Another Girl Movie Ending Explained- What Happened To Elle?

The sequel to Allison Burnett’s novel Undiscovered Gyrl and movie adaptation under the title Ask Me Anything, which has a rabid cult following, Another Girl is a cautionary tale about the dangers of the internet and vulnerable, naive young women. In the film and movie adaptation, a blogger calling herself Katie Kampenfelt details her life, including sexual exploits, until she goes missing without a trace. In Another Girl, Katie is a character in a book that our protagonist Elle becomes obsessed with. As part of the viral marketing for the novel, a blog was created by the fictional Katie. Elle begins commenting on the blog with intimate details about her life. To her surprise, Katie begins replying, and things don’t unsurprisingly take a disastrous turn.

The film opens with an overlay of difficult-to-read online messaging. The message is clear from the beginning. You never really know who you are talking to. Even those we know hide who they really are behind a collage of carefully curated Instashots and Snapchat stories. Another Girl explores that same territory that films like Megan Is Missing exploit. Beware of who you are talking to. Although the film features some problematic language and Burnett writes his characters as blunt stereotypes rather than complex people with shades of good and evil, the compelling ending is enough to give Another Girl a following much like its predecessor.

Elle is a wounded bird of a young woman who suffers from depression and anxiety. Bouncing from one abusive relationship to the next, she is deeply unhappy and struggles with self-identity and self-worth. She has already tried to commit suicide once, and she never seems very far from another attempt. Her hyper-religious mom doesn’t understand or accept her, and her violent father was everything a parent shouldn’t be. However, she finds a kindred spirit in Katie. Katie never judges her and the more Elle engages in detrimental behavior like having an affair with her married boss, the more she feels connected to Katie. Another Girl picks up where Ask Me Anything ends, Katie, or rather the fantasy that is Katie. In the first movie, Katie disappears, and unfortunately, a similar fate befalls Elle.

Their conversations narrate the film, and the two women’s lives often bleed together. It is difficult always to tell who is saying what to whom, which is probably by design as predators like this use mirroring to disarm their prey. We are always more open to those with who we see pieces of ourselves. The end of Another Girl leaves little doubt that Elle has been duped, and whoever is behind this tragedy is already trolling for his next victim. Here’s everything you need to know about the bleak ending.

The ending of Another Girl explained

Elle outs her boss and then learns he has been sleeping with all his assistants and lying about his money. He was never going to leave his wife for Elle. She is devastated, but it is just one more example of the men who have let her down and used her. In an effort to make him jealous, she goes on a date with a gay friend of her brothers. He is kind to her and makes her feel powerful. She sees someone stalking her in the shadows throughout the date, and she assumes it is Dave.

Although she believes it is Dave, it is doubtful that he was the one following her. More likely, the catfisher was watching her, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. When Dave texts her throughout the date and later sends her pictures of their time together, Elle sends the pictures to Dave’s wife with a message that he sent those to her, and she wants to move on.

Elle’s actions had consequences beyond what she could imagine, though. When his wife confronted him, Dave beat her and was arrested. Her brother relayed the news to Elle the following day and is angry with her for unintentionally hurting Dave’s wife and kid. He says she is impulsive and reckless. He kicks her out of his house. Sensing that Elle was vulnerable, Katie messaged her and suggested they meet finally. Elle’s friend Natasha tells her there are good men out there, but she doesn’t see them because she is incapable of seeing them. She isn’t wrong. Burnett’s male characters are written so coarsely because these are the men Elle attracts. She is damaged and attracts those who depend on the weakness of women who haven’t found their self-worth yet.

Elle drives to a hotel in another town without telling anyone and waits for Katie, who never shows up. Throughout, Katie has woven a story about an abusive and jealous husband to cover for her secrecy. When Katie doesn’t show up at the restaurant, she checks into the motel because she doesn’t want to drive drunk. Katie expected that. When Elle checked into the motel, the room had already been paid for, but Katie was nowhere to be found. It is never explained how Katie set everything up, but it is possible it was either done online or by phone using a voice modifier. There is also the possibility that the motel manager is the one who has been catfishing her all along and uses his place of business to trap women.

Elle tells Katie she is in the motel but will be leaving as soon as she is sober. She gets one final message that Katie is there, and a car pulls up. Someone knocks, and when Elle opens the door, the screen goes black as a loud bang is heard. The assumption is someone pushed through the chain and took Elle. Elle’s life is ostensibly over whether a serial killer murdered her, sex-trafficked her, or kidnapped her and held her indefinitely. Earlier in the film, Elle is asked if she has heard about the body of a young woman being found, which seems to indicate a serial killer has targeted vulnerable young women. In all likelihood, Elle was taken and murdered.

The film closes with another lonely, naive girl looking for a connection. Katie responds to this girl only after learning enough about her state of mind to know she will be easily fooled. The cycle will begin again until someone fights back. Whoever is behind Katie never responds to strong women because they are too much trouble. They wouldn’t be easily manipulated. Elle and those like her don’t have a chance against the catfishers of the world who hide behind fake personas and nibble away personal details like popcorn.

The haunting but no less disturbing example of these kinds of stories is We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, which combines catfishing with online urban legends to great effect. Another Girl is currently streaming on Showtime.