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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsSpoilers for the 2025 Netflix film and Ruth Ware’s 2016 novel. In the film, the woman Lo sees thrown overboard is Anne Lyngstad—not Carrie. Anne’s husband, Richard Bullmer, kills her to seize control of the fortune she planned to give to charity, then uses Carrie, an Anne lookalike, to impersonate her. Lo’s account is true, and she ultimately helps expose the crime. The film gives Lo an on-screen confrontation and resolution that differ from the novel’s more offscreen ending.
Who was the woman Lo saw go overboard?
It was Anne Lyngstad, the real woman associated with the cabin next to Lo’s. Carrie, who resembles Anne, is alive and is being used as her double. Richard Bullmer killed Anne and threw her overboard.
Lo is not imagining what she saw. The ship’s security team dismisses her report: the expected passenger supposedly canceled, and the passenger list appears to account for everyone aboard. But the film supplies evidence that supports Lo’s account, including a photograph Ben took in which Lo recognizes the woman, threats against Lo, and an attempt to drown her in the yacht’s pool. The mystery is a conspiracy to hide a murder, not a story in which Lo’s perception proves false. Director and co-writer Simon Stone put it plainly in Netflix’s ending explainer: “It’s not an unreliable-narrator story.”
Why did Richard kill Anne?
Anne intended to give her fortune to charitable causes, a plan she had told Lo about. Richard wanted control of the money and recruited Carrie to impersonate Anne and help change the estate arrangements. Carrie was found through facial-recognition software created by board member Lars Jensen. Netflix’s account says Carrie did not agree to murder Anne: Richard killed his wife and used Carrie as part of the cover-up.
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The deception continues through the signing process. Carrie warns Lo, then holds her below deck. Lo’s earlier confrontation with Carrie appears to affect her: as the scheme proceeds, Carrie considers whether Richard will really let her go.
How does the film’s ending unfold?
Lo challenges Richard at the gala
At the gala, Lo reads the speech Anne had intended to give. Richard denies the truth, but Carrie—still disguised as Anne—confirms it. Richard takes Carrie hostage and tries to flee. Sigrid wounds him, and Lo knocks him out.
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Ben helps Lo escape
Ben stays aboard to look for Lo and helps her get away from Richard’s henchman, Dr. Mehta. Mehta stabs Ben. Lo reaches shore and makes it to the gala, where she can expose Richard’s scheme.
What happens after the confrontation?
Richard is stopped, and Anne’s fortune goes to charity. In the epilogue, Lo is back at work, writing about the ordeal and Anne’s contributions to cancer research. Carrie survives and sends Lo a video of her child, inviting her to visit. Ben does not survive the escape attempt.
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The 2025 film adapts Ruth Ware’s 2016 novel, but the two endings should not be treated as identical. The Anne-and-Carrie double is a twist drawn from the book; the major difference is how directly Lo participates in the resolution and how much of it the audience sees.
| Ending element | 2025 film | 2016 novel |
|---|---|---|
| Lo’s role in the resolution | The film shows Lo directly confronting the scheme and helping bring Richard down. | Much of the resolution happens offscreen because the story stays within Lo’s perspective, according to Ware. |
| Whether Lo sees justice done | Lo is present for the gala confrontation and its immediate outcome. | Ware describes the book as not giving Lo the same direct, on-screen moment. |
| How the ending is presented | The film dramatizes the confrontation and provides an epilogue. | The reader learns much of the resolution indirectly, rather than watching the film’s gala sequence play out. |
In a ComingSoon interview, Ware said that in the book “a lot of the kind of resolution takes place kind of offscreen because she’s not aware of what’s happening.” She said the film gives Lo “that kind of moment herself to be able to do that.” That distinction is the clearest guide to the adaptation: the film lets viewers watch Lo help expose Richard, while the book’s limited perspective leaves much of the resolution outside Lo’s—and the reader’s—direct view. Avoid assigning the film’s exact gala confrontation and on-screen closure to the novel.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the ending mean?
One central reading is that the film is about women being treated as replaceable and about the difficulty of being believed when reporting harm. Stone described patriarchal power treating women as disposable and replaceable as a core idea of the film. Ware, speaking to TIME, connected the story to a woman who experiences and truthfully reports something wrong but is not taken seriously because of who she is. These are creator interpretations rather than the only possible reading.
The plot makes that theme concrete: Anne is targeted because of her wealth and plans; Carrie is recruited to stand in for her; and Lo’s truthful account is rejected even as danger closes in around her. The film’s ending reverses that dismissal by letting Lo make the crime visible and participate in exposing it.
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