Credit: Netflix

Vladimir is currently the talk of the streaming town, understandably so. The steamy adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s debut novel touched down on Netflix and left viewers completely electrified. After all, it was one of the most highly anticipated literary adaptations they had looked forward to.

For viewers who have already read the novel, Vladimir on Netflix allows you to revisit that very story through a new medium, with ample room for literary faithfulness and artistic individuality to coexist.

While there are quite a few shifts the Netflix version takes creative liberties with, the most important and visible change takes place at the end of the series. In the 2022 novel, when the protagonist’s cabin catches fire, Vladimir saves both her and John, but they suffer severe third-degree burns, which puts them in the intensive care unit indefinitely.

The manuscript gets destroyed in the flames. However, as she undergoes recovery, she starts writing again slowly. As they recover from the horrifying incident, the protagonist and John choose to stay a couple. In a conversation with Tudum, Jonas said, “The book has more tragic elements to it. There’s space to do that. You can let time pass.” But since Vladimir was getting adapted for the screen, the medium impacted her creative choices.

“There’s a different need from an ending when you’re watching something,” she says. “In the book, the aftermath of the fire was this coda after going through the journey of the book. In the series, it didn’t feel right.”

For those wondering how the series Vladimir ends, the show simply concludes with the cabin on fire, with a touch of fantasy to its approach. Before the fire breaks out in the cabin, both John and Vladimir offer their visions of possible futures to the protagonist, and the latter forgives her for drugging and tying him to a chair. He even offers to continue the affair.

The protagonist doesn’t decide right then and heads back to bed to think it over. When the fire breaks out, they all rush to the living room. Instead of giving an answer or trying to save either, she chooses her manuscript and delivers the final monologue to the camera, leaving the final scenes far more open to interpretation.

Speaking to ELLE, Jonas doubled down, saying, “The ending that existed in the book is almost like an epilogue, really. It felt like that was not going to work inside the series. It didn’t. We talked a lot about… what can she take from this? Desire gave her [something] bigger than any of the actual events that happened.” So, yes, it was indeed deliberate.