After the tragedies of the previous two parts, ‘The House’ Chapter Three takes one into the post-apocalyptic future. The story is a lot less creepy than the first two parts of the film, but is full of thrills and uncertainty. The House stands for obsessive materialism in the first chapter and excruciating loneliness in the second one. Similarly, it embodies a ‘known enemy’ in the third chapter. The aim is to get rid of it and move towards a future full of possibilities!
Plot Summary: Listen Again And Seek The Sun
An unknown place (including the Van Schoonbeek Lane from the previous chapter) has flooded as far as the sight reaches. The House has somehow managed to survive. Rosa (an anthropomorphic cat) is the landlady who persistently works on her restoration plan for her childhood house. As most of the tenants had left, Elias and Jen were the only two members who continued with Rosa. Despite her consistent efforts to fix it, the House keeps falling to pieces. To make matters worse, Elias and Jen have no source of paying rent after the disaster.
When Rosa says that she is looking for more tenants who can pay rent, Jen tells her that her spirit partner will be arriving from Tibet shortly. One day, her spirit partner, Cosmos, sails towards the House, singing a Tibetan song he learned on his journey. Cosmos is a nomadic sailor who lives on barter and rejects a worldly lifestyle. He refrains from living inside the House and stays in his tent in the front yard. He plants a pole in the yard and promises to leave when the mist is gone, which confuses Rosa. In exchange for living on her property, Cosmos offers his services to mend the House. Elias and Jen immediately fall in love with Cosmos and his free-spirited ways.
One day, Rosa discovers that the wooden floorboards of an entire corridor are missing. Cosmos uses the floorboards to make a boat for Elias. Rosa confronts the two and learns that Elias wants to leave the House. While Rosa is disappointed in losing her tenant and friend, she pretends not to care. When Elias sails off, Rosa finds a goodbye note and two gifts he left for her. The gifts included a fish and a couple of sketches of Rosa that Elias had lovingly made. Jen tells Rosa that she will also be leaving the House with Cosmos the following morning. Despite having all her tenants leave, Rosa is adamant about not giving up on the House.
‘The House’ Chapter Three: Ending Explained
Jen and Rosa decide to have lunch together one last time. Meanwhile, Cosmos opens the window and lets the mist inside. While Rosa is angry at Cosmos for taking away her tenants, Jen tries to convince her that he only wishes well for her. Jen tells her that joining them would be in her best interest to survive the flood. However, Rosa has an inexplicable attachment to the House that she cannot contemplate. Jen tells Rosa not to be afraid and suddenly opens the door to let the mist inside.
In the blurriness of the mist, Rosa loses sight of Jen. Confused and terrified, Rosa navigates her way. Suddenly, a wave of wind aggressively gushes inside and jerks the House, and it slowly starts to waterlog. Scared of dying alone, Rosa starts to hallucinate her good times with Elias and Jen when suddenly she’s left abandoned. Her mind goes agog with the illusions of her friends.
With an abrupt jerk, she finds herself falling down till she somehow lands inside Cosmos’ tent. Rosa comes outside the tent to watch Jen and Cosmos sailing far away, asking her to join them. However, it’s too late to join them! Helplessly, Rosa stumbles upon a pole that Cosmos had brought for her and realizes that it is a lever. On pressing the lever hard, she is surprised to see that the House has transformed into a makeshift boat. Rosa reaches the roof and spots a steering wheel. When she starts sailing the House, she sees her friends on their boats, cheering for her!
‘The House’ Chapter Three is a classic story of living in denial. In a post-apocalyptic world, Rosa wants to believe that everything is normal. She sees potential in her House and wants to refurbish it. However, she forgets that her project cannot be a priority during a time when survival is at stake. Even with the House being troublesome, Rosa finds comfort in it, as letting go is uncertain and scary.
On the other hand, Elias and Jen are in-sync with reality and value what matters the most. Nonetheless, they do not leave the House with the other tenants as they care about Rosa. Despite Rosa’s uptight attitude, Elias and Jen make efforts to have a good time with her.
Who Is Cosmos? What Does The Mist Symbolize?
Cosmos is another word for the universe. It is a law of the universe that to have a new beginning, there must be an end. Hence, when the House stops serving its purpose, Cosmos reaches out to end it and start afresh. Cosmos is a nonconformist who rejects worldly life and flows with nature.
When he arrived, he knew that he would stay only till the mist came. The fact that Cosmos made his way from Tibet explained that not all civilizations have been wiped out. Being an experienced sailor, he knows that the place could be covered in mist any day. This would cause the House to sink and vanish into nothing. Hence, without Rosa’s knowledge, he modifies the House into a makeshift ship to save her.
Cosmos tells Rosa that she must press the level when the mist comes and goes. When the mist comes, she visualizes the tragedy of being left alone. The mist perhaps stands for the lack of clarity that Rosa had when she was living in denial. In the end, when the mist clears away, she clearly sees what is best for her. The story ends with a ray of hope, as everyone embarks on a new journey. The curse has perhaps been broken, but the House continues to survive!
‘The House’ Chapter Three: Listen Again And Seek The Sun, directed by Paloma Baeza, is streaming on Netflix.
