God's Crooked Lines ending revisited: Real reason why Romulus was k*lled

God's Crooked Lines is a Spanish film in the psychological thriller genre directed by Oriol Paulo, who has also written the script with Guillem Clua and Lara Sendim.

It's an adaptation of Torcuato Luca de Tena's namesake 1979 novel. The film premiered at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival and was released theatrically on October 6, 2022. It's produced by Adrián Guerra, Núria Valls, Mercedes Gamero, and Ángel Blasco.

Here's the official synopsis as per Letterboxd:

Alice Gould, a private investigator, pretends to be mentally ill in order to enter a psychiatric hospital and gather evidence for the case she is working on: the death of a patient in unclear circumstances.

Let's explore the film's ending.

What is the plot of God's Crooked Lines?

God's Crooked Lines follows Alice Gould (played by Barbara Lennie), who is a private investigator. She pretends to be mentally unwell and enters the psychiatric hospital. This is done so that she can gather evidence of a patient's death.

How does God's Crooked Lines end?

Towards the end of God's Crooked Lines, Alice realizes that she will have to visit the bank to access her records. She moves out of her cell and hides inside a toy store. Ignacio and his men help her in this. But Alvar sees her and alerts everyone. Alice lights up the toy shed with a paint thinner. Ignacio then goes and unlocks all the cell doors in the area.

This leads to all the patients escaping the hospital. Alice manages to escape the area amid the chaos. Ignacio sees Romulus, who is severely wounded, in his cell. He tries to help Romulus, but the latter is unable to survive.

Alice reaches the boundary wall, where she sees a woman. She tells Alice to open the gates and reveals herself as the coroner. Alice still opens the gate despite her apprehension. The lady asks her for directions to the male ward, which makes Alice even more suspicious. Alice then knocks the woman out and enters the facility as the coroner to look at Romulu's dead body.

The chief and Alvar find Alice in the examination area. She reveals that Romulus was eliminated by the elephant man. His bones were broken under heavy pressure. The doctors find gashes on his body from the glass that was in the elephant man's hand. Romulus had killed Luis Ojeda, which is why the elephant man wanted to avenge the death. The Elephant Man also had feelings for a girl whom Romulus called his little sister. Luis' death really affected him, which led him to kill Romulus.

Towards the conclusion, the cops confirm that Alice's bank account is empty. The trial concludes that Alice is not insane. Alvar is fired from the hospital. He says that he's got a call from Dr. Donaldio, who told him that there is no conspiracy going on. Dr. Donaldio enters the trial room, and he's the same man who brought Alice to the facility.