Netflix's Maniac: What Does The Ending Really Mean?

2. Fantasy Becomes Reality

And so the series ends with Annie busting Owen out of the mental institution, escaping the chasing guards who have figured out what's going on, and hit the open road in a truck that may not be able to take them all the way to Salt Lake City, but it's a start.

It's here we have the biggest, most obvious and important case of fantasy bleeding over into reality. Back in the sixth episode of the series, Owen reveals the fantasy world he would've used the missing Don Quixote chapter to escape to, telling Annie:

"I had a plan we were going to go somewhere. We were in a car, driving really fast, someone was chasing us, I don’t know who. It felt like an escape, and I was just laughing and I had this huge smile on my face, it hurt it was so big. We were just two people watching out for each other.”

It's quite fitting that this is the one fantasy to become a reality: it's the one where Owen doesn't need to be the hero or the Chosen One that others often present him as, but instead finds the genuine human relationship he's never before had. For Annie, it's finding a way to finish that trip to Salt Lake. For both, it's learning to move forward through their pain.