A Simple Favour recap and ending explained: What really did happen to Emily?

A Simple Favour spoilers follow.

If it’s been around seven years since the debut of “A Simple Favour”, and with the follow-up, aptly named “Another Simple Favour”, hitting theaters this week, don’t feel bad if you could use a refresher on the original film.

The film “A Simple Favour” bears a resemblance to the witty relative of “Gone Girl,” with its plot revolving around the puzzling vanishing act of the elusive Emily Nelson, portrayed by Blake Lively.

Paul Feig’s captivating thriller, adapted from Darcey Bell’s novel, centers around vlogger Stephanie Smothers, portrayed by Anna Kendrick, who is on a mission to uncover the truth about her friend Emily’s disappearance and whether Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding) might be involved.

As I played through this cinematic adventure, the twists kept on coming at a rapid pace, especially during the climactic scenes. I can hardly wait for the next installment to see how it ties in with these mind-blowing revelations!

1. Emily (played by Anna Kendrick) is a small-town mom who forms an unlikely friendship with her neighbor, Stephanie (played by Blake Lively).
2. Stephanie asks Emily for a “favor” – to pick up her son from school due to an unexpected work emergency. However, Emily never returns.
3. Stephanie starts investigating Emily’s disappearance and uncovers a web of secrets, including Emily’s second life as a glamorous businesswoman named Mary.
4. The story takes a dark turn as Stephanie learns that Emily was having an affair with her former husband, Sean (played by Denis O’Hare), and may have been involved in some shady business dealings.
5. As the investigation deepens, Stephanie discovers evidence suggesting that Emily might not be alive, leading to a shocking and unexpected twist at the end of the movie.

A Simple Favour recap and ending explained

The film commences with Stephanie delivering a new video blog, informing her audience that Emily has been absent for five consecutive days, having requested Stephanie to perform a seemingly straightforward task: picking up Emily’s child from school.

For any recent subscribers, as well as the advantages that Emily’s absence brings to Stephanie’s vlog, she then conveniently summarizes the events preceding it, allowing us to catch up before resuming with the current time.

Initially, during Stephanie’s preliminary probe, she learns that Emily had gone to Miami for “a short while.” Upon inspecting Emily’s work area, only an enigmatic photograph of Emily bearing the words “gotta have faith” was discovered. Following a hint that Emily was seen driving a white Kia, this exact vehicle is found near a lake in Michigan, marking the first major revelation: Emily has met her demise.

It appears to be Emily, yet there are indications suggesting prolonged heroin use and excessive alcohol consumption, which could be impacting her physical state.

Immediately raising eyebrows is Sean, as it comes to light that a $4 million life insurance policy was recently taken out on Emily just prior to her demise. However, Stephanie doesn’t let this deter her from getting romantically involved with him and even moving into their residence. Yet, when Emily begins communicating from the other side, Stephanie becomes determined to dig deeper for more information.

Following a meeting with someone formerly known as Claudia, who turns out to be Emily in disguise, Stephanie seeks enlightenment at the Squaw Lake Bible Camp. It doesn’t take her long to uncover the truth – Emily’s real name is Hope McLanden.

Additionally, it turns out that Hope has a sister named Faith, and just as quickly as you can imagine, Emily reappears and confesses that she is actually a triplet! Sadly, their third sister, Charity, did not survive birth.

Due to their father being violent towards them when they were children, Hope and Faith made a fateful decision to set fire to a portion of their home, tragically trapping their father inside. This choice caused the sisters to drift apart. Unfortunately, Faith didn’t have the same level of success in life as Hope, leading her to re-enter Hope’s life with sinister intentions – extorting her.

The timing of Emily’s life insurance payout turned out to be serendipitous, providing a solution for her financial troubles in a most unfortunate manner: by staging her sister’s death and making it appear as though she had drowned. Since no one, not even Sean, was aware that Emily had a twin, this deception went unnoticed. To prevent Stephanie from exposing the truth, Emily manipulated her into accusing Sean, insisting it was his plan (and also inflicting injuries on herself to portray him as an abusive spouse), resulting in Sean’s arrest.

As a gamer, here’s my take: I teamed up with Sean to trick Emily into admitting everything on tape. To pull this off, I feigned shooting Sean. However, things didn’t go as planned. Emily, it seemed, was smarter than we thought. She saw through our scheme and, in a shocking twist, she grabbed the real gun and shot Sean when she took out the hidden microphones.

However, wait a moment: it turned out to be a clever ruse, and Stephanie was broadcasting the entire incident on her vlog. When Emily attempted to escape from the police, she was hit by Darren (Andrew Rannells), one of the snooty school parents.

Phew.

Six months on, the screen transitions, echoing a scene from real life documentaries. My vlog has surpassed the milestone of a million subscribers, making me an amateur sleuth on the side. Sean seems to have found his happiness living with his son out in sunny California. And as for Emily, she’s fitting comfortably within the walls of her prison cell.

What happens next? You’ll have to watch Another Simple Favour this week on Prime Video to find out.

You can stream “A Simple Favour” on both Netflix and Prime Video. On the other hand, “Another Simple Favour” will be available exclusively on Prime Video starting May 1st.

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2025-04-29 17:20