'Death Note': What Does Its Ending Mean?

08/14/2018 01:11 pm EDT

Warning! Major spoilers for Death Note lie below!

Death Note doesn't care if you are ready or not. The live-action film is already on Netflix, and it's ready to start a revolution. If you had the chance to watch the film, then you will see how Death Note's ending sets up a string of sequels - or you were supposed to, at least. Plenty of fans have signaled their confusion over the movie's ending, so ComicBook is here to set things straight.

Death Note comes to a confusing end as it segues into a climatic meeting between Light and Mia. The latter manages to blackmail Light into giving her his Death Note by writing the boy's name in it. When the two collide at an abandoned theme park, Light tries to persuade Mia to give up on owning the Death Note, but she will not give in. The girl's decision forces Light to kill Mia, and it leaves the boy hospitalized in a coma.

Well, sort of.

At the film's end, fans learn from Light that his coma wasn't what it seemed. The boy admits he orchestrated the amusement park ordeal to save his own life, get rid of Mia, and carry on his work as Kira whilst he laid low in the hospital. As for L, the detective comes to connect Light to his murder spree thanks to Mia. The man goes to search through the girl's possessions and finds the Death Note page she stole from Light that has her victims' names on it. L looks at the paper thoughtfully before the movie wraps with Light and Ryuk back in the hospital. The Death God tells Light he finds humans so interesting, and the film fades to black.

Death Note leaves plenty of doors open for another movie or three. With Light and L still in a game of cat-and-mouse, the pair have everything to lose if they are caught by one another.

For Light, the film's ending sets him up as a calculated villain and not some slummy teenager on an angst-trip. The fact that the boy orchestrated his showdown with Mia in such detail highlights the planning he's capable of, and the cult following behind his Kira persona makes Light a physical and ideological threat.

As for L, the detective parts with Death Note after making his most important discovery yet. The man is still reeling from his loss of Watari, but L works through his grief to suss out the secrets behind the Death Note. The detective now has a page of the notebook to himself, giving L more definitive proof of how Light is connected to the murders he's been investigating. With L's name still a secret, the detective has room to continue the game of cat-and-mouse he's playing with Light.

The two leads aren't the only ones who fans should pay attention to. Death Note may have offed Mia, but the manga did not such thing to Kira's devoted follower. In the original series, Mia lives on and reveals her attachment to a Death God of her own. A god named Rem wound up extending the girl's life at the cost of his freedom, so there is a chance Death Note's sequels could bring the conniving girl back to life if another Death God gets introduced.

What if you had the power to decide who lives and who dies? We suggest you obey the rules. Based on the famous Japanese manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note follows a high school student who comes across a supernatural notebook, realizing it holds within it a great power; if the owner inscribes someone's name into it while picturing their face, he or she will die. Intoxicated with his new godlike abilities, the young man begins to kill those he deems unworthy of life.

Death Note is available on Netflix now. Give the film your personal rating below!

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.