Second Coming

Jackie discovers she is pregnant despite being in her forties and believing she was infertile after previously suffering miscarriages. The film leaves the origins of the pregnancy ambiguous, with Jackie later claiming in counseling that she believes she is experiencing a virgin birth or immaculate conception, leading her to state she is carrying the Second Coming.

The discovery occurs early in the film, setting up the central mystery that drives the family’s emotional unraveling.

Jackie becomes emotionally withdrawn and less intimate with Mark because she is conflicted about whether to continue the pregnancy, fearful of another miscarriage, and troubled by her own uncertainty about how the pregnancy occurred. Her distant behavior reflects her internal struggle between faith, doubt, and fear of losing another child.

Jackie discusses the pregnancy with Bernie using indirect language about whether she should continue it, foreshadowing her deepening crisis.

The water that falls on Jackie in the bathroom is a symbolic motif that appears three times, intensifying each occurrence. It represents Jackie's emotional turmoil, her feeling of being beyond her control, overwhelmed by forces and possibly a cleansing or purifying force related to her mysterious pregnancy. The final monsoon-like surge coincides with her emotional crisis.

The first water scene occurs early, establishing the motif before it intensifies later in the film.

JJ draws wing-like symbols on misty windows as a form of distraction and expression. The wings connect to the bird motif that runs throughout the film, reflecting his subconscious processing of the family’s stress and perhaps his own hopes or fears about the baby’s arrival. Bird imagery appears consistently around him, linking his inner world to larger symbolic themes.

The wing drawings foreshadow the bird rescue subplot and the film’s ending, where birds represent renewal and transcendence.

JJ finds a friendly magpie and later attempts to coax another wild bird into his hands, but Lauryn handles it roughly and injures it. JJ tries to rehabilitate the bird, but it dies, leading him to bury it solemnly in the backyard. This event introduces the theme of life, death, and renewal that culminates in the film’s final scene, and it reflects JJ’s powerlessness to save something vulnerable.

The bird’s death and burial foreshadow the final scene where the baby touches the grave and the bird rises again, suggesting spiritual renewal.

Mark reacts with fear and anger because he has a history of miscarriages with Jackie, and the unexpected pregnancy triggers trauma from those losses. He questions why Jackie has been distant and demands to know the timing of conception, fearing another loss or that Jackie has been unfaithful. His reaction is compounded by feeling excluded from the emotional crisis surrounding the pregnancy.

Mark’s history of miscarriages is referenced during his confrontation with Jackie, explaining his intense emotional response.

Jackie attempts self-harm with a sharp instrument while pregnant, overwhelmed by fear, doubt, and the weight of her mysterious situation. She is struggling with whether to continue the pregnancy, grappling with her visions and belief that she is delivering something miraculous, and feeling isolated from Mark. The crisis leads to hospitalization, where both she and the baby survive.

Jackie’s increasing distance, the symbolic water imagery, and her discussions with Bernie about continuing the pregnancy all build toward this breaking point.

During compulsory counseling, Jackie reveals she believes she is experiencing a virgin birth and that her child is the Second Coming. This belief stems from her inability to explain the impossible pregnancy and her psychological state during the crisis. The film keeps this ambiguous, is it a genuine spiritual experience, a mental health episode, or symbolic meaning she has attached to her situation?

Jackie’s discussions with Bernie about the pregnancy’s origins and her increasingly strange behavior foreshadow this belief becoming central to her counseling.

At the baby’s first birthday party, JJ carries the infant to the bird’s grave. The baby places a hand on the grave, and the healed bird rises from the earth and returns to the sky. This wordless, miraculous moment suggests spiritual renewal and connects the child’s birth with the bird’s death, implying the cycle of life, death, and resurrection that the film has been building toward. It offers a bittersweet, ambiguous sense of hope.

The wing symbols drawn throughout the film, the bird’s death and burial, and the film’s symbolic water motifs all foreshadow this moment of renewal.

Mark and Jackie separate after Jackie’s hospitalization and counseling, as the strain of her mysterious pregnancy, her crisis of faith, and the emotional distance between them become too much to sustain. A year later, they attempt a fragile reconciliation during the baby’s first birthday party, watching the child take its first steps together, though the film leaves their future uncertain.

The confrontation where Mark demands answers and Jackie’s subsequent self-harm mark the turning point that leads to their separation.