Another Earth ending explained: Who is Rhoda's doppelganger at the end of the story?

Mike Cahill's 2011 film, Another Earth, is among those that gave the fans a topic to debate on. Even today, it is interesting to bring about theories about the final scene in the film. During the final moments, we see Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) encountering her doppelganger standing at the front of her house. The only thing we know about this doppelganger is that she is from Earth 2.

The film's idea was conceived by Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, who co-wrote it together. They were speculating about a situation as to what would happen if a human encounters their doppelganger. This led them to create an entire Earth-like planet in the movie.

It was nominated for Saturn Awards for Best Actress and Best Writing but didn't win any. Commercially, it was a success given that it grossed $1.9 million against a $100k budget. To this date, that ending still continues to intrigue the fans, so let's take a look at it here too. Though it may not bring the kind of questions films like Interstellar can make us ponder over, there's still plenty of scope for our curiosity.

Is Rhoda's doppelganger real in Another Earth?

Things aren't going well for Rhoda on the original Earth. And we need to take into consideration that this Earth-2 was the reason she got involved in an accident that literally wiped a man's family off the face of the earth, leaving him in a coma. She was looking at the mirror earth when she crashed with a car carrying John Burroughs (William Mapother).

Now, after serving four years in prison, she comes to know about John, who recovered from a coma and is going about his life, and he is literally surviving; we cannot really call it 'living a life.' She somehow gets involved with his life, helping in his household chores as a maid, but hasn't told him she is the reason his family isn't here.

However, she eventually reveals it and, as fans can easily figure out, makes him upset. Before this, she won a contest that would win her a ticket to travel to another Earth, where she believes, based on a theory she heard on TV, things are different. That accident would never have happened according to the theory, basically alternate choices we usually see in video games with branching storylines.

She offers him to go in her place, which he does, but not before showing reluctance to it. That happens, and four months later, John is on another Earth, and God knows what he is doing there. At the end of the film, she is just roaming around her house and then suddenly comes across her doppelganger.

Now we may wonder if that's real or if Rhoda's just hallucinating in Another Earth. Going by the film's theory, the most accurate answer is that she is real. The doppelganger never met with an accident and went on to thrive in her studies to become an astrophysicist. Just pay attention to the doppelganger's clothes. She might have found her way to Earth 1. Maybe John met with her and told her what happened.

But there's one thing we are missing in Another Earth that MCU addressed in 2022

Rhoda 2 from Earth-2 in Another Earth might be very real, and John did land on that alternate Earth, but what happens after that? Now we need to consider that this new planet is from an alternate reality. But do you remember what happened when one being visits a different reality?

In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), we see Wanda visiting her kids in a different reality. But surprise, there's already a Wanda in there, and the original Wanda just scares those kids off. Poor them.

John Burroughs is on the same page here. What if he visited his alternate self and the family? If that happened, what are the chances that didn't scare those alternate beings off? Let's just hope they didn't kill the one from Earth-1. We won't talk about incursions here, as that's probably a Marvel thing.