Merv’s ending was about Russ and Anna deciding whether or not they should get back together after breaking up with each other several months ago. Russ was an elementary school teacher, while Anna was an eye specialist, and they owned the titular dog. They were in a relationship long enough for their parents to know each other. But about six months prior to the events of the movie, they went their separate ways and decided to co-parent Merv. It seemed like he was doing fine; however, one fine day, right before Christmas, Merv seemed sick. So, Anna and Russ rushed him to the veterinarian, who diagnosed him with depression—not Russ, the dog! In an attempt to cheer him up, Russ decided to take Merv to a dog beach in Florida. Without the dog and Russ to run into, Anna started feeling lonely and joined them. Things got relatively livelier, and Merv’s morale got a huge boost. Russ became really friendly with a dog parent called Jocelyn, while sparks began to fly between Anna and Sheriff Tom. Anna went with Russ to meet his parents, and they ended up having a pretty good time. That said, it was evident that they had to address the elephant in the room: having an actual conversation about why they broke up. Because if they can’t do that, they’ll never be able to find a proper solution for Merv’s ailment. Well, did they have that discussion? What was the result of that? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Anna Couldn’t Give Birth
During the tail end of their vacation in Florida, Russ finally confronted Anna about the reason behind their breakup: Anna’s infertility. No, Russ didn’t leave Anna because she couldn’t bear his babies. After that revelation, apparently Russ tried his best to get Anna to “feel better.” But Anna wasn’t done processing that information. Hence, Russ’ overly positive attitude irked her a lot, and she shut him out of her life. By the time Russ realized what he had done, it was too late. And, as admitted by Russ himself, he was hurting too, because he knew how much Anna wanted to have babies, and right when she needed some emotional support, he completely failed at that task. After that, the distance between them kept growing, and, instead of sitting down and having a proper chat about the matter, they decided to break up. However, Merv unintentionally ended up becoming the glue that forced them to stay together, albeit very tangentially, by being a source of responsibility that both of them needed to shoulder. In a way, Merv ensured that one day or the other, his parents would have to talk about what compelled them to break up. To be honest, I thought that that was a very heavy topic that was dropped into an otherwise lighthearted film.
Although the amount of time Merv dedicated to that subject matter was not really enough, it did a decent job of underscoring the fact that infertility is something that’s tough to handle for couples, even in 2025. Russ seemed like a nice guy, but maybe, in the heat of the moment, some of his patriarchal conditioning kicked in, and in an attempt to overcompensate, he just exacerbated an already sensitive situation. I am inclined to say that attributing femininity or the female experience to fertility is an inherently patriarchal thing. So, it’s possible that not only was Anna sad that she had failed to live up to the standards set for women by men (and women suffering from internalized misogyny), for no fault of her own by the way, but she also felt bad when Russ didn’t react to that revelation in a “typical” manner. His empathy probably tasted like poison to her, which was why she distanced herself from him and his love. In this process, I guess they forgot that being a parent to a human child wasn’t the biggest achievement for someone and that being responsible for Merv’s health, mental or otherwise, should have been their top priority.
Russ Let Merv Stay With Anna
Once Russ and Anna were done discussing how they had handled the news about the latter’s infertility, they moved on to the topic of getting back together and giving their relationship one more chance. I thought that Russ was going to accept Anna’s proposal to see if they could function as a couple again, but Russ shot down that suggestion almost immediately, because he wasn’t sure if either of them was emotionally mature enough to handle tricky situations together. Even though Merv was quite predictable, I think that showing the characters deliberating over this decision was important, because Russ’ fear was legitimate. The future is extremely uncertain, and the only way we can anticipate how we are going to deal with it is by looking at the past for reference. Sure, maybe we won’t find ourselves in the exact same situation, but our emotional response to things like stress, anxiety, sadness, and anger will serve as the thread between where we were in the past, where we are in the present, and where we are about to go in the future. Although Russ’ stance seemed harsh and unkind, I think that was the right thing to do at that moment. Yes, they would walk back on that decision eventually, but giving himself and Anna a bit of breathing room to ponder about whether they are truly ready to deal with any kind of potential hurdle as a unit felt correct.
The first thing that Russ did during this period of self-reflection was let Merv stay with Anna exclusively instead of oscillating between his two parents. While he might’ve been unsure about tackling tough circumstances with Anna, one thing he was certain about was that Merv would be better off with Anna rather than him. I mean, one look at his apartment gave away that Russ’ life was a mess. However, since Russ’ hyperopia wasn’t just literal but figurative as well (a character being played by Charlie Cox having eyesight issues could be a Daredevil reference), it took him some time to come to that realization. He knew that he’d miss Merv a lot, but he felt that as one of the two people who also saw the dog as their child, Anna needed Merv more than anyone else in the world. Of course, Merv would have been happy to be with both of his parents, but the constant oscillation was hurting him as well as the two of them. Hence, yeah, letting Merv stay with Anna was a sensible choice. I believe that that cemented the fact that this was a metaphor for divorce, with Merv serving as the stand-in for every child that has had to suffer, for no fault of their own, because their parents were going through a rough patch. And it served as a great reminder that couples shouldn’t bring an innocent life, human or dog, into their family until and unless they are sure about each other.
Russ and Anna Got Back Together
After parting ways with Merv, the first thing that Russ did was clean up his apartment. He resumed his job, although he was put on detention duty for lying in order to go on a vacation with Merv and Anna. He even got his eyes checked and began wearing prescription glasses. But life without Merv wasn’t easy. Hence, he went to Save A Furry Friend Foundation, the place from where he had adopted Merv, and after a long conversation with Felix, the receptionist and caretaker of the establishment, on how people should prioritize adopting over buying, Russ brought home Angelina. Initially, there were three depressed people in this story, and with the arrival of Angelina, now there were four. They tried everything to make their respective lives better, but nothing was working.
In Merv’s ending, when Russ and Anna ran into each other, they admitted that going through life on their own—with Angelina and Merv, respectively—wasn’t exactly helping anybody. On the surface, they had sorted stuff out, but on the inside, all four of them were actually really sad. And since both Russ and Anna felt that they should give their relationship a try again, they moved in together, along with their dogs, and lived happily ever after. Anna even proposed to Russ, thereby indicating that they were about to get engaged too. I don’t know if this is anti-single parent propaganda, but if I focus on Russ and Anna specifically, it was evident that they were incomplete as people, and as dog parents, they weren’t really good on their own. Russ was great at the extracurricular stuff and keeping a dog’s morale high, while Anna was amazing at concocting the right dog food and ensuring that they were in top shape. As long as they were doing that like a tag team, things were alright. However, when they tried to do their own job as well as their soulmate’s, things went wrong. There’s no doubt that humans are social animals. We need companionship to tackle life. Some of us think that a pet can fill that hole, and sometimes it does. However, in some cases, a human needs another human to simply function, and that’s fine. In this day and age, we have isolated ourselves in so many unique ways that the act of existing seems like a chore. We go from work to home and back again. We watch movies while scrolling on our phones. We go for vacations just to post on social media. Everything is a distraction from reality. And in the brief moments we realize what we are doing with ourselves and how robotic and soulless we’ve become, we get depressed. So, I think the story of Russ, Anna, Merv, and Angelina is here to show us that we need that human touch to get through life. Without love, romantic or otherwise, we will go extinct. Therefore, learn to love yourself and those who love you, and then hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the film. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
