The Girlfriend Finale: Daniel’s Shocking Choice Between Cherry and Laura Explained
The last episode throws every twist imaginable as Daniel finally chooses sides—here’s how the finale left fans reeling.
If you just finished The Girlfriend and need someone to talk you through that wild, messy finale, pull up a chair. It goes exactly where you think it might... and then somehow worse.
Quick reset: the series adapts Michelle Frances' novel, with the show coming from Naomi Sheldon, Gabbie Asher, and An Kun. Laura seems to have it all — thriving career, husband Howard, and golden-boy son Daniel — until Daniel shows up with a new girlfriend, Cherry. Laura does not vibe with Cherry. At all. What follows is a sharp, escalating cat-and-mouse between two women who both decide they are absolutely not losing Daniel.
So, who does Daniel choose?
Cherry. He ends up with Cherry and marries her.
How the finale actually goes down
- Laura manipulates the situation so Cherry believes Daniel is dead. Then Cherry spots Laura and very-much-alive Daniel at a restaurant. Awkward reunion achieved.
- Daniel and Cherry reconcile, and Daniel finally clocks that his mom has been pulling strings to split them up. He cuts her off.
- Cherry hits back by wrecking Laura's art gallery. Later, at Daniel and Cherry's engagement party (which Laura attends uninvited), cops arrive and arrest Cherry for the gallery incident.
- Meanwhile, Laura has done some digging. She visits Cherry's mother, Tracey, and secretly records a confession. Tracey says Cherry is manipulative, will do anything to get what she wants, and has a habit of getting rid of boyfriends once she is done with them.
- Laura sets up a meeting with Daniel, drugs him, and tries to play the recording to prove Cherry's true colors. Cherry shows up, sees Daniel drugged, and tries to get him out of there.
- Laura blocks them. Things get physical. Laura tries to drown Cherry. Daniel intervenes and holds his mother's head underwater to buy Cherry time to escape. He does not realize his own strength, and Laura drowns — despite Cherry shouting at him to let her go.
One year later...
Daniel and Cherry are married, and she is pregnant. Then Daniel finds the recording Laura had been desperate to play for him. He finally hears Tracey's confession — and learns exactly who Cherry is after all.
It is a bleak, twisty end: the choice is Cherry, the marriage happens, but the truth arrives on a delay. Not subtle, very stressful, and absolutely in keeping with this show's particular brand of psychological warfare.