Love, Death And Robots: The Witness: Ending Explained & Fan Theory

Love, Death and Robots: The Witness is arguably one of the best looking animations in the series. The stylistic and seedy thriller is fast-paced and filled to the brim with hidden meanings and metaphors that deserve a lot of attention.

Throughout this video, I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the short and it’s ending as well as what we can take from it.

This is full spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet then I highly recommend that you turn off now.

With that out the way, thanks for clicking this video, I’m your host Deffinition and Welcome To The Channel Where I Explain it so you don’t have to!

The Witness Plot Summary

Ok so firstly let’s unpack the plot of The Witness. On the surface, the episode follows our Protagonist, named The Woman as she witnesses a murder in an apartment building across from where she lives. The victim shares a lot of similarities with our protagonist and it seems like the killer, referred to simply as ‘The Man,’ not only has an MO but that he has a new target when he looks over and sees that The Woman has spotted his crime.

This begins a chase that lasts the entire episode and follows The Woman as she attempts to flee to her job and beyond whilst the killer is hot in pursuit.

The Woman doesn’t really attempt to alert the authorities beyond an unhelpful phone call, in which she is unable to give specifics to and she carries out her day as normal, even returning to her job as a sex worker.

The Killer, pursues her and even enters depraved sex club where she works and after The Woman notices him, the chase continues. The Woman manages to grab a gun from her bosses den and this plays into the end.

Eventually, the killer catches up with The Woman and tries to explain the circumstances but when she pulls a gun the two fight it out with The Woman getting the upper hand and managing to turn the tables on The Man, murdering him in the process.

It’s at this point that she looks out the window and realises that there is a witness to her crime who is none other than the man and the pursuit begins again with the Woman now taking his place as the murderer.

The Witness Ending Explained

So, what can we take from this? Well, it’s pretty clear from the off that this entire game of cat and mouse is one big loop with the two alternating places. When the episode first opened we actually witnessed The Woman as the killer with the man merely murdering her in self-defense. Thus she once again will become the killer and the loop will likely last until the end of eternity.

But how is this possible?

Well, there’s a few clues in the episode that point towards the characters both being trapped in purgatory or hell. A demon like jester is at the entrance of The Woman’s job, her boss is named Vladamir, which could perhaps be a reference to Vlad The Impaler and though the club may be exciting on the surface, it’s clear that the workers have had their entire humanity stripped away from them.

Even The Man, who at some points seems to be enjoying it, realises that this isn’t right for him and ends up fleeing to continue the chase. If it had’ve been everything that he hoped for he would have likely stayed.

This is a nightmare situation for the two with both unable to communicate with one another and living in a constant state of fear.

There is a key moment in the episode that showcases what could have lead them to this point, however. That happens when The Woman attempts to make a phone call to the police but ends up botching it and not really giving any helpful information.

This combined with The Title, The Witness, leads me to believe that both the characters at one point in their lives were witnesses to a murder and neither came forward and thus the killer was never caught. Due to this, both are doomed to spend eternity watching a murder play out and then becoming a killer themselves in order to stop someone being able to identify them.

Your Thoughts

It definitely adds a very sinister side to the work and I think helps to elevate it above the majority of the episodes. Obviously, this is a fan theory so if you agree or disagree with me then make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this video then please like it and make sure you check out my full breakdown of the other Love, Death And Robot’s episode: Zima Blue, which will be linked at the end.