Rose Magbanua was done with the chaos that came with living in a city. She wanted peace of mind, and a job at a remote location was just what she’d been searching for. Benedict Mique’s Isolated is about the unexpected secrets Rose unveiled when she moved to a remote property for work. As a nurse, her salary was barely enough for her to make ends meet. Rose started to question her safety after a man attempted to rape her at an ATM. When she came across a job posting promising way more than she made, she considered moving to a suburban town for the sake of a better life. Rose’s mother handed her a rosary before she left to protect her from the monsters that roam the streets in broad daylight. Rose was impressed when she arrived at the property. A woman named Macbeth came to receive her at the bus stop. She said that her patient, Mr. Peter Coleman, suffered from dementia. He’d bought the vast property to start a hotel business, but it eventually failed, and he ended up living there alone. Rose was optimistic about starting her life afresh. The job wasn’t too complicated, the pay was good, and the air was fresh, but was it all a little too good to be true?
Spoiler Alert
Who was the man in black?
Soon after Rose settled into one of the villas on the property, she started to notice spirits all around her. They weren’t trying to attack her, but they wanted to communicate with her. Rose was petrified; at first, she thought it was the effect of the weed she’d been smoking, but she continued to see them even after she got rid of the drugs. Rose chose not to overreact, and she continued to serve Peter Coleman. He was not a difficult patient—some days he enjoyed chatting, while on others, he preferred silence. He often spoke of a woman named Ann; Rose assumed she was his deceased wife. He told Rose how deeply he missed her. When she asked him if he’d ever fallen in love with other women, he responded that he had. He admired all of his former nurses, but he complained about how they always wanted to leave, and that he ultimately had to freeze them in his memory. Rose assumed Peter had innocently mentioned whatever came to his mind, and she didn’t really pay it much mind. Even though Peter could barely do anything on his own, Rose was surprised when she noticed an empty bottle of his favorite drink lying in the bushes. She wondered why he’d lied to her when she’d asked him about the missing bottle.
One night, when Rose went to sleep, she got the feeling someone was in her room. She checked under her bed and saw a man dressed in black lying there. She grabbed hold of the gun that Macbeth had left her just in case she needed it. Rose ran as fast as she could and went to Peter’s villa. She locked the doors and windows and patiently waited for the perpetrator. Several hours passed, until it was morning already. Rose decided to bravely step out of the villa; locking themselves up indefinitely was not a viable option. As soon as she walked out of the villa, the man in black started to chase her. He tried to pin her down, and he knocked her unconscious. When she woke, she found herself tied to a chair. The young man in black explained that he didn’t intend to hurt her. He’d apparently arrived at the property in search of his girlfriend. She had been missing for months, and it took him days to find the property. But then Rose showed up, and he had to be all the more careful. He added that Macbeth knew his girlfriend, and he only found the place after following her. Even though he didn’t have any proof, he was certain that there was something wrong about the place. Suddenly, Peter came out of nowhere and bashed the man’s head in with an object. He untied Rose, and she fell asleep for a brief moment.
When she woke up, she found the young man tied to a chair, and Peter was seated close by with her gun in his hand. The young man begged Rose to free him. He said that she too would die on the property if she didn’t help him. When he mentioned that his girlfriend’s name was Ann, Rose realized that he was telling the truth. She remembered Peter mentioning Ann quite often, but she had no idea that Ann was a nurse who’d disappeared from the property. The man asked Rose to check his phone if she didn’t trust him. When Rose scrolled through the photos on his phone, she realized that Ann was one of the ghosts that had been haunting her. If the young man was telling the truth, then who’d killed Ann?
Was Peter a serial killer?
Peter Coleman turned out to be a serial killer in Isolated. By the time Rose realized that the young man, Felix, had been telling her the truth, it was already too late. When she tried to find the gun, Peter teased her that it was with him. Peter was no longer the vulnerable dementia patient Rose knew. She realized that Peter was not sick at all; he was a cunning old man who’d been waiting for the right moment to strike. When Rose tried to escape, Peter warned her to stay back. We learn that Peter was the one who’d asked Macbeth to leave a gun with Rose to create the illusion of safety. He always knew he would prey on her. Peter clarified that Ann was long gone, but she’d been brutally tortured, just like every victim of his, before he murdered her. Rose reminded him of Ann, and he took a sick pleasure in knowing that, just like Ann, one day, he would have complete control over her.
Peter loved comparing himself to an owl; just like the bird of prey, he pretended to be weak and waited to strike their target at the perfect time. Peter was abused by his mother as a child. She called him ‘weak’ and ‘useless’; he was always in shackles, and he had to wait for her to show mercy and feed him. He’d come to realize that torturing him gave his mother a sadistic joy, and he’d always craved the same happiness. One day, Peter read about the owl, and he was fascinated by the creature. He related to it, and he adopted their preying method. He set aside a sharp broken piece of ceramic plate, and he acted weak to gain his mother’s sympathy. When she came close to him, he stabbed her with the broken piece of plate he’d been hiding, and she bled to death. From that day onwards, Peter killed every other woman who reminded him of his mother, and he took pride in it. When Felix continued to ask him about Ann, he shot him. Rose realized that Peter was a madman, and she had to either run for her life or simply surrender. Rose chose the former, and she ran to the woods. But Peter managed to track her down, and he dragged her back to his property. He carved her face and tied her up. He abused her till she was too weak to even walk. It was already morning, and Peter instructed Rose to whip up breakfast for him. She obliged, and immediately after he was done eating, Peter decided it was time for him to shoot Rose. Just as he started walking in her direction, he felt uneasy. He collapsed to the ground after he started choking, and Rose smiled at his misery.
Rose explained that her mother had great knowledge about plants, even poisonous ones. So, naturally, Rose too knew the basics. While making Peter’s breakfast, Rose pulled out her rosary from her pocket and crushed the beads. The rosary was made from a plant named the Rosary Pea, and it was extremely poisonous. You can say that God as well as her mother protected her from the monster. When Peter stopped moving, Rose finally breathed a sigh of relief. She noticed the spirits of the nurses calling out to her. They showed her the secret spot where Peter stored the bodies of his victims. Rose broke down seeing the faces of the innocent girls, who, just like her, had taken up a job for a better future but ended up in a glass cage. The spirits had been trying to warn Rose; they couldn’t embark on their heavenly journey until Peter was killed.
How was Macbeth related to Peter?
Rose went through Peter’s belongings, and she came across a booklet that turned out to be a collection of all the news articles that mentioned Peter’s killing spree. He was dubbed the Owl Killer by the cops, who never managed to track him down. He’d carefully pasted pages and pages of newspaper clippings about his victims; clearly he was proud of hunting them down and never getting caught. Throughout his life, he’d been torturing and killing women all around the globe. He’d grown up abroad (his father was American and his mother was Filipino), and since he was a retired US Navy officer, he got the chance to travel the world, and he killed wherever he went. Appointing nurses and murdering them was his latest tactic. Rose also found a device where she discovered that Peter had been watching her constantly through the hidden camera that was installed in her villa. She collected all the evidence she could find, and at the very last minute she discovered a photograph that left her stunned.
As it turned out, Macbeth was Peter’s wife. She knew her husband was a rapist and a serial killer, but she chose not to do anything about it. Instead, she helped him prey on vulnerable girls desperate to make ends meet. That morning, when Macbeth walked into the villa, she was flabbergasted when she noticed Rose with a gun in her hand. She assumed that Peter was resting after a night of adventure, and she simply laughed at the fact that he’d had a very good time. When Rose pointed the gun at Macbeth, she tried to play the victim. She begged Rose to give her a chance to explain her situation. She tried to establish that she was forced to do whatever Peter desired, and she didn’t really have a choice. Rose was not ready to buy her story; she perhaps believed that if Macbeth wanted to protect the girls, she would have found a way to do so. Maybe Macbeth’s relationship with Peter was a case of Stockholm Syndrome? But that is up for the audience to decide. Rose shot Macbeth; she no longer cared about doing the right thing; all she wanted was to punish Peter and anyone who chose to help him.
Is Peter Alive?
In Isolated’s ending, we saw Rose being admitted to a hospital. Two cops approached and told her that they’d found the bodies of Peter’s victims in the freezer. We also discover that Rose had pinned Macbeth’s death on Felix and told the cops that she was an accomplice of Peter. They had all the evidence they needed to prove that Peter was the Owl Killer. They’d even contacted Interpol, and it was finally confirmed that he was the serial killer they’d spent years searching for. The only problem was that the cops didn’t find Peter’s body when they inspected the villa. Rose froze completely when they shared this detail with her. She thought she’d killed him, but the ending suggests that Peter possibly survived and managed to make it out of the villa before the cops showed up. Maybe the dose of Rosary Pea was not as potent as Rose assumed it would be. If Peter was alive, which seems quite likely, that hints at the possibility that Rose will never be able to live her life freely. She will always suspect that someone was watching her, and as a result, her mental health will likely deteriorate. Whenever she hears the call of an owl, she will be haunted by Peter’s memory. Rose’s life will never be normal, and who knows, maybe one day Peter will end up killing her. It could either be right at the hospital where she was admitted, or several years later, just when Rose has started to assume that perhaps the threat is gone.
