Ending explained The Boyfriend Freida McFadden

The Boyfriend Ending Explained: Spoilers, Climax, and Unanswered Questions

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

How The Boyfriend Ends: A Literal Account

In the final chapters, Sydney Shaw is drugged and held captive in Randy Muncy's apartment by her so-called best friend Gretchen Driscoll and her high-school boyfriend Tom Brewer. Tom had discovered that Gretchen (whose real name is Daisy Driscoll) is the serial killer who murdered Bonnie, Brandi Healey, Alison, and Randy—and that she manipulated Tom into helping cover up her crimes. When police sirens approach, Tom reveals he called them before arriving. Gretchen pleads with him to run away together, and Tom agrees after extracting a promise: "Nobody else dies, Daisy." She drops her knife, and the pair flee through a secret exit, leaving Sydney unconscious. Police find Sydney alive; Gretchen and Tom vanish.

The Epilogue, set one month later, shows Sydney reuniting with her ex-boyfriend Detective Jake Sousa. They plan to have dinner together, signaling a renewed romance. After the call, Sydney checks her mail and finds an anonymous envelope containing a lock of scraggly blond hair and a note from Tom: "Kevin won't be bothering you ever again." Kevin is the stalker who attacked Sydney earlier. Sydney briefly considers keeping the evidence to show Jake, but instead throws the envelope into the trash. She decides to move on, leaving Tom unpunished and her own complicity ambiguous.

The Climax: Tom’s Choice and Gretchen’s Escape

The climax builds when Tom, after learning the full extent of Gretchen's murders—including the deaths of her classmates and Randy—still cannot bring himself to turn her in. In Chapter 61, he agrees to keep her secret because he loves her, though he decides they are over. At Randy's apartment, when Gretchen is about to kill Sydney, Tom intervenes with an ultimatum: "If you touch Sydney, I’m not going with you." He insists the killing must stop. Gretchen drops the knife and they escape together. This moment cements Tom as a passive enabler who values his own survival and twisted love over justice.

Major Character Outcomes

  • Sydney Shaw survives the attack, reconciles with Jake Sousa, and chooses to destroy evidence of Tom’s murder of Kevin, accepting moral ambiguity to move forward.
  • Tom Brewer becomes a fugitive alongside Gretchen. His final act—killing Kevin and sending Sydney a trophy—proves he has fully embraced violence when it serves his version of justice.
  • Gretchen (Daisy) Driscoll escapes all accountability. She is revealed as the primary killer: responsible for the murders of Bonnie, Brandi Healey, Alison, Slug (Kevin Orson Finley), and Randy. Her childhood obsession with Tom and her ability to manipulate him into protecting her remain unchecked.
  • Jake Sousa re-enters Sydney’s life as a supportive presence, not as a detective solving the case. He never learns about Tom’s note or Kevin’s death.
  • Randy Muncy is killed by Gretchen after proposing marriage.
  • Kevin (the stalker from Sydney’s Cynch date) is murdered by Tom, as confirmed in the epilogue.

Resolved and Unresolved Threads

Resolved:

  • Gretchen’s identity as the serial killer is confirmed; she murdered multiple young women and Randy.
  • Tom’s role as a conflicted accomplice is laid bare—he kills his abusive father and later kills Kevin, but never directly murders the women.
  • Sydney’s stalker problem disappears when Tom eliminates Kevin.

Unresolved:

  • Tom and Gretchen remain at large with no pursuit shown. The FBI manhunt fails.
  • Sydney’s destruction of the hair-and-note evidence means Kevin’s killer is never brought to justice. Sydney herself becomes complicit in a cover-up.
  • The prologue’s unnamed narrator is revealed to be Tom, but the book never explains how he overcomes his violent fantasies toward Daisy. His internal conflict remains unresolved.
  • It is uncertain whether Tom will continue to enable Gretchen’s future murders, despite his promise.

Theme Resolution

Obsessive Love: Tom’s love for Daisy drives him to protect her even after learning she is a murderer. His line “I can’t live without you either” shows how obsession overrides morality.

Deception and Identity: Almost every character hides something. Sydney lies to dates, Tom uses a burner phone, Gretchen fakes her entire persona. The ending confirms that deception is the only way anyone survives—Sydney lies to Jake, Tom lies to the world.

Violence and Control: Gretchen controls Tom through love; Tom controls Gretchen through the threat of abandonment. Kevin’s violence toward Sydney is answered by Tom’s even greater violence. The cycle continues off-page.

Justice vs. Complicity: The book’s most troubling theme. Sydney decides that her personal peace matters more than reporting Tom’s crime. The police never catch the real killer. Justice fails; complicity wins.

Trauma and Survival: Sydney’s near-death experience and her decision to throw away the evidence reflect a survivor’s need to move on rather than relive trauma. Tom survives his abusive childhood by turning into a killer himself.

The Epilogue: Symbolism of the Hair and Note

The lock of hair likely belongs to Kevin, sent as a grotesque trophy. Tom’s note mirrors his earlier caveat: “Even if they deserve it?” — Kevin “deserved” death in Tom’s eyes. Sydney’s choice to discard the evidence is the book’s final statement: she prioritizes her own closure over abstract justice. The red ribbon tying the hair echoes the daisy Tom crushed in Chapter 11, a recurring symbol of innocence destroyed.

Reasonable Interpretations of the Ambiguous Ending

  1. Sydney is morally compromised. By destroying evidence, she becomes an accessory after the fact. Her relationship with Jake is built on a lie.
  2. Tom is still dangerous. His promise to Gretchen that no one else dies is conditional (“even if they deserve it?”). He may kill again.
  3. Gretchen will eventually kill Tom. Her pattern is to eliminate those who know too much. Tom’s knowledge makes him a future target.
  4. The ending is cynical about justice. The serial killer escapes, the stalker’s murder goes unsolved, and the protagonist chooses willful ignorance. No one is held accountable.

6 Reader Questions About the Ending — Answered

1. Who is the real serial killer? Gretchen Driscoll (also known as Daisy) is the killer. She murdered Bonnie, Brandi Healey, Alison, Slug (Kevin Orson Finley), and Randy Muncy. Tom helped cover up his father’s death and later killed Kevin, but the serial murders were all Gretchen’s doing.

2. Do Tom and Gretchen get caught? No. The epilogue confirms that one month later, they have vanished “off the face of the planet.” The FBI manhunt fails. They remain free.

3. Does Sydney end up with Jake? Yes. Sydney accepts Jake’s dinner invitation and thinks, “I’m giving Jake another chance.” They are poised to restart their relationship.

4. Why does Sydney throw away the evidence against Tom? She wants to move on. The note proves Tom killed Kevin, but bringing it to Jake would force her to relive the trauma and possibly destroy her budding happiness. She chooses self-preservation over justice.

5. What happens to Kevin (the bad date)? Tom kills him. The epilogue note says, “Kevin won’t be bothering you ever again,” and a lock of blond hair arrives as proof. Tom “thought Kevin deserved it.”

6. Is Tom a sympathetic character? The book deliberately complicates him. He is a victim of abuse who kills his father in self-defense, but he also harbors violent fantasies about Daisy and willingly protects a serial killer. His final act of killing Kevin suggests he has become the monster his father was.

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