Warning: This article contains spoilers for Netflix’s “East of Eden.”
Joseph Zada’s eyes light up when asked about the ending of “East of Eden,” Netflix’s seven-episode adaptation that will hit the platform on October 1.
“It was so ridiculous,” Zada tells TODAY.com of her co-star Christopher Abbott’s performance, his eyes sparkling with awe.
Zada’s character, Cal, is the outcast son of Abbott’s Adam Trask. Growing up, Cal always came second to his favorite son, Aron (Joe Anders).
In the final scene, set after Adam’s stroke, Cal and Adam have a stirring interaction that encapsulates the story’s themes of forgiveness, redemption, and choice. Incredibly, the interaction consists of a single, important word: “Timshel.”
“I was like, ‘Dude, you shouldn’t be acting like that.’ That’s ridiculous. He’d use half his mouth and one of his eyes to move, and then he’d say that line. It would be like the most effective full line of all time,” Zada says.
Zoe Kazan wrote and directed the series adaptation of the sprawling, multi-generational epic, 70 years after her grandfather Elia Kazan directed his own adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 book.
Here’s what you need to know about how his version ends.
What Will Happen at the End of ‘East of Eden’?
A loose retelling of Cain and Abel, “East of Eden” is the story of how two families came to live in California’s Salinas Valley, beginning in the Civil War era and continuing through World War I.
Cal, one of Adam’s two sons, struggles with feelings of immorality throughout the book. His brother Aron seems to be the favorite, the “good” one. When Cal learns the truth about his mother, Cathy (played by Florence Pugh), he thinks he has inherited her evil.
His inner turmoil worsens when his actions accidentally lead to the death of his brother Aron, who is serving in Europe in World War I. His father suffered a stroke after hearing the news.
Adam Trask’s maid, Lee (Hoon Lee), urges him to forgive Cal and relieve him of his guilt. All Adam says is one word, but that’s enough.
What is ‘Timshel’?
At the end of the series and the book, Adam says one word to Cal: timshel.
“Timshel” is a Hebrew word that appears in the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:7, when God was speaking to Cain about overcoming sin or evil. In different versions of the Bible this word is translated several different ways; that man “should” or “should”. But Steinbeck revisits another potential meaning of the Hebrew word: “You can.”
The Lee character explains this in a conversation with Adam Trask and Samuel Hamilton in “East of Eden.”
“The American Standard translation commands people to triumph over sin, and you might call it ignorance. The King James translation promises, ‘Thou shalt,’ which means that people will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, timshel – ‘You may’ – offers a choice,” says Lee.
“It may be the most important word in the world. It says the way is clear. It brings one right back. Because if ‘You can’ is also true, ‘You can’t’ is also true. Don’t you see?”
East of Eden
This is the choice Adam offers his son on his deathbed; he can still choose to be good.
“The whole book is about intergenerational trauma and the way people sometimes believe their fate depends on what their parents were like or the environments they grew up in,” Zada says.
According to Zada, this word frees his character from his family’s past.
“Regardless of what you’ve been through and the choices you’ve made so far, you can choose your own path,” he explains. “You can change and you don’t have to be like your predecessors.”