The Life List Ending Explained: Do Alex and Brad End Up Together?

‘The Life List’ presents a charged coming-of-age story in which a tragedy inadvertently results in a much-needed push that compels a woman to take back the reigns of her life and reinvent her own happiness. Alex Rose is stuck in a passionless slump—something her mother, Elizabeth, can’t help but worry about as she’s on her untimely deathbed. Consequently, in the aftermath of her death, the woman leaves behind one condition that she wants her daughter to achieve before she can access her inheritance. Elizabeth sets Alex on a quest to cross off every item from her childhood bucket list, which includes everything from doing stand-up comedy and learning to play the piano—to finding true love! Nonetheless, as a woman undertakes this challenge, she quickly realizes that unlocking her best self may be more difficult than she thought. SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Life List Plot Synopsis

Among her successful and married older brothers, Alex Rose—currently employed under her mother and in a doomed relationship—is effectively the black sheep of her family. Nonetheless, regardless of her shortcomings, she continues to be her mother’s not-so-secret favorite. For the same reason, the news of the return of Elizabeth’s cancer is that much more jarring for the woman. Still, she has to deal with the reality of the events as she soon finds herself confronting the tragic passing of her mother. In the aftermath of Elizabeth’s death, Alex, her brothers, and their wives all meet up for the distribution of the matriarch’s estate. Even though everyone is expecting her only daughter to receive her successful cosmetics business, Brad Ackerman, the executor of her will, shocks everyone by revealing a different truth.

As it turns out, Elizabeth has effectively fired Alex from her company in the will and has set up a different plan for her inheritance. As Brad explains in a private meeting, she has set up a set of stipulations that she wants her daughter to complete before the New Year in order to earn her bequeathment. The stipulations are encompassed within the “Life List” that Alex came up with at the age of 13. After the completion of every task, Brad will give one DVD to the woman in which her mother has recorded a special message for her. Once the entire list has been crossed off, she will receive a final DVD and a red envelope that holds her true inheritance.

Even though Alex is initially frustrated with the ordeal, she eventually relents, partly because she wants to see more of Elizabeth’s DVDs and partly because she knows her mother wasn’t entirely wrong. As such, she begins working toward crossing off the small ticket items on her list, starting with the dreaded reading of ‘Moby Dick.’ Additionally, Brad is also able to help her snag a job as a teacher at a woman’s shelter—her previously abandoned passion in life. Consequently, her paths cross with Garrett, a mysterious stranger on the subway who happens to be the resident psychologist at the shelter. As the months pass, she continues to complete more of her list while she and Garrett begin steadily dating.

However, life throws Alex a notable curveball when a tense meeting with her father, Samuel, reveals that he’s actually not her biological father. Apparently, she was born from an affair Elizabeth had with a musician, which she and Samuel had vowed to keep a secret from their kids. This puts Alex on the path to tracking down her biological father for a possible reunion—a plan that ends up going terribly. However, the journey makes her realize the instability of her relationship with Garrett—who was too self-centric to fit into her life. Furthermore, the unsuccessful trip to Vermont also ends up lighting the spark between Alex and Brad. Nonetheless, the former remains unsure about pursuing a relationship with the latter, putting the two at a stalemate. Thus, as the new life she has built in the past few months crumbles around her, Alex decides to give up on the list—and true love—for better or for worse.

The Life List Ending: Does Alex Find Her True Love?

Alex’s love life remains complicated from the very start. Her relationship with Finn is perfectly fun and stable. Nonetheless, deep down, she knows she’s only with him because it’s an easy option. She moves in with him for convenience and sticks around his apartment because it’s easier than moving out. Therefore, it isn’t long before she realizes Finn will never really be her true love. Afterward, she naturally falls into a charming romance with Garrett. He’s a vast improvement from Finn and actually helps Alex in her journey toward becoming her best self. Still, months of dating reveal his own faults.

Garrett has such a good handle on his life and what he wants that he doesn’t have the ability to merge into his girlfriend’s lifestyle. This makes him startlingly selfish at times, unable to view the world through Alex’s perspective. Thus, after one of their first fights as a couple, he goes completely radio silent, leaving the woman to deal with the monumental moment of meeting her biological father for the first time. Fatefully, this opens up the room for Alex and Brad to finally act on their budding feelings—even if it is in the form of a drunken mistake. Yet, the aftermath of that decision backfires in unexpected ways.

Initially, Alex had been under the impression that Brad was still in a relationship with Nina when he hooked up with her. However, the woman had actually ended their relationship the same day after an argument over his evident feelings for the other woman. Once he reveals the same to Alex, the woman feels blindsided by the information. Even though she has been noticing Garrett’s indiscretions for some time, she has been generally happy in that relationship. Therefore, unlike Brad, she’s surprised by her own feelings for the other man and isn’t prepared to confront them. She’s even less prepared to accept the truth of his words when he ill-advisedly begins criticizing her relationship with Garrett. For the same reason, Alex ends up walking out on him, compelling them to drift apart.

Simultaneously, Alex also breaks up with Garrett once she realizes he would never truly fit in her world and would always expect her to change for him. Afterward, the woman puts romance in the backseat of her life for some time while she works on her other relationships. As such, once the time is up for her to complete her list, she’s still short the final item: finding true love. Even so, Elizabeth had always planned to have that condition be negotiable, aware that you can’t force love and its elusive timing. As such, Alex receives her inheritance and final DVD, getting the chance to hear her mother for one last time.

In this DVD, Elizabeth leaves Alex with the parting wisdom of always fighting for love. Inevitably, this makes the woman realize all the mistakes she has made with Brad so far. She has allowed her own insecurities and doubts to come in between what could have been a magical relationship. Therefore, she decides to rush to his apartment in a grand romantic gesture, which is only partially ruined by her horrible driving skills. At the end of the day, Brad is someone kind and trustworthy who is always trying to help Alex be her best version without changing her core traits. Most importantly, she can easily envision a future with him. Ultimately, a charged declaration of love outside the man’s apartment ends up winning him over—checking the final and perhaps most important goal on Alex’s list!

Does Alex Finish the List? Does She Get Her Inheritance?

A significant part of Alex’s narrative revolves around the effort she puts into completing the list Elizabeth has left behind for her. In the past few years, ever since an incident permanently put her off her path of becoming a teacher, the woman has slowly but steadily given up on finding the true joys of life. She has developed a habit of going with the flow even when it shaves down her actual personality, robbing her of any real ambitions or dreams. Alex avoids taking any risks to save herself the pain and the heartbreak. However, in doing so, she also condemns herself to a life of consolation prizes. For the same reason, Elizabeth pushes her out of her comfort zone by compelling her to live the life she had wanted when she was a teenager.

This improves Alex’s life in many ways. She becomes more self-actualized by pursuing her real passions and uncovering her love for things like reading and the piano. She allows herself to have new experiences, no matter how scary the first step may be, and she also becomes much closer to the people around her. Even though she gives up on the list at one point, her older brother, Lucas, encourages her to keep going by helping her check off one of the items and staging the perfect picnic under the stars for the three siblings. During this time, Alex has some revelations about her family dynamics and the blind spots she had to the reality of her relationship with her father, Samuel.

Thus, Alex is able to make amends with Samuel, completing one of the more daunting parts of the list. Ultimately, she earns her inheritance despite failing on the true love account—at least for the moment. As it turns out, Elizabeth has left behind the perfect thing for her. She knew her company or her wealth wouldn’t mean much to her daughter, who was always a more sentimental person. Thus, in her death, the mother leaves her house—where Alex grew up with her brothers—for the woman. Ultimately, a year after Elizabeth’s passing, her daughter finds herself in a whole new place in her life—one that she has always dreamed about from the beginning.

Does Alex Make Amends With Her Father? Why Did Johnny Stand Her Up?

Initially, one of the most complicated items on Alex’s list remains her goal, which is to patch things up with her father. Samuel and Elizabeth separated when she was 13 years old. Even though they continued to have an amicable relationship afterward, Alex couldn’t help but despise her father just a little bit. Unlike her relationship with her mother, she wasn’t at all close to her father from an early age. She always felt like she was disappointing him in some way, especially given his relatively better relationship with his sons. Therefore, after learning about Elizabeth’s affair and the fact Samuel isn’t her biological father, Alex can’t help but believe the same was a crucial factor in her disconnect from the man who raised her.

However, Alex’s impromptu sleepover with her brothers makes her come to a different realization. She and Elizabeth had always been infinitely close, oftentimes in a way that inadvertently made everyone else around them feel left out. This kindred connection usually makes Lucas and Julian feel alienated, and Alex realizes that it likely had the same effect on Samuel. This, paired with his pre-existing insecurities about his marriage to Elizabeth, contributed to his distance from Alex. Yet, unlike Johnny, Samuel is at least always willing to work towards bridging the gap between them. Therefore, once Alex comes to this realization, she decides to put in the effort to fix their relationship from her side as well, setting them up on the road towards making amends.

However, the same cannot be said for the relationship Alex was hoping to have with Johnny. After she learns about his existence, she’s eager to meet him and learn more about her biological father and his relationship with Elizabeth. Thus, she tracks him down to Vermont and makes the trip to confront him face-to-face. At their first meeting, Alex lights up like a little kid, overjoyed to realize she felt an instant connection with the man. Nonetheless, this excitement only lasts so long, especially once Johnny stands her up on their planned meeting over breakfast. Johnny never gives her another way to reach out to him, and his absence at breakfast makes it clear he’s not willing to have a relationship with Alex. Therefore, she never truly gets an explanation for his abandonment and simply has to accept the fact that her biological father didn’t want to be a part of her life.

Does Alex Become a Teacher Again? Does She Get Throguh to Ezra?

Alex’s relationship with teaching remains one of the more mysterious aspects of the story. From the get-go, she makes her utter unwillingness to go back to the profession clear, citing some ambiguous incident at her last school. She had been unfairly fired from her position, compelling her to vow never to set foot in a classroom again. Yet, the alternative this decision leaves her with is a lifetime of unsatisfying and uninspiring jobs. Therefore, the list gives her the push she needs to get back in the game and pursue her real dreams. Still, it isn’t as if she doesn’t have to fight for the opportunity.

Alex’s job as a teacher at the women’s shelter remains even more difficult than before as she has to navigate the precarious quirks of her students. One of them, Ezra, in particular, proves to be a challenge after he refuses to engage with her material or respect her authority. Although it takes time, she is eventually able to earn his trust by trying to see things from his perspective and allowing him a certain leeway so that he can connect with her lessons. Since he’s so unwilling to read Shakespeare, she provides him the alternative to watch a modern adaptation of it. In the end, the two meet halfway, compromising in their own ways. Thus, the fact that she’s able to help Ezra cements her success at the job.