The Stolen Girl on Disney+: Ending explained, including why Rebecca really abducted Lucia and if she was caught
By Helen Fear |The Stolen Girl on Disney+ delivered EXACTLY what we want from a stand-alone thriller, including an ending it was impossible to predict (unless, of course, you've read the Alex Dahl novel Playdate that it's based on!).
Over five episodes, we followed the meticulously executed abduction of nine-year-old Lucia Blix, and her mother's attempts to get her back - with a bit of help from the police, and a LOT from dogged journalist Selma.
However, along the way, we were left wondering if Lucia really was the daughter of abductor Rebecca - later revealed to be called Nina. The gripping original thriller - from the producers of Harlan Coben's Fool Me Once and Missing You - kept us guessing until the very end. Which wasn't at all what we were expecting.
You know the saying 'the past catches up with you in the end', well THAT. Here's The Stolen Girl ending explained, including why Rebecca - aka Nina - really stole Lucia Blix, and what happened to the characters in the finale...
***Warning: spoilers from The Stolen Girl ending ahead***
What happened in the final episode of the psychological drama?
The Stolen Girl introduced Elisa Blix, a women who rather rashly allowed her daughter Lucia to have a sleepover with her new school friend. Yes, someone she'd JUST met.
When she tried to collect her the next day, the mum - who called herself Rebecca - was long gone, along with her daughter. And, crucially, Elisa's daughter Lucia was gone, too. Turned out the house they'd been staying in was a holiday rental, and Rebecca and the children had vanished without a trace. What started out as Lucia's first sleepover turned into an abduction.
But why? That was the crucial question. In the final episode of The Stolen Girl, all the pieces fell into place. We discovered that Rebecca, who was actually called Nina Thibault, was seeking revenge for a pretty heinous crime committed in the past.
The plot got gnarly, with no obvious heroes and villains. Both Elisa and Nina were victims in their own way...
The Stolen Girl ending explained: Why did Rebecca - aka Nina - abduct Lucia?
To avoid confusion, let's call her Nina not Rebecca. She was happily married to Nicolas Thibault, and they had two beloved daughters Josephine and Rose. Until tragedy struck.
In 2021, Nicolas and Rose were killed in a devastating hit and run, leaving Nina and her eldest daughter Josephine heartbroken. Nina's whole life "was ruined in an instant".
And this is where Elisa came in. She was the driver, who sped away rather than face the consequences of the awful tragedy. Even worse, she allowed her lover to take the rap.
Private jet flight attendant Elisa Blix had been cheating on her husband Fred (Jim Sturgess) with her rich lover Marcus Turner, who she'd met at work. Desperately in love with Elisa, Marcus took the blame for the accident once the police tracked the car down. During the whole of The Stolen Girl, he was in jail.
While Marcus was inside for manslaughter, and Elisa was "living her perfect life" with her husband and very much alive children, Nina was watching and plotting. She planned her revenge, and decided to kidnap Elisa's daughter Lucia and claim her as her own.
Who was Marcus Turner and how was he involved?
Marcus Turner was a wealthy businessman, who owned a chain of fancy spa hotels. While travelling by private jet, he met Elisa and the pair fell in love. Or, at least, embarked on an affair. In a reversal from societal norms, Marcus believed that Elisa was going to leave her husband. Not least because she was carrying Marcus' child.
Viewers were shocked to discover that little Georgie - Lucia's younger brother - was not actually Fred's but, in fact, the son of Elisa's now jailed lover Marcus. Yet another secret that Elisa had hidden for years.
As well as carrying Marcus' child, letting Fred believe it was his, and allowing Marcus to rot in jail, Elisa refused to write to her former lover or even visit him in prison. Reader, she wasn't your average 'victim'. It was hard to feel any sympathy for Elisa, knowing her part in two deaths. Actually three (see below).
However, when we learnt about her tragic past, her behaviour started coming into shaper focus.
The truth about Elisa's past and why she killed her dad
There was a reason Elisa was speeding away from Yorkshire at such a speed that she crashed into the Thibault car.
We discovered - thanks to the sometimes irritatingly tenacious journalist Selma - that Elisa had grown up in a religious commune. But she'd left at 16. Not just that, though. Elisa had totally reinvented herself from the toes up.
Why? Elisa had been sexually abused by her father from the age of nine - Lucia's age when she was abducted. Horrifyingly, Elisa's mother had known it was happening, and had not intervened.
Elisa explained: "My father sexually abused me from the age of nine. My mother just let him. She protected him."
On the day of the accident, Elisa had visited the commune with lover Marcus. We learnt that Elisa's dad was dying of cancer - and she went to make sure he was dying... This was no happy family reunion. But it wasn't the cancer that killed him.
When Elisa caught her paedophile dad checking on a sleeping Lucia upstairs, she saw red. The pair argued and, during a scuffle on the landing, Elisa pushed her father down the stairs. He died that day, and Elisa didn't hang around for the ambulance to arrive.
The Stolen Girl ending explained: Did Elisa get Lucia back?
The final episode of The Stolen Girl saw Elisa and Dash Voice journalist Selma track Nina down to Toulon, France. Having worked out who was behind the abduction thanks to Selma's investigative skills (forget the police, they were pretty useless), they were able to find her link to France, via her late husband's family.
It was a tense 45 minutes as leaked pictures of top suspect Nina spread across the media, while Elisa desperately tried to get to her before she bolted again.
Meanwhile, young Lucia was doing some investigations of her own. After having a snoop around Nina's things, she discovered that she was NOT Nina's daughter after all. We know Nina had told Lucia - now renamed Lulu Rose - that she was her mother. She had even doctored photos of her daughter Rose as a baby to feature Lucia's strawberry birthmark on her shoulder.
However, when Lucia found the box of doctored photos, she learnt the truth. And ran. With Nina not far behind. At exactly that moment, Elisa arrived at the farmhouse. And a showdown between the women ensued.
In a brilliant scene between the two women, Elisa confessed that she was the one driving the car that killed Nicolas and Rose. She also admitted that she was abused by her dad, which was why she was driving away from Yorkshire so fast.
Realising that they'd "destroyed each other", the two women came to some kind of understanding. Elisa was reunited with Lucia, while Nina and Josephine escaped.
Was Nina Thibault caught at in the final episode?
Nina was NOT caught at the end of The Stolen Girl. We last saw her driving away from the French farmhouse with her daughter Josephine in the back of the car.
Not only had she abducted Lucia, she had killed career criminal and Croatian people trafficker Milan Matkovi - admittedly in self defence.
In The Stolen Girl ending, we were told "Nina has completely vanished". The ambiguous finale left it up to the viewer to decide whether Nina managed to escape and start a new life somewhere else.
Or perhaps the police caught up with her, leaving poor Josephine without a parent. Perhaps a series 2 could help us out!
What happened to Elisa Blix at the end of The Stolen Girl?
The Stolen Girl ending gave us an unexpected curveball when it came to Elisa's fate. She was not reunited with her daughter Lucia for long.
In fact, she finally decided to do the right thing, and admitted her part in the deaths of Nicolas and Rose Thibault - albeit with a lot of help from Nina.
At the end of The Stolen Girl episode 5, Elisa was in police custody, having confessed to killing the dad and daughter.
She told her husband Fred, conveniently a lawyer, that she "wasn't going to fight". Elisa was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, and perverting the course of justice. A sentence that saw her face six years in jail.
Fred chose to wait for her, even though he'd found out the whole truth about his wife - including the real father of Georgie. It was a happy ending of sorts, with Lucia safe and sound at home with her dad and brother.
Ultimately, Elisa was guilty of a terrible crime, and cowardice allowed her lover to take the blame. But she did not deserve to have her daughter stolen from her. Although Nina's heart was broken, the cost of her revenge was too much.
Is there a series 2 of The Stolen Girl?
Disney+ has not confirmed if there'll be a series 2 of The Stolen Girl. But it's presented as a stand-alone thriller.
All the key plot details were tied up, apart from poor Marcus Turner. Was he ever released from jail, or left to languish behind bars - we weren't told. Of course, there's still plenty of loose ends to pursue if a series 2 of The Stolen Girl was commissioned though...
Not least, where the HELL is Nina Thibault now?
Worth mentioning, too, that Playdate - the Alex Dahl book The Stolen Girl is based on - was published in July 2020. There has been no sequel to the novel. But that's not to say there couldn't be more episodes of the series. The Handmaid's Tale and Game of Thrones are just two of the famous TV series that deviated from the books they were based on...
Watch this space for more details when we get them.
