Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Fatal Affair’ focuses on a story that highlights the danger and horror of stalkers. One small mistake leads to an upheaval in a woman’s life when she crosses paths with a person who claims he is in love with her. As the movie progresses, we see more bloodshed, and worry about the protagonist’s safety. By the end, she succeeds in overpowering her stalker, but the events of the film induce such paranoia in us that makes us wonder if the danger really is gone. If you haven’t seen the film yet, head over to Netflix. SPOILERS AHEAD
Plot Summary
Ellie had known David in college and had last seen him twenty years ago. Meeting him again brings back the memories of the old days, and also makes her ponder upon the nature of her withering marriage. They have a few drinks together and kiss each other, but Ellie decides to cut it short and severs all connection with David. Despite her clear message, he keeps popping back into her life and makes it very known that he is not going anywhere until he gets her out of her unhappy marriage.
The Ending
After a little digging into David’s past, Ellie discovers that he had previously been married to a woman named Deborah, who looked a lot like Ellie. She had divorced him because of his anger management issues. What really alarms Ellie is that Deborah and her fiancé, Travis, had been killed in a home invasion only a few months before David showed up in her life. Convinced that David is a psychopath, Ellie tries to warn Courtney about him, worrying that he might hurt her the same way he did Deborah. Unfortunately, Courtney does not listen to her soon enough. It is when she finds Ellie’s pictures in David’s phone that she realizes that her friend had been right all along. But David catches her and hits her in the head.
While he runs, Ellie arrives on the scene with the cops. She is relieved to find out that Courtney will be fine, however, she also has to come clean to Marcus about everything. He doesn’t take the news of her momentary infidelity very well, but at the moment, they have no other option but to stick together. The next day they are informed that David’s dead body has been found. He left a suicide note, feeling guilty for killing Deborah and terrorizing Ellie and her family. The cops tell her that it will take some time to identify the body through a DNA test, but they are pretty sure it is David. This makes Ellie let her guard down, but David soon comes back.
He lures her away from home and uses this opportunity to attack her family. He kills her daughter’s boyfriend and would have killed Brittany and Marcus as well, but he was waiting for Ellie, who runs back home when she finds her secretary’s dead body in the office. A fight ensues in the house, and while Brittany drives away to safety, Marcus and Ellie are forced to make a run for it. They head over to the cliff where David eventually falls off it.
Two months later, we find out that Marcus and Ellie are selling their house and have decided to move back to the city while Brittany goes back to college. Courtney, too, has recovered from her injuries, and all seems well.
Is David Dead or Alive?
‘Fatal Affair’ begins with the establishment of the degree of danger that David poses. Deborah and Travis are brutally killed inside their home. It is much later that we find out about David’s marriage with Deborah and the true extent of his obsession comes to the fore. What makes David more dangerous is that he is very resourceful. His hacking skills give him more power as it becomes easier for him to access his target’s phones, to break into their homes, and spy on them without them having any clue whatsoever.
This is why he is always one step ahead of Ellie, and even the cops. He manages to prove himself innocent in Deborah and Travis’s murder investigation, and when the cops follow him after attacking Courtney, he stages his death and almost convinces everyone that he is dead. He covers all the bases, from writing a suicide note to sending a message to his therapist and burning the body in a way that identifying it becomes difficult.
Because he proves to be so deft at getting out of every difficult situation, it is a bit difficult for us to accept that he is dead in the end. What makes us all the more paranoid is that we see his body from a distance, and his death is not mentioned again in the film. In any other case, a dead body is a confirmation of someone’s death. But in David’s case, we know better than to just accept that he is gone.
Also, Ellie and Marcus decide to leave the house that they had bought after so much consideration. Why have they decided to go back to the city now? Is it because of their careers or because they still fear for their lives and want to move out of the house after the incident with David? If so, then it could mean their paranoia is actually real. It is possible that David could have survived the fall and managed to return after two months.
Read More: Is Fatal Affair a True Story?
