Here’s the ending to Netflix’s Sweet Girl explained, including the story’s big twist. Watching the first 15 minutes of Sweet Girl with no prior knowledge of what’s coming, you might be lulled into believing Jason Momoa’s latest movie is a hard-hitting drama about corruption and malpractice in the pharmaceutical industry. Sweet Girl quickly performs a tonal 180, transforming into a hard-hitting (literally this time) action thriller in the vein of Taken or John Wick. By the time Sweet Girl executes its ridiculous final twist, those initial expectations begin to look very silly indeed.
Momoa stars as Ray Cooper – a widower whose wife, Amanda (Adria Arjona), passes away due to cancer. Ray learns that Amanda’s life could’ve been saved thanks to a brand new wonder-drug called Spero, but current market leader, BioPrime, used its financial clout to take this new rival off the market indefinitely. As Amanda’s health worsens, Ray promises that he’ll kill BioPrime CEO Simon Keeley and, 2 years later, he’s good to his word, setting out on a bloody revenge mission with daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced) reluctantly tagging along.
As Ray crosses off every name tangled in the BioPrime drug conspiracy, the authorities close in and the situation becomes increasingly complex, leading to a rooftop standoff, a game-changing revelation, and some measure of justice against Sweet Girl‘s biggest villains. This is how the finale of Netflix’s Sweet Girl shakes out.
Sweet Girl’s Rachel Cooper Twist Explained
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It’s impossible to dissect Sweet Girl‘s ending without first addressing the mammoth twist. For most of the runtime, viewers are led to believe (though whether they do or not is another matter) that Jason Momoa’s Ray is the main protagonist, and his daughter, Rachel, is simply caught in her dad’s destructive vendetta. In truth, Ray has been a figment of Rachel’s imagination all along, and it’s Isabela Merced’s character cracking bones in motels and extinguishing bodyguards. Ray actually died at the hands of a hitman, Amo Santos, during a subway attack in the opening act, leaving Rachel orphaned.
Sweet Girl drops plenty of hints that Rachel is in the driving seat throughout. The first reappearance of Jason Momoa’s character after his stabbing comes in a mirror behind Rachel, no character ever directly references both of them, and not one person thought Momoa serving drinks at a fancy charity gala was suspicious. Sweet Girl wisely avoids digging into the specifics of Rachel’s psychological condition, but drops enough clues to confirm she’s hallucinating visions of her father. Confronting Congresswoman Morgan, Rachel says “WE never meant to hurt anyone” and, after leaping from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ stadium roof, she’s reassured when “Ray” returns to comfort her. Whatever condition Rachel has, she’s blending together her own persona with that of her father. This explains why Agent Meeker tells Rachel to repeat her own name, and syncs up with Jason Momoa’s opening monologue, which speaks of parents and children becoming indiscernible from each other.
But if Ray was really Rachel, who was the other Rachel audiences were watching before? Although Sweet Girl doesn’t explicitly address her presence, the other Rachel could be interpreted as the “real” character – the innocent 18-year-old bubbling away beneath the surface of a savage killer. This is why “Rachel” always tried to talk her father out of violence, and explains why she always watches “Ray” commit horrific acts, such as the motel murders and Vinod Shah’s tunnel death. The earlier, peaceful Rachel watching angry, violent Rachel represents her inner virtue lingering in the background.
Why Congresswoman Morgan Is Sweet Girl’s Real Villain
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Sweet Girl sets up Simon Keeley as the main villain – so his death inside the opening 30 minutes comes as somewhat of a surprise. As Rachel later discovers, however, Keeley was merely a cog in a much larger, murkier wheel, and the hand turning the gears belongs to Pennsylvania Congresswoman Diana Morgan. Amy Brenneman’s character positions herself as an anti-corruption politician and is seen grilling Keeley on live TV at the top of the movie.
Netflix’s Sweet Girl doesn’t properly map out the BioPrime conspiracy, but there are essentially 3 main players. Keeley is one of them – the pharmaceutical CEO churning out expensive cancer medication and raking in tons of cash for the privilege. He’s associating with Vinod Shah, the chairman of BioPrime, whose hands are just as dirty after bribes to keep competitors like Spero off the market. Faced with Rachel, Keeley says Shah “brought me on,” and since the CEO dies shortly after, there’s no reason to disbelieve him. Keeley’s ignorance of the dead journalist (Martin Bennett) also seems genuine.
When Rachel catches up with Shah, he’s significantly more clued in, not denying his involvement in the Bennett murder and promising Rachel, “we can get to anyone.” But while Shah might be the driving force at BioPrime, he’s not the fairy atop Sweet Girl‘s Christmas tree of conspirators. That honor goes to Congresswoman Morgan, whose motives are quickly glossed over in Sweet Girl.
BioPrime (Keeley and Shah) paid bribes to Morgan, who would use her political clout to get rival drugs shut down at the approval stage. Morgan’s motives are purely monetary, since she’s planning a run for senator and needed funds to win the campaign. This is hinted at early in Sweet Girl, when Morgan announces a joint agreement with BioPrime and a reporter asks “are you planning on running-“ before being abruptly cut off. Morgan’s goal was the senator’s seat right from the start. She contracted a hit on Bennett because he unearthed proof of her misdeeds, and probably targeted Shah in response to Keeley’s assassination, needing to tie up loose ends. Why Morgan publicly targets the pharma trade and appears on TV alongside the very people she’s conspiring with is a mystery. Chalk that one up to narrative license.
How Rachel Beats Santos (Why He Didn’t Kill Her Earlier)
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Congresswoman Morgan’s hitman of choice is Amo Santos, who serves as Rachel’s enemy for much of her Sweet Girl rampage. Curiously though, it’s Santos who tips Rachel off about Morgan’s involvement when the pair talk at a diner. The assassin agrees to meet Rachel in Pittsburgh where they do battle for the final time, but why doesn’t Santos simply kill Rachel over scrambled eggs and coffee, rather than selling out his boss? And if Santos wanted Rachel to succeed, why bother fighting her once she shows up?
The answer lies in Santos’ backstory – the full meaning of which doesn’t become clear until Sweet Girl‘s big twist. The mysterious hitman reveals himself as the sole child survivor of a village massacre, after which he hunted down every last person involved. Experiencing a similar trauma to Rachel explains why Santos gives up Morgan’s name – and the connection deepens once the audience realizes he was talking to an 18-year-old, not Jason Momoa’s Ray. But if Santos is so sympathetic to Rachel’s cause, why keep protecting Morgan from her wrath? Telling his story to Rachel, Santos claims that any person embarking on a quest for vengeance comes across a “resisting force.” This is some natural “way of life” thing for Santos, and he has now crossed the fence to become that very force. Protecting Morgan is his fated role – but giving Rachel a fighting chance suggests Santos was secretly rooting for the youngster.
Their duel is a close one, and looks to be over after Santos keeps Rachel’s head below water long enough for her to drown. Sweet Girl‘s protagonist (no longer rocking tattoos and a beard) finds one last burst of energy through her father’s memory and takes Santos by surprise. This moment traces back to Ray’s “always fight harder” mantra from the training sequence earlier in the movie.
Why Rachel Doesn’t Kill Morgan
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With a pile of bodies in her wake, Keeley and Shah included, why doesn’t Sweet Girl end on Rachel killing Congresswoman Morgan? On one hand, Rachel never really wanted to kill anyone. Ignoring the slew of deceased hitmen (all of which were dispatched in self-defense), Rachel looked aghast after choking out Keeley, almost disgusted by her own actions. Confronted with Shah later on, a desperate Rachel hesitates to pull the trigger and doesn’t have an opportunity to reconsider before Amo Santos takes the decision out of her hands. By the time Rachel hears the truth from Morgan, the “inner Rachel” we’ve been seeing throughout the film has apparently won the mental struggle, allowing Isabela Merced’s antihero to walk away without slicing the politician’s neck. Agent Meeker’s constant attempts to reach Rachel (and remind her that she’s not her father) likely played a part in this final act of mercy.
The other reason Rachel leaves Morgan alive is to properly achieve justice. A classic “recorder in the pocket” trap successfully implicates Morgan in a corruption case after Rachel sends the recording to Meeker, but if the FBI arrived in the congresswoman’s Pittsburgh office to find a corpse, their investigation would hit a dead end – no court case, no “clearing out the rot,” and no public vindication for Amanda and Ray. Leaving Morgan to face justice is not only the healthier decision, but the one that best achieves Rachel’s goal.
What Happens To Rachel When Sweet Girl Ends?
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Sweet Girl ends with Rachel Cooper donning a halfhearted disguise even Clark Kent would think twice about and boarding a plane. Rachel holds a passport we can safely assume is forged, and documents that suggest her destination is the wilderness seen in Sweet Girl‘s opening sequence, where a young Rachel spent time with her family. Nevertheless, plenty of questions remain unanswered.
Is Rachel still seeing hallucinations of her father, for example? After completing her revenge mission and letting Morgan live, Rachel is visibly in a healthier place, and as she stares at an old photo of her parents, viewers can choose to believe that Rachel’s personality has miraculously fixed itself – though there’s nothing in Sweet Girl‘s finale to say so with confidence. And despite the happy ending, Rachel Cooper remains an FBI target. Busting the BioPrime conspiracy might’ve swayed public opinion in favor of the Cooper family, but killing folks is still a crime, and Rachel won’t ever enjoy life without looking over her shoulder.
Isabela Merced recently expressed a desire to play Rachel Cooper again in Sweet Girl 2, and with her character still alive and dangerous, that’s certainly a possibility. But Sweet Girl doesn’t naturally lead into a follow-up. Avenging her parents was Rachel’s sole motivation, and now the BioPrime network has been dismantled, her enemies are dead, and a cold helping of justice has been served, Rachel’s reason for fighting has vanished. The only potential sequel route would be if Morgan targeted Rachel from jail, and forced Merced’s character on the run. Or maybe the politician’s own child seeks revenge on the girl who destroyed their family, flipping Rachel’s journey and turning her into the “opposing force” Santos spoke of. Even if a sequel doesn’t materialize, Sweet Girl‘s ending feels complete.