Warning: Major spoilers for The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window ahead
From The Woman In The Window to The Girl On The Train, we all know how much Netflix loves a crime-thriller involving a questionable female lead, and its latest show is no exception. The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window wins the award for the longest series title ever, but it’s also garnering worldwide notoriety for its shockingly bizarre take on the popular genre. Below, we break everything down, from the surprise ending nobody saw coming to the possibility of a second season.
The series stars Kristen Bell, who plays the role of Anna, a lonely woman reeling from her recent divorce and the death of her young daughter. Once a talented artist with the world at her feet, Anna has been battling personal demons that threaten to unravel her. In the wake of this personal tragedy, she turns to prescription drugs and alcohol to take the edge off, but unfortunately, this deadly combination will lead her on a dark and dangerous path.
While spying on her handsome new neighbour, Neil (Tom Riley), Anna becomes convinced that his girlfriend, Lisa (Shelley Hennig) has been murdered. While staring out her window, she can see the young woman struggling to survive after being stabbed in the neck. She frantically calls 911, who dispatch a team to the home, but no evidence whatsoever can be found. The incident is chalked up to a hallucination on Anna’s part, but she becomes increasingly convinced that the murder did in fact occur, and is being covered up.
What happens at the end of The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window?
Throughout the show, Anna becomes obsessed with gathering evidence to prove her case. As it turns out, Neil’s first wife died after drowning in a lake while on holiday. She was pregnant with their second child and unable to swim, and the couple’s young daughter, Emma (Samsara Yett) witnessed the entire thing.
Upon digging even further, Anna discovers that Emma’s teacher died shortly after her mother’s death, after falling from a lighthouse on a school excursion. Soon, Anna becomes convinced that Neil is a crazed killer who must be stopped.
After many twists and turns, the investigation turns towards Anna, who is accused of murdering Lisa in a drunken rage that she cannot recall. The police find an artists palette knife next to Lisa’s body, which is covered in Anna’s fingerprints. They also discover concerning paintings in her house which Anna struggles to explain, given that her drug and alcohol abuse has caused her memories to jumble. She does however, recall violently stabbing something, which she fears might have been Lisa in a drunken rage.
While Anna battles with the revelation, she is still convinced of her own innocence. After returning home from the police station, she sees what appears to be blood dripping down from the attic. Terrified, she makes her way up, only to discover that it’s merely red paint, leaking from the can. While up there, she discovers a slashed painting of Lisa, and suddenly realises that her memory of stabbing her, was actually just the painting. Relieved, she turns to leave, but makes another horrifying discovery. Their handyman, Buell (Cameron Britton), has actually been living in the attic without her knowledge. In a panic, she calls her ex-husband, who tells her that Buell was diagnosed as criminally insane, and murdered his entire family with a claw hammer. She now believes Buell to be the killer, and looks out the window to find him walking toward Neil and Emma’s house, holding a hammer.
Anna runs into the street to stop him, but after arriving at the house, she discovers Buell with the hammer in his neck, bleeding out. She then hears Emma scream from the next room, and runs in to find Neil dead, with his throat slit. In a shocking twist, Emma is standing next to him, wielding a knife, with a smile on her face. It is then revealed that 9-year old Emma has been the killer all along. She murdered her mother in a rage after finding out that she was pregnant again and then murdered Lisa after she refused to buy any of her chocolate bars for a school fundraiser. That night, she murdered her own father and attempted to kill Buell (who we later find out survives). Emma and Anna then engage in an epic struggle, which ends with Anna nearly dying, but managing to fatally stab the young child just as her ex-husband arrives to save her.
One year later, Anna and her ex-husband have reunited, and welcomed a baby girl. Anna is boarding a plane to visit her friend in New York, when an older lady (Glenn Close) sits next to her on the plane. Her and Anna share a strange exchange, before Anna passes out in a Xanax/vodka-induced slumber. When she awakens, she goes to use the restroom, only to discover the older woman dead, with her throat slit, in the toilet. She screams to the flight attendant to help, but when he opens the door, the restroom is empty. He takes her back to her seat, before revealing that there was nobody sitting next to Anna in 2A, suggesting that she has had a hallucination once again. Right before the series ends, Anna discovers a small makeup mirror buried in the older lady’s seat, which she had seen her using before takeoff. With a shocked expression and a slight smirk, Anna exclaims ‘bingo’, before the credits roll.
Will there be a season two of The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window?
As of yet, there has been no official confirmation of a second season, but Netflix has undoubtedly left the door wide open for one. Netflix also hasn’t tagged the show as a ‘limited series’, which suggests there could be more episodes in store if the first eight are received (which we think they might be).
If a second season was to start production, it would likely see the return of Kristen Bell as Anna, given that she’s the crux of the entire show. As for the rest of the characters, most of them have been killed off, so it would need a lot of new cast members. A second season could likely see more of Glenn Close, who was the lady in seat 2A, as she is the latest subject of Anna’s intrigue.
For now, we’ll just try to process that wild ending to season one.
