Does Daniel die in The Girlfriend? Details from the Prime Video psychological thriller, explored

The Girlfriend is the prime video series adaptation of Michelle Frances' 2017 novel, also titled the same. The series, headlined by Robin Wright, Olivia Cooke, and Laurie Davidson, tells the story of Laura Sanderson (Wright) as she attempts to break up her son Danny's (Davidson) relationship with Cherry (Cooke). Laura does so because she is suspicious of Cherry's intentions.

The Prime Video series, consisting of six episodes, was released in its entirety on September 10, 2025. The show builds towards a violent confrontation between Cherry and Laura. This confrontation does lead to the death of a main character in The Girlfriend's finale. But it is not Daniel who dies in the last episode of the series.

Does Daniel die in The Girlfriend?

It must be noted that Laura becomes suspicious of Cherry from the very beginning of the series. Thus, for five episodes, The Girlfriend shows Laura and Cherry one-upping themselves. While Laura plans a dinner and a theater for Daniel's birthday, Cherry surprises Daniel with something he has always wanted to do: a rock climbing trip.

He opts to spend his birthday with Cherry, but meets with a near-fatal accident. This event is where Laura crosses a line and lies to Cherry that Dianiel has passed, and lies to her son that Cherry has moved on. After separating the young couple, she takes Daniel to Spain for recovery. Meanwhile, Cherry's life goes through a rough phase as she has to move back to her poor parents' place after getting fired.

However, she does manage to find a new job through a contact that was given to her in an early episode of The Girlfriend by Daniel's father, Howard. It is through this job that she has a shocking encounter with Laura and Daniel, where the truth is out. Daniel disowns his mother and cuts ties with her. As Daniel and Cherry plan a wedding, a desperate Laura tries digging into Cherry.

An irate Cherry responds to Laura's investigation by destroying the latter's art gallery. For this, Laura has her son's fiancée arrested at their engagement party. Laura uses Cherry's absence to inform Daniel about his fiancée's bedridden father, whom he believes to be dead. When Daniel informs her that he is here to say goodbye, Laura drugs him, setting the stage for a violent encounter.

Meanwhile, Cherry is released from prison and heads to Laura's mansion, where she finds a drugged Daniel. Cherry tries to help Daniel, but her fiancé's mother tries to stop her because she doesn't trust her. This leads to their showdown in the finale of The Girlfriend. Their fight moves to the pool, where Laura has an upper hand until Daniel intervenes to save Cherry. But in the process, he accidentally drowns Laura.

This is very different than the book, in which Cherry died in the concluding moments of Michelle Frances' 2017 novel. Even actress Olivia Cooke addressed this change in a Cosmopolitan UK interview, saying, "Cherry died in the book, didn't she?"

Robin Wright addressed the change in the Cosmopolitan UK interview:

While the Prime Video series follows its source material by employing the perspectives of both Laura and Cherry, it does change the conclusion. Robin Wright addressed the changes made to the series in an exclusive interview with Cosmopolitan UK:

"I think pretty much everything was streamlined in the adaptation from the book. You know when you do that, you've got three to four pages describing each character and the dynamic between that character. It's a very different animal being able to read who and why and how a character becomes who they are, and having to truncate that and do it through nuance looks, but the dual perspective format, yes, of course, that was in the book. Because there's so much competition out there, you've got to hook the audience. You have to have cliffhangers at the end of every episode. So that was a very deliberate intention when the writers were in the room."

Trending

The Girlfriend is currently accessible via streaming in its entirety on Prime Video.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback