Outpost (2023) Ending Explained - Clearing Up Some Loose Ends

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We recently reviewed horror, thriller, movie Outpost from 2023. Yeah, I know, it’s a few years old but Shudder added it recently and I needed a movie to fill my viewing schedule so, here we are. It wasn’t great and it was a little confusing so I am here with this Outpost Ending Explained article to answer a few questions.

I am going to do things a lot differently with this article. Rather than summarising the entire film and telling you what you already know. I am going to cut straight to the chase and answer the burning questions left by the rather scattered storytelling.

This article assumes that you are done watching Outpost and don’t mind a whole bunch of spoilers. As a quick refresher, Kate takes a voluntary job as a Firewatch person to help deal with her trauma. She eventually ends up losing her mind due to poor mental health and the solitude. It also assumes that you remember the plot and don’t need a full summary. Without further ado, let’s take a look.

What Was Wrong With Kate?

Kate (Beth Dover) was, likely, suffering from CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This disorder is marked by a variety of symptoms that have a huge impact on the life of the sufferer. Including, but not limited to, emotional instability, interpersonal relationship problems, difficulty in trusting, enormous anxiety, self doubt, depression, feelings of shame and self loathing, and much more.

CPTSD often comes as a biproduct of childhood abuse or neglect. Leaving the victim suffering long after they have left childhood and impacting their daily lives as an adult. CPTSD can also be caused later in life by traumatic experiences. For example, abuse at the hands of another person or experiencing harrowing things on a regular basis. CPTSD is a common result of living in an environment experiencing war or conflict or being involved in war.

Why Did Kate Suffer From CPTSD?

Kate experienced trauma from a very young age. Her uncle was abusive to her, touching her and exposing himself to her from a young age. This left her with CPTSD as she could never confront the damage done to her mental state from when she was very young.

The condition was exacerbated by a recent relationship. There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that sufferers of abuse are more likely to suffer further abuse in future relationships. This was the case with Kate as she was violently abused at the hands of her last partner, Mike. Leaving her with scars both mentally and physically.

Kate’s CPTSD manifests in the form of distrust, paranoia, difficulty controlling her responses to situations, difficulty controlling her emotions, and, eventually, psychosis.

Why Does Kate Volunteer to Fire Watch

Kate requests her friend’s help to get in touch with the person who runs the local fire watch service, Earl (Ato Essandoh). She does this so that she can escape from the town and put her difficult past with her abusive boyfriend behind her. Her friend is worried that this isn’t the right decision for her but helps her anyway.

Kate wants to experience the solitude and wants to be away from people. Finding it difficult to trust; she sees the loneliness of the Firewatch station as a benefit. It will, also, place her far away from her abuser. Creating distance in a place that he won’t be able to find her.

Did Mike Attack Kate In The Fire Tower?

No, Mike didn’t attack Kate in the fire watch tower. This was a hallucination by Kate, reflecting her fragile mental health. In fact, there is reason to believe that, by this point, Mike may not even be alive. Something we will get into later on.

It is made clear when Mike suddenly appears in the passenger seat of her car. That this was all in Kate’s head. When she falls out of the car, Mike’s car is gone and she is completely alone.

Did The Hiker Exist?

This is the most obvious question, right? Did the female hiker, Bertha (Becky Ann Baker), who Kate frequently spent time with actually exist? She was, supposedly, also a victim of abuse and, eventually, ends up encouraging Kate to attack Reggie, Earl, and Ranger Dan.

The answer here is no, Bertha was not real. It is implied that Bertha was Reggie’s ex wife. Reggie frequently talks about his late wife to, basically, anyone who will listen. Bertha didn’t start appearing on the mountain until after Kate had been in Reggie’s home and seen pictures of her. In fact, she appears only moments after Kate runs from Reggie’s house after hallucinating him attacking her. It is more than likely that Kate manifested the character of Bertha based on pictures she saw in Reggie’s house.

Bertha was a hallucination brought about by Kate’s apparent psychosis. Suffered as a result of her CPTSD. Bertha reflects the sentiments that Kate holds in her own mind towards men, and people, in general. Note how Bertha tells Kate how all men are abusive?

This is Kate’s own opinion on men as she, herself, has been abused by men her whole life. Bertha is just a manifestation of Kate’s mind that gives her the encouragement and strength to take revenge on the people she perceives as wanting to harm her.

Did Reggie Kill His Wife?

I think this is a question that is worth answering. No, Reggie did not kill his wife. Although Reggie was a bit of an awkward person. There is no suggestion that he was violent to his wife, that he murdered her or even that he was in any way bad to her. Reggie was just a good husband that cared for her until she died, likely of cancer.

Kate’s hallucinations of Reggie’s wife, Bertha, were not real representations of Bertha. Bertha telling Kate that Reggie was abusive was, simply, Kate’s mind conjuring up hallucinations based on her own perception of things. Men have been so cruel to Kate that she could never imagine any of them being kind to their partners. Making her believe, with no prior evidence, that Reggie was, not only, abusive to his wife but may also have killed her. Something which is completely untrue.

Who Was The Naked Dude in the Toilet?

This scene was pretty shocking, right? Kate opens the toilet to see a man standing there with no pants on. That person was her uncle. Kate was experiencing a delusion and her uncle was not actually there in the toilet.

He was naked as this specific moment because that was a point of trauma for Kate. Her uncle exposed himself to her when she was very young. This stayed with her and she likely has flashbacks to it. It is a contributing factor to her CPTSD.

Why Did Kate Become Violent?

Kate became violent because, it would appear that, her condition developed into full blown psychosis. Kate was, already, paranoid and experiencing frequent hallucinations. She saw her ex-partner attacking her in the fire watch tower, she saw her uncle in the toilet, she witnessed fire on the hillside, she frequently communicated with a person who didn’t exist, and she believed everyone was staring at her in the coffee shop. Sure, these are dramatized depictions of paranoia, but the point still stands.

She was struggling to cope on the mountain. Evidenced by her seeking companionship in Reggie and struggling to chop wood and stay warm. Her phone broke, leaving her even more isolated, and things weren’t going well on the job. It can, probably, be inferred that Kate experienced a psychotic break. Meaning she dissociated from reality and had less awareness of the severity and consequences of her actions.

It was apparent, in flashbacks, that Kate was already prone to violence, having broken a woman’s arm in an outburst. Her paranoia reached a point where she believed that everyone was specifically out to get her. This was compounded by Earl being forced to remove her from her position due to her inability to perform the task of watching for fires.

It becomes clear, towards the end, that Kate has not been managing her post at all. She has covered all the windows in the fire watch tower, removing the responsibility of watching for fires. She is spending a lot of time at Reggie’s house while he is away. With her increasingly volatile state indicated by the fact that she is defecating on the floor and leaving the place a mess.

Who Did Kate Murder?

Kate initially murders the two hikers that appear near her fire watch station earlier in the movie. Remember the scene where she is shooting rabbits with Bertha? This is an indication of her warped world view. She was never shooting rabbits, she was shooting the two hikers. In her deluded mind, there was no difference. The two hikers were together, Kate hid in the bushes and shot one of them, prompting the other to run away. Kate then chased after the other hiker, killing him, as well.

Kate left one of the hiker’s bodies on the grass. She took the other hiker’s body and placed it inside of the toilet to rot. If you think back to how long Kate has not been using the toilet for. Instead, choosing to go in the grass. It becomes apparent that this took place quite awhile before the final events of the film. The bodies are heavily decomposed and the hikers had been missing for a decent amount of time. Indicating that Kate’s mental state had been in steep decline from day one.

Kate then sets a trap for Reggie. When he returns from his trip to see his grandchildren, he finds his home a horrible mess. Assuming someone had broken in, he heads outside to spot his herb patch ruined. Walking towards it, he catches his foot in a bear trap set by Kate.

Kate then, from a distance, takes shots at Reggie. Ranger Dan, who was on the way to the house to check on Reggie, runs to help. Only to be murdered by Kate who then, swiftly, follows up by killing Reggie. Believing them both to be evil abusers who want to harm her and get rid of her permanently.

What Happened at the End?

Earl heads over to the fire station to kick Kate out as she is not fit to do the job. Earl has a lot of guilt about a fire he missed, years ago, that resulted in the death of a number of people and the destruction of land on the mountain. He doesn’t want to take that chance again so he wants to remove Kate and lock the fire watch station up. Replacing her, on the job, with Reggie who had previously volunteered at the fire watch tower. While there, he finds the dead body of the hiker left in the grass. Realising that Kate might be responsible he sends Ranger Dan to Reggie’s house to check on him.

Kate’s best friend Nickie, who is also Earl’s sister and the person who got Kate the job, is heading to the fire watch station to surprise Kate. She gets there just as Earl does. Kate has returned from killing Dan and Reggie. As Nickie is walking up to the tower, she finds the hiker’s dead body in the toilet.

Earl appears and the pair are attacked by Kate. They make a troubling discovery while there, a charred limb. Kate has been eating human flesh to survive. When we witness her and the hiker eating the rabbit they had shot. It was actually the hiker and Kate cooked and ate one of his limbs.

Earl pursues Kate only to be wounded. He manages to create some distance, heading to the tower itself before Kate attacks him, once again. Earl fights back, choking Kate, only for Nickie to appear and show pity on her. Telling Earl to stop. The pair lock Kate in the fire tower and make their way back to the road. Kate looks on, screaming, realising that she can’t escape and will have to face the consequences of her actions.

But What About Mike?

There may be another victim of Kate’s that we don’t actually know about. Remember during the early portion of the film? Kate tells Nickie that Mike hasn’t been seen for days and will come and find her. The reality is one of two things. Kate attacked Mike, killing him but being wounded in the process of him fighting back. Or Kate was attacked by Mike and killed him to defend herself. Either way, it seems as though Mike is dead, as well.

So that’s Mike, Reggie, Ranger Dan, and two hikers who all fall victim to Kate. It’s hard to know, exactly, whether Kate’s mental state worsening to the point of murder is the result of Mike attacking her. Or whether Kate’s experiences with her abusive uncle set her on a destructive path. Resulting in her being paranoid of men and killing Mike unprovoked before doing the same to the other people.

We have no proof that Mike actually attacked her. She has hallucinated many men attacking her so Kate can be seen as something of an unreliable narrator. All in all, this can be seen as something of a negative portrayal of CPTSD. Something all too common in horror. Portraying suffers as unstable maniacs liable to murder anyone at any time is really not a very positive thing to do. It is highly irresponsible, at best.

Thanks For Reading

Hopefully that answers the majority of questions surrounding the ending of Outpost. Not a great movie but, still, fairly fun in parts. Thanks for spending your time here. Be sure to take a look at some Horror Movie Reviews and check out our horror lists. We also explain endings every now and then so check back frequently. Take care and see you again soon.