Lord of the Flies episode 4 ends the BBC adaptation on a bleak, bruising note. It’s a relentless hour of television – particularly with one child’s “drawn out” death that many viewers found almost unbearable.
Not that anyone expected a happy ending. Since the boys crash-landed, it’s been a quick descent into chaos: wildfires, animals being slaughtered, and that brutal killing in episode 3.
But the ending of Lord of the Flies stretches one of the story’s most infamous deaths into something far more intimate – and far more distressing.
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***Warning: spoilers for Lord of the Flies ahead***
Lord of the Flies changes Piggy’s death – and makes it worse
Piggy’s fate is sealed at the end of Lord of the Flies. That’s not new – what’s new is how long it takes.
In episode 4, Piggy and Ralph approach Jack’s camp to retrieve the stolen glasses. Piggy clutches the conch and tries to reason with the others. Jack orders Roger to “shut him up.”
Roger drops a boulder onto Piggy’s head. But, unlike the novel, that isn’t the end.
Piggy survives the initial blow. Ralph helps him up and they stagger into the forest. What follows is an extended, agonising sequence: Piggy vomiting, trembling, and struggling to stand, with blood pouring down the back of his head.
Ralph drags him to shelter. They lie together, Piggy apologises, and Ralph says sorry for ever revealing his nickname.
“It’s alright… you weren’t to know… that you’d like me so much,” Piggy says.
He dies in the night. The next morning, Ralph buries him alone.
How does Piggy die in the book?
In the original novel, Roger’s rock kills Piggy almost instantly with a “great rock”.
“Saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, [he] travelled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went,” the book reads.
“Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it has been killed.
“Then the sea breathed again in a long, slow sigh, the water boiled white and pink over the rock; and when it went, sucking back again, the body of Piggy was gone.”
Viewers: “I was not prepared”
The reaction has been unanimous: it’s “traumatising”.
“Piggy’s death was something I was not prepared for,” one viewer wrote. “The immediate shock was one thing, the incredibly drawn out death was literally heartbreaking.”
They pointed to the realism – the vomiting, the shivering, the child asking to be held – as what made it so hard to watch.
“I don’t think I’ve witnessed the portrayal of a child slowly die from an incredibly violent injury,” they added.
Others said they “turned away from the screen.” One called it “torturously drawn out.” Another questioned whether the adaptation went too far for the sake of added horror.
Lord of the Flies episode 4 is tough to watch
Piggy’s death is the emotional nadir – but the horror doesn’t stop there.
Jack and Roger launch a full-scale manhunt for Ralph, setting the forest ablaze to flush him out like prey. Smoke and panic drive him onto the beach, where a naval officer from a nearby warship finally appears.
They’re rescued, but the relief is hollow. As the boys regress to their usual selves, there’s something chilling about how quickly the savagery is masked.
Read more: Lord of the Flies cast introduces Harry Potter’s new Draco and twins with a very famous dad
Lord of the Flies is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
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