The Unforgivable: Why Ruth Takes The Blame For Killing The Sheriff

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In The Unforgiveable, Ruth (Sandra Bullock) is released from prison after serving 20 years for a murder she didn’t commit, and many viewers were left wondering why she took the blame. Various flashbacks show that Ruth was threatening to shoot Sheriff Mac Whelan (W. Earl Brown) if he entered her house, which she was being evicted from. The central theme of the film pertains to Ruth trying to find a place in a world that will never forgive her for a killing she didn't commit. No matter where she goes, she’s seen as a violent criminal. The big reveal is that it was her five-year-old sister, Katie (Neli Kastrinos), who grabbed the gun and shot the Sheriff because she thought that's what Ruth wanted.

When she’s released, Sandra Bullock’s character in The Unforgiveable wants to contact Katie, now Katherine (Aisling Franciosi). She wrote Katherine thousands of letters that were never given to her by her adoptive parents. She has a confrontation with them where she expresses that they need to tell Katherine — who they say has no recollection of her life with Ruth — about her. Through several more flashbacks, it’s revealed that after Katie fired the gun, the recoil was so strong that she fell to the floor and lost consciousness. Ruth spoke with Katie and discovered she had no memory of the accident. She was soon arrested and confessed to killing the Sheriff.

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Many viewers saw the fact that Ruth took the blame as a major plot hole in the Netflix original movie – most of them questioning her logic. In a scene where she argues with Liz Ingram, played by The Suicide Squad’s Viola Davis, she repeatedly says that she did it before she slips and reveals the truth to Liz saying, “I f*cking said I did