After Ever Happy is the fourth film in the After series and follows Hardin and Tessa as they learn, grow and fall in love with each other, and also work on their differences. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
After Ever Happy continues right where the previous film left off and starts with the revelation that Hardin’s real biological father is Christian Vance.
Hardin is distraught as everything he had known about his parents so far had proven to be a lie. He is upset with his mother for concealing the truth from him and retreats into a state of numbness, not quite able to process the shocking news.
He runs out for some space, and Tessa heads out to find him. She finally finds him outside his mother’s house, drinking alcohol straight from a bottle.
He gets angry and breaks into the house, and sets a part of it on fire until he is stopped and brought to safety by Christian, who helps him escape just as the police pull up.
Hardin and Tessa escape and Vance takes the blame for the fire. The two spend a night out, and Hardin heads out of town to Mark’s house to clear his head.
Tessa ends up going to find him and sees him at a party with another girl, extremely drunk. She tells him to face things head first instead of trying to run away from his problems, and the two get into an argument.
She wanted to give their relationship one last chance, but Hardin tells her to stop trying as they keep going around in circles, with no way out to a healthy relationship.
Tessa heads back home to Washington, but every part of her house and city reminds her of him. Landon, Hardin’s stepbrother, helps her move her things and helps her out.
To make things worse, Tessa’s father dies of a drug overdose and Tessa is the one who finds him, with a syringe in hand.
Hardin comes to know about this through Landon and rushes to be by her side but she avoids him. The two have a talk, and it doesn’t look like their situation will improve. Hardin, however, pays for the funeral.
Hardin tries to make amends but Tessa decides that she needs some time off, and wants a fresh start.
Tessa goes to a doctor who tells her it would be hard for her to conceive a child in the future, without running the risk of complications.
The couple takes time apart on Tessa’s insistence, while she moves to New York to take some time off and think things through. Hardin begins working on himself and begins attending rehab sessions where he reads parts of his diary.
Sometime later, Hardin has been doing well and discovers that his diary actually had good content that he could get published. He receives an offer from a publisher in New York, heads there, and also meets Tessa and Landon.
Things between the two start to brighten up again when she sees that he has actually changed this time, and for the better. Things seem to be going well, until she stumbles upon his manuscript and reads it, and finds their entire journey told in it, which makes her upset and the two part ways again.
After Ever Happy ending explained in detail:
Does Hardin’s book get published?
After a time skip, the scene changes to Hardin giving his mother his book, which indicates that he did end up publishing it.
Tessa also sees the poster for a book signing with Hardin and realises that he did end up publishing his book.
Does Hardin make up with his parents?
Hardin goes over to talk things through with his mother and she explains her thought processes behind hiding the truth for him, which he understands. She apologises for all that she had done, and the two make up.
Do Tess and Hardin get back together?
After seeing the hoarding for Hardin’s book signing event, Tessa decides to go for it and she reaches just as he is explaining some of the stories. Tessa cannot handle this and walks out just as he looks up.
The ending is left ambiguous, with high hopes of the couple getting back together in the next movie. But as of now, they are not back together.
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