Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Uglies’ imagines a world ruled by extreme beauty standards, denouncing which leads people to be branded rebels and outcasts. It is in this world that we follow the story of Tally Youngblood, who has grown up with the only desire to receive her transformation surgery at the age of 16 and become Pretty. While she is still Ugly, she forms a strong friendship with a boy named Peris, nicknamed Nose. They both have a scar on their palms, which is referenced repeatedly throughout the film. With each mention of the scar, its importance takes a new meaning. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Scar is a Mark of Peris and Tally’s Friendship
Tally and Peris were sent to live with the Uglies, who were yet to receive their surgeries, as kids. Abandoned by their parents because they didn’t look a certain way was meant to take a toll on the kids who felt utterly alone. It was at such a time that they found each other and became best friends. While Peris found comfort in their friendship, Tally became obsessed with getting the surgery, mainly because she wanted to become perfect like her mother with golden eyes. At one point, Tally so intently stares at the screen with her Pretty version that Peris has to take it from her forcefully. Due to this, the screen breaks, and Peris cuts his hand.
Tally feels bad for her friend’s cut, but this is also when it becomes clear to her that Peris sees her even when no one else does. They promise to be each other’s friend even when they are Ugly and when they have become Pretty. To make it more special, Tally cuts her own hand to get the same wound as Peris. So, in a way, they are forever connected by the scar, which they promise to keep even after the surgery.
Years later, when the year of their sixteenth birthday arrives, Peris is the first one to go for surgery, while Tally has to wait for two more months. She is worried that becoming Pretty and moving to the City might change her best friend, but he assures her that he will still be the same. He promises to keep the scar as a mark of their undying friendship, which is why it is shocking for Tally when she discovers that he didn’t keep that promise. She realizes that the surgery has changed him for the worse. He doesn’t seem to care about their friendship anymore, and the fact that he chose to remove the scar shows that he is not the friend Tally had loved and cared for for so long.
The Scar Represents Their Humanity
Like almost everyone else, Peris and Tally grow up with the dream of becoming pretty. It isn’t until much later that Tally discovers that the transformation surgery is not good for any of them. A lot of people have died in the process, and the ones who survived had lesions on their brains, which turned them submissive. It isn’t that the regime isn’t aware of this side effect. In fact, they want those brain lesions in their subjects because it means that everyone will be under control at all times.
Considering this, Peris and Tally’s scar takes a new meaning. Tally realizes that Peris losing his scar means that he has lost his mind to the regime and has become their happy-delusional puppet. So, later, when she finds his hand with the wound, replicating the same scar, she feels hopeful that her friend remembers who he is and what their friendship means. Moreover, in the end, when Tally sacrifices herself to become a test subject for the cure for brain lesions, she needs something to remind her that she is not a lost cause. Even though the lesion will affect her as well, she has to keep a part of herself alive to be able to fight back. And this is where the scar comes in.
In the end, after Tally becomes Pretty, it remains uncertain whether she, too, has become a brain-fogged version of herself. That is, until we see the scar on her hand, still there after the surgery. The fact that she decided to keep it proves that she is still herself deep down and will be able to fight back whatever the surgery did to her brain. Considering this, the scar becomes her anchor, which will keep her tied to her past self, lest she floats away and lose herself completely.
Read More: Uglies: What are the White Tiger Orchids? What do They Do?
