'The Secret Woman' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Is Edmund Gone?

What if one day you discover that you have a whole different identity you didn’t know about? Well, that’s pretty much what happens with Louise Anderson in Netflix’s latest Danish release, The Secret Woman. Louise had suffered a major accident which caused amnesia, meaning she had no recollection of her past life. An ID for ‘Louise Anderson’ was found in her belongings, and when she was asked if she was Louise, she confirmed it. Louise was confused at the time; the fact that she didn’t know anything about herself made her feel hopeless, and accepting this ‘Louise’ identity helped her feel a little less lost. In the next two years, she fell in love with Joachim, a local crime writer, and ran a cafe. Her little life brought her immense joy, but somewhere deep down, she still hated the fact that she didn’t know anything about her past life. Things change drastically when a man shows up at her cafe and recognizes her. He calls her ‘Helene,’ and although she immediately corrects him, she feels an urge to find out if there is any truth to his claim. She undergoes a DNA test and finds out that she is actually Helene Söderberg, the heiress of a leading shipping company. She used to live in Denmark, and she was married and had a son. The family has been actively searching for her, and they seem keen to welcome her back into their lives. But the question is, what resulted in the accident that caused her amnesia? is there something sinister at play? Let’s find out! 

Spoiler Alert

Who is Louise Anderson?

Helene decides to travel to Denmark to learn about her past, so naturally she has to bid farewell to her fiancé in Norway. She promises that nothing will ever change between them, but she really needs to know the truth to figure out who she is. Joachim supports her decision, and he even decides to carry on his own investigation to find out what had actually happened to Helene. He figures there’s something suspicious about the Söderberg family when he struggles to find any information on them. The fact that the family hushed up Helene’s father’s demise and also Helene’s disappearance did make him wonder if there was something off about the family. He discusses his suspicion with a Danish police officer, but he doesn’t show eagerness to dig into his findings. When Joachim asks him how Helene ended up on the Norwegian ship two years ago, he advises Joachim to look into the ship’s route to find out where Helene could’ve boarded the ship from. After studying the route, Joachim wonders if Helene jumped off a bridge that was on the route, because that’s the only explanation that makes any sense to him. But the question is: why did Helene jump from a bridge? Was she really suicidal, as her husband, Edmund, claimed, or is there more to the story?

The moment Helene reunites with her son, Alexander, she immediately feels deeply attached to him, but she doesn’t feel the same way about Edmund. Well, the fact that she’s engaged to another man adds to the complexity, but there’s something that stops her from giving Edmund a chance. Edmund tries his best to convince Helene that looking after her sick father had taken a toll on her mental health. He eventually even claims that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and because she’d stopped taking her medication, she’d spiraled out of control, and they assumed that she’d killed herself. But soon, Helene discovers that her husband is quite an evil man. Ingrid, her personal secretary, updates her on all the people she’d met before her disappearance, and that’s when she finds out that she’d set up a safe-deposit box at a bank, and she specifically didn’t want her husband to find out about it. When she checks the safe-deposit box, she discovers a prenuptial agreement and her wedding ring. She starts suspecting that, two years ago, she’d planned to divorce Edmund, and when she confronts him about it, he dismisses her claim. He even drugs her so he can be in control of her actions, and he tries to convince Joachim that Helene isn’t interested in him anymore. 

In the brief moment that Helene gets to share with Joachim, she secretly lets him know that she still loves him and that there’s something really odd about the whole family. Helene decides to meet Elisabeth Fauerskov, the woman she suspects her husband had been having an affair with. After striking up a conversation with Elisabeth, the CEO of a sub-contractor Söderberg Shipping used to work with, Helene discovers that Söderberg Shipping was involved in human trafficking. Elisabeth had warned Helene two years ago that the shipping containers were being used to commit serious crimes. When Helene asked for her source, she stated that a woman named Louise Anderson had emailed her claiming to have evidence; photos from inside the containers and shipping routes. Louise told Elisabeth that someone high-up was involved, and Elisabeth first thought it was Edmund, but then she also started to suspect Helene after Louise disappeared. She tried to talk about it with Edmund, but he ended up cancelling the contract with her company and made her sign an NDA, even threatening her. Being a single mother, Elisabeth chose not to investigate it anymore for the safety of her family. Elisabeth shares Louise’s address with Helene, and she decides to go there to find out more about Louise. 

The address is for a strip club, and Helene has a brief conversation with one of Louise’s colleagues, who mentions that the last time she spoke to her, she was scared for her life and planning to move to Norway. Helene eventually figures out that she had been working with Louise, and after she fled to Norway, she followed her there to get the evidence. They were both trying to escape from Edmund that day (he’d followed them to Norway), and that was how they ended up on the bridge. Helene had asked Louise to hand over her bag (which held the evidence) and to run away; she thought she could talk to Edmund and stop him. Edmund was in a car, and he simply rammed into Louise, killing her on the spot. Helene had run out of options, she figured it was better to jump onto the ship that was passing under the bridge than let Edmund get hold of her. That was how she ended up with several injuries and suffered amnesia, and since she’d taken Louise’s bag, it was assumed that she was Louise Anderson. 

Why did Edmund decide to bring Helene home?

As it turned out, Edmund knew that Helene had been living in Norway for the last two years. He’d followed her and discovered that she’d been diagnosed with amnesia. He didn’t believe it at first, but he eventually realized it was all true. Since it was easier to run the company without Helene, he chose not to bring her home. He had his men keep a watch on her, and he obsessively tracked her new life. But when he discovered that she’d gotten engaged to another man, he figured it was time to interfere. Edmund believed that Helene belonged to him, and he couldn’t imagine her with another man. So, he had asked one of his men to walk into her cafe and tell her she was Helene, knowing that Helene would get curious and try to find out her real identity. She would then leave Joachim and come back to him. While everything pretty much panned out the way he’d envisioned, he wasn’t in control of Helene’s memory. He panicked when she started to remember critical bits and pieces, and that was why he started to spike her drinks. He preferred her unconscious, just a plaything he could do whatever he wished with, without having to worry about her opinions. Edmund even tried to admit Helene to a psych ward, but she managed to escape and sought Joachim’s help. She wanted to rescue Alexander, and she refused to wait for the police to interfere because she feared it would be too late by then. She needed to ensure the safety of her son, even if it meant risking her life. So, Joachim and Helene arrive at the Söderberg mansion, and Helene decides to sneak in, while Joachim waits for her in the car. 

Who is the blonde-haired woman Helene sees in the flashbacks?

Helene repeatedly sees flashbacks of a blonde-haired woman, she at first assumes the woman is Elisabeth, but in the end, she realizes that she is actually Caroline. While waiting in the car, Joachim notices the yearbook that Ingrid had given to her. After Helene remembered how she ended up on the ship, she also recalled hiding the micro-SD Louise had given her in her compact mirror. She still had it with her, and when she removed a broken piece of the glass, she found the micro-SD card hidden there. Joachim and Helene went to meet Ingrid, who had a micro-SD card reader, and they discovered the evidence Louise had gathered against the company. While going through the pictures, Ingrid had remarked that she recognized the company that owned the ship; Söderberg Shipping had been working with the company for more than 50 years. Which meant that Edmund didn’t start the trafficking business, he simply took over something that Helene’s father had started. Helene realized that when her father was on his deathbed, he told her about his secret out of guilt, and from then on, Helene tried to understand what was going on behind her back.

While turning the pages of the yearbook, Joachim notices a blonde-haired woman in the picture taken in 1976. He immediately contacts Ingrid, and she tells him that the woman is Caroline, Edmund’s mother, and that she used to be Helene’s father, Aksel’s secretary. Helene had once asked Caroline about her father, but she said that she didn’t know him much, which obviously was a blatant lie. After Helene enters the mansion, she tells Edmund that if he allows her to leave with Alexander, she won’t come out with the evidence she has against him. Edmund reminds her that since they both own the company, the blame will fall upon her as well. He tells Helene how deeply he loves her, and that that is the reason why he chose to bring her home even though it was a risky move. He proposes that they sort it out “like a family,” and when she refuses to do so, Edmund asks his mother to take her down. Caroline covers Helene’s mouth with a chloroform-soaked cloth. Edmund drags Helene to the room where her father stayed before his death, and she suddenly starts to remember Caroline’s connection with her father. Caroline and Aksel were together for eight years; she did everything for him and he said that he loved her, but then he met Helene’s mother and he was immediately attracted to her. He dumped Caroline, and the rejection turned her vengeful. She knew all about his secrets, and she prepared her son to one day take over the Söderberg company. She used the information she had against Aksel to blackmail him into hiring his son, and the plan worked out perfectly. Since Edmund knew about Aksel’s secret, he successfully gained his trust and gradually took over. Aksel perhaps figured that his secret would be safe if he accepted Edmund into his family, and that was why he approved of his relationship with Helene. We discover that Caroline was the one who’d pushed Aksel down a flight of stairs; they needed him gone so that Edmund could take over the company and get what his mother was denied. Also, as a result of his deteriorating health, Aksel had started to regret his past actions, and had tried to confess the truth to Helene, which obviously was a threat to Caroline and her son, so they got rid of him.

What happens to Edmund?

While Edmund isn’t ready to kill Helene, his mother repeatedly asks him to get the job done, just like they’d dealt with the father. Edmund refuses to listen to his mother, and Caroline grows furious. She begs him to understand that Helene doesn’t love him as he does, and it’s never going to work out. But her son doesn’t listen to her, so she decides to take matters into her own hands and attempts to suffocate Helene with a pillow. Edmund stops his mother, he pulls her away and Helene grabs hold of a vase and hits Edmund with it. He loses grip of his mother, and she falls through the window that was right behind her. Edmund is devastated seeing his mother’s lifeless body on the ground. Instead of trying to seek revenge, he goes downstairs and tries to wake her up. When he realizes that she is really gone, he breaks down. 

Meanwhile, Joachim had already contacted the cops; the moment he found out about Caroline’s connection, he suspected that there was something more to the story. Also, Helene had been stuck in the mansion for quite some time, and given Edmund’s reputation, he couldn’t take the risk. One of Edmund’s trusted men had attacked Joachim as well, but he managed to overpower him, and by the time he watched Caroline’s body fall to the ground, the cops arrived at the scene. Edmund is arrested and taken away. Considering Helene has enough evidence against him, it won’t be difficult to prove his guilt. Also, Elisabeth knows that Helene is innocent, so she can vouch for the fact that Helene had nothing to do with the human trafficking business. Maybe Helene will ultimately sell the company; she isn’t emotionally attached to it, and given everything she has been through, she might not want to associate herself with the company anymore. Perhaps the evidence she has provided the cops will help them uncover the human trafficking ring that her company has been a part of. 

In The Secret Woman’s ending, we discover that Helene has moved back to Norway with her son. We can assume that she and Joachim will raise Alexander together. The little boy is already in love with the place, he enjoys taking a dip whenever he wants and not having to worry about his mother leaving him ever again. Helene still doesn’t remember every little detail of her life, but the memories keep coming to her in fragments, she is rediscovering herself every day and that itself has become quite an adventure for her. 

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