You'd think a drama with a name like The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl
in the Window would have a difficult plot, yet we were still caught off guard by what
happened.
Kristen Bell stars as Anna, a traumatized mother with a drinking problem who embarks
on her own whodunnit mission after becoming certain she observed a murder at the house
across the street in this part thriller, half mystery, and part satire of thriller-mysteries.
Many people are skeptical of her, partly because of her drinking issue, which can produce hallucinations
when combined with drugs, and partly because her behavior since the loss of her own daughter
has been unusual to say the least.
So, what was the real story?
Here's the whole story, with the fatal twist at the end...
Lisa, what happened to her?
Anna becomes certain she witnessed the murder of Lisa, the air-hostess girlfriend of her
sexy new widowed neighbor, Neil Coleman, during a boozy night in.
Neil and his 9-year-old daughter Emma are newcomers to the quiet neighborhood.
Anna and Neil form an almost instant bond and flirting due to his dashing good looks
and their shared trauma.
While Anna is suffering with her daughter's murder and subsequent divorce from her husband,
Douglas, Neil is still mourning the loss of his wife Meredith, who killed in a horrific
accident while pregnant with their second child.
Neil is extremely protective of Emma, who sells girl scout cookies around town, after
her mother died — and her instructor died less than three weeks after.
However, this made him a good target for con artist Lisa, whose true name is Chastity,
who targeted him with her accomplice Rex in order to defraud him of money.
However, when Rex, a stripper who was sucked into Lisa's scheme, discovered Neil had a
daughter, he drew the line.
When Lisa goes silent on him, he assumes she's made off with their joint funds.
He goes to Neil's house to see her, but instead finds Anna, who convinces him to tell her
more about what they were up to as proof that she didn't lie about witnessing her death.
The two hit it off and have sex, but he's arrested soon after Lisa's body is discovered
dismembered, with their criminal conspiracy being the presumed cause of her death.
When it's determined that Rex was working as a stripper the night of the attack, and
the weapon - an artist's palette knife – is discovered, he's promptly released.
It's the same kind as Anna's.
She's suddenly in the frame and arrested.
Neil visits her, threatens her with a gun, and tells her not to bother him or Emma again
while her best friend Sloan bails her out.
The truth has been disclosed.
When Anna believes she sees blood dripping from her loft and begins to feel delusional,
she phones her therapist, feeling imprisoned within her home.
Her therapist turns out to be her ex-husband Douglas, who pushes her to look into the case
because he doesn't think she's a murderer.
Anna is relieved to realize it was simply paint when she goes up to the loft.
She also discovers a slashed painting of Lisa, and realizes that her flashbacks of killing
Lisa were actually her cutting the artwork in an enraged frenzy.
She goes back downstairs, feeling relieved, but she sees a makeshift bed and possessions
that aren't hers.
As she assembles the puzzle, she discovers that Buell, the neighborhood handyman who
has been fixing her mailbox for years, has been living in her loft.
On the phone, Douglas tells her that he recruited him after meeting him as his first criminally
insane patient.
Douglas had offered Buell a job after rehabbing him, assuming he was fine.
Looking out the window, she sees Buell, who appears to be holding a hammer, walking across
the street to Neil's house.
Anna makes it to Neil's house despite her fear of rain, only to find Buell stabbed to
death.
As the killer finally reveals themselves, she swiftly discovers Neil dead on the sofa
as well.
Emma, Neil's 9-year-old daughter, is a pathological liar.
She'd slain Lisa (for refusing to buy her chocolate bars), her mother Meredith (for
daring to have another kid), and her instructor, in addition to Buell and Neil.
She says Anna in a frightening tone: "Children are always undervalued.
Don't underestimate their abilities.
I was even astonished by myself; I had no idea I was capable of murder!"
Emma framed Anna for everything by snatching her palette knife during a girl scout chocolate
drop-off, and now she plans to kill her, blaming her for everything because everyone believes
she's stalking the family.
Anna is stabbed and shot after a fierce battle between the two.
Emma eventually knocks Anna unconscious by smashing a casserole plate over her head and
calling 911, claiming Anna had broken in and killed her family.
Anna, on the other hand, comes around while she waits for the cops.
Anna steps in front of Emma and murders her with a piece of casserole dish as Emma prepares
to deliver the fatal blow.
Following seeing the climactic showdown, Douglas, who had gone to her after their phone call,
tells the cops everything, and Anna is finally free.
Buell is the only one who survives, but no one else does.
Anna allows Buell to stay in the loft after being released from the hospital, and he subsequently
apologizes, stating that he moved in to protect her when Douglas moved out.
Even though he's weird, he's ultimately harmless.
Taking a leap into the future.
Anna is celebrating the sale of several of her paintings at one of Sloan's gallery openings.
Douglas is there with a woman, and Sloan runs into them as she tries to escape.
Claire, his date, turns out to be a forensic psychologist who works with Douglas, and he
bought her picture.
It begins to rain, but Anna is unconcerned, dancing in the rain rather than being terrified.
She kisses Douglas after that.
What occurred after that?
A year later, Anna is at the airport, on her way to meet Sloan at her new job in New York.
Douglas and she have a new baby.
As she takes her seat on the plane, she informs the flight attendant that she no longer drinks
wine and instead requests a vodka.
When a glamorous woman (played by Glenn Close) sits next to her, she takes a medication to
help her through the journey.
The woman claims she is traveling to the city for work.
Anna wakes up on the plane and wanders to the bathroom, only to discover the woman dead
in the toilet cubicle.
She instantly alerts the attendant, but by the time they return, the body has vanished.
Anna demands that the attendant find the woman sitting next to her as she is escorted back
to her seat.
When he informs her there was no one seated next to her, she panics and worries she's
hallucinating once more.
However, Anna discovers the woman's compact hidden between the seat cushions in the closing
moments, confirming her suspicions.
The screen goes to darkness after a 'bingo.'