Without spoiling the climax for new readers, Cusk alters the final tableau. Euripides has Medea escape in the sun god’s chariot with the children’s bodies. Cusk keeps the infanticide off-stage but brings the aftermath into a stark, empty living room. The "new" PDF version clarifies stage directions that were ambiguous in the first print run: Medea does not weep. She completes her performance of motherhood one last time, straightening a child’s collar before the body is removed.
Cusk, known for her candid writing on motherhood and separation in works like medea+rachel+cusk+pdf+new