The Good Samaritan

The day after his suspension, Ryan Smith meets with his lawyer, Tracy Fenton. Tracy informs him that the police found 115 “images of a sexual nature” on his work computer (300), all depicting adolescent girls. She explains that the digital files appear to have been moved hastily, suggesting that someone planted them.

Tracy advises that their best strategy is to establish a clear timeline of his activities to create an alibi. She warns him that the police investigation could take months and details the severe legal consequences he faces. As Ryan despairs, thinking of his lost future with Charlotte, Tracy instructs him to remain passive. Internally, however, Ryan resolves that he cannot simply wait.

Laura recalls how she used to fantasize about happier outcomes for Nate. She feels guilty for neglecting him while focused on destroying Ryan. What has prompted these reflections is the fact that Laura is now at a police station: A telephone call informed her that Nate’s body had been discovered in a river, so decomposed he could only be identified through a DNA match.

Now, despite warnings about the graphic state of the body, Laura insists on viewing it. In the mortuary, she is confronted with Nate’s partially skeletonized remains. She disputes the police’s estimated time of death, claiming that she saw Nate five or six months ago, not the full year police believe he has been deceased. As the officer gently corrects her, it emerges that Nate’s body was discovered on a beach in East Sussex, not in the local river.

Ryan watches Tony win a white-collar charity boxing match. He approaches Tony at the bar and tells him that he believes Laura manipulated his wife into suicide. Tony is unsurprised and tries to walk away, but Ryan follows him into the car park, pressing him for information.

Tony explains that he and his daughters no longer live with Laura. He then recounts finding Laura’s hidden psychiatric report, which detailed her deeply manipulative past, including how Laura manipulated Nate, Sylvia’s biological son, into killing Sylvia. Tony also explains Laura’s altered perception of reality and the role she unwittingly played in her father’s murder-suicide. Finally, he reveals why she called Ryan “David”: It was Nate’s actual first name.

Back at the End of the Line office, Laura puts the next stage of her plan into motion. She gives her manager, Janine, two homemade muffins. While Janine is distracted, Laura steals her iPad. She reflects on orchestrating Ryan’s frame-up by having Effie use a memory stick to plant pornographic images on his school computer.

Frustrated with the slow police investigation into Ryan, Laura decides to escalate. She previously instructed Mary to book a drop-in appointment for Janine with a man named “Ryan Smith” and not to bother turning on the security cameras for this meeting. At the end of her shift, Laura goes to the drop-in room and waits for Janine, greeting her by saying they need to have a long-overdue conversation.

Ryan wakes from a drunken sleep to find his parents have let themselves into his apartment. His mother shows him a Facebook feed filled with posts accusing him of being a pedophile. Laura has created a fake “Charlotte Smith” profile to post fabricated evidence, including the manipulated audio recording of his apology to Effie and video footage of him trying to break into Laura’s house.

Horrified, his parents refuse to listen to his explanations, and his mother suggests he is having a “breakdown.” Yelling in frustration, Ryan tries to leave but accidentally knocks his mother to the floor. In response, his father shoves him against a wall. Feeling completely betrayed and alone, Ryan storms out, determined to find Laura and beg for mercy.

In the private drop-in room at End of the Line, Laura confronts Janine. Janine accuses Laura of manipulating vulnerable callers and admits that she began investigating Ryan’s claims. Laura immediately counters by confronting Janine about her affair with Tony, threatening to expose her to the office. Janine then reveals her leverage: She has Ryan’s Dictaphone, which she claims contains recordings of all the manipulative calls between Laura and Ryan.

Ryan drives to Laura’s house, but it is dark. Overcome with desperation, he collapses on the doormat and weeps, pleading through the letterbox for Laura to stop her campaign and admitting that she has won.

He returns to his car and uses a business card to call Janine’s direct line, leaving a rambling voicemail that announces he is coming to see her because she “owes” him. He then drives aimlessly, drinking, passing landmarks from his youth, and reflecting on his ruined reputation. Ryan feels he truly understands the despair that led Charlotte to suicide, and he concludes his own life is “over.”

Janine presents Laura with her deal: She will destroy the Dictaphone if Laura agrees to an uncontested divorce. However, when Janine presses play, the tape is blank. Furious, Janine tries to get up but stumbles. Laura then reveals that she drugged the muffins with powerful sedatives.

As Janine collapses, Laura puts on gloves, retrieves a hammer, and strikes Janine in the windpipe. After two more blows to Janine’s head, she listens calmly as Janine dies. She stages the scene to frame Ryan, creating a fake escape route, planting the hammer (which she stole from Ryan’s apartment and which thus bears his fingerprints), leaving a man’s shoe prints, and changing into an identical set of clean clothes. Back home, she disposes of the evidence. Her daughter Effie calls, distraught over school rumors relating to her and Ryan, but Laura coldly threatens her into silence, warning her of the punishment she would face if her lies became known.

Ryan spends the night in his car at Birling Gap. At dawn, he turns his phone on and receives a call from Johnny, who tells him that police are now searching for him in connection with Janine’s murder. Ryan understands that Laura has framed him perfectly and that there is no escape. He accepts his fate, telling Johnny that he will send one final email; he then says goodbye and turns off his phone. Ryan walks to the edge of the cliff, where he has an imagined conversation with Charlotte and apologizes. Envisioning himself holding the hands of his wife and their unborn baby, he steps off the edge.