Another Simple Favor ending explained: What does Portia want from Emily?

The film follows events from the original – check out our handy TikTok if you need a recap – reuniting Emily (Lively) and Stephanie (Kendrick) after the former is able to secure a release from prison and hunts down her best friend-turned-mortal-enemy with an interesting proposition: will she be the maid-of-honour at her imminent Capri-based wedding?

Although Stephanie is understandably a little perplexed by this approach given the pair's, erm, complicated history, she's also far too curious to turn it down – especially now that she's a well-regarded author and private detective.

And so the action shifts to Capri, where various factors combine to make things even messier: not only does it emerge that Emily's husband-to-be is a member of the Mafia, but her estranged mother (recast as Elizabeth Perkins) also shows up with her... rather eccentric Aunt Linda (Alison Janney).

And then, there's a death: Emily's ex husband Sean is found killed in his shower. That's just the beginning of an unpredictable series of events that takes us to some pretty wild places.

Seen the film and need those final moments unpacked? Read on to have the Another Simple Favor ending explained, with the warning that there are obviously some major spoilers below.

Another Simple Favor ending explained: why did Charity kill Dante?

You'll most likely remember from the first film that a major reveal revolved around the fact that Emily was secretly a triplet: she had been born as Hope and had identical sisters named Faith and Charity, although the latter had died as an infant.

In the first film, she killed Faith after she made an attempt to blackmail her – but that's nothing as compared to the twist that occurs this time around. You see, it turns out that Charity had not died after all, but that her Aunt Linda had stolen her and secretly raised her as her own daughter, not to mention a very useful ready made accomplice for her various nefarious schemes.

Linda had viewed Emily's wedding as another opportunity to enact one of those very schemes, especially given she'd become privy to some vital information: the whole thing was a sham. That's right, Emily wasn't in love with Dante at all, but the marriage was being used as cover for the fact the gangster was actually in love with Matteo – a man from a rival mob family.

This was how Emily had been able to get out of prison, with help from Dante's powerful lawyers based on the promise that she would go through with the cover wedding. Meanwhile, after discovering the truth, Linda had blackmailed Emily – but when she wasn't willing to go along with this scheme, that's where Charity came into play.

Before the wedding had taken place, Charity had drugged Emily and then posed as her before killing Dante following the ceremony and making it look like Stephanie was the killer. If all had gone to plan, Charity – still pretending to be Emily – would then inherit Dante's fortune which Linda would then have access to.

Unfortunately for Linda, it was a case of the best-laid plans of mice and men. When Stephanie is kidnapped by Dante's mother Portia – who thought she was responsible for the murder – she is rescued by the real Emily, who explains all and gets ready to expose the truth.

Not one to go down without a fight, Linda kidnaps Emily's son Nicky and instructs Charity to kill her twin. But there's one thing she hadn't counted on: Charity loves her sister. Like loves loves her. In fact, that's whys he had gone rogue by killing Sean before the wedding, as she was claiming to protect Emily from him.

And so, Charity diverts from Linda's plan, instead turning the gun on her adoptive mother and shooting her dead before pushing her off the nearby cliff-face. She then agrees to take the fall for the crimes, confessing to the murder but doing so under the guise of Emily – which allows her beloved twin to avoid returning to jail herself.

Instead, Emily stays in Italy and goes into hiding, leaving Nicky in Stephanie's care.

What does Portia want from Emily at the end of Another Simple Favor?

At the very end of the film, there's one extra scene that throws something of a curveball into the works. It sees Portia meet Emily for a night-time rendezvous by a fountain.

"I know what you did, Hope," Portia ominously tells her. "You don't get to be my age as a woman in this business without knowing everything."

But a little more reassuringly she adds: "Deep in my heart I knew you would never have hurt my Dante. I will keep your secret."

Emily then confirms that yes, Dante was a very good friend to her and she really loved him – only for Portia to slip back into more menacing mode again.

"But my son is still dead because of you," she says. "However I consider you to be part of the family now, and I expect a lot from family. So because of this, I have a simple favour to ask of you..."

"How simple?" Emily retorts, but Portia simply provides her with an envelope.

We never find out exactly what is contained within – but it certainly suggests there another story still to tell and that Emily is now very much under Mafia control.

Maybe we'll be enjoying a third twisty mystery with Emily and Stephanie in a few years time...

Another Simple Favor is now streaming on Prime Video.

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