Do they or don’t they? (Relocate to the mainland / see Daniel’s bum / expand their diet beyond “gull”)? Read my plot recap and detailed ending, below (my three star review is here)
Isla and Sandy are two thirtysomething siblings who have lived alone on a tiny Scottish island since their parents disappeared in childhood. They endure a harsh life with little food and exposed to the elements; to survive the trauma of abandonment and this physical onslaught, they have built a mythical folk history to explain their origins on the island and why they are now alone.
Their abusive dad’s legacy has resulted in them still maintaining their uncertain existence, thoguh they are often cold and hungry. He ordered them to stay and defend the island from incomers (they practice by battling stuffed hanging sacks labelled INCOMER). It’s for this reason they dress in bizarre outfits that make them look like avian crusaders, scaring off anyone who dares to visit the island.
Where are their parents? They say their father died giving himself to the sea as a generational sacrifice to the finmen though that is the myth the pair have built around him. Their mother, originally from the mainland, fell ill and returned there (and presumably dying there).
Daniel – the “land recovery coordinator” for the local council – arrives on the island to evict them, as it is meant to be uninhabited. They fight back, though eventually they become friends, despite him being a vegan. He tries to entrance them with wizarding tales from Lord of the Rings and they help “Daniel of the mainland” achieve “the way of the gull” .
He gradually warms to the pair, though back on the mainland his horrible boss Roz is fed up at the delays and sends Daniel’s colleague Calum to sort it out, despite knowing that he has been suspended for dislocating a pensioner’s hip during an eviction.
Now scroll down for the ending…
Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O’Rourke)
The ending of The Incomer
The siblings want to make Daniel part of their group, to be a true gull of the Auk Isle. To prove himself he has to wrestle Sandy, shriek like a gull, fight the stuffed INCOMER sack hanging on the gibbet, and finally “ride the wind”: hold himself over the cliff edge against the wind, as if he is flying. Daniel is terrified but completes the final task and is delighted with himself.
Calum arrives from the mainland, dressed all in black on a little motor dingy.
Daniel teaches Isla to swim. Walking back to the house they see the northern lights. She explains to him what happened to her mother, who died. Daniel tries to kiss Isla but she hits him in the face. Calum is watching them…
Isla, in her hut, hears a knock and goes outside, and Calum attacks her as he intones the eviction mantra from the law in question. However she fights back and overpowers him.
Next morning at breakfast Isla tells Sandy she wants to spend time with Daniel but not with him. Sandy follows them.
They hear Calum shouting and Daniel finds him in the shed, still restrained. Calum has a crowbar and a big bottle of urine he has brought with him.
Isla has put on a dress and lipstick. She has been hoarding things that have had washed up on the shore and also still has her mother’s things. She tells Daniel her mum was from the mainland and went back there when she fell ill. Her dad said if she had stayed on the island she might have lived. Her dad burnt their boat and the next morning instructed them in guarding the island and repelling all incomers.
Isla wants to marry Daniel, stay on the island and have 12 babies as they would lose some to predators.
Daniel says she cannot stay on the island and she should come to the mainland with him – she would love it there and everyone would love her stories.
He says he is happy on the mainland but she becomes very angry and accuses him of lying.
Calum has escaped but he has left a trap for Isla and ties her up. He has left his jeans. He radios for an evacuation boar.
Sandy admits he loves Daniel and wants to kill and eat him so he is part of Sandy forever; he knows Daniel loves Isla.
Calum appears in his pants, his body painted black, carrying his massive bottle of urine. They find Isla and Sandy accuses her of bringing Calum in for romance.
Isla won’t leave, and Daniel points out their mum might have lived if she had gone back there earlier. He tells her her dad didn’t tell the truth about giving himself to the sea.
On the shore the finman tries again to tempt Isla in saying it is what her father would have wanted; finally Isla asks what about what she wants? Maybe it wasn’t that she wanted to stay but that she wanted her dad. The finman talks of generational sacrifice but Isla no longer believes him and leaves. Enraged, he shouts after her that she will pay the price.
In the twlight Calum is making fire. Meanwhile Isla is making a club. Another boat is coming.
Isla apologises to Sandy for listening to Daniel, though Sandy confides that while he himself doesn’t love Daniel he does want to see his bum. Isla gives him the dildo. They are ready, in their bird outfits.
Roz arrives with a council team, and while Calum and Daniel meet them the siblings spy on the scene. Isla has hardened towards Daniel and the two ambush the other group.
They are overpowered by Roz’s council henchmen, but then Daniel appears in his bird outfit and throws bird seed over them – the gulls attack.
Daniel sends Isla and Sandy to the house and then speaks to Roz. She says it’s all weird, but he tells her though he has always felt weird he is happy with that and what he enjoys – besides, they are all weird. (At this point Calum claims he himself is not weird).
Daniel tells Roz began his job wanting to help people but they just seem to make people’s lives worse, when they should be serving their public. He asks Roz if she has ever actually asked people what they want and warns that he will tell her superiors that she sent Calum to the island despite him being suspended.
Daniel returns to the house and tells Isla she shouldn’t stay through fear of the mainland; it’s not perfect but there is much that is good there. Sandy tells her she hasn’t smiled in years but has several times since Daniel arrived.
However they cannot stay together as they haven’t paid the price (the generational sacrifice to the sea). He goes down to the shore to try to fulfil this duty. Isla and Daniel go in after him and manage to drag him out from under the waves. He is unconscious, as Isla speaks to him – telling him he is her home. Getting fed up, she whacks him and he regains consciousness, then shouts at the sea.
Isla is telling a story. The gulls meet a wizard and the wizard wants to take them back, but the gulls are scared.
We cut to them on the mainland as she continues to tell the tale: they live in a whitewashed cottage by the sea, which they adapt to make more like the home they have left behind. Isla becomes a writer – penning tales of finmen and folklore – and gives well-attended readings. Sandy realises he is gay and finds a boyfriend. They make plenty of friends. They even watch Lord of the Rings with Daniel in their new home, and realise he stole his wizarding stories from JRR Tolkien.
The island is now an official wildlife reserve. Isla visits but doesn’t want to stay. And even in their busy and bustling new life she still has solitude on her terms.
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