The Good Samaritan

Laura and Mary give a presentation about the End of the Line helpline to the Northants Women’s Circle, an assignment from their supervisor, Janine. Laura internally expresses contempt for Mary’s earnestness. She reflects on her own history with the helpline, recalling how she deliberately manipulated the psychometric tests during her application process to secure the position.

Laura thinks about her desire for a new candidate to guide, as her current one, Steven, is pending his final qualifying call. She reminisces about two past candidates whose suicides she successfully facilitated: a man named Brendan and a woman named Helena, for whom she placed an obituary intended to goad the married man with whom she was having an affair. During the Q&A session, a woman in the audience asks a question, and Laura recognizes her voice from a past call. Her thoughts then drift to David, noting that he and the woman he died alongside are the only candidates whose funerals she did not attend.

Laura waits for her family in her sterile, modern house. The house is empty, and the cat, Bieber, waits for Tony. A group text that she sent to her husband and daughters goes unanswered. Laura feels deep resentment toward Tony, whom she believes sidelined her as a mother. Their relationship deteriorated further after her cancer diagnosis. Tony moved into the spare room, and when Laura attempted to initiate intimacy, he coldly rebuffed her. When she expressed confusion, Tony explained that he had found and read her hidden social services file from her childhood. He confronted her, accusing her of lying about her past, specifically about her relationship with Nate. In the present, Laura serves herself the casserole she cooked. She eats alone, expecting her family to ignore the meal when they return.

Laura is at the End of the Line office for her third call with Steven. During the call, Steven confirms he has chosen his method of suicide: hanging. Laura feels a morbid thrill, as this will be a new method for her private count of facilitated deaths. Her colleague, Zoe, enters the office, forcing Laura to lower her voice to a whisper.

Laura listens to Steven’s plan and corrects his naive assumptions about hanging, warning him about the potential for extreme pain and botched attempts. As the call continues, Steven makes an unprecedented request: He asks Laura to be physically present in the house with him when he dies. Caught off guard, Laura is momentarily stunned into silence.

Thirty-six hours after Steven’s request, Laura wakes, feeling a mixture of profound anxiety and illicit excitement. She recalls being at work the previous day; she declined Steven’s proposal, citing both the illegality and the ethical rules of the helpline, but her colleague, Sanjay, noticed her distraction after the call. To cover her turmoil, she made an excuse and hid in the office bathroom. There, she debated the idea, reminding herself of the extreme danger and her responsibilities as a mother. Back in the present, the beeping of a washing machine grounds her. She reinforces her decision, concluding that refusing was the only correct and safe choice.

Laura returns to the hospital, determined to find Nate. She learns there is no record of him being admitted and realizes he must have discharged himself. Frustrated, she sits in her car, overcome by a memory of her and Nate’s final weekend at Sylvia’s apartment: Sylvia drugged Nate’s drink shortly before she allowed an unknown man to take him away. Later that weekend, Sylvia brought three other men to the flat and tried to force Laura into a bedroom with one of them. Nate, having returned, intervened. An enraged Sylvia struck Nate, who retaliated by hitting her over the head with a heavy ashtray, killing her. The men fled. Nate and Laura quickly packed and ran but were soon caught. Nate took full responsibility to protect Laura and was sent to prison. Now, Laura drives away, searching unsuccessfully for Nate in his usual haunts.

Laura is assigned to debrief Mary, who is distraught after a caller died from an overdose while on the phone with her. Laura feigns sympathy but is privately consumed with jealousy that Mary experienced the caller’s final moments.

Later the same week, Steven calls to apologize for his request. He begins asking Laura personal questions, and his tone makes her feel he is genuine and can be trusted. Laura privately compares Steven to David but resolves not to get as emotionally attached. However, catching a glimpse of Mary, who is elderly and alone, makes her envision a similar future for herself, and she has a sudden change of heart. Leaning close to the phone, Laura whispers to Steven, reversing her earlier decision and agreeing to be present for his suicide.

Laura is on the phone with Steven, who describes his long history with depression. He asks what she gets out of helping people like him, but she deflects. He then asks about the “David” she previously mentioned, and Laura confirms that David was another candidate she helped.

Shifting to logistics, Laura provides Steven with specific, technical instructions on how to position a noose to ensure a quick death, which he carefully notes. She mentally plans her strategy, focusing on removing all evidence of her presence from his house, including instructing him to use a disposable phone. As the call ends, Steven makes one last request: He asks if Laura will hug him before he dies. Feeling an unexpected flicker of emotion, she agrees.

Laura wakes from a nightmare to find that her husband, Tony, never came home. Overcome with anxiety, she drives to the rooftop of the Hartley Hotel, the site where a past candidate died. Periodically, Laura stands on the ledge, leaning precariously over the edge, to “check if [she] [is] still needed in the world” (99).

As Laura climbs the stairs, she recalls her childhood, when she hid in the room while her mother died from cancer. This sparked an obsession with sharing others’ final moments, as she felt uniquely close to her mother while listening to her final breath. Her father never recovered from the loss and eventually enlisted her help crushing pills that he then mixed into a milkshake and gave to her two younger sisters, Sara and Karen, deliberately excluding Laura from the murder-suicide. Laura did not initially understand what was happening, but as she listened from behind their locked bedroom door, she heard the final breaths of her father and sisters and felt that her father had entrusted her, the “strongest” of them, to carry on their legacy.

Laura, standing on the rooftop, feels newly “empowered.” She resolves to see Steven’s plan through, convinced her work is not yet finished.

Laura drives to Steven’s house, prepared with a knife, gloves, and a flashlight. She lets herself in and proceeds to the bedroom. She finds the room is empty except for a lamp and a rope hanging from the ceiling. To her shock, the walls are covered with hundreds of photographs of her and her family.

Steven appears in the doorway, his demeanor now confident and threatening. He reveals that the entire persona was a lie and tells her that the rope is for her. He corners Laura and tries to force the noose over her head. A violent struggle ensues, during which Laura stabs Steven in the stomach with her knife. She flees the room, falling down the stairs and injuring herself, but escapes in her car, leaving the wounded Steven on the floor.