The Girlfriend Episode 5 and 6 Recap: A Poolside Showdown

With episodes 5 and 6, Laura and Cherry’s long-standing rivalry in ‘The Girlfriend’ finally reaches its chaotic conclusion. After the former finds out that she has been lied to about Daniel’s fabricated death, she becomes determined to exact her revenge on her boyfriend’s mother. This turns out to be an easy enough ordeal as various elements in Laura’s life appear to be set up perfectly for a calamitous toppling. However, when it comes to tenacity, Cherry’s opponent seems to match her grit. Thus, instead of accepting her loss and lying down, Laura decides to dig deeper into the other woman’s past, refusing to walk away without a smoking gun. Meanwhile, Daniel gets caught right in the middle of the tug of war between two of the most important women in his life. Ultimately, with trust, love, and the all-coveted taste of revenge hanging in the balance, the strategic game continues to devolve until someone inevitably meets their unfortunate end. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Daniel Sees His Mother For Her Manipulative Ways

Once Cherry spots Laura at her husband’s restaurant with Daniel by her side, she initially comes to the wrong conclusion. Therefore, when she confronts her ex, she accuses him of cruelty, assuming he must have orchestrated the lie about his death in lieu of simply breaking up with her. In turn, Daniel is completely taken aback to see his ex-girlfriend again. More importantly, he’s surprised to see her in near tears since he was under the impression that she no longer cares for him. While the confusion between the former lovers unravels, Laura attempts to steer her son away, back into his bubble of oblivion. Nonetheless, things soon click into place for Cherry.

As such, before they can leave, Cherry reveals to Daniel exactly what his mother had told her in the aftermath of his rock-climbing accident. Thus, the son’s entire worldview begins to crumble. Laura’s day doesn’t improve from there as she finds herself firing her assistant, Harriet, for a missed meeting with the star artist at her gallery. Furthermore, by the time that Daniel finally returns home the next day, he seems determined to pack up his things and leave despite his mother’s desperate protests. He seems to have also brought Cherry along with him, who eventually corners Laura in the kitchen to assert that she plans on ruining the other woman’s life just as she had ruined hers.

Laura Receives Her Karmic Comeuppance

Laura’s life begins to go downhill almost immediately after her son gets back together with Cherry. What starts with a slashed tire and dismissal from the law enforcement turns into a disastrous development for her career. As it turns out, her former employee, Harriet, has decided to sue her, spreading news all around the internet about the toxic workplace environment she fosters. Little does the gallery-owner know that the ex-assistant was encouraged by Cherry to take these intense steps. Naturally, these instances heighten Laura’s paranoia, which compels her to seek out Lillith’s company. Alongside comfort and the agreement to display her own exceptional art to save the other’s reputation, Laura also finds a romantic night with her ex-lover.

The next morning, a burnt-out Howard waits for Laura at home. It’s clear that he has learned the truth about what happened between his wife and Cherry. The incident, paired with her decision to return to Lillith just for a night, becomes the last straw in a long line of complications that have been rotting the couple’s marriage. Therefore, Howard announces that he’s done trying to make things work between them. Even so, Laura tries to move forward in her life and save her career through Lillith’s exhibition. That is, until Cherry saunters into the event, elegant, but clearly looking for a fight. For the same reason, the gallery-owner tries to desolate the situation by compelling the young woman to talk with her in her downstairs office. Yet, things can only remain civil between these two for so long.

Cherry Draws Her Own Blood For Revenge

Cherry is pretty dead-set on exacting vengeance on Laura for everything she has done to her since Daniel’s accident. However, when the latter tries to cover for his mother’s actions in front of his friends, she realizes he still harbors some affection for her. Since he is the only real piece worth having in the game, the real estate agent knows she has to win him over to cause infinite damage to the other woman. This is exactly why she pays Laura a visit at her gallery exhibition. Once she has the opportunity to get them alone, Cherry pulls the ace up her sleeve and smashes a wine flute into her own head. Afterward, she runs out of the establishment, playing the perfect part of the victim. Once she returns home, she immediately begins packing up her stuff, subtly attracting her partner’s attention.

Instead of simply laying out the story for Daniel, Cherry plays up the scared victim act, insisting that she must break up with him for her own safety. Therefore, once she paints the picture of Laura’s “violence,” her son is more inclined to believe it despite his reservations. In fact, he takes it one step further and ends up proposing to Cherry. Her attempts to break up with him have scared him of the possibility of losing her again. This remains an especially scary prospect when he’s all alone and unsure if he can ever trust his mother again. As such, the couple decides to take the next step in their relationship and celebrate the occasion with a lavish party.

Laura Investigates Cherry’s Shady Past

As Laura’s life unravels around her, she decides to take an offensive stance of her own. Instead of trying to defend herself against Cherry’s attacks, she decides to find a viable weapon against the latter. She’s pointed in the right direction by Howard’s throwaway comment about the young woman’s charitable donations to a nursing home. This compels Laura to check out the establishment to discover Cherry’s real ties to the place. As such, she unearths the existence of her father, who is apparently not dead at all. With this revelation, the older woman seeks out Tracy to ask her questions about her daughter and her past. After all, the father was currently in extensive medical care due to a broken spine that he incurred following a twenty-foot drop at a construction site. Notably, his daughter, whose name is enough to set him off these days, was also at the premises on the fateful day.

Tracy all but confirms Laura’s suspicions about her daughter’s involvement in the accident that wrecked her husband’s life and body. Yet, she also defends Cherry’s actions, insisting that the man was in the wrong for abandoning his family and leaving them to deal with his debt. Unbeknownst to her, Laura records the entire thing to play the recording for her son as proof of every claim she has made against Cherry so far. Unfortunately for her, the latter catches a whiff of the same, which triggers her insatiable desire for revenge. As a result, she sneaks into the Sanderson art gallery the next day and wrecks all of Lillith’s paintings. The next morning, rather than sympathizing with the artist’s loss, Laura rejoices at the turn of events since it can be used to pursue a legal case against her enemy. As such, she inevitably loses Lillith as well.

The Final Showdown Happens at the Sanderson Residence

After discovering the vandalism at her gallery, paired with security footage showing the perpetrator to be someone of Cherry’s height and build, Laura can have the other woman arrested and questioned. The fact that this happens in the middle of the couple’s engagement party is less than amusing for Daniel. Therefore, he pays his mother a visit to sever ties with her officially. He finally spills his complicated feelings about their dynamic and how he has always felt pressured and controlled in the family. In response, the mother manipulates him into having a drink with her, only to promptly drug him with some sleeping pills. Laura is dead-set on getting her son to listen to the recording on her phone, and she’ll make it happen one way or another. Alas, a freshly-bailed Cherry makes an appearance at the house shortly afterward.

From there, it doesn’t take long for an all-out battle to break out between the two women. Laura’s attempts to keep her son away from his fiancée grow more and more desperate until she finally finds herself by the poolside, threatening Cherry with a kitchen knife in her hand. Meanwhile, a half-drugged Daniel manages to make his way to the inside pool, disoriented but concerned for his family’s safety. As Laura slashes a gash onto Cherry’s arm, the duo go tumbling into the water, where they have a final struggle between them. Unfortunately, Daniel manages to walk in right as his mother has his fiancée pushed down underwater. As a result, he jumps in and wrestles for Cherry’s freedom, holding his own mother under the surface until the latter can save herself. However, by the time his fiancée can scream at him to let his mother go, it seems to already be too late. Thus, Laura dies in her own pool, strangled by his drugged-up son, whose last memory of her will forever be that of an unhinged, obsessive smotherer.

Laura’s Recording Finally Sees the Light of Day

In the aftermath of Laura’s death, her family inevitably moves on and finds their own happiness. Given the circumstances of her passing, neither Daniel nor Cherry is charged with murder as their actions are understood to be entirely self-defensive in nature. Thus, in the epilogue, the couple have long been happily married and looking forward to the birth of their first child together. Daniel is happy to finally have a life of his own making, but he’s still incredibly saddened by his mother’s death and continues to hold parts of their bond in fond memory. Perhaps for the same reason, when Moses, Laura’s cat, digs out his owner’s old phone from under a corner table, the son dutifully puts the device on charge and looks through its gallery.

After looking through a few photographs with fondness, he eventually stumbles across Laura’s recording. As a result, he hears the truth about his wife, as revealed in the voice and words of her own mother. Cherry has always had an incredibly bad temper and a violent desire for revenge. From kids on the playground to guys who stood her up in middle school and even her own father, she has never let anything get in the way of her and her righteousness. For the same reason, everyone close to her is always in perpetual danger of one day becoming her prey. As Daniel hears this and looks at his wife, pregnant and hanging out with his father in the backyard, the horrifying realization about his situation begins to creep in. Nonetheless, it might just be too late for him now.