Wondering what happened at the end of Allison Janney’s first Netflix action thriller Lou? Was she alive or was she one of the characters who bit the dust? This article will address exactly those kinds of questions by breaking down the concluding finale of the movie.
Directed by Anna Foerster, Lou starring Janney, Jurnee Smollett, Logan Marshall-Green, and more, premiered on September 23, 2022, on Netflix. The eponymous character is played by Allison Janney who has isolated herself from society in a secluded location where her sole company is her dog, Jax. A single mother Hannah (Smollett) living with her daughter Vee rents the trailer behind her house but is later bamboozled by her presumed dead husband who kidnaps their daughter.
Netflix describes the movie as:
Battling the elements and their dark pasts, the mother of a kidnapped child and her mysterious neighbor team up on a rescue mission into the wilderness.
Hannah then sees Lou as the only comforting presence around her who can help her in such dire circumstances. To her surprise, her neighbor turns out to be more than she could’ve asked for as she knows how to hold her own, owing to her on-field experience of 26 years as a CIA agent.
Both of them embark on an exhausting adventure to find Vee. However, there are a lot of secrets that are yet to unveil in front of Hannah and once they do, they will change everything for her small family.
Also Read: Lou Review: Losing Thriller Fest Squanders Allison Janney’s Talent
As the story goes, the most important question of all is whether the duo is able to rescue the young girl or not and if either of them dies in the process. Read on to find out what happened at the end of the latest Netflix action adventure.
-This Article Contains Spoilers for Lou-
Lou Ending Explained
Philip (Marshall-Green) i.e. Hannah’s husband who pulled a con on her about his death, leaves a trail of clues for his wife to follow. However, these clues are caught by Lou instead, who keeps them hidden from Hannah, ultimately revealing to us that they were always meant for the gruffed old woman to begin with. She figures out Philip’s coveted destination is the lighthouse, and that’s where he’s been leading them both.
Her first face-off against him leaves her severely injured, and as Hannah tries to tend to her wound, she discovers those postcards addressed to Lou. Just like that, the truth is out – Philip is Lou’s son. The titular character narrates her past circumstances of a mission that led her to Iran. It was there that she abandoned him as a baby, which left a permanent scar on his psyche and made him the kind of man he eventually became.
On hearing everything, Hannah leaves her newly revealed mother-in-law and continues chasing her husband alone. After reaching the lighthouse, she hints her daughter to go and hide, meanwhile she pulls the trigger on Philip. Despite the several hits, he’s somehow still standing, and so she pierces the knife through his hand and tries to stall him while she goes ahead to find her daughter again.
She finds her in the basement of the lighthouse where Philip had also planted the bomb to go off later. Dealing with his own ‘mommy issues’, kidnapping Vee was just a means to an end for him as he wanted to lure his entire family to the lighthouse, where the bomb would go off and kill everyone instantly.
Lou catches up to the location and manages to switch the frequency of the bomb so it never goes off upon Philip pulling the plug. The transpiring events ultimately leave the mother-son duo alone to deal with their issues directly this time, as Janney’s character advises Hannah to take Vee and run for safety.
The American Marshalls had also taken over the case from the local sheriff and their helicopter circled the location. Lou’s previously adjusted frequency of the bomb works in her favor as she’s able to blow up the lighthouse using the phone, which catches the attention of the officials out to catch them as per her plan.
While she and Philip engage in a hand-to-hand fight, the helicopter comes around and starts shooting. Shielding herself with Philip’s body, she puts the chapter to an end as they both go under.
A new scene transports us back to her house where Hannah is all packed and ready to leave for Seattle after having read Lou’s letter. The CIA stirs up an investigation about their former employee and the secrets she took down but Hannah has nothing to offer. We see her, Vee, and Jax onboard a ship later, after having acknowledged that Lou was her family regardless of all her mental turmoil.
As Hannah and Vee look on forward, Jax turns around and notices someone familiar in the distance. Although her face is never actually shown to the camera, we know it’s Allison Janney’s character looking out for what’s left of her family, wearing the same copper bracelet that the sheriff had on earlier.
In this way, the remaining main characters are able to establish their subjective sense of calm in their lives and come together as a family despite all the hardships they had to face in this muddy survival fest. All the women of this story return stronger. Even if a bit scarred, they’re still able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Check out Allison Janney’s Lou on Netflix. Are you satisfied with the result of this action thriller, or were you expecting a bit more? Let us know in the comments section.
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I truly loved this movie, Lou. It’s a great thriller, adventure film.