Sybylla’s Choice Explained by Philippa Northeast (Exclusive)

A new adaptation of the classic Australian novel My Brilliant Career arrived on Netflix on August 13, starring The Newsreader‘s Philippa Northeast as the spitfire protagonist Sybylla Melvyn, a role that previously made Judy Davis a global star after the 1979 film costarring the late Sam Neill.

My Brilliant Career is a six-episode season detailing Sybylla’s struggle to avoid marriage in favor of a writing career in 1900 Australia. Among the many firsts Sybylla experiences after moving into her wealthy grandmother’s (Anna Chancellor) Caddagat estate is falling in love. However, because of the limitations of society at the time, Sybylla couldn’t be both a full-time professional writer and a wife and mother. She could try to do both, and she spent the season trying to find a way to do that. Warning: My Brilliant Career Season 1 finale spoilers ahead.

In moments of doubt about what opportunities were really available to women at the time, Sybylla considered marriages in which she could carve out a little freedom for herself. But the journey of the first season culminates in her choosing between romantic and self-love, and she chooses the latter.

Ian Routledge/Netflix

Sybylla falls in love with the handsome Harry Beecham (Slow Horses‘ Christopher Chung), the owner of the estate neighboring her grandmother’s. Their love story is interrupted by financial strife, and when they’re separated, Sybylla and Harry promise to wait for each other until they can get back on their financial feet and reunite. When they finally do, and Harry proposes again, Sybylla says no — not out of lack of love for Harry, but out of a choice that prioritizes her ambitions.

The last shot of the finale shows Sybylla, hopeful but forever changed by her time at Caddagat, waiting for a train that will take her on a new adventure. Northeast tells TV Insider why Sybylla couldn’t be engaged or married when taking this step forward.

“She chooses herself. She chooses self-love at this point,” Northeast tells TV Insider of the My Brilliant Career ending. “She wouldn’t have those words necessarily, but it’s important now for her to [know] if she married Harry, the reality is she would be a domestic that maybe could write as a hobby, but she wants to write as a career. And she needs to choose her own path to be able to do that. And as much as she’s in love with Harry, it’s not going to be possible if she stays with him.”

Perhaps they can reunite in the future, when Sybylla has established her writing career. And perhaps her writing about her time at Caddagat will become a hit that shoots her into a life of financial independence. Whatever the future has in store, Sybylla knows in her gut that she must face it independently, in part because her reason for going to Caddagat in the first place was a plan plotted by her parents to save the family from financial destitution.

Ian Routledge/Netflix

Now, Sybylla is endeavoring to make her own way to financial freedom so she can help her family, whom she loves very much despite their struggles. To save her sister from indentured servitude, Sybylla takes her place as the governess for the McSwat family, to whom her father was deeply financially indebted.

Sybylla spent more than a year living with and working for that family while Harry was working as a drover to try to rebuild his savings that were lost buying up too many struggling farms. He never wrote to Sybylla during that time out of shame for not being able to provide, but that choice isn’t what made Sybylla deny his proposal. As Northeast says, Sybylla chose herself.

The final shot of the season wasn’t the last shot filmed. “It was close-ish to the end,” Northeast shares. “But I think we finished on some of the McSwats scenes, actually, at the very, very end.”

“I love that moment though,” she adds. “I want to see this character in other landscapes being challenged by other environments. Where will she go? Which train will she go on next? What will she learn next from a different environment? I think it’s a character that’s [ripe] for new landscapes. And then also, obviously, it encapsulates everything that she’s been through and the growth that she’s made at that point.”

My Brilliant Career is based on the Miles Franklin novel of the same name that came out in 1901. Its sequel, My Career Goes Bung, was published in 1946. As of the time of publication, there’s no word on whether the production intends to adapt the second book. Whether they do or don’t, the My Brilliant Career Season 1 ending is brilliantly satisfying.

Learn more about the making of My Brilliant Career in our video interview with Northeast, above.

My Brilliant Career, Available now, Netflix