'The Last Anniversary' Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained: Who Is Rose?

I did call The Last Anniversary a predictable show, but there’s still some satisfaction in knowing that my predictions were right. But there’s one thing I’m still unable to understand: why Rose hates Sophie so much. Does she remind her of Alice, or does she remind her of herself? Meanwhile, we see Veronika and Sophie come through in this episode, finally finding the answers they’ve been looking for this whole time. Maybe that’s why Rose didn’t want Sophie around, because she knew she’d reopen old wounds. On the other hand, we see Grace really push the idea of Callum and Sophie together because she feels helpless when it comes to Ollie. It would be interesting if Grace let Sophie have Ollie, but I think that would have adverse long-term effects. We’ll just have to wait and see if she’ll end up being the cool aunt. With only one episode left, The Last Anniversary is a tight mystery-drama that definitely goes down easy. With that said, let’s jump straight into the penultimate episode.

Spoiler Alert

At the beginning of The Last Anniversary episode 5 is a flashback where a man comes to see Rose looking for her hand in marriage. Connie is already pregnant at this point and is hoping to set her sister up to settle down. But we already know Rose isn’t really interested. This makes Connie angry, but Rose doesn’t really care. Meanwhile, Enigma, still a toddler, asks Connie to tell her the story of how she was found. By the end of the show, we know that Rose is mad because she misses Alice, but not just as a friend. 

In the present day, Sophie brings a very drunk Callum home. I suppose Grace believes that, in his drunken state, Callum is susceptible to any kind of ideas that she might put out. They start to have sex, but in the middle of it, Grace asks Callum if he’s imagined Sophie like that. What Grace doesn’t know is that they’ve already slept together, so Callum’s defense is kind of masked from her. But Callum tells her that she herself is his fantasy and he’d never think about any other woman. Meanwhile, Sophie gets a call from work asking her where her big piece is. Sophie tells her boss that the press release should help people come to the island and make sure she gets her big story out. 

The next day, Sophie tries to show Rose the press release for the party, but when Rose looks at it, she gets flashbacks of Alice, which makes her terribly upset. She shuts the laptop and walks away. Rose walks off to take a shower and tells Sophie to make tea. When she’s making the tea, Sophie finds something under the sink. Turns out it’s all the things she’s been losing, like her mother’s ring and her charger. When Sophie confronts Rose about it, Rose simply says it’s Connie’s house. Sophie tells Rose she knows she has been unwanted ever since she got there, but this is the last straw for her. Additionally, Callum tells Sophie that he’s going to tell Rose about Thailand, and she imagines this will make Grace and the whole island hate her. So, she decides to leave before things get out of hand. 

On the other hand, the family also decides to make a video press release, and as Grace is watching it with Ollie, she feels like things are getting strange again. By nightfall, Ollie gets super sick, and Grace can’t find the baby medicine she’s bought for him. She tries to call all her family members, but nobody answers, leaving her no option but to call Sophie. When Sophie comes to the rescue to help her take Ollie to the mainland, Grace hands over Ollie to Sophie and tells her to take him. Of course, Sophie doesn’t know what’s going on here, but she takes the baby and tells Grace everything is going to be okay as they move up the dock and onto the boat. Finally, at the hospital, Ollie’s been given an IV to help him recover and made to stay overnight just for safety’s sake. I wonder if Grace will run away from the hospital, given that she’s already feeling very overwhelmed by this entire situation. 

The press release and the video do so well that the family sells over 200 tickets very quickly. But, at the same time, Veronika’s dad is up to something that nobody has realized. Turns out he’s trying to transfer all the house stuff to his name to mooch off the family, leaving Margie with nothing. Margie realizes this only when Sophie tells her that she’s planning on leaving and that Margie’s husband’s offered to buy the house off of her. Rose makes her weed brownies for the night, and somehow, the next day, Veronika’s dad brings a woman to check if Rose is doing okay by herself. It’s like child services but for the aged. This makes Rose really shaky, and she ends up screaming that she’s not leaving this place. Well, obviously because all of Alice’s memories are attached to it. Anyway, Margie is going to save the house and hopefully divorce her husband in the process. 

On the other hand, Margie’s teacher prints out all of the old pictures for the party, but he notices something interesting: there are two sets of pictures, one taken by a damaged camera, which leaves a white blur at the one edge of the pictures. These pictures were taken before Connie’s husband ever came to the island. This means they were taken by someone else. At the end of episode 5, Sophie and Veronika look in the basement to find the camera that took those pictures. Sophie realizes that the one person missing in the older pictures is Rose. This means Rose took those pictures, but Veronika also finds a hidden picture behind a frame that she accidentally breaks. 

The big secret revealed at the end of The Last Anniversary episode 5, is that Rose and Alice were a couple, but also that there was no Jack at all? Veronika tells Rose that she’s found someone, and it’s a woman named Audrey. She says this to get Rose to open up to her. In the end, Veronika tells her great-aunt that she’d love to sit and chat about Alice and Jack. She even calls Rose Jack and gives her the photo where it looks like Rose is wearing a men’s shirt. Finally, Rose will tell the family what really happened all those years ago.