'Ex Ex Lovers' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: What Happens To Joy And Ced?

Directed by JP Habac, Ex Ex Lovers is the story of Joy and her estranged husband, who happened to leave her without giving her any sort of closure. For years, Joy waited for her husband to come back, but she never heard from him. Things changed when Joy’s daughter decided to get married and she asked her mother if she could locate her father and invite him to her wedding. So let’s find out what happened in Ex Ex Lovers, and if Joy and her husband reconciled at the end.

Spoiler Alert

Why did Joy decide to find her husband? 

Joy’s life had been full of challenges, but amidst all the chaos and difficulties, she’d made sure that she brought up her daughter, SC, in the best possible manner. About 10 years ago, Joy’s husband, Cedric, aka Ced, had left her and their little daughter. Ced was struggling financially, and the lack of a stable and well-paying job became one of the prime reasons why things went haywire between him and Joy. Ced lied a lot, a trait of his that Joy hated to the core. Joy was sick and tired of him keeping her in the dark, and she didn’t know what to do about it. Joy gave him a substantial amount of money, as he wanted to find a job in the Middle East, but there, too, luck did not favor him, and he ended up burning through all that money. Then one day, Ced left the house without telling Joy that he had no intention to return. The film never tells us what exactly led him to make that decision, something that I don’t think works in the favor of the creators and makes the narrative look quite superficial. Yes, things were bad between Joy and Ced, but what triggered the latter so much so that he decided to just leave everything behind was not very clear. Many years passed, and Joy never heard from Ced. Joy had become accustomed to living alone, but she still bore Ced’s surname, something that made her feel really claustrophobic at times. Joy hadn’t gotten a divorce or an annulment, and so legally she couldn’t rid herself of Ced’s surname. Then, one day, Joy’s daughter told her that she had decided to get married to a guy named Joey, and that she wanted her father to be present for her wedding. Joy didn’t want her daughter to get married, as she was way too possessive of her, and she also felt that SC was too young to take that step. And to make her feel even worse, SC said that she wanted Ced to walk her down the aisle. Joy didn’t want to make her daughter unhappy, and so she decided to go to Malta, where she believed Ced was, and bring him back for SC’s wedding. 

Why did Joy feel let down by SC and Ced? 

Joy found Ced, and she realized that he hadn’t changed at all. The man was hesitant in telling her that he worked as a maintenance guy in Malta, and if things would have gone according to his plan, he probably would have hidden the truth from her. But even after everything Ced had done in the past, Joy seemed way too attracted to him. I mean, this was where I felt that the makers faltered in their execution. They wanted to portray Joy as this person who thought she hated Ced for what he had done yet couldn’t suppress her strong emotions when she saw him for the first time in such a long while. But somewhere that internal battle she was facing was not portrayed properly, or maybe it got lost in translation. So Joy still felt quite possessive of Ced, and of all things, she was quite keen to know if the man had had any affairs. I mean, even if the man had a heart of gold, he had abandoned the family, and I felt that Joy was way too easy on him. The narrative was also hell-bent on taking Ced’s side and glorifying his struggles. That said, Ced was apologetic for what he had done, but still he joked around and tried to keep things a bit lighthearted with Joy. We came to know that Ced had been in touch with SC for a long time, and together they had decided to trick Joy into believing that everything had happened organically. Joy got really mad when she realized that she had been kept in the dark for such a long time. In Malta, it seemed as if Joy would reconcile with Ced, but then once they were back in the Philippines, Joy made it very clear that it wasn’t easy for her to just move ahead and forget everything that had happened in the past so easily. Ced knew that he had messed up, and he was ready to keep apologizing to Joy for his entire lifetime. 

What did SC decide to call off her marriage? 

Apart from the fact that Joy was extremely possessive of her daughter and had a bias against Joey, SC’s fiancé, there were many other real issues that SC needed to sort out. Joey came from a very privileged background, and his parents took all his decisions for him. SC didn’t mind his parents being involved in their lives, but Joey not having any kind of say when it came to his own relationship wasn’t something she could accept. SC tried to understand everything, but there came a point where she realized that probably they were not ready for marriage. Joey’s mother decided what kind of wedding they would have; his father decided that they would move to the US after marriage, and at the end of Ex Ex Lovers, SC did not understand why Joey didn’t make his voice heard. Both the families were supposed to meet at a dinner and that’s when all hell broke loose. Joey’s parents didn’t have any clue that Ced was a maintenance guy and that he did all sorts of odd jobs to sustain himself. They very subconsciously insulted Ced and Joy, not realizing that it was not the most appropriate thing to do. Their condescending behavior triggered SC and her parents, and they decided to not entertain such behavior. SC took off her wedding ring and gave it back to Joey, telling him that he should learn to take a stand for the right thing. It was not like Joey didn’t make any efforts, but the kind of compliance he showed in the face of his parents was something that was going to create problems in the future. SC didn’t tell him to go against his parents, but she just wanted him to tell them what they wanted as a couple, because at the end of the day, it was their life. SC was somebody who was always up for a healthy discussion, but the fact that Joey’s parents literally imposed their will on them did not go down well with her. So SC called off her wedding. She told Joey that they were probably not ready to take that big step. Joey told SC that he would wait for the day when she would change her mind and decide to get married. Maybe Joey will be persistent in his efforts, and SC will end up with him in the end, but I believe for the time being she made the right call. 

Did Joy And Ced End Up Together? 

After Joy had gotten to know that Ced and SC had been talking for quite some time and that they’d planned the big meet-up in Malta, she felt really disappointed in both of them. She told both of them that it was not easy for her to come back into a relationship with Ced and pretend that nothing had happened. She said that back in the day, after Ced had left her, she started doubting herself. Joy had lost all confidence, and somewhere she blamed herself for what had happened, even when clearly it wasn’t her fault. Joy had realized that though Ced was a good father and a great friend, he was never a good partner. He ran away from responsibilities, tried to escape from difficult situations, and hated confrontation, even if it came at the cost of his relationship. 

In Ex Ex Lovers’ ending, Joy made the call not to get back with Ced, and the latter respected her decision. He had come with an intention to convince Joy to start afresh, but in the process he realized that Joy was probably right in saying that they were better off as friends. Ced and Joy decided to file for a divorce and forgive each other for whatever had happened in the past. Though the relationship ended, Joy felt a strange sense of relief. She felt free, she felt happy, and she felt motivated to let bygones be bygones and look at the silver lining. She still met Ced from time to time, as they were still best of friends. I believe they made the right choice in the end, as there was no point in stretching out a relationship when they had realized that it probably summoned the worst part of them. 

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