Now that we’ve all had time to catch up on Netflix’s latest crime thriller, The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window, we need to unpack the show’s twist-filled ending.
Just to recap, the series is part Lifetime parody-part artistic dig at that terrible Amy Adams-starring mystery flick (also housed on Netflix). The show sees Kristen Bell playing a divorced woman, grieving the tragic loss of her daughter after a convicted murderer killed — and ate — her during a trip to the criminally insane asylum. It was take-your-daughter-to-work-day guys and Michael Ealy is nothing if not an attractive DILF who makes questionable parenting decisions throughout this series. But, getting back to it, Bell’s Anna is high on psychotropic and constantly nursing an oversized glass of red wine in every episode of this show which leads her to witnessing a murder, questioning what she saw, gaslighting herself into thinking she’s the killer, and finally solving the mystery once she gets sober and overcomes her fear of errant rainstorms.
So, how does the show end, and what does that final shot mean for a possible season two?
After believing her handsome new neighbor (hello Tom Riley) killed his live-in girlfriend for most of the series, Anna eventually concludes that her handyman Buell, a reformed murderer himself who seems like the nicest character on the show, is actually responsible for the woman’s death. She heads across the street, in the rain, to confront Buell and save her neighbor and his young daughter, Emma but, when she arrives at the house, Buell is lying in the hallway with his throat slashed while her neighbor is dead on the couch. It’s revealed that Emma is a bonafide psychopath at just nine years old — #goals — and she’s been killing everyone who gets on her nerves for the past few years, including her mom, her teacher, her unborn sibling, Buell, and her dad, who’s only crime was being a lousy ventriloquist. After Emma and Anna engage in a pretty vicious brawl, Anna kills Emma and is rescued by her ex-husband. She begins to paint again, to heal from her daughter’s death, to reconnect with her ex, and to travel to see her best friend who just started a gallery job in New York. She’s traded wine for vodka, she’s reading a new crime book, and, while waiting for the plane to take off, she meets a mysterious, glamourous older woman played by Glenn Close.
But, when Anna wakes up from a quick, in-flight nap, the businesswoman isn’t in the seat beside her. She goes to the bathroom to find her new acquaintance dead, with blood pouring from her ear. When Anna alerts the flight attendant, the pair return to the bathroom to find it empty. She’s then told no one was booked in the seat beside her and we’re lead to believe her boozy habit has lead to another imagined murder victim until she unearths the woman’s gold-covered pocket mirror from between the seats.
So, what does this mean for a possible season two?
Showrunners Rachel Ramras, Larry Dorf, and Hugh Davidson told Entertainment Weekly that the set-up was a nod to how so many real crime thrillers end — with a tease of the author’s next book. They’ve also admitted to writing a script for what happens when the plane lands in New York, saying they’d love to do more seasons of Anna solving mysteries. So, it’s entirely possible that Anna will pick up the case while visiting her friend in New York. Or, even better, she’ll find an answer to the one question haunting every fan of the show: Where the hell is Scott?!