Aahana Swrup
‘Another Girl’ is a drama thriller film directed by Allison Burnett that depicts the dark potential of forming connections with strangers online. Following Elle Overton, a young college student with a traumatic past, the film revolves around a friendship she forms with a woman, Katie Kampenfelt, over the internet. Their connection begins after Elle becomes obsessed with a novel about Katie’s life and tries to seek out answers for the book’s unsatisfying ending. However, as the two get acquainted, Elle finds herself traversing a slippery slope as she shares her life story with Katie, detailing every previous mistake and grievance.
Although the film builds upon its ending, the conclusion may surprise some viewers and leave them with questions about the characters and their fate. Therefore, here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Another Girl.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!
Another Girl Plot Synopsis
After reading a book, “Undiscovered Girl,” about a teenage blogger and her exploits, Elle Overton finds it hard to get over the story’s unfinished conclusion where the blogger, Katie Kampenfelt, goes missing. Fueled by her depression and loneliness, Elle almost convinces herself Katie might be real before accepting the clear signs pointing otherwise. Nevertheless, as a last-ditch effort, Elle looks up Katie Kampenfelt online and finds an almost empty website, save for an email that allegedly belongs to Katie.
Even though Elle assumes the email belongs to the writer, she sends a letter to “Katie,” telling her that if she were a real person, Elle and her would easily hit it off. Over time, Elle starts writing to Katie more and more often, sharing intimate details about her life. Eventually, the other girl replies back, after Elle mentions how utterly alone she feels.
At first, Elle is reluctant to believe that the person on the other side of the email is Katie. Likewise, Elle’s best friend, Natasha, believes Katie is a guy with ill intentions trying to catfish Elle. Still, Elle feels so alone and lost in life that she decides to keep messaging Katie despite her good sense. With nothing to lose, Elle uses Katie as an outlet, sharing her life story with the stranger. Through narrated textual conversation and flashbacks to the past, we learn about Elle’s life as she unveils it to Katie.
From a young age, Elle gets physically abused by her drug-addict father, and things remain bleak after his death. As a teenager, Elle tries to commit suicide but fails, and her Christian mother forces her to enter a Christian sorority at a college she hates. Elle’s first serious relationship with a boy named Tad ends after she endures years of physical abuse before finally running away.
After escaping from that relationship, Elle finds help from her older brother Connor, whom she barely knows since her family disowned him after they found out he was gay. While living with Connor and his fiance, Elle finds a job. However, her life is complicated again after she falls for her boss, Dave Hastings, who is already married to another woman, Carmen. Although Dave and Elle have an affair, where they profess their love for one another, Elle tires of being Dave’s secret and allows Carmen to discover their relationship.
Afterward, Elle learns Dave has a habit of sleeping with all his assistants and has been feeding her lies for their entire relationship. Therefore, after Dave tries to win her back, Elle sends his texts to Carmen. However, the situation worsens when Dave beats Carmen up after she tries to kick him out of her house, leaving Carmen in a hospital and Dave in prison. As such, Connor sends Elle back to their mother since her pointless games ruined Carmen and her young daughter’s lives.
In the time it takes for Elle to finish telling Katie about her past, Elle forms a deep connection with Katie, entirely believing the latter’s every word. After all, for weeks now, the two have been sharing secrets about their lives. As such, when Katie proposes they finally meet each other in person, Elle eagerly agrees. She drives out to a remote diner in town to meet with Katie, believing she’s turned from a perfect stranger to a close friend.
Another Girl Ending: Is Katie Real?
Katie Kampenfelt is first introduced in the film as a fictional character from a fictional book. However, the novel feels so authentic that its lack of closure grates at Elle and compels her to suspense her disbelief and entertain the idea that Katie could be a living and breathing person. After she finds the Katie Kampenfelt website and starts sending emails to her, it’s essentially a shout into the void. Elle doesn’t expect to receive a response and, at most, thinks the author will write back.
As such, when Katie Kampenfelt herself replies back, the situation instantly feels suspicious to Elle. However, when confronted with questions, Katie effortlessly provides answers for them that seem plausible enough. According to Katie, she chose to be portrayed as a fictional character to maintain anonymity. Due to the same, she doesn’t have a writing credit on Undiscovered Girl. Even though Katie’s answers are inadequate and easily disputable, Elle continues to believe her.
Moreover, Katie shares details about her life with Elle, telling her about a husband and a kid, which further cements her as a real person to Elle. For the most part, Elle is just scared of being alone and finds a non-judgmental cyber shoulder in Katie. Therefore, she goes out of her way to believe Katie. Toward the story’s end, when the two girls plan to meet, Elle follows Katie’s direction and ends up at a diner.
Nevertheless, the night ends with a drunken Elle sleeping over in the motel room Katie booked for them, with no sign of Katie. Elle gets a knock on her door the following morning, alongside a text from Katie announcing her arrival. However, after Elle answers the door, she realizes that “Katie” is just some ill-intentioned stranger who catfished her.
Katie isn’t real, and indeed just a fictional character like the Undiscovered Girl’s author tells Elle after she reaches out to him. The website is run by someone who targets vulnerable girls on the internet by pretending to be Katie Kampenfelt and forming a bond with them. By compelling Elle to share her life story with them, the stranger effortlessly paves the path to earn Elle’s trust. Even though the stranger doesn’t tell Elle much about themselves as Katie, Elle believes they are close because she shares her deepest secrets with them.
Throughout the film, numerous other girls write letters to Katie through the same website. Most of these girls have had tough childhoods and are struggling in some way or another. Their struggle makes the girls susceptible to outside manipulation, which the catfisher uses to their advantage. As such, Katie is only a username the catfisher uses to prey on lonely people and lure them into a trap.
What Happens to Elle?
Although the entire movie builds up to Elle’s meeting with Katie, we never see a conclusion of what happens to Elle after the catfisher gets to her. The same is consistent with Katie’s knack for open endings and a lack of resolution. However, it’s not much hard to imagine Elle’s future, bleak as it seems.
Since Elle doesn’t tell anyone about her location and travels to a distant part of town alone, no one knows where to find her after the catfisher attacks her. Similarly, given Elle’s past, the Catfisher already knows Elle has scant few people in her life who will look for her in the first place. As such, it’s safe to assume that the catfisher kills Elle soon after they find her.
Once, during their conversations, Katie tells Elle about a random death near her neighborhood. She doesn’t share the details but references how a body was found in a reservoir, identified as a woman named Stella. Although the news is not out of context, it stands out due to its intense nature and the callousness with which Katie brings it up.
It is possible that Stella was another of Katie’s victims, and Katie brings her up to see if Elle would make the connection. Since it is incredibly common for serial killers to keep track of their killings in the news, Katie’s inquiry about the same hints at that possibility. Moreover, at the film’s end, the same email ID messages another Undiscovered Girl fan who seeks comfort in Katie Kampenfelt’s character.
Thus, the catfisher easily finds their next victim after killing Elle. Considering the same, it is likely that the catfisher is a serial killer who routinely uses fan mail addressed to Katie Kampenfelt as a hunting ground to find victims. Since Elle falls into their trap and fails to see the numerous warning signs, she falls victim to the catfisher/killer.
Read More: Best Internet and Social Media Movies of All Time
