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There is a very poorly-placed scene mid-way through Veronika Decides to Die (2009) when a Village Voice reporter is sent to attempt to smooth things over with Dr. Blake (David Thewlis) and Veronika (Sarah Michelle Gellar), thanks to the apparent media attention her suicide note had generated. When Dr. Blake is unwilling to let him see Veronika, the reporter threatens to expose the “unusual activities” going on in Dr. Blake’s hospital, and references a girl who died under his care a few years prior. It’s an awkward threat because nothing especially shady about Dr. Blake’s methods have been shown to the viewer at this point, and it raises questions about what the reporter is referencing. It hints that Dr. Blake uses controversial treatment methods, but we don’t outwardly see any of them.

A few scenes later, one of the hospital orderlies remembers a former patient with similar health problems to Veronika and decides to look up her file. The scene is then forgotten until the end.

At the film’s conclusion, we find out Veronika didn’t really have an aneurysm in her heart. When the paramedics revived her following her suicide attempt, she was completely fine. Telling her she had a week or two left to live was Dr. Blake’s treatment technique. He was experimenting with whether informing someone they were doomed would inspire them to find the value in their existence. The experiment obviously proved successful, but is unorthodox in its application, and in real life would cause the doctor to be fired and sued for malpractice. He had pulled the chart from the patient a few years ago, who actually did have a heart aneurysm, and put it in Veronika’s file.