Ti West’s X Hints Maxine’s Future in Maxxxine
Mia Goth plays both Maxine and Pearl in the original and prequel of X. The uncanny parallels between the two characters only intensify as the story unravels. While Pearl’s story comes in a full circle in X, Maxine’s story has just begun. She becomes the sole survivor of Pearl’s farm massacre.
The final scene sees her driving off to the life she deserves, but where does it lead?
X takes on a poetic (almost cruel) gesture to show that although Maxine manages to leave home to pursue her dream, she can’t escape her father (the preacher on the television at Pearl’s) or stop fate from ruining her chance.
In X, Maxine and the crew rent a cabin on Pearl’s farm for a porn production. The filming is almost complete, but like a fertile egg that is not yet hatched, Pearl goes on a killing spree and hunt all members of the crew with the aid from her husband, killing Maxine’s dream in the womb. Maxine manages to escapes from the farm, but the camera containing footage from the porn film was then discovered by the cops.
Maxine Is Going to Hollywood
What Maxine has is determination. She will stop at nothing to pursue her dream — there’s a Pearl side of her, but here’s the twist. Maxine doesn’t have to kill Pearl. She kills Pearl out of spite. Just like when Pearl killed the blonde. And it’s also the final kill that leaves a potential trail for the police to find Maxine. The tire track that kills Pearl would match the truck she drives. Her performance stored in the camera again ties her presence to the crime scene. Wherever she’s headed, the police will follow.
It doesn’t matter what the police want from her or what they truly discovered in Pearl’s farm. A tiny hint of doubt is all Maxine needs to kill again.
The Past Continues To Haunt Maxine
Both Maxine and Pearl want to be a star. Pearl desires to be seen. She goes on audition, the rejection from the outside world turns her way around. Instead, she finds exactly what she’s looking for in Howard, in which she becomes a star. Maxine, on the other hand, has an undeniable talent as a porn star. Her act inspired Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) to challenge normality and evoked Pearl’s sexuality. On the other hand, the crew might have just walked into a trap set up by the old couple, killing the production in the womb — a poetic resemblance between X and Pearl.
Maxine didn’t kill her family to escape a life given, but she killed Pearl because one, nothing will stop her from pursuing the life she deserves, and two, she’s pissed. As she steps on the gas, giving Pearl the first taste of her rage, it sends her on a different path, sealing her fate to kill again to get what she deserves. Maxine is more than Pearl. Maxine is also in the process of becoming Pearl.
The upcoming slasher film Maxxxine will undoubtedly feature more bloodshed. Maybe Maxine isn’t the alternative version of Pearl in which she “makes it” as a movie star. Maybe she has just woken up to become the next Pearl, who’s heading toward a bigger screen and even bloodier future. The end of Pearl is where Maxine’s story begins. Maybe she indeed gets what she wants but has to keep killing the past to preserve it.