Prime Video’s The Girlfriend is my favorite new show about psychotic women. (It really is the best genre.) In the enthralling and sadly limited series, a young guy named Daniel starts dating a woman named Cherry, and his mother, Laura, disapproves. Well, “disapproves” is an understatement. Laura despises Cherry from the start and tries nearly every tactic possible to sabotage her son’s relationship. At one point, she even tells Cherry that he’s dead. Of course, Laura’s methods never work because Daniel and Cherry are determined to be together.
As batshit crazy as Laura is, she’s not wrong to have concerns about Daniel’s GF. Cherry’s a woman of many secrets, and she has a violent past. So, how does it all wrap up? Do Daniel and Cherry end up together? What happens to Laura? Let’s break down the shocking ending of The Girlfriend.
The Girlfriend Ending Explained
What Happens Between Howard And Laura?
Laura’s whole on-and-off affair with Lilith from art school is ultimately too much for Howard. At the beginning of the final episode, he packs his things and reveals that he’s been secretly funding her gallery shows and lining up buyers behind her back. She’s horrified to learn that he’s the reason behind her success. “Fuck you,” he says to Laura. “I’m done.”
What Really Happened To Cherry’s Father?
After the tense conversation with Howard, Laura finds mail addressed to Cherry, and it’s an invoice from a nursing home. Of course, she then heads to the nursing home, where she discovers that Cherry’s father, John Laine, is alive and lives there.
Laura pretends to be an old friend and learns from a nurse that John fell 20 feet at a construction site. He cracked his skull and broke his spine, leaving him paralyzed and unable to speak. When Laura mentions Cherry’s name to him, he’s visibly furious. “Even the mention of her gets her all worked up,” the nurse explains.
Laura rushes over to Cherry’s mom’s butcher shop and confronts Tracey, asking if Cherry pushed her father. Tracey pretty much admits that’s what happened, but claims it was an “accident.”
“Fuck off,” Tracey exclaims. “If she did push him, it doesn’t mean she wanted to kill him. I don’t care what that girl does. She’s my daughter. I will always protect her.” She gives Laura a grave warning about Cherry.
Does Laura Die?
Well, the Laura-Cherry battle really is a fight to the death.
After Cherry vandalizes Laura’s gallery and police show up to the engagement party to arrest Cherry, Laura has a heart to heart with her son. “You had to choose one of us and you’ve chosen her,” she says. “Just know you’re always gonna be my baby boy.” She convinces Daniel to have a drink with her before they presumably stop speaking to each other, but plot twist: She mixes drugs into his drink (because she’s a lunatic).
When Cherry arrives at the house, Laura leaves her unconscious son to chase his fiancé around with a knife. Daniel eventually regains consciousness, he gets involved, and all three of them end up in the Sandersons’ pool. While protecting Cherry from Laura, he pushes his mom underwater and accidentally drowns her.
Do Daniel And Cherry End Up Together?
Yes… but maybe not for long?
In the final scene of the episode, he and Cherry are married and starting a family together. Daniel’s in the kitchen while a pregnant Cherry chats with his dad outside. He hears Laura’s cat, Moses, playing with something under the table, and it turns out to be Laura’s phone.
After charging it, Daniel takes a look at his mom’s photos and finds the video Laura recorded when she confronted Tracey. He listens to Tracey tell Laura that Cherry’s done bad things “to her father, to the kids in school who took her toys. Or to the boy who stood her up at the college dance. God, that poor boy.”
Per the video, Tracey warned, “So, you tell your son: Don’t be fooled by the good times. Sooner or later, she’ll want something you’re not prepared to give, then she’ll find a way to get rid of you.” Daniel looks over at Cherry, absolutely terrified.
