PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: Trauma-Driven Obsession Is Not Healing

Emerald Fennell’s brilliantly disturbing and evocative film Promising Young Woman shows us one troubling aftermath of trauma. And it’s all because no one helped. Cassie lost her very best friend (and only true soulmate) to suicide. Why? Because Nina couldn’t go on after a violent and repeated gang rape that deeply traumatized her — and no one listened. No one saw the rape as rape. No one blamed the rapist.

Cassie can now think of nothing else but getting revenge for Nina’s rape and death. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Yes — but Cassie shows us exactly where trauma-driven obsession takes you. And it’s not pretty or healing. In fact, Cassie’s obsession is another kind of suicide. Here’s why…

Don’t Ignore Trauma

When you’re ignored, it hurts. It also enrages. We see both in Cassie (Carey Mulligan).

Nina, Cassie’s best friend, was raped at a party in medical school by Al Monroe (Chris Lowell), a narcissistic fellow student, while others watched, egged him on, and treated it as sport. No one helped. Cassie tried to get help for Nina — and everyone ignored her.

Ryan was part of it too, Cassie soon discovers. How could he? Ryan, the old friend-turned-doctor (Bo Burnham), who she might otherwise have loved.

Rape is dehumanizing. Violating. It is the ultimate form of being ignored — treated as not even a person. And trying to get help for Nina isn’t the first time Cassie has been dismissed. Witness her oblivious mom (Jennifer Coolidge) and well-meaning but ineffective dad (Clancy Brown).

Cassie has long known what it’s like for people not to “get you.”
Until she found Nina.

Losing the Only One Who Gets You

When you find someone who understands you deeply, you don’t want to lose them. That kind of connection can be missing in childhood — and Cassie had hungered for it.

How do you go on without the best part of yourself? The only person who made you feel real, alive, or wanted? That’s what Nina was for Cassie.

Nina was everything Cassie never felt she was.
Confident. Driven. Brilliant.

Cassie followed Nina into medical school — not because she knew who she was, but to stay close to the person who made her feel like she mattered.

Cassie is smart, no question. But she never believed it. Nina believed for her.

Now, Cassie will use that intelligence to craft lessons for every man who treats women as prey. And she’s very good at it.

Promising Young Woman’s Obsession

An obsession is an idea you cannot get out of your mind. It torments, worries, enrages — and sometimes pressures you to act. Then it becomes a compulsion.

That’s Cassie’s mission.

She lures predatory men by pretending to be drunk and helpless. Even seemingly “nice” men take the bait, wanting to play the rescuer — until they’re not.

Then Cassie snaps into sobriety and demands: What are you doing?
They run.

There is nothing else on Cassie’s mind. She dropped medical school to take care of Nina. Nina killed herself. Now Cassie is fueled by one purpose: revenge.

It’s the only use she has for men.
Well… almost.
She’s also been hungry for love. But now Nina is gone.

Love Could Help Cassie (But She Doesn’t Trust It)

Cassie doesn’t trust anyone — especially men. And love is complicated, even when someone seemingly good comes along.

Ryan appears different. Charming, funny, kind. A pediatric surgeon. Someone who always liked her.

Cassie resists, distrustful and obsessed with revenge, but she’s also human. And hope is tempting. Their candy-colored pharmacy scene — dancing to “Stars Are Blind” — is a rare glimpse of joy.

But hope doesn’t last.

When Cassie receives a video of Nina’s rape, she sees Ryan was there… watching. Not helping.

She ends it instantly.
For Cassie, nothing about that night is forgivable.

Why Cassie Sacrifices Herself at the End

Betrayed again — first by her parents’ emotional absence, now by Ryan — Cassie doubles down on her mission.

Why should Al Monroe get to marry, thrive, and enjoy life when Nina couldn’t?

Cassie knows invading his bachelor party could get her killed. She plans for it.

Her brilliance, once promising, is now devoted entirely to revenge. She leaves a trail of clues. And when she dies, a scheduled text appears on Ryan’s phone:

“You didn’t think this was the end…? It is now. Enjoy the wedding! Love, Cassie & Nina.”

Her burned body is found.
Al Monroe is arrested at his wedding.
Cassie’s obsession succeeds.
Or does it?

Maybe, in a tragic way, Cassie gets what she longed for — to be with Nina again.

But isn’t this the saddest ending Promising Young Woman could have?
That Cassie never had enough love or self-worth to save her own life, even when she couldn’t save Nina’s?

Where Did This Lead Her?

Cassie’s story ends in self-destruction. A brilliant, traumatized young woman sacrificed to a culture that refuses to hear women, refuses to see rape for what it is, and refuses to help.

Her obsession didn’t heal her.
It consumed her.

To avenge Nina, Cassie had to commit a slow, trauma-driven suicide of her own.