The Girlfriend Ending Explained: Is Laura Dead or Alive?

Co-created by Naomi Sheldon and Gabbie Asher, Prime Video’s ‘The Girlfriend’ pits Laura Sanderson, the mother, against Cherry Laine, the eponymous girlfriend, with Daniel at the center of the conflict. Laura is convinced that her son’s partner has some skeletons in her closet, and this leads to a number of schemes, each more cunning than the last. Cherry doesn’t lag behind either, as she both feeds into Laura’s worst fears and makes a case for her innocence. As the story goes on, both characters abandon their moral and ethical restraints, and the line between the two blurs beyond recognition. The show uses a unique narrative structure to bring this war of truths to life, with the season finale reframing everything that is known about their dynamic and how it affects Daniel. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Girlfriend Plot Recap

The story begins with Laura Sanderson, an art dealer by profession, and the wife of one of the world’s most successful real estate moguls, Howard Sanderson. Their son, Daniel, is a rolling stone by nature, but comes to a halt when he meets the love of his life, Cherry Laine. Hearing this, Laura invites the two of them for dinner, but tensions arise from the first impressions alone. Although Cherry seems to be a picture-perfect woman, Laura senses that she is hiding something. The narrative then unfolds to the fullest extent of its storytelling structure, which involves dialing back to the past, but this time from Cherry’s perspective. She is a real estate agent struggling to make it big, which makes Daniel the right person at the right moment. When he suggests visiting his parents for dinner, Cherry gets to work, creating a profile that can impress the Sandersons and hide her own darker characteristics.

Although the mother and the girlfriend are off to a wonky start, their paths cross yet again as Daniel invites Cherry to his family vacation in Spain. The same string of suspicions and power plays begins once again, but seemingly ends when Laura saves Cherry from drowning. The two have a heart-to-heart about the secrets that have been piling up, and call a truce. Later, however, Laura finds a viral clip of the wedding of Cherry’s ex, Nicholas, being ruined by animal organs being planted inside the cake. She realizes that Cherry is far more dangerous than she anticipated, and plots for the couple to break things off. However, the latter cleverly uses this to her advantage and paints herself as the victim in front of Daniel. Enraged, he leaves the house with her and, to blow off some steam, heads for a rock climbing excursion. But he has a near-fatal accident, and in his absence, Cherry is cut off from the family.

Laura concocts a nefarious plan, which involves boycotting Cherry completely and faking her son’s death. On the other hand, Daniel is told that his partner has moved on, and a disconnect is established. Cherry’s life keeps going downhill as Laura gets her fired from her job. However, days later, Cherry accidentally comes face-to-face with him, and the entire truth comes to light. Feeling betrayed, Daniel begins to distance himself from his mother completely, and this prompts Laura to gather more evidence against her opponent. In the meantime, Daniel proposes to his girlfriend, and the two decide to get married. This is not without conflict, and she is quick to take revenge on Laura by destroying her art gallery. With everything at stake, the mother takes the drastic step of drugging her son to finally get him to listen, but Cherry storms the house in the nick of time, prepared for a final showdown.

The Girlfriend Ending: Is Laura Dead or Alive?

The long-standing tug-of-war between Laura and Cherry ultimately ends in tragedy when their scuffle lands them in the swimming pool, with both sides eager to drown each other. However, the equation changes when Daniel jumps into the pool as well, desperate to save his fiancée. In his mind, Laura is the clear villainous presence who just drugged him for her personal goals, and this ends up clouding his judgment. In the fierce exchange that follows, Cherry frees herself and makes it to the edge of the pool, but Daniel refuses to stop and doubles down on choking Laura underwater. By the time he realizes what he is doing, it is already too late, and his mother’s breathing comes to a stop. Although he desperately tries to resuscitate her, it is to no avail, and Laura dies in the worst way possible: at the hands of her own son.

Though Daniel’s act appears to be an act of mindless rage, the buildup to it explains the scene better. It is not just the anesthetics that inhibit his sense of judgement, but also the compiled sense of betrayal and trauma that he endures over the course of his relationship with Cherry. To that end, his harrowing act can also be interpreted as a subconsciously driven move to bring the cycle to an end. Additionally, it evokes some of the story’s visual imagery, pointing back to the days after Daniel’s accident, when Laura similarly held him afloat in their swimming pool. Although the positioning is the same, this time the context is entirely different, which brings to light the extent of corrosion the mother-son dynamic has endured.

The start of the show also features a scene where Daniel playfully wrestles with his mother in the swimming pool. As such, it is possible that this has been an ongoing game between the two, which adds more meaning to his actions. It could be that his drugged state brought him back into that playful state of mind, leading him to lose control of the situation. In the earlier rendition of the event, Laura comes out of the pool smiling, which brings a stark contrast to how she eventually ends up. Laura’s sense of powerlessness becomes a defining facet of her character, and this lines up with her inability to push back against resistance underwater, unlike the last time. Furthermore, this also serves as a reality check for Daniel, while also adding bitter undertones to his joyous past. Earlier, Daniel expressed feeling suffocated due to his mother’s over-involvement in his life, and her ironic manner of death brings things full circle.

Although police sirens can be heard in the aftermath of Laura’s passing, the scene that follows jumps sometime into the future, with Daniel, Cherry, and Howard now living as a family. Laura’s absence, coupled with Daniel’s lingering feelings about his mother, seemingly confirms her death, but leaves questions about Daniel’s culpability out in the open. Given that he is technically a murderer, the fact that he gets to walk free only makes sense with foul play being taken into account. It is possible that Cherry makes use of that critical moment to frame Laura’s death as an accident or a suicide. The fact that she gets to save Daniel’s future only gives her more power over him, adding another layer to their complex dynamic. Additionally, this possibility also suggests that Daniel still hasn’t processed his involvement in his mother’s death, and how Cherry connects to the larger scheme of things.

Do Daniel and Cherry Get Married? Does Daniel Know About Laura’s Video?

In the months since Laura’s death, it is implied that Daniel and Cherry got married and are expecting a baby. With Howard also involving himself in the family’s celebration, all seems well, but the residues of the past linger. Things take a turn when Daniel finds the family cat, Moses, fiddling with a cabinet. When Daniel looks closer, he finds a phone lying there, and this turns out to be Laura’s. On that fateful night, she was desperate to show him a recording that she had taped on her phone, but the device was flung under the cabinet during her fight with Cherry. In the present, Daniel seems to have forgotten about the relevance of the phone and is enveloped in sadness while looking at his mother’s older pictures with him. However, when his attention finally turns to her last saved video, the story is flipped on its head once again.

The video in Laura’s phone covers her meeting with Cherry’s mother, Tracey, and the conversation that followed. With this, Daniel hears for the first time how his lover’s own family thinks of her, and how that eerily coincides with Laura’s perspective. In particular, Tracey describes her daughter as someone who will not stop at anything to get what she wants. She then brings up Cherry’s history of tormenting men and later ruining their lives, before connecting it back to Daniel. Tracey’s monologue ends on a chilling note, as she explains that when her daughter has had her fill of a person or is no longer interested, she always finds a way to get rid of them. For Daniel, this is the first time that his fundamental understanding of Cherry is put to question, and he realizes that the conflict between his wife and mother was significantly grayer than he imagined.

Notably, while David reflects on his marriage critically, he does not let that show on his face, as his final interaction with Cherry within the episode is a casual smile. This is seemingly put up to maintain appearances, which turns him into one more liar within the family. Although he is now likely to be wary of his wife, he cannot frame his entire perspective around a single taped conversation. To that end, it is likely that he will start playing mental games with himself, possibly even retracing his steps and figuring out all the points where he had a lapse in judgment. However, this does not absolve Laura of her actions either; instead, it gives David his first chance at figuring out his relationships for himself. Nonetheless, with a baby on board, his future remains firmly in the dark, with Cherry’s potential turn to the dark always looming over his head.

Did Cherry Push Her Father Off the Building?

Cherry’s propensity towards acts of cruelty and violence is exemplified by her complicated relationship with her father. Initially, she describes herself as a daddy’s girl, before adding that her father died when she was fourteen. However, this turns out to be a lie, and her father is revealed to be alive, but in a disabled state. When Laura finds out the truth, she goes to the nursing home, fishing for more information. Here, she learns that Cherry’s father fell from a multi-storey building and narrowly avoided death, but was left with reduced physical and cognitive capability. His one consistent trait is getting aggressive at the mere mention of his daughter, which raises the possibility of her involvement in his present situation. Laura has the same idea, and she eventually confronts Cherry’s mother over it, but in the end, it is Cherry herself who confirms that she pushed her father off the building.

Cherry adds to her confession by stating that her father deserved it, and while her exact reasoning is left ambiguous, it cements the potential danger she presents. Laura immediately connects this act to the possible threat to her son’s life, and this triggers the chain of reaction that leads to her ultimate death. While Cherry’s claims are not substantiated, a symbolic connection suggests that she might not be as innocent as she claims. Earlier in the story, she is shown to have thrown Moses the cat out of the window for annoying her in the washroom. Although not a direct parallel in of itself, it shows how little she cares about a life outside of her own convenience. To that end, it is entirely possible that her internal reasoning for pushing her father is not in sync with reality, which reiterates her nature as a dangerous person.

Does Cherry Actually Love Daniel?

Although the truth about Cherry’s feelings towards Daniel is one of the show’s burning questions, its answer remains largely unanswered, even down to the ending. While her manipulative nature is evident, it does not erase the possibility of her truly loving Daniel. Instead, she adds contortion to her feelings for him, showing the lengths she is willing to go in order to actualize her relationship with him. When Daniel is falsely declared dead by Laura, Cherry is left in a state of genuine shock and despair, and that state lasts for several weeks. However, the fact that she quickly acclimatizes to a life without him suggests that her feelings might not be as deep-rooted as initially expected. At the very least, she displays real emotions in relation to him, and her commitment to their marriage adds further credence to there being a romantic connection between the two.

However, some of Cherry’s actions also point to the possibility of her love entirely being a way to tame Daniel. While the story’s narrative structure is intentionally unreliable, many scenes from Laura’s perspective paint a picture of Cherry using her relationship with Daniel purely to exercise power. This is substantiated by her repeated use of sex and pleasure as a way of keeping Daniel’s thoughts and preferences under control. Additionally, Cherry’s past relationships, particularly the one with Nicholas, further strain the meaning of love in her life, making it entirely possible that her expression of affection is in direct correlation with her expression of power. Nonetheless, it must be taken into account that we often see a warped perspective of events, particularly through the eyes of Laura. As such, while Cherry’s love is questionable at best, it cannot be denied without any room for ambiguity.