Warning! Spoilers for Netflix’s Uglies and Scott Westerfeld’s Pretties and Specials.
Netflix’s Uglies is based on the first in a book series by author Scott Westerfeld—so what’s next for Tally in the sequel, Pretties? Uglies ending left the door open for another movie, so it certainly seems that a Pretties adaptation is part of Netflix’s plan. Of course, the Uglies movie differed slightly from the book, so there are bound to be more differences in the future. Regardless, we can assume that Tally’s story will proceed in much the same way, from her time in New Pretty Town to her daring escape and impending boy troubles.
At the end of Uglies, Tally Youngblood surrenders to Dr. Cable to be brought back to the city and made Pretty. She did this to provide David’s mother, Maddy, a test subject for her cure, which is meant to remove the brain lesions that keep Pretties from being combative, creative, or original. The final scene of the Netflix sci-fi movie revealed that Tally got her wish. She was seen walking through her beautiful new apartment in New Pretty Town, with a lovely face but an ugly scar that reminds her who she really is—so what’s next?
Peris Is Still Alive In The Pretties Book
He Didn’t Become A Special Or Fall From A Dam In Uglies
First, it’s important to note what will most certainly not be the same between a potential Pretties movie and the book. In Netflix’s Uglies, Peris was turned into a Special, ultimately leading to his falling off the edge of a dam to his supposed death. None of this happened in Westerfeld’s book, where Peris stayed happily in New Pretty Town after Dr. Cable used him to convince Tally to act as her spy. In fact, he wasn’t present in Uglies again from that point onward, only making his reappearance in Pretties.
So, while Peris was present throughout the story in the second book, this may not be the case in the movie. Of course, given Special Peris’ ambiguous ending, it’s certainly possible that he will make a return. Specials are nearly indestructible in the Uglies books, so he may have a part to play in Netflix’s next movie—though he’s unlikely to be among Tally’s pretty friends as in the book.
Tally Lives In New Pretty Town With Shay
Tally & Shay Returned to Being Best Friends
The ending of Uglies gave a sneak peek into Tally’s life in New Pretty Town, and a Pretties movie is sure to take this much further. In the book, Tally has basically forgotten everything that happened at the Smoke, thanks to the lesions placed in her mind during the Pretty operation. She and Shay live in the same building and spend much of their time together drinking champagne, talking about what surge they will get next (Shay gets backward clock faces implanted with jewels in her eyeballs), and contemplating what to wear at their next big party.
In the books, Tally doesn’t not have her scar on her hand when she becomes a Pretty.
However, while Tally is trying her best to fit in with the other mindless Pretties, she knows something isn’t quite right. The lesions (which she had forgotten about entirely) didn’t seem to have wiped away her ugly worries and social anxieties, and Tally found herself saying the wrong thing at every turn. Shay and Peris, the perfect Bubbleheads, are endlessly patient with her, assuring Tally that she will relax more once she has been accepted by the best clique in New Pretty Town—the Crims.
Tally Joins The Crims
Tally Joins A Group Of Pretty “Criminals”
Pretties picks up with Tally trying to figure out what she should wear to a very important party. This event is where she will be either accepted or rejected by the Crims; a clique made up of Pretties who got into a lot of trouble in their Ugly days. Naturally, Tally easily qualified (especially after once again launching herself from a balcony using a Bungee jacket). However, Tally’s hopes that she would be able to finally fit in with the Pretties after joining a clique are dashed when the Crim’s leader, Zane, begins pushing her to think past her Prettymindedness.
While at the party, Tally saw Croy—still Ugly—who told her that he had hidden something for her that she must find. However, Tally’s lesions initially kept her from investigating his claim.
While Zane doesn’t know about the lesions, he has figured out that there is something wrong with Pretties’ minds. He realized that breaking the rules and taking risks (along with avoiding alcohol, eating very little, and overindulging in caffeine) helped his mind to work better, which is why he founded a clique based on these types of activities. After accepting Tally into the group, Zane suspects that there might be more to her story. So, he pushes her to remember her time in the Smoke and what happened leading up to her operation.
Zane & Tally Discover The Cure Hidden By The Smokies
Croy Hid The Cure Someplace Tricky For Tally To Find
Thanks to Zane (and his kisses), Tally begins to remember about David, though she can’t recall what happened to him or how she ended up in New Pretty Town. However, Zane’s pushing leads her to remember Croy’s clue about something hidden in the city that she must find. The process of getting this mysterious item takes the pair to the top of a signal tower, and climbing so high causes both to temporarily think and see clearly, even with the lesions. When they finally receive Croy’s package, it’s with thoroughly un-Pretty minds.
Over the following months, Tally and Zane grow even more romantic as their minds continue to clear.
Tally and Zane discover that Croy had left behind a letter from Tally herself, which she had written as an Ugly, just before surrendering herself to Uglies villain Dr. Cable. The letter comes with two pills, which Ugly Tally explained were Maddy’s cure, meant to eliminate the lesions and return Pretties to their right minds. Afraid to take them both, Tally initially refuses, but the pair ultimately settle on taking one each. Over the following months, Tally and Zane grow even more romantic as their minds continue to clear. No longer Prettyheads, they work together to make a plan to escape New Pretty Town.
Shay Remembers Tally’s Betrayal & Starts A Club Called The Cutters
Shay Found A Way To Break Free Of Her Pretty Mind
Since Tally and Zane have no more pills to hand out to their Pretty friends in Pretties, they do all they can to get the Crims’ adrenaline pumping, therefore temporarily clearing their heads. They pull pranks, such as smashing the ice on a floating ice skating rink, causing everyone to fall through (safely with Bungee jackets on), which effectively get their hearts pounding and minds working. This is so effective that Shay slowly begins to remember just how angry she had been at Tally before being forced to become a Pretty. So, the ugly conflict returned to their pretty friendship.
After fighting with Tally, Shay disappears for a while, and when she finally turns up again in Pretties, it’s pretty disturbing. Enraged that Tally had shared the cure with Zane rather than her, even after her betrayal in the Smoke, Shay discovers her own way to put an end to her Prettyheadedness. She starts a group called the Cutters, who all get together to ritualistically cut their arms in order to force their brains to work clearly. Disturbed, Tally decides they can no longer wait to escape New Pretty Town—they must find a way to get to the New Smoke and get more pills to the Pretties.
The Crims Make A Big Escape From New Pretty Town
Tally & Zane Needed A Complicated Escape Plan
Escaping the city in Pretties isn’t as easy as it had been in Uglies. Rather than interface rings that can quickly be taken off, Tally and Zane were fitted with tight bracelets that tracked their movements and couldn’t be removed (after their adventure climbing the tower to find the cure). Together, they determined that the only way to remove the cuffs would be to hit them with enough heat that they would expand and could be slipped off. They ultimately steal high-tech, fire-resistant gloves that can slip under the cuffs, highjack hot air balloons, and stick their hands right into the flames.
With hoverboards in tow, Tally, Zane, and the other Crims (minus Shay and her Cutters) escape the city in the hot air balloons, which they jump out of with their boards once they are a safe distance away.
With hoverboards in tow, Tally, Zane, and the other Crims (minus Shay and her Cutters) escape the city in the hot air balloons, which they jump out of with their boards once they are a safe distance away. While Zane and the others successfully get on the right path to the Rusty Ruins and the New Smoke, Tally gets lost in the woods. After an extended adventure, she eventually finds her way and is reunited with both Zane and, more awkwardly, David.
Tally Is Reunited With David In The New Smoke
Tally & David Have An Awkard Reunion
By the time Tally is reunited with David, she has all her memories back regarding her time in the Smoke—including her brief romance with the Ugly boy. However, this doesn’t change the fact that she has since fallen in love with Zane. Despite this, Tally is still upset that David never came for her like he had promised at the end of the Uglies book and movie. Instead, it had been Croy who brought the cure to New Pretty Town. David explains that he had wanted to deliver the pills but that the heat on the New Smoke was simply too intense. The two make awkward amends and travel from the Rusty Ruins to the New Smoke.
Tally Discovers That She Never Really Had The Cure
Tally Didn’t Have The Cure, & Zane Got Brain Damage
Tally is eager to be reunited with Zane after their time apart, but she is devastated to learn that he has not been well in her absence. Ever since taking the cure, Zane had experienced headaches, which seemed to grow worse in intensity with every passing day. This is part of why it was so urgent that he and Tally get to the New Smoke, so Maddy could check what had gone wrong. David’s mother knew immediately why Zane was suffering when the boy told her that he and Tally had shared the pills—this was never how the cure was meant to be taken.
David’s mother knew immediately why Zane was suffering when the boy told her that he and Tally had shared the pills—this was never how the cure was meant to be taken.
After arriving in the New Smoke, Tally learns that one of the pills she and Zane had taken contained nanos meant to eat away the Pretty lesions, while the other pill was intended to top those nanos before they continued on to chomp on the rest of the brain. Tally had taken the second one, which has no effect on its own. Zane, on the other hand, had taken the first. The nanos did extensive damage to his brain, which Maddy did her best to reverse. However, the boy’s motor function would never be the same.
This news is devastating to Tally, who feels immense guilt that she shared the pills with Zane and, therefore, caused this damage. Of course, this also means that Tally had never really taken the cure. She had used her own willpower to think her way past the lesion, proving that her mind was simply too strong to control. Still, Tally doesn’t have much time to think about this since it’s ultimately discovered that Zane has a transmitter embedded into his jaw that alerts Dr. Cable of his location. The Uglies villain had let them escape from New Pretty Town so she could find the New Smoke.
Before his escape, Zane had been forced to go to the city hospital after his headaches became too extreme. This is when Dr. Cable secretly implanted him with a tracker.
Shay Reappears As A Special & Tally Is Taken Back To The City
The Ending Of Uglies Sets Up Tally’s Next Big Transformation
David, Maddie, and the rest of the New Smoke escape before Special Circumstances arrives, but Zane’s weak condition means he is unable to follow. Tally stubbornly decides to stay by his side, much to David’s frustration. However, she is surprised to see that Dr. Cable didn’t come alone. She brought Shay with her, who was a newly surged Special, along with the rest of her Cutters. Shay, loving her new power and clarity, tells Tally that her fate isn’t to be made into a Bubblehead again. Instead, she would become what all Pretties who think their way through the lesions become—Special.
It’s on this cliffhanger that Pretties ends. Just as Uglies ends with Tally demanding that Dr. Cable make her Pretty, Pretties ends with Shay telling Tally she will become Special. Fittingly, the third book in the Uglies series is called Specials, and sees Tally Youngblood once again undergo an extreme transformation. Of course, the changes in Netflix’s Uglies, especially the reveal that Peris became a Special, would make a movie adaptation of the threequel a little more challenging to pull off. Still, there’s plenty of room for a Pretties movie to become a reality.
