Does Clare get caught by her husband in Passing?

Passing is an unsettling period drama that portrays the lives of two former childhood friends in sharp relief after they come across one another as adult women in a hotel, specifically The Drayton which only caters to white clientele.

It’s New York City, but it’s New York in the ’20s with a kind of hustle and bustle that follows a strict color line. White people may mix among Black New Yorkers in their communities and dance halls, but Black people are to stay to their side of the line unless it’s for the purpose of business as in employment within a white household or establishment.

Spoilers ahead of Passing

It’s that reality that explains Irene’s nerves as she takes in the cool air of a hotel she wouldn’t be welcome in as a customer if the staff and their patrons realized she’s Black. Fair of skin and deft at using her hat to shield herself from curious eyes, Irene can blend within white circles as long as she uses their perception of who they expect her to be to cast a cursory illusion of whiteness.

In contrast, Clare can pass rather easily. She’s somewhat fairer than Irene and more confidant and charming. She gives the impression that she’s exactly where she should be with no hint that she was born and raised in a Black community or that her sense of culture from food, to music, to thought runs counter to the people she’s convinced that she is as white as they are.

Not even Clare’s husband, Jack, knows of her heritage. In fact, they have a terribly racist joke between the two of them. As she’s aged, her skin has gotten darker which has prompted Jack to refer to her by a shortened version of the n-word.

It’s a chilling moment when it’s used as it’s clear Clare’s choices have put her in a rather dangerous situation. Jack, who has never met a Black person still finds it in his heart to hate the entire race due to the stories he’s heard from other white people.

His affection for Clare only heightens the ominous spectre of the secret that Clare carries. Irene’s fear of him upon their meeting isn’t due to his unkindness to her as he’s quite friendly. It’s because that friendliness would do more than sour upon the truth being revealed. It’s obvious it’d turn deadly.

Does Clare die in Passing?

Passing spirals down a path that is at first quietly intimate as Irene and Clare grow an attachment that displays their obsession with each other’s lives.

However, as Clare encompasses herself more into Irene’s life–establishing a rapport and kinship with her family that Irene can’t seem to manage with the people that should be hers by rights of relation and friendship–that intimacy turns to malaise, at least for Irene.

It’s in that down period, where time seems to pass Irene by as she slips further into a depression, that she comes across Jack in the street as she’s out with a friend.

There are many differences between Clare and Irene, but the one that’s most prominent is that Irene is firmly ensconced in her community in Harlem. She is a part of the Black intellectual fold despite being on the outskirts and not as incorporated as she’d like.

Jack knew her as the white woman he assumed her to be and when she didn’t respond to his polite greeting, the pleasantries that had upheld the illusion she’d allowed to form for her safety fell. Her companion’s skin tone, a rich, warm brown, disillusioned him entirely and sparked a notion of the truth of who Clare is and what she’s not.

Passing ends on a rather abrupt note. Jack forces his way into a gathering in an apartment full of Black partygoers who’d previously been enjoying each other’s conversation. It’s obvious he put it together that Clare is a part of a race he ignorantly despises.

He calls her a dirty liar once he makes his way over to her. It’s a line that alludes to a more callous and hurtful comment that was thrown at Irene’s son, Junior. Darker in hue, as brown-skinned as his father, he had a slur hurled at him.

Jack, who’d grotesquely referred to his wife using that same slur as an affectionate nickname, suddenly can’t bring himself to use it even in the heat of the moment now that he must confront that it’s a hateful word meant to demean and dehumanize.

However, that doesn’t stop him from reaching for Clare in anger. Irene, who’d been standing next to her, moves Clare out of the way, but when she does so Clare falls out of the window Irene had opened moments before.

It’s unclear whether Clare’s death in Passing is Irene’s fault in terms of it being intentional. It depends on the viewer’s interpretation of the moment.

Did she react on impulse, having forgotten that there was no room for Clare to be moved behind her? Was it deliberate since her friend occupied every space that was supposed to be hers and, in the moment of Jack’s intrusion, felt the need remove Clare from her life instead of removing herself as it seemed she might be compelled to do just minutes before Jack arrived?

Or did Irene do exactly what Clare would have wanted? As in sweeping her friend away from the life she’d trapped herself in and out of harm’s way by means of death. A swift death as they were on the sixth floor, and she would have died on impact instead of possibly being left to the violent whims of an enraged husband.

Clare had said she would come to Harlem with Irene if Jack ever found out but that sounded as fanciful as the fantasy Clare allowed herself to live in where she could straddle both worlds with Jack still unaware that she isn’t white. But it’s also true that in her jealousy, Irene didn’t warn Clare that Jack had found out the truth when she had every opportunity to do so.

Ruin was on the table the moment Irene allowed Clare into her world despite the impact it would have on the illusion Clare had created in order to have a better life. The end of Passing is as tragic as the choices Clare made which ultimately left her alone and cold in the snow as her husband, Irene, and those at the party looked on in shock.

Passing is available to stream now on Netflix.