The Grandmother (2021) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Pilar is revealed to be a supernatural entity capable of moving through the apartment at night, causing deaths, and ultimately transferring her soul into another body. Her powers become apparent when she kills Adela and survives the nursing home fire by appearing back at her Madrid apartment unharmed. The film presents her as something more than human, though the exact nature of her entity is left ambiguous.

Foreshadowing: Early scenes hint at Pilar's supernatural nature through Susana's disturbing nightmares and her suspicion that Pilar moves through the apartment at night.

• Pilar
• supernatural powers
• possession
• entity

At Susana's childhood birthday party, Eva and Julita performed a strange ritual where they cut locks of hair from the young Susana. This traumatic event marked the beginning of Susana's nightmares and planted the seed for Eva's later return. The ritual foreshadows the supernatural connection between the women and Pilar's influence over Susana's life.

Foreshadowing: The diary entry about this birthday party is the first time Susana connects her childhood to the present supernatural events.

• childhood ritual
• hair cutting
• birthday party
• Eva
• Julita

Pilar kills Adela because Susana hired her to help care for Pilar, which threatens Pilar's control over Susana. When Susana tries to move Pilar to a nursing home, Pilar's possessive nature triggers her supernatural abilities, resulting in Adela's death. This demonstrates Pilar's willingness to eliminate anyone who threatens her grip on Susana.

Foreshadowing: Susana's earlier attempts to place Pilar in a nursing home set up the conflict that leads to Adela's death.

• Adela death
• Pilar kills
• domestic worker
• nursing home plan

Pilar never stayed at the nursing home. After Susana took her there, Pilar used her supernatural powers to leave undetected and return to her Madrid apartment. When the fire broke out at the nursing home, killing all the guests, Pilar was already back in her apartment, seemingly unfazed by the chaos she indirectly caused.

Foreshadowing: This moment reveals Pilar's supernatural mobility and foreshadows her ultimate escape from death.

• nursing home fire
• Pilar survives
• supernatural escape

When Eva calls immediately after Susana poisons Pilar, she mistakes Susana's youthful voice for Pilar's, asking "Are you sure?" This reveals that Eva has been communicating with Pilar throughout the film, not Susana. The call exposes Eva's awareness of the supernatural identity swap that is about to occur, as she addresses the new occupant of Pilar's body.

Foreshadowing: Eva's question foreshadows the soul transfer that happens moments later in the bathroom.

• Eva phone call
• Are you sure
• identity
• Pilar voice

After Susana poisons Pilar, Pilar uses her remaining powers to move objects around the apartment and trap Susana. In the bathroom, Susana discovers a painting of young Pilar that now shows her own face. Pilar then opens her mouth and transfers her soul into Susana's body, effectively erasing Susana's identity and consciousness. The film ends with Eva arriving to be with the now-possessed Susana.

Foreshadowing: The painting changing to show Susana confirms the identity swap before it physically occurs.

• Susana possessed
• soul transfer
• identity swap
• ending

The young blond naked woman who greets the elderly woman in the opening scene is Eva. This scene is revealed to be a flash-forward showing the film's ending, where Eva (now in Pilar's former apartment) greets the new occupant. The opening is presented out of sequence to establish the supernatural tone and the cyclical nature of possession.

Foreshadowing: This opening directly mirrors the film's final scene, confirming the cyclical nature of Pilar's pattern.

• Eva
• opening scene
• young woman
• naked

Susana cannot remember Eva because she repressed the traumatic childhood memory of the birthday party ritual. The diary entry resurfaces when she returns to Pilar's apartment, revealing that the hair-cutting ritual and the encounter with Eva and Julita were so disturbing that Susana buried them in her subconscious. The supernatural events in the apartment trigger the return of these repressed memories.

Foreshadowing: The nightmares Susana experiences throughout the film are manifestations of these repressed memories surfacing.

• repressed memory
• childhood
• Susana forgets
• diary

The painting of Pilar in her youth serves as a visual metaphor for identity and the soul. When Susana looks at it near the end, the image has changed to show Susana herself rather than young Pilar. This signals that Pilar's soul is about to transfer into Susana's body. The painting functions as a supernatural conduit that reflects the identity swap before it physically occurs.

Foreshadowing: The changed painting immediately precedes Pilar's possession of Susana.

• painting
• identity
• soul transfer
• symbolism