Aahana Swrup
The psychological thriller film, ‘Somewhere Quiet’ follows a perplexing story that unfolds between three people in the middle of the woods. The central couple— Meg Rhoads and Scott Whitman— drive out to the husband’s family cabin for the former to embark on a healing journey from her recent abduction. Yet, the underlying tension between the couple and the wife’s inherent distrust of her surroundings persists, leading to complications. For the same reason, once Madelin, a Whitman cousin with a penchant for getting under Meg’s skin, makes her presence known in a nearby cabin— it pushes at the woman’s buttons, loosening her grips of reality.
While Madelin enters the narrative with an obvious aura of trouble, she comes with another companion— Minnow, her dog, kept on a tight leash. Even though Minnow stays out of danger for the most part— since trouble brews primarily within Meg’s house and her head— the story’s perpetually tense environment calls for concern over the friendly canine. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Minnow the Dog Meets an Unfortunate End
Minnow, the dog’s primary role in the story, remains how his existence reflects upon his owner, Madelin. The woman generally has an unnerving presence as she occupies the space beside Meg and Scott. While she has a longstanding— and perhaps concerningly intimate— relationship with her cousin, her relationship with Meg remains a different reality. Throughout their multiple interactions, Madelin either attempts to undermine the other woman or discredit her experiences. The latter remains a common theme shared by the two Whitman cousins.
In one instance, Madelin even uses Minnow to make a cryptic point about control over others when Meg tries to feed him a bite of her food at the dinner table. The same only further intensifies the redhead woman’s unpleasant disposition as a character, showcasing that she retains weird power dynamics in her connection with the one being she’s supposed to care for. Therefore, the nature of their relationship as an owner and its pet further puts her character in a suspicious light, inciting a natural call for distrust.
Nevertheless, despite his on-screen existence remaining so inextricably tied with Madelin’s, Minnow meets his end without her on a lonely woodside road. Throughout the film, Meg undergoes a significant psychologically challenging spiral as her trauma, Scott’s gaslighting, and her inability to trust her senses keep pushing her toward the edge. Therefore, during one such instance, Meg attempts to escape from the coastal area on her motorbike, driving while under the influence of alcohol.
During the bike ride, Meg glimpses an old woman who has been haunting her consciousness for days and ends up getting in a car crash after failing to notice Minnow standing in the middle of the road. Consequently, Minnow dies a brutal and unnecessary death, going on to be half-buried in the woods by a manic and half-conscious Meg. In fact, since the line between reality and nightmares has been so blurred for the woman recently, she doesn’t even realize the actuality of Minnow’s death until the next day. Eventually, Madelin forces Meg to help her look for her pet, and the duo comes across him, confirming his death.
Read More: Somewhere Quiet Ending, Explained
