Pieces of Her is a Netflix thriller drama that revolves around a woman with a complicated past and her daughter’s quest to find out the truth behind this made-up life that she has been living all of these years.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Summary
Laura (Toni Collette) and her daughter, Andy (Bella Heathcote) are celebrating Andy’s birthday at a cafe when they’re approached by some local acquaintances. Soon after a man walks up to them with a gun and shoots the two people talking to Laura. Laura runs to protect Andy and when the gunman walks towards them, Laura stands up to him.
He’s run out of bullets so he tries to stab her with a knife that pierces her hand. With one swift motion, she uses that same knife to slice his throat and then goes into shock. The police have questions for her and Andy but Laura tells her daughter not to say a word. She begins to draw attention from the press but she tries to ignore them as best as she can.
Later that night a man breaks in and tries to subdue Laura but Andy knocks him out with a weapon. Laura sends her away with instructions to head north while she handles things. Andy is distraught and confused but she listens to her mom and heads out.
On her journey, Andy attempts to figure out why her mother has been so defensive since the incident and who would have anything against her. Unbeknownst to her, she’s being followed by someone who she met at a bar earlier. Laura is trying to get in touch with whoever sent that man to her house but she has little luck.
Andy ultimately finds out that her mother’s name is Jane Queller and that she has been in witness protection her whole life. The man following her was Michael Vargas (Jacob Scipio), a U.S marshall. And so was Charlie (Gil Birmingham), a friend of the family who she had her doubts about.
With Mike’s help, she gets to a conference where her uncle, Jasper Queller, was giving a speech. Jasper has been running a successful political campaign to become the running mate of the Democratic presidential candidate. A look into the Queller family’s past showed that their father, Martin (Terry O’Quinn) was a rich CEO of a heartless corporation.
Laura tells Charlie that she wants to sign out of witsec but Charlie is against that because Nick Harp (Joe Dempsie) is still out there, the man who was responsible for the murder of Martin Queller and someone with who Laura was in love when she was younger. She still gets her way, and then heads to San Francisco to meet her brother because that’s where Andy was last.
Andy got to know more about her mother after staying with Jasper for a day but when she sees that Jasper has been listening in on her conversations, she makes a break for it and meets Mike again. He leads her to the suitcase filled with cash she had first found when her mother sent her away.
Some people come looking for the same case but Andy gets away with it. Meanwhile, Laura finally manages to track down Andy. She tells her the truth about how she was involved with Nick Harp and the fact that he is Andy’s real father. Laura then takes the suitcase and leaves Andy because she does not want her daughter involved in her mess.
Andy meets Charlie the next day and he drives her towards a house he thinks Laura might be at. On the way, they meet in an accident and Laura wakes up in a house with old furniture that reminds her of her childhood. She walks downstairs to find her father, Nick Harp, waiting for her.
If you have any doubts about the ending, here’s a detailed breakdown.
Pieces of Her ending explained in detail (Episode 8):
A family reunion
Andy and Nick have a chance to catch up with each other while they wait for Laura. Nick beckons her to come over by sending her a video of Andy in bed all bruised up from the accident. Nick tries to prove that he’s not as evil as the situation makes him out to be.
Laura arrives and the three of them sit down to have a chat. She talks about how and when she found out that she was pregnant. How Andy’s existence was a daily reminder that Nick was out there and she tried her best to stay collected and in one piece for so many years.
Then Nick opens up the suitcase to look for the tape. The tape implicates him and Jasper in the murder of Martin. Andy is shocked to hear it and questions what Nick plans to do with that tape.
He then states that he has more questions but Andy starts a scuffle which knocks down a lamp, setting the whole place on fire.
Bringing and end to the madness
Nick realizes that the tape is lost in the fire and gets out of the house. Laura follows him with a gun and wants to shoot him but Andy stops her just as the authorities arrive. What follows is the basic bureaucratic stuff where her testimony sends Nick to jail for a long time.
She meets with Jasper and asks him to find out what Nick might be sharing with her lawyer. Back at home, Laura is having a tough time settling back to normal life and has a real conversation with her daughter about how she’s feeling.
There is real emotion in there as they both speak their mind.
Laura goes out to a piano showroom and sits down at one and begins to play. As she hits each note, it’s like an emotional release for her. She feels more relaxed and accepting of her situation.
Skeletons in the closet
Laura tells Andy her real birth date and more details about that day. She even confirms that she considered giving her up because she felt she did not deserve her. Andy says that the difficult times are over, and her mother can now relax and not worry about protecting her.
Back in the past, we see Laura approach Grace Juno at the Oslo conference. She talks about her pregnancy and how her father is not happy with her condition and has already tried to get rid of the child.
She then reveals a gun in her own purse. Grace exchanges bags with Laura and eventually uses that gun to shoot Martin as opposed to the original plan Nick has come up with.
In the present, Andy is looking at an old picture of her mother and realizes the same truth by comparing the bag in the picture and the bag Grace was holding.
Laura gets a call from her brother. He says that Nick also spilt the truth with his lawyer but Jasper agrees that he can keep it quiet since they’re family. Laura heads out to the beach to get some fresh air.
Andy follows her out there and the two of them pretend that their lives are going to be normal, despite knowing what they each know.
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