Deciphering the Ending of ‘Conclave’: An Analysis of the Plot Twist

Good news for those looking to enjoy their Christmas break with a bit of drama and intrigue – Conclave can now be watched on Peacock for free, as long as you have a Peacock Premium subscription.

Directed by German filmmaker Edward Berger—who recently won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film for his 2022 film All Quiet on the Western Front—with a screenplay by Peter Straughan, Conclave is a mystery-thriller based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Robert Harris. Ralph Fiennes stars as a Cardinal who must organize the election of the next pope, after the previous pope dies. But in the process, he finds the now-deceased pope was hiding a dark secret that involves his potential successors.

Also starring Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini, Conclave was an unexpected hit, thanks in part to a word-of-mouth social media campaign. If you didn’t get a chance to watch Conclave in theaters, now is your chance to catch the movie at home. Get ready for that twist ending. If you’re not paying attention, you may find yourself confused.

Not to worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for an analysis of the Conclave plot summary and the Conclave ending explained.

Warning: Major Conclave spoilers ahead.

After the fictional Pope Gregory XVII dies unexpectedly, all the cardinals of the Catholic Church gather at the Vatican for a papal conclave, to vote on the next pope. The cardinals will be completely sequestered and shut off from the outside world, until they can reach a two-thirds supermajority vote. The top candidates are the liberal Aldo Bellini from the U.S. (Stanley Tucci), the conservative traditionalist Goffredo Tedesco from Italy (Sergio Castellitto), the conservative Joshua Adeyemi from Nigeria (Lucian Msamati), and the moderate Jospeh Tremblay from Canada (John Lithgow). There’s also a surprise candidate who shows up at the last minute: Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz), a Mexican bishop who says the late Pope Gregory secretly named him the Archbishop of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Our protagonist is Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the British Dean of the College of Cardinals—aka the man in charge of organizing the vote—who wants to help elect a liberal pope. Lawrence and other liberal cardinals hope to rally around Aldo Bellini. However, it soon becomes clear Aldo will not have the votes, in part because some of the other liberals vote for Lawrence, after he gives a rousing opening speech encouraging the cardinals to embrace uncertainty. Bellini accuses Lawrence of wanting the papacy for himself, which Lawrence denies. (And we see that, indeed, Lawrence votes for Bellini, not himself.)

With the vote split between Lawrence and Bellini, the liberals decide to consolidate behind Adeyemi. Though he has socially conservative views on homosexuality, they want to prevent the far-right traditionalist, Tedesco, from winning. But then a Nigerian nun, Shanumi (Balkissa Maiga), confronts Adeyemi in the cafeteria, creating a scene in front of everyone. The nun admits to Lawrence that she had an illicit affair with Adeyemi, and that he has a child. Though Lawrence doesn’t reveal Adeyemi’s secret, the public scandal is enough to lose Adeyemi the support he needs.

The liberals decide to back the moderate candidate, Tremblay, to block Tedesco. However, Lawrence is warned by one of the pope’s confidants that in Tremblay’s last meeting with the pope, the pope asked for Tremblay’s resignation. Tremblay denies this. But then the head nun tells Lawrence that Tremblay is the one who brought Shanumi to the Vatican, in order to ruin Adeyemi’s reputation. Suspicious that Tremblay is hiding sometime, Lawrence breaks into the pope’s seal-off bedrom. There, he discovers documents showing that Tremblay bribed cardinals for votes. The former Pope knew, and had asked him to resign.

Bellini tells Lawrence to destroy documents, to prevent a scandal. Lawrence realizes Bellini must have accepted a bribe to support Tremblay, too. Instead of destroying the documents, Lawrence makes copies and distributes them to the cardinals. With Tremblay out of the race, it’s down to Tedesco and Lawrence. Lawrence reluctantly votes for himself, but as he casts his ballot, a sudden explosion blows a hole in the Sistine Chapel.

What feels like an intervention from God himself turns out to be a suicide bomber attack in Rome. Though they don’t know the details of the attack, Tedesco blames Muslim terrorists. Benitez—the surprise candidate who works in Kabul, who has been steadily gaining votes—responds with a passionate speech about the horrors of war he has seen in Afghanistan, and that violence should not be met with violence. He encourages the Catholic Church to move toward a future of love and compassion.

Thanks to this rousing speech, Benitez manages to get a two-thirds majority vote. He becomes the next pope, and chooses his Pope name: Pope Innocent. But Benitez, like the other candidates, has a secret.

Lawrence is happy with the election of Benitez, and is relieved he will not be pope. However, Lawrence’s assistant, Raymond (Brían F. O’Byrne), reveals that while he was doing research on the candidates, he discovered Benitez had planned to go to Switzerland for an unusual medical procedure. However, the procedure was canceled. Lawrence had previously assumed that because the procedure was canceled, Benitez’s health issue must not have been serious.

However, it turns out Benitez had been scheduled to receive a laparoscopic hysterectomy. When confronted by Lawrence, Benitez reveals he was assigned male at birth, but later discovered he is intersex.

A hysterectomy is a surgery to remove a uterus and a cervix, aka body parts that typically only cis women are born with. However, Benitez was born intersex. This means he was born with both male genitalia (a penis) and female genitalia (a uterus and ovaries). Because the uterus is an internal organ, he was assumed to be a cisgender man, and did not realize he was intersex until he had surgery to remove his appendix in his late 30s.

Benitez felt he had betrayed the church, since he could technically be defined as a woman by some, and woman cannot be priests. He confessed his situation to the former pope, and offered to resign. The pope helped Benitez arrange a surgery to remove his uterus, but Benitez changed his mind at the last minute.

“It seemed to me more of a sin to change His handiwork than to leave my body as it was,” Benitez explains to Lawrence. “I am what God made me. Perhaps it is my difference that will make me more useful. I think again of your sermon. I know what it is to exist between the world’s certainties.”

By this, Benitez means that he is living proof that the so-called “certain” definitions of what a man is and is not are not as concrete as the world would like to believe.

Lawrence is shaken by this revelation, but accepts Benitez’s logic, and agrees to keep his secret. In the final scene of the movie, Lawrence returns an escaped turtle to the pond. The cardinals send up white smoke, indicating a new pope has been elected. Lawrence smiles as he hears the crowd cheer, suggesting he has faith in his new pope, despite his shocking secret.

You can learn more about the intersex community and history of intersex people at InterAct.org.