WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Things Heard & Seen, which is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Things Heard & Seen concludes with George Claire (James Norton) sailing into a storm, an image that ultimately seems more symbolic than concrete. As a result, the ending could be seen as somewhat ambiguous. However, there's nothing ambiguous about what leads up to the film's final moments. Let's break down the events that ultimately result in George getting on that boat and what the movie's final images mean.
When George and Catherine Claire (Amanda Seyfried) move to the Hudson Valley so George can take a job as an art history professor, uncomfortable truths come to light about their troubled marriage and the things George has done to get where he is in life. Catherine realizes that the charming man she married is at best a liar and cheater and at worst a murderer. Meanwhile, after a field trip to New York with his students where he runs into one of his old professors, it becomes clear that George forged the recommendation letter that got him his current position.
With his world collapsing around him, George takes matters into his own hands. First, he accompanies Floyd (F. Murray Abraham), the chair of the art history department on a sailing trip. During the trip, Floyd informs George that he plans to give the information he has about George's forged recommendation letter to HR, a move that will end with George being fired. To prevent this, George drowns Floyd, but when the authorities find Floyd's body they label his death an accident.
Before Floyd is found, however, a soaking-wet George runs into Catherine's friend Justine (Rhea Seehorn) while walking to his car. Needless to say, Catherine is suspicious, plus she's also discovered that George has been cheating on Catherine and witnessed George's awkward encounter with his former professor in New York. Knowing she knows too much, George chases her in his car and runs her off the road, putting her in a coma she is unlikely to wake up from.
The next morning, Catherine learns about what happened to Floyd and Justine. When George gets home that evening, he discovers that Catherine has suitcases waiting in her car and is about to leave him and take their daughter, Franny, with her. George, who purchased sedatives during the day, enters the house as if nothing strange is going on. He casually offers Catherine a protein shake, and as she starts to drink it, he goes to Franny's room against Catherine's wishes, only to find the girl fully dressed.
George tries to forcibly restrain Catherine as she threatens to tell their daughter all about his lies. But as she attempts to leave, the sedatives in the protein shake kick in. Catherine stumbles to a bed and passes out. George then uses an axe to murder her. The next day, he acts as if he just discovered the body. And while everyone in the small town suspects George is responsible for Catherine's death, there isn't enough evidence to charge him.
That is, until Justine miraculously wakes up. Given what she knows, George attempts to escape in a small sailboat as a storm comes on. As the light fades and the storm starts in earnest, George sails into the distance and as women's voices whisper the word, "damned," the picture morphs into an image resembling the George Inness painting "The Valley of the Shadow of Death," a painting that is seen numerous times during the film.
Inness' painting adorns the cover of the book Floyd gives George as a welcome present. The book is Heaven and Its Wonder and Hell From Things Heard and Seen (usually simply referred to as Heaven and Hell), by Emanuel Swedenborg, a mystic who detailed his ideas about the continuity between the natural world and the spiritual realm in the text. Inness' painting is based on Swedenborg's teachings. Meanwhile, in the film, noted devotees of Swedenborg discuss the ascendance of good over evil, whether it's in this world or the next.
By referencing Inness' painting at the conclusion of Things Heard & Seen, but changing it -- most notably, by placing an upside-down cross in the sky and making it appear as though flames are circling the boat -- the movie indicates that George is going to die and, when he passes to the spiritual realm, he'll be punished for all the evil he's done.
Starring Amanda Seyfried, James Norton, Rhea Seehorn, Natalia Dyer, Alex Neustaedter, Jack Gore, James Urbaniak, Ana Sophia Heger and F. Murray Abraham, Things Heard & Seen is now available on Netflix.