What happened to Ivy and Theo at the end of The Roses? Explained

Jay Roach’s satirical black comedy film, The Roses, is based on The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. The Roses (2025) has left viewers clueless about its confusing ending. It revolves around Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch), who fall in love and make a lifetime promise of togetherness, but things don’t go as planned.

The film’s ending is open-ended and leaves too many questions in the minds of the viewers. Do Ivy and Theo die? What does the white-out mean after the stove blew up? Did they get out of the house before the entire house burned down? What happened to their kids after the devastating accident?

The second half of the film has turned the tables completely for the duo, as their home was turned into a battlefield. Full of dreams, this passionate couple promised to chase their ambitions and build a life together.

Ivy dreamed of opening her own restaurant, while Theo, a successful architect, supported her vision. They eventually got married, and the story quickly fast-forwards 10 years later, showing them with two children, Hattie and Roy. 

Amidst the motherhood, Ivy has to leave her dream behind, and Theo faces consequences in his work when a storm hits the museum that he built, and it collapses, damaging his reputation as an architect. Ivy then takes up the role of breadwinner in the family and her career blossoms by opening a new restaurant. The roles are now reversed.

Ivy then decides to give Theo the best gift of his life - to be an architect again. She asks him to build the home that they dreamed of, and three years later, Theo completed building the house, but now their marriage was facing a rough patch.

As the spark of divorce looms between them, Theo asks for the house that he built before they got separated, but Ivy was the one who paid for it and disagreed to make him the sole owner of the house.

They assumed that they hate each other. The fate of their relationship was about to change in the finale scene, but everything blew up.

What happened to Ivy and Theo towards the end of The Roses?

The fight between Theo and Ivy is really about their egos. What they’re really fighting over is the house. Ivy treasures Theo’s art, and it seems like she wants to keep the house as a way of holding on to him.

Theo goes too far when he gives Ivy raspberries, knowing she’s allergic, just to force her into signing the divorce papers. Theo used EpiPen (medication for severe allergic reaction) as a negotiation tool in order to make her sign, and once she signed, he would hand the meds to her. However, she faked signing the papers and saved herself.

Triggered by Theo’s attempt to kill her, Ivy then pulls a gun on him. This starts a wild sequence with yelling, shooting, throwing fruit, and even knives.

Both believe the other is ready to kill them, but in truth, that’s not the case. Deep down, what they really needed was to tell each other how much they still care. 

Amidst the chaos, Ivy’s favorite Julia Child stove gets smashed and damaged, and it starts to leak gas, and later plays an explosive role in their lives. 

In the ending of The Roses, Theo and Ivy decide to give their relationship another chance, and this time it seems real. They don’t know how to live without each other, and all their fights were really just about pride.

They had often joked about “if one goes, take the other down with them,” and now it almost comes true. It looked like the wooden house with antique furniture might explode. Right when Theo asks his house’s AI to ignite fire, the screen turns white, so we can’t see what happened to them. 

It is presumed that the duo died, and the house was burned down with Theo and Ivy. The film seems to remind us that couples need to communicate openly, instead of letting misunderstandings build up. 

The director of The Roses told Entertainment Weekly about its abrupt ending. He said, 

''I love that there is even room for a little discussion about that. That's what I want people to argue about that. I hope everybody walks out going, 'They almost figured that out. They were just this far off.'"

Their kids inherit their legacy, which will take care of them financially. However, they’ll always carry the memory of their parents’ fights. In reality, Theo and Ivy truly loved each other, even if the kids never fully understood it.