Shepherd Ending Explained (Spoilers)

A young Scottish shepherd, following the death of his unfaithful wife, fights to maintain his own sanity when the past catches up to him.

Shepherd: Spoilers Below

Eric Black attends his wife Rachel's funeral in the windy Scottish highlands. Then, he notices a strange black figure in the distance. Eric wakes up from this nightmare in his bed and is comforted by Baxter, his Border Collie dog.

Eric has a creepy vision of a crying baby in his drawer while sitting in his kitchen – when he opens it, it's empty except for a sonogram. Later, he spots an advert for a shepherd on a remote island in the newspaper.

Eric drives to his parents' old farmhouse with Baxter. He lets his mother Glenys know that he's returning home, but she rejects this idea and accuses him of abandoning his faith and his family when he married Rachel. When Glenys insults Rachel, Eric leaves, angered by her lack of remorse. Eric drives to a nearby lake and almost commits suicide with a pocket knife. Eric throws his old wedding band into the lake instead.

Eric takes Baxter with him on a boat to the island where the shepherd job is located, operated by a half-sighted "Fisher." Fisher tells Eric the lighthouse's light is broken. Eric's new home is an old cottage next to the lighthouse. Fisher tells Eric the house's generator is broken, but there are gas lamps inside and an emergency telephone inside, which because of the weather, doesn't usually work. She gives Eric a journal bound in black leather that she advises him to write in and lets him know she'll be back next Tuesday with supplies.

The cottage has taxidermied goat heads mounted on the wall and is covered in dust. Eric unpacks one of Rachel's old mugs. He learns that the water supply is cut off, so he brings a bucket up to a spring on a hill. He spots and pockets a wedding ring on the chain of the spring. During the night, Eric struggles with his phobia of heights to ascend the stairs to the bathroom.

Strange things happen over the next couple of days: Eric smashes Rachel's mug when he finds that it's been mysteriously filled with steaming tea; he also finds a bunch of the same black journals he was given stuffed into a bookshelf. He sees the words "she's a witch" when he flips through the pages, but he does not investigate further. Then, while returning from feeding the sheep, he sees Fisher entering and leaving the lighthouse one day. He tries the lighthouse door, which has a strange rune carved onto it, and it is locked.

One morning he finds his mother in the kitchen and is shocked. She breaks down sobbing, and Eric embraces her. Later, she talks about Rachel, telling Eric she hopes that Rachel suffered when she died while taking a knife and cutting it into her hand. Eric asks her to leave and is disturbed, but she corners him, and he wakes from his nightmare.

Eric wakes up one day to find that Baxter has gone missing. Fisher calls him on the telephone and urges him to look for Baxter. He follows distant barks into a thick fog. He hurries to reach a mysterious black figure at the top of the hill but falls and hits his head. He arrives, but it is only a tall rock, beyond which is an old luxury liner in a valley. He follows Baxter's noises into the empty ship but only finds an old cast iron key on the ground, which he takes. The black figure appears behind, but he quickly leaves without turning around after sensing it. He returns to the valley the next day, but the ship is gone.

Eric grows paranoid and stays awake holding a knife at night. He hears a baby's cries coming from the wardrobe but opens it up to find a stuffed robin instead. He realizes the wedding ring he took from the spring is his due to its familiar engraving. Eric has nightmares of the mysterious black figure and his wife, and another where he's trying to rescue a baby stuck underneath ice by smashing it.

Eric opens the lighthouse door with the iron key in the waking world. Inside, stuffed birds line the stairs. He fights his height phobia to reach the top and lights the lighthouse light using Rachel's old lighter. Fisher looks distressed as she sees the light from her boat. He sees a horrific sight as he leaves. All the sheep, including his dog Baxter, have been cut open and displayed in front of his house. However, the next day they are all gone.

Fisher calls Eric. She says Eric is where he needs to be despite his pleas of wanting to go home. He later looks through one of the journals and finds a sketch titled "The Wrecker" of a figure using light to lure ships into the rocks. He is shocked to find a drawing of Baxter on the next page.

Eric knocks over a fuel can for the broken generator, spilling it over the floor the next day. His wife's distorted figure emerges in the kitchen. He throws Rachel's lighter on the fuel spill after a confrontation, setting the cottage and her on fire. He tries to get Fisher's attention after seeing her on her boat in the distance, but she makes a stuffed bird and ignores him. He desperately tries to swim to the boat but sinks into the sea; he tries to escape, but a ghostly hand grips his ankle.

He washes up on shore where two dark figures and a dog, who may be Baxter, come running to rescue him. Later, a police officer interviews him, but he cannot give her identifying details for Fisher. Finally, he confesses that he caused the death of his wife. He reveals that he was drunk while driving and the car veered off the road onto a cliff's edge. He could not tolerate the height and left the vehicle, unbalancing and tipping it over the edge with Rachel inside, who was pregnant.

The phone inside the interrogation room rings after the police officer leaves. Eric picks up, and Fisher is on the other end of the line, calling from a telephone box with bloodied hands. He tells her that he's told the police everything, but she replies that she has insurance. She picks up Eric's pocket knife and visits Glenys in her home, implying she has framed Eric for her murder. The lights go off inside the room as Eric puts down the phone. Bright sunshine and sounds of the island come from under the door, and as Eric opens it, he emerges from the lighthouse door.

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