred Cathy feels in her moment of great vulnerability.
Instead of being put off or hurt by Cathy’s words, Carousel understands the nuances of the situation and decides to slowly build up to a future where he can support Anika’s future and not feel like a burden. Though Anika never pressures him to do any of this, it is a welcome surprise, giving her a chance at the life she has always wished for. While we see Anika in two professions throughout the movie, at no point does she seem happy with the rhythm her life has settled into. By becoming a nurse, she has the potential to switch things up and break the cycle her mother spoke of in her dying breath. All of this is only possible because of the trust she puts into Carousel, whether consciously or subconsciously.
As for Carousel himself, a new future opens up when his lawyer praises his knowledge of the law and his bullish nature when it comes to discussions. To that end, she even offers him a job as a paralegal, and given how well-read he is in the field, this seems to be the perfect job as well. Though we see Carousel dismiss the offer due to more immediate concerns, there is a good chance that he’ll come back to it sooner rather than later. There’s also his passion to be an artist, and seeing that a painting he made in prison went on to fetch tens of thousands of dollars, there is a pretty good chance that he may go on to be a stellar artist. With such prospects at hand, it truly seems that life has changed for the better for both him and Anika.
Who Stole Cathy’s Money? Why?
The final moments of the film reveal that the person who had been secretly stealing Cathy’s money is none other than her eldest daughter, Trina. Though Cathy spends the entire film believing that it’s her ex-husband and his legal team that have been withholding her inheritance money, in reality, it is Trina and her corrupt lawyer who use a series of twisted legal loopholes to siphon all that sum and use it for themselves. Upon being confronted, Trina claims that it is simply the money she is owed, having paid the house’s mortgage and taken care of her mother for so many years, but reality turns out to be far more complicated. To begin with, Carousel debunks the first claim very quickly, as Cathy’s mortgages, much like most of the family bills, are paid as a result of group effort. As for Trina’s latter claim, it is where things get more ambiguous.
The movie presents an interesting dichotomy with regard to family dynamics between a mother and her daughters, especially in a time of crisis. While it is indeed the case that all three daughters pour their efforts into taking care of their sick mother, the movie makes a conscious decision not to depict this in shades of black and white. Instead, we get a deeper look into the physical and psychological frustrations that can come with taking care of someone for prolonged periods of time. However, where Trina takes a wrong step is in claiming that she alone deserves to have money for how she has helped her mother over the years. In doing so, she not only strips her mother of a closure that she desperately sought, but also her sisters, who have worked just as hard for Cathy’s care.
In a cruel twist of fate, Cathy passes away without ever knowing the truth about what happened to her money. This comes right after Trina declares that telling her the truth might kill her, and while this doesn’t happen, the thematic implications nonetheless remain. Throughout her life, Cathy was wronged both on a systemic level and by the people around her. With her own place of work giving her cancer, and later her own family denying her the money that she deserved, Cathy’s life comes to an end on the most tragic of notes. The legacy she leaves behind, however, is carried forward by Anika and Carousel, who truly become each other’s pillars, fulfilling Cathy’s deepest desire: for her family to be happy.
Read More: Is Doing Life Based on a True Story?
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