FLM.RED / After the credits
Beyond the wardrobe and back home again
A spoiler discussion of Edmund, Aslan and the Pevensies’ return in the 2005 fantasy film.
Open the recap & discussion — spoilers
During the Second World War, the Pevensie siblings leave London for a professor’s country house. Lucy discovers a wardrobe that leads to Narnia, a land held in a seemingly endless winter.
A discovery no one believes
Lucy enters Narnia first and meets Mr. Tumnus. When she returns, hardly any time has passed at the house and her siblings doubt her story. Edmund later enters and meets the White Witch, Jadis, who offers him Turkish delight and asks him to bring the others. Back home he denies having been there, leaving Lucy hurt by someone who knows she told the truth.
The promise Edmund follows
All four children eventually enter Narnia and learn of the Witch’s rule. Edmund slips away to seek her out, only to discover that her promises do not mean she intends to treat him kindly. His resentment toward Peter helps explain why her attention appeals to him, though it does not erase the danger his choice creates.
The bargain at the Stone Table
After Edmund is rescued, the Witch claims his life under an ancient law concerning traitors. Aslan agrees to die in his place. Lucy and Susan follow the lion and witness his killing on the Stone Table. By morning the table has cracked and Aslan returns, explaining that a deeper magic can reverse death when an innocent willingly dies for a traitor. He takes the sisters to free the creatures turned to stone in the Witch’s castle.
A different choice
Peter leads the battle against the Witch’s army. Edmund breaks her wand and is gravely wounded; Aslan arrives with reinforcements and kills her, while Lucy heals Edmund with her cordial. His action gives his return to the family weight: he risks himself to stop the power he once helped.
Years pass, then a moment
The siblings are crowned at Cair Paravel and grow up ruling Narnia. Years later, while pursuing a white stag, they find the lamppost and return through the wardrobe as children, with almost no time passed in England. The ending leaves a question hanging: what would it be like to carry years of shared experience into a childhood that everyone else thinks has barely moved?
After watching
- What do you make of the chance Edmund receives to return to his family?
- How would it feel to return as a child while remembering years in Narnia?
A door into another life
The wardrobe begins as a hiding place in an unfamiliar house and becomes the entrance to an experience shared by all four siblings.
Keep the conversation going
Why does Aslan return to life?
He explains that a deeper magic reverses death when an innocent willingly dies in place of a traitor.
