‘A Simple Favor’ Ending, Explained: A Look Back At The Film’s Twists, Now That It’s On Netflix

A Simple Favor takes the Hitchcock Blond archetype to the hilt with the film’s wild ending of twists.

Starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, A Simple Favor follows Stephanie (Kendrick), a mommy vlogger who also informs her viewers about her friendship and the fashionable and mysterious Emily (Lively). Her updates become sad ones once Stephanie goes missing, and it’s believed her husband Sean (Henry Golding) had a hand in her disappearance. The film is now available to watch on Netflix, years after its 2018 release.

The plot of ‘A Simple Favor’ movie

The mystery starts when Stephanie asked Emily for a favor–to pick up her son from school because she has some other business to take care of, and Sean is currently in London taking care of his mother. Emily doesn’t come back for her son, though, and Stephanie learns that Emily made a mysterious stop to Miami. Once Sean comes back, the two of them take charge in reporting Emily’s disappearance. Ultimately, though, Emily is discovered dead.

The extensive time Stephanie has alone with Sean begins to make her think she and Sean could have a relationship and, eventually, they do become a couple. However, things begin to take a really wild turn once Detective Summervile (Bashir Salahuddin) tells Stephanie that Sean took out an extensive life insurance policy worth $4 million on Emily. Even more mysterious is that Emily’s son claims to have seen his mother and gives Stephanie an envelope he says is from Emily. That envelope has a horrid nickname written inside–“brother f—er.” That name came up during a drunken conversation she and Emily had earlier in the film, in which Emily reveals she had a threesome with her husband and his T.A. Stephanie reveals that she had sex with her half-brother after meeting him at their father’s funeral, of all places.

‘A Simple Favor’ twists in the film

Stephanie’s incestuous tendencies aren’t even the biggest reveals in the film. Fast forward to the end of the film, Emily isn’t actually dead! Emily shows up in front of Stephanie and Sean, showing she did fake her death. Stephanie’s investigation showed that Emily–whose real name is Hope–was a triplet, but one of her sisters died in the womb. As teenagers, Emily and her twin sister burned down their father’s home, killing him. Faith, Emily’s twin, started contacting Emily to blackmail her after 14 years of estrangement. Hence, Emily’s impromptu trip to Miami to drown her sister, meaning the dead body used to identify Emily was actually Faith. Emily’s plans go even further by framing Sean as an abuser who simply wanted Emily gone for the insurance money. She steals a wrench and throws it in the air to make it land on her face, giving her a black eye. She then goes to the police station to assert that she had to fake her death to stay away from Sean.

Sean gets released on bail, but Stephanie is still working on getting Emily to pay for her crimes. Stephanie pretends to shoot Sean in order to gain Emily’s trust long enough to get her to confess to the murders, but Emily is already a step ahead. She actually shoots Sean in the shoulder and does what every villain does–confess in a monologue once they think they will get away with their crimes. However, Stephanie is also a step ahead–she reveals she had a hidden camera on her shirt the whole time, and the camera was live-streaming to her mommy vlog audience. Emily tries to escape and even tries to shoot Stephanie, but she gets hit by a car. Emily is arrested and taken into custody.

What happens at the end of ‘A Simple Favor’?

The film then fast forwards six months after Emily’s arrest. Stephanie is vastly successful with her vlog, and she’s also become started a successful detective agency. Emily was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, but prison life seems to suit her just fine. Sean is taking care of his son and is continuing his lucrative writing career.

Will there be ‘A Simple Favor’ sequel

There will be a sequel to A Simple Favor. Yes, A Simple Favor 2 is coming. It will not go to theaters and will instead be a Prime Video release from Amazon MGM Studios. As Deadline reported, Paul Feig is returning as director and leads Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are back. Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine, Ian Ho and Kelly McCormack also return from the first film. No word on its release date yet.