Ok so I read the website for these things but hear me out: per “person” does not mean per body. It’s very clearly established throughout the film that there is Nikki the real human girl, and not-Nikki. Regardless of if you think she’s a reflection of Bear’s inner view of his desires/what he wants from Nikki or some kind of entity that was created due to the impossibility of creating a Nikki as she was that loved Bear, that is not the same as the person Nikki. The movie makes this very clear multiple times.
I don’t know if I can truly in my heart of hearts buy that this is what happens, but if I was approach a fix-it I would do it from that angle: Nikki has one stick. She has one wish. Terrified, traumatized, and probably still hesitant to believe she’s really back in control of her body again, she makes a choice.
She wishes to be Nikki, just Nikki, far, far away from this place. Somewhere that no one will be able to connect her back to this, with no trace she was here to begin with.
Wish granted. Nikki wakes up in a new room, but it isn’t a house. It’s a studio apartment planted in the downtown of a bustling city in another country. This month’s rent is paid, but nothing else will be.
The closet is almost completely bare, and none of her items have come with her, not even her crystals. She loses her father, who she admittedly already hated. But who else was there? The father of the girl who stood back and looked down on her when she was falling apart? How could she have looked him in the eye again?
She’s alone, but she’s herself. She’s free.
She doesn’t touch love stories any more. At first, she writes around fiction entirely: technical writing, history, book reviews. When she finally dips in again, she starts with poetry. The completely different styles give her something to focus on, a format to consider as she chooses her words with care. After poetry comes fantasy, the kind of cosy fantasy where darkness is kept at bay and people are believed when they tell their struggles. A series of well-meaning therapists give her some comfort, but of course, she can’t ever tell them the full truth.
One night, she writes about what happened to her. The scrawl on the pages becomes illegible after the first 20, but she keeps going. Every ghost of that nightmare that continues to claw its way into her dreams is placed down.
Her hand is bleeding by the end of it. She walks outside in the early morning light and burns the pages. The ashes scatter to the wind like a flock of sparrows taking flight.
Her room is full of crystals. She layers necklaces and bracelets, weighs down her pockets and bags. She’s never felt so light.
And so, she lives. Nikki builds her own story from the ground up, and she lives.
