This is an article from the official Shondaland website. Since it's apparently region-locked, I've posted it below as it describes the different endings between the book and the show.
The Closure Youâve Been Looking for When It Comes to âStill Star-Crossedâ
For never was a story of more woe than the fact that the TV series Still Star-Crossed never got the chance to wrap up the events from the novel Still Star-Crossed. The Shondaland series, based on Melinda Taubâs 2013 young adult novel, takes place after the deaths of Shakespeareâs Romeo and Juliet as Verona is plunged into near civil war because of the continued feud between the Montagues and Capulets. In an attempt to defuse tensions, Escalus, the prince of Verona, has the next in line in both families â Benvolio Montague and Rosaline Capulet â betrothed to each other. It doesnât work.
The series was canceled after just one season that consisted of seven episodes. While it gets through a major chunk of the plot from the novel, it stops with a chaotic cliff-hanger and absolutely no closure when it comes to what happens to Benvolio and Rosaline. Do they survive the imminent invasion by Count Paris? Does Rosaline choose Benvolio or Prince Escalus? Do Rosaline and Benvolio ever kiss without prison bars between them?! The people need to know! Thankfully, all the answers to any questions you might have regarding how the story of Still Star-Crossed really ends are right there in the novel. Weâll never know exactly how the series wouldâve ended, but this makes for a pretty good guess. Below, find all the details on what befalls Rosaline and Benvolio in the Still Star-Crossed novel and hopefully ease any angst youâve been carrying since the show ended in 2017.
First, how did the TV version of Still Star-Crossed end again?
When Benvolio is falsely accused of murder and knows he will be executed if heâs caught, he begs Rosaline (who is a firsthand witness to the fact that heâs innocent) to solve the mystery of who is behind the deadly group called the Fiend, who seem to be murdering Montagues and Capulets at random to sow discord in Verona. She runs away with him â this is Still Star-Crossedâs version of the balcony scene â and they track down Friar Laurence, who knows Lady Capulet and Count Paris are the brains behind the Fiend. Meanwhile, Lady Capulet and Count Paris have convinced everyone that Benvolio kidnapped Rosaline as part of their plan to manipulate Verona into a civil war and then let Paris swoop in with his army to usurp Escalus and become the new prince of Verona. He wants power, she wants to crush the Montagues, so their goals really align here.
Paris and his men capture Rosaline and Benvolio, and he threatens to kill both of them and Rosalineâs sister Livia if Rosaline tries to tell Escalus the truth. Rosaline lets Escalus think Benvolio is the head of the Fiend and the one trying to kill him and take his throne so that she can safely get everyone back to Verona. Once alone, Escalus tells Rosaline he loves her, and she tells him that Benvolio is innocent, and she begs him to spare his life. He gives her one day to get him proof. (She thinks her word should be proof enough, but Escalusâ decisions are all tinged with jealousy after seeing Rosaline and Benvolioâs obvious feelings for each other, so killing the guy would actually be pretty okay with him.) Rosalineâs one shot at proof is the Capulet nurse who confessed everything to Friar Laurence, but â wouldnât ya know â Paris kills her.
Between Julietâs beloved nurse âfallingâ down the stairs and Rosaline telling her in no uncertain terms that Juliet would be ashamed of her, Lady Capulet has a little buyerâs remorse with the whole wreaking havoc on Verona in the name of deposing the prince, but itâs too late. Paris canât be pulled back at this point. Rosaline has to break the news to Benvolio that sheâs failed him and she canât save his life. They share their first kiss, full of tears and passion, through his prison bars, and itâs, honestly, gutting. In the main square in Verona, full of people demanding to see justice served for all the murdering going on in town, Benvolio takes his place on the executionerâs platform. Then, just as Benvolio is about to lose his head, Escalus realizes heâs being a real ass about the whole thing and calls it off. Benvolio lives! And then, the Fiend shows up, shoots an arrow through Escalusâ heart and shouts about the new princeâs arrival. Outside the city walls, Paris and his army prepare to invade. Like I said, chaos and cliff-hangers.
Is this how things go down in the novel too?
Not exactly. The TV series makes changes to a lot of the details but generally winds up at the same plot points. âThe Fiendâ isnât really a thing, although Lady Capulet and Count Paris do have followers. Those two donât show any type of remorse in the novel. In fact, both are portrayed as villains driven mad by Julietâs death. Lady Capuletâs motivation is much more personal in the novel: She vowed vengeance the moment Prince Escalus merely banished Romeo for murdering her kinsman Tybalt.
Rosaline and Benvolio still flee Verona together to find a way to prove his innocence, and it turns out Friar Laurence has a journal with all the evidence they need. When Paris captures them in the novel, Benvolio realizes he is going to kill Rosaline for knowing too much and figures out a way for her to escape, believing heâll be executed before ever seeing her again. Itâs much more obvious in the novel that these two have fallen for each other â they share a passionate, muddy kiss after a near-death experience that is awesome but weâll only experience in our heads, which is much less awesome. Or not! I donât know your imagination skills! On the run, Rosaline dons Benvolioâs clothes (how very Twelfth Night of her) and cons her way into Friar Laurenceâs abbey, where she steals the journal with the evidence to exonerate Benvolio.Â
Meanwhile, Paris has spun his little Benvolio is a murderer tale to Prince Escalus, who has realized heâs very much in love with Rosaline, and they decide itâs best just to take the guy to Executionerâs Hill outside of town and get this over with. Rosaline arrives seconds before Benvolio gets the ax and throws her body over his. It is very romantic! She presents the journal, but Lady Capulet is deft at explaining details away. Itâs not until Livia arrives that things get a tad knotty. Count Paris had tricked Livia into falling in love with him so that he can marry someone with the Capulet last name and Lady Capulet can be sure the Montagues have no standing in Verona. But Paris is mad, you see. And he told Livia all the details about his plan to take Verona by force and then asks her to be the princess of Verona by his side. Livia rolls up to Benvolioâs execution and corroborates Rosalineâs story â she knows he was lying about Rosaline deserting her (she would never), and she found the very same mask the murderer in Verona was spotted wearing. Paris is at fault for all the killings of Capulets and Montagues, and Lady Capulet was at the helm of his plan to force a civil war so that Paris could rule Verona. Lady Capulet stabs Livia for outing her (Livia survives) and then is hauled off.
But itâs too late to stop Paris â his army is already encroaching on Verona.
Okay, so what happens after Paris and his army show up?
Well, the Verona War, of course! Thereâs nothing like a common enemy trying to take your land to force two feuding families to work together, and thatâs exactly what happens here: The Montagues and the Capulets join forces to fight for Prince Escalus â and for Verona. Even Escalus and Benvolio work together, which is awkward both because Escalus just tried to kill Benvolio, but also because right before they head out to battle, Benvolio overhears Escalus profess his love to Rosaline. He heads off into war believing he has no shot with the woman he loves.
Things look dicey for a hot second, but Benvolio takes on Paris, and though he wants to simply arrest him, having promised Rosaline he would never be a part of the endless cycle of death in Verona, he winds up killing Paris in self-defense. Good riddance, honestly. Meanwhile, just as it looks like Escalusâ army is outnumbered, his brother-in-law Don Pedro (Shakespeare fans will recognize him from Much Ado About Nothing) arrives to assist. (In the TV series, Escalusâ sister Isabella is not married and has her own side storyline going on.) Parisâ men are crushed, and Verona is saved.
Thatâs nice, but tell us what we really want to know: What happens with the love triangle between Rosaline, Benvolio, and Escalus?
Youâre right; this is actually the most important part. After the war, Benvolio kind of disappears, not wanting to stick around to see Rosaline and Escalus end up together. Our boy is brokenhearted. Meanwhile, Escalus proposes to Rosaline. Itâs all sheâs ever wanted! Heâs her childhood crush! She would be a princess! And then, he kisses her, and she knows exactly what she wants â she wants Benvolio. She is in love with Benvolio. But, friends, Benvolio is set to leave Verona to travel abroad for an indeterminate amount of time. Heâs at the city gates!
Wait, so do Rosaline and Benvolio get together or what?! Stop holding out on us!
Okay, okay. Excuse me for attempting to build a little dramatic tension here! Donât worry: Rosaline hops on her horse and races to the city gates, where she and Benvolio engage in their classic snarky banter. Finally, he broaches the subject of her engagement to the prince, and she informs him he is mistaken. She couldnât say yes to Escalus because she is in love with someone else. And then, he knows. And he kisses her. And he kisses her again. They return to their now-healing city, hand in hand. A Montague and a Capulet finally get their happy ending.
Maggie Fremont is a freelance pop culture writer with a focus on television. You can find more of her writing on Vulture, Entertainment Weekly's EW.com, and TV Guide.
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