- Keira Knightley stars in the new Netflix mystery The Woman in Cabin 10.
- The story follows a journalist, who witnesses a passenger go overboard on a yacht.
- Spoilers ahead.
Based on the novel by Ruth Ware, the new Netflix thriller The Woman in Cabin 10 is about a journalist, Lo Blacklock (Keira Knightley), who witnesses a passenger fall off of a luxury yacht, but when she tries to tell the other guests about the event, no one believes her. Of course, this is terrifying, because, well, you can't exactly flee a bunch of weirdos who don't believe the apparent murder you witnessed when you're in the middle of the sea on a yacht.
The Woman in Cabin 10 will make viewers start guessing what's really going on as soon as Lo boards the boat. Of course, watching through to the end will let you know if your theory was right, but if you want to make sure you followed everything that happens, read on to have the ending to this mystery fully explained.
Let's set the scene.
Lo is on the yacht in order to cover the charitable foundation of Anne Lyngstad (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce). Anne is a Norwegian heiress, who is dying of cancer, and Richard is her English husband. The yacht is full of various rich people, and the trip will end with a gala held in Norway. Also on the boat is Ben Morgan (David Ajala), who is a photographer and Lo's ex-boyfriend.
The first evening, Anne requests to meet with Lo for some help on a speech she wants to give at the gala in which she will reveal she is donating all of her money to charity. That night, Lo hears an argument and sees someone fall off of the yacht. When she tells the others, no one believes her and they all tell her that she's just crazy or traumatized due to the dark news stories she's covered.
Did Lo really see someone go overboard?
Yes. It turns out that the mysterious woman Lo spotted in cabin 10 early in the film is named Carrie (Gitte Witt), and she was hired by Richard to pretend to be Anne, so that she could sign a will stating that Anne would leave him her riches instead of donating all of her money.
The plan was upended when Anne caught Carrie dressed exactly like her in the cabin with Richard while everyone else was asleep. In response, Richard killed Anne and threw her overboard. He quickly wiped away the blood that was smeared on the glass partition between cabin 10 and Lo's room, but not before Lo was awakened by the disturbance, saw the blood, and saw the splash into the water.
If you're wondering what was going to happen with the fact that there were two Annes: Carrie was not supposed to be Anne this soon. Anne was supposed to be Anne during the boat trip, then when they reached their destination, Carrie would sign the will, and Anne would be killed.
Richard's friend, Dr. Mehta (Art Malik), later says that he was supposed to give Anne a lethal injection, which he was cool with since she was already dying. But this situation with Anne being thrown off the boat and him being ordered by Richard to kill a journalist? Not cool!
What happens to Lo?
Well, when Richard realizes that Lo knows something happened, he wants her dead, too. First, he and the other passengers just try to assure her that she's imagining things. This makes the other passengers look suspicious, even though most of them aren't in on the plan—only Dr. Mehta, the captain of the yacht (John Macmillan), and Lars (Christopher Rygh), a tech guy who helped Richard use AI to find someone who looked like Anne. (Although it's possible Lars didn't know why Richard was looking for a fake Anne. Maybe you don't ask when a super wealthy, super powerful guy tells you he needs a spouse replica.)
Eventually, Richard, Dr. Mehta, and the captain work together to try to kill Lo. But, instead, Carrie finds Lo and admits to her what is going on. She knows that if Lo doesn't stop talking about the mysterious overboard passenger, Richard will kill her. Carrie locks Lo in a mechanical room of the yacht, but later decides to work together with her when Lo tells her that Richard will kill her, too, once she signs the will and he doesn't need her anymore.
So, when the boat docks ahead of the gala, Lo tries to secretly escape without the other passengers seeing her. Unfortunately, she ends up in a physical fight with the captain and the doctor with the doctor attempting to give her a lethal injection.
What happens to Ben?
Ben is supposed to be heading to shore with the other guests, but he decides to go back to check on Lo, who he has been told is resting in her room for a while longer after being given some medication to calm her down. And what does he find? Lo being nearly killed by the doctor and captain! Ben is able to save Lo, but he gets the injection from the doctor instead and dies.
Okay... now what happens to Lo?
Lo is able to escape by jumping off of the boat and swimming to the shore. Dr. Mehta tells Richard that there's no way she survived the frigid water.
Lo, very much alive, shows up at the gala with the real Anne's speech in which she wrote that she wanted all of her money to go to charity. Carrie admits to a shocked crowd that she is not Anne. Richard holds a knife to Carrie's throat and says he will kill her if anyone tries to stop him from fleeing the room.
He walks Carrie down to a small boat to try to leave, but suddenly, Sigrid (Amanda Collin), Anne and Richard's head of security, shoots Richard. (She was closer to Anne, obvs.) Lo then hits him on the head with a random tool she picks up and he falls off a ledge to his death.
We then flash forward to Lo back in the office. Her story has been published, and she chose to focus on Anne and her massive charitable donations. But, it also recounts the situation on the yacht, noting that Richard's associates, Dr. Mehta and Captain Addis, are being prosecuted for their crimes. She writes about Ben and his heroism, too.
What happens to Carrie?
Carrie returns to her normal life with her daughter. She sends Lo a video and asks that she visit them sometime. Presumably between legal appointments, because, damn, you don't just impersonate a dying woman for money, witness her murder, nearly get killed yourself, witness the murder of the guy who hired you, have it written about in a major newspaper, and just, like, move on. That is A LOT.
