'The Girl Before' Episode 4: Jane is confronted by Emma's murderer
'The Girl Before' is undoubtedly a psychological thriller that will have you at the edge of your seat. The four-part series follows Emma and Jane's lives, both of whom once lived in the same house and were involved with the same man. However, Emma's mysterious death plagues Jane, who believes there is much more to the story than meets the eye.
In the final episode, Emma and Amanda's relationship soon begins to go sour when Amanda mentions that the woman Saul has been with has now gone to HR. Emma reasons that there might be truth to her harassment claims, causing Amanda to leave in a fit of rage. While Emma desperately tries to get in touch with Edward, he ignores her, as he wants her gone.
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Spoilers for 'The Girl Before' Episode 4
Emma returns home, only to find that the house has been broken into and vandalized, with the words 'LEAVE' scrawled across a wall. With no one left to go to, she calls Simon to help her. Emma comes clean to Simon about the truth -- she had been drinking with Saul when he forced himself on her and later threatened her with the video. Simon doesn't question her and believes her. Later, Ray Nelson tries to break into the house, but Simon intervenes and threatens him, saving Emma. He tells her he was patrolling the home and offers to stay over and protect her. Emma is thankful for his presence. However, when she receives a text was Edward saying that he misses her, she is elated at the idea of seeing him again.
Jane's POV
Jane keeps having nightmares of the service cupboard where she found the sleeping bag and is now more determined than ever to help Emma find justice. She chances across a pearl near the bathtub -- which she realizes is similar to the ones on her necklace. When she has a jeweler look at it, he notes that they are the same pearls and that if this necklace broke, it could be restrung. However, seeing that it was held together with silk, it must have taken a lot of force to break it. Jane believes that Edward gave her a dead woman's necklace and has Simon look at it. Simon confirms that it is Emma's necklace and talks about how Edward has an MO.
However, Jane counters and says that Carol noted repetition compulsion, which Simon insists is not that different. When Jane finds out that Edward's first wife Elizabeth and his son Max were buried under the house, she meets Paul, a former partner, to uncover the truth. Paul doesn't hold back, stating that Edward, Elizabeth and Max had gone for a site check when Edward got angry that a wall was a few centimetres off. He backed up into it with a digger while Elizabeth and Max were on the other side, crushing them in the process. Jane argues that it was an accident, but Paul points out that Elizabeth had been crying to him earlier, and Edward had probably figured out she would leave him. Jane finds their tombs in the house while Edward finds out she's been investigating him.
As they argue, Edward insists that he was protecting her from becoming obsessed with Emma, while Jane reveals that she is pregnant. Edward gives her an ultimatum before leaving, but Jane is determined to find the truth. Later, she realizes that the house has been bugged with cameras and rushes over to Edward's office, demanding answers. She confronts him about the footage and the necklace, to which he responds that there was a power outage on the day Emma died and that the necklace was not Emma's, but a new one, and that he had a tendency to pick what was familiar to him. Feeling unsafe, Jane leaves and asks Simon to come over and help her disable the cameras in the house.
Simon agrees and shows up with flowers and food. The two have a meal together, but Simon's behaviour soon becomes erratic when he notices that Jane is pregnant. Here, it is revealed that Simon lived in the service cabinet the whole time. He also vandalized the house and even changed Edward's number on Emma's phone to his. When Emma was excited to meet Edward again, Simon flew into a fit of rage, seeing that she was willing to take Edward back but not him, even though he loved her.
Simon attacked Emma, and as she struggled to get away, Emma fell down the stairs, to her death. As he comes clean about the truth, Jane's phone rings, as Edward tries to contact her. Enraged again, Simon chases Jane up the stairs as she locks herself in the server room. Simon reveals that he is now obsessed with Jane and destroys the home, ready to set it ablaze. Jane tries to escape, but Simon grabs her. As they both struggle, Simon ends up falling down the stairs and dies in the same manner Emma did.
Jane then calls Edward, who shows up and suggests that Jane can either tell the truth or say that Simon came here to die in the manner his 'lover' did. Jane refuses to lie, saying that Emma deserves justice and even reports Saul. She and Edward then go to a clinic to have an abortion, with Edward promising her they would have a planned child one day. But at the clinic, Jane leaves, writing Edward a note that he should seek help and that she was ready to move on and forgive herself for her daughter's death. Edward is then seen in therapy, as Jane is now a mother to a son named Toby, while Isabel continues to live on in her memory.
All four episodes of 'The Girl Before' are available to stream on HBO Max.