Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘The Abandons,’ the war for land and love between two families leads to bloodshed and mayhem in the town of Angel’s Ridge. Constance Van Ness wants to buy the land owned by Fiona Nolan and three other families, but she meets constant pushback because none of them wants to part with their hard-earned property. Things get worse when Constance’s son, Willem, goes missing, and she suspects that Fiona and her children, especially her daughter, Dahlia, had something to do with it. Her anger comes out in all sorts of ways, leading to the loss of innocent lives, the most heartbreaking of which perhaps is what happens to Sweetie the dog. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sweetie Becomes Collateral Damage in the War Between Constance and Fiona
One of the men who owns the piece of land that Constance has set her eyes upon is Walter Paxton. He is a solitary man who runs his farm by himself. His wife and children died a few years back due to an illness, and to be close to them even in death, he buried them under his own house. With them gone, the only soul that he became attached to was Sweetie. The scruffy dog would follow him everywhere, doing what she was told. She was the only one Walter showered with love, because as soon as any outsider came into his farm, even if it was any of the three other families that owned the land alongside him, he would develop an unwelcoming demeanour, leading them to focus on the work and leave as soon as it was done. This detachment is what keeps Walter in complete darkness about Willem’s fate.
He has no idea that the Van Ness boy showed up at Fiona’s house and tried to rape her daughter, following which Dahlia stabbed him with a pitchfork, and Fiona suffocated him to death. The next morning, when Constance Van Ness shows up with the town sheriff to find out if Walter had seen Willem in the area, especially around the Van Ness house, he doesn’t have anything to add. He is already angry with the Van Ness family for eyeing his land and sabotaging him and the other three families, pushing them into signing a deal. The dog follows his master, so when Walter goes on guard with the arrival of Constance, Sweetie becomes vigilant too. After the sheriff is done talking to Walter, Constance, sitting on her horse, takes a few steps forward. Before she can say anything to Walter, Sweetie’s sense of protecting her master is triggered, and she starts barking at Constance, leading her horse to become agitated.
It is when Walter asks her to back off that the dog stops barking and leaves the scene, following her master. The dog doesn’t realise that Walter has not asked her to stop because he is scared she will bite Constance; it’s because he doesn’t want the Van Ness matriarch to harm the dog. His fear comes true later that night when he finds Sweetie’s dead body. It turns out that Constance did not take being barked at like that well, and to teach Walter a lesson, she sent her men in the cover of darkness to kill the dog. She knew how much Sweetie meant to Walter, and because she had already sabotaged the other families by killing their animals in different ways, she didn’t think twice before doing the same to Walter. So, the strange, evil men crept up in the evening and killed poor, innocent Sweetie.
Sweetie Serves Her Master Even in Death
When Walter finds Sweetie’s dead body, he is heartbroken and confused. His dog never hurt anyone, so he doesn’t understand why anyone would want to kill her. Still, he knows that somehow Constance Van Ness is responsible for it, and at first, he wonders if this is the punishment for something he did. He takes Sweetie to Fiona’s house, only to discover that a different racket is unfolding there. When he enters, he sees Fiona and the others gathered around a table discussing something. He shows them Sweetie and asks why she would have been killed, but as he steps a little closer, he sees Willem’s dead body and gets his answer. He puts two and two together and realises that this is why Constance was at her door in the morning.
Seeing that Constance didn’t hesitate to kill Sweetie just because she barked at her, it becomes clear to Fiona’s group that if the truth about Willem’s death comes out, all of them will have to pay the price. They’d already taken a vote about whether to hide the secret or tell it to the authorities and let them handle the rest. Initially, Fiona was about to lose the vote because the other two families agreed to take it to the cops, but when Walter arrives, he tips the scales by voting in favor of keeping it a secret. Now, the question is how to dispose of the body, which is where Sweetie serves her purpose once again.
The group knows that they need to dispose of the body in a way that it wouldn’t be found by anyone else. Since they need to dig a deep grave for Willem and Walter needs to dig a grave for Sweetie, it is decided that Willem should be buried under Sweetie. That way, he will get a proper grave and a burial, and none will be the wiser about it. Even if someone digs it up, they will find Sweetie’s body there and move on, believing that Willem is not there. This way, even after death, Sweetie helps Walter and the others and keeps them safe, just like she did when she was alive.
Read More: The Abandons Ending Explained: Who Survives the Fire?
You must be logged in to post a comment.