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Stay Close is the latest Netflix thriller from Harlan Coben, the writer behind other streaming shows like The Stranger and The Woods – and as viewers of those shows know, the author loves a good twist.
And what's more, the Netflix adaptations love to add extra twists that aren't in the books to keep Coben fans surprised. This is the case with Stay Close – while the book only had one killer, the ending of the show has two killers as a result of a shocking final twist.
Here's the ending of Stay Close on Netflix explained – as well as the big change it makes from the book.
Stay Close Ending Explained – Who Is the killer?
As the Netflix show adds an extra murderer, it makes sense to split that question into two questions – Who is the serial killer, and who killed Carlton Flynn (played by Connor Calland).
Of course, there are numerous other killers in Stay Close. There are the assassins "Ken" (Hyoie O'Grady) and "Barbie" (Poppy Gilbert), who kill Harry (Eddie Izzard) and numerous others. And in the last episode, there is Megan/Cassie (Cush Jumbo), who stabs and kills "Barbie" after the pair fight. However, we will focus on the people who committed the crime being investigated by Detective Broome (James Nesbitt).
Who Is the Serial Killer in Stay Close?
Coming in to Episode 8 of the Netflix show, it seems that the killer is Ray (Richard Armitage), the photographer who was Megan's ex. However, the last act of the show reveals he had been framed.
Who was it who framed him? That was discovered by Broome when he came to visit his girlfriend Lorraine (Sarah Parish), only to see her apartment covered in blood.
Like Megan before her, Lorraine faced off against one of the twin assassins after they came to kill them. In what looks like self-defense, she slits "Ken's" thoat.
However, Broome soon learns that this isn't the first time she has killed: In fact, she is the serial killer the detective has been looking for this whole time.
The first person she killed was her husband, who abused her until she snapped.
After that, she worked at Vipers (which is named La Creme in Coben's book), and saw one too many men take advantage of the dancers and strippers she worked with and wanted to protect them from what she went through. Particularly, she want to help Cassie start her new life, and so she lured Stewart Green (Rod Hunt) into the woods and slit his throat. This is just one of many bad men she ends up killing, while calling herself an "avenging angel."
Who Killed Carlton?
When she is being interviewed by police, Lorraine admits to killing Carlton, but can't answer questions like what happened to his body. And that is because in reality she didn't kill Carlton.
Who did? To answer that, we have to go back to earlier in the show, when we saw Bea (Rachel Andrews) turning the tables on Carlton by giving him the drink he had spiked. The last time we saw this scene, he was chasing them through the woods.
In the finale, we finally saw what happened. Bea and Kayleigh (Bethany Antonia) were able to overpower him and lock him in the boot of his own car – the car that had appeared on the news earlier in the season.
There is an argument that Bea and Kayleigh killed Carlton – they left him in the trunk of the car, after all. But they were not the ones who actually dealt the killer blow. That was Kayleigh's father (and Megan's fiance) Dave (Daniel Francis). When he picked up the teens after their ordeal in the woods, he clocked the car. After it appeared on the news, he returned and pushed the car into a lake so it would not be discovered. Little did he know that Carlton was still in the trunk.
The show implies that he drowned – and the only person who has all the information who can put together the events is Carlton's death is the Megan. And as her wedding to Dave has given her the second chance she wanted and Lorraine has confessed to the killing, it seems that she has just one more secret she will be keeping.
What Happened in the Book?
In the novel, Lorraine is responsible for all the killings (except those of "Barbie" and all of "Barbie" and "Ken's" victims).
As she explains to Broome: "You got it. One per year. Always on Mardi Gras, but I didn't think anyone would ever figure out that pattern. Most of these scumbags had no one who cared enough to report that they were missing. I'm impressed you picked up the Mardi Gras connection."
She explained why she did what she did: "I could remind you that every guy I killed deserved it. They were all scum, beating girls at the clubs, ruining lives. So, yeah, that was part of it. I could also remind you that by killing those losers, I gave many girls a second chance. No one missed these guys. A couple of the wives even pleaded with you not to find their husbands, didn't they?"
She is also responsible for killing Carlton in the book – Dave remains simply a loyal husband to Megan. That is not the only change between the book and show. In the novel, Lorraine threatens Broome with a gun after he starts piecing it together, but in the show she has a knife due to the location being moved from Atlantic City to the U.K., where guns are much less common.
Stay Close is streaming now on Netflix.
