# What Happens at the End of Rosemary's Baby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854 "2009-06-15T17:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/61 "2009-06-18T17:07:45Z")
Can someone put in spoiler tags the actual plot twist? I’ve read numerous summaries of this story and I see a linear plot. I assume the summaries have somehow glossed over the twist as if it were obvious. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/62 "2009-06-18T19:19:30Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Can someone put in spoiler tags the actual plot twist? I’ve read numerous summaries of this story and I see a linear plot. I assume the summaries have somehow glossed over the twist as if it were obvious. > > Thanks. No prob. [Spoiler]Bud Corliss is the guy who’s impregnated/kills Dorothy because he’s afraid she’ll get cut off and he won’t get the family funds. The thing is, the way the story is written (third person), Bud is only referred to as “he.” So we don’t know the name of the murderer. When Ellen investigates, she thinks that the guy must be one of two guys that her sister met in an English class. The reader is equally in the dark. She goes on a sort of date with a guy who dated Dorothy BEFORE Bud got her knocked up. The thing is, Ellen is corresponding by letter to a guy we know only as Bud, her boyfriend. At one point, Bud kills the guy she went on a date with and tells her he must be the one. But when we realize it’s Bud, we’re all, whoa, smooth. Sorry, I’m not doing it justice. But it’s a very good twist![/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/63 "2009-06-19T13:57:48Z")
The Stephen King segment on A Kiss Before Dying is also from Danse Macabre. If anyone thinks King can’t write, read that and his On Writing and you will change your mind. I wish I could get my annotated Rosemary’s Baby published, but no such luck. It’ nice to know some people would want a copy.😃 ETA: The moment Ellen said “Bud” in A Kiss Before Dying is one of the most amazing “OHMIGOD” moments in literature. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/64 "2009-06-19T14:54:21Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I’m pretty sure she did. I’m not sure at exactly what point, but I do remember reading that and thinking, yay, finally a reaction! It was kind of frightening the way she reacted to the part where he told her he’d gone ahead with baby night even though she’d passed out. (That is, feeling upset and wronged but not leaving him and pressing rape charges and getting over it as soon as she realized she was pregnant.) Don’t you think that’s how **most** American wives would have reacted to the situation in 1967? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/65 "2009-06-19T15:46:15Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Don’t you think that’s how **most** American wives would have reacted to the situation in 1967? I never thought about it–the scene in Rosemary’s Baby just seems so obviously like rape to me (you wake up naked from passing out and you’ve got claw marks all over you and your husband tells you he went through with sex–ugh!). It’s a frightening thought, but that’s probably correct, as much as I’d like to think that most women would recognize that as rape. Even today, many women are raped by people close to them and don’t realize it’s rape right away or tell themselves it was just something unpleasant. It’s scary. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/66 "2009-06-19T16:20:39Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I never thought about it–the scene in Rosemary’s Baby just seems so obviously like rape to me (you wake up naked from passing out and you’ve got claw marks all over you and your husband tells you he went through with sex–ugh!). It’s a frightening thought, but that’s probably correct, as much as I’d like to think that most women would recognize that as rape. Even today, many women are raped by people close to them and don’t realize it’s rape right away or tell themselves it was just something unpleasant. It’s scary. Bear in mind also, that 1967 a husband had an actual legal right to the use of his wife’s body; it was no crime for him to force himself on her. (That has since been changed in most states.) ---
**Author:** ![kkfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9a140/32.png) [@kkfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kkfan)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/67 "2015-01-28T22:23:17Z")
In the move the last thing I remember seeing was she looked at the baby and screamed and the movie ended ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/68 "2015-01-28T22:26:46Z")
> [@kkfan](#): > > In the move the last thing I remember seeing was she looked at the baby and screamed and the movie ended Wow… Rosemary’s baby is now a Zombie ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/69 "2015-01-28T22:43:12Z")
Yeah, I don’t remember anything about her nursing the baby and looking at it maternally. I remember waiting the whole movie to see what the baby looked like and being disapoointed that they never showed it. Could there be two versions? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/70 "2015-01-29T15:03:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I wish I could get my annotated Rosemary’s Baby published, but no such luck. It’ nice to know some people would want a copy.😃 Yes, you totally can. Go on Amazon. They have a place to self publish your book on Kindle. And instructions on how to do so. People can buy and download it from there. Even if you make only a few bucks, it’s published for free! ETA: Yaaaargh! Zombie thread! And I am even re-reading World War Z right now! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/71 "2015-01-31T16:37:18Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > Wow… Rosemary’s baby is now a Zombie So is Ira Levin.😃 > [@Anaamika](#): > > Yes, you totally can. Go on Amazon. They have a place to self publish your book on Kindle. And instructions on how to do so. People can buy and download it from there. Even if you make only a few bucks, it’s published for free! Wow! Things have changed. And I will look into that. THANKS! ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854/72 "2015-01-31T17:05:21Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Yes, you totally can. Go on Amazon. They have a place to self publish your book on Kindle. And instructions on how to do so. People can buy and download it from there. Even if you make only a few bucks, it’s published for free! > ETA: Yaaaargh! Zombie thread! And I am even re-reading World War Z right now! > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > So is Ira Levin.😃 > > Wow! Things have changed. And I will look into that. > > THANKS! I’d love to read the annotated version, too - it’s one of my favorite books - but be careful: since the original text is undoubtedly still copyrighted, you couldn’t legally publish annotated version without permission, which would be very hard to get. Unless you could figure out some way of _just_ publishing the annotations, that is… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-at-the-end-of-rosemarys-baby/499854.md?page=3)