Every Twist and Turn to Remember from ‘A Simple Favor’ Before the Sequel

Paul Feig’s stylish black comedy A Simple Favor originally debuted in 2018, starring Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, and Henry Golding. Based on the 2017 novel of the same name, the wild plot follows a mommy vlogger as she forms an unlikely and sinister friendship with a glamorous businesswoman whose unexpected disappearance turns everything upside down.

The original, which performed well at the box office, has only become more of a streaming hit on Netflix. Now, it has been announced that ​​​​​​​this camp thriller is making a return in Another Simple Favor, a sequel that will debut on Prime Video on May 1, 2025. The plot of the original A Simple Favor is filled to the brim with twists and turns, so here is an official guide to everything you need to remember before the sequel drops.

Setting a (Not So) Simple Scene

Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) is a prudent single mother living with her son, Miles, in Connecticut. Stephanie runs a vlog channel where she gives advice to other moms. One day at her son’s school, where Stephanie is usually ostracized by the other parents for being too overactive, ​​​​​​​Stephanie befriends the elusive Emily Nelson (Lively).

When Miles and Emily’s son, Nicky, want to have a playdate, Stephanie is invited over to Emily’s house. Emily is a very successful public relations director who appears to have the perfect life, complete with a giant luxurious house and a handsome husband, Sean (Golding). Over martinis, Stephanie and Emily get to gabbing. It does not take much time (or many drinks) for Stephanie to drop the movie’s first big bombshell. She reveals to Emily that she once slept with her half-brother following her father’s funeral.

Soon after their newly forged bond, ​​​​​​​Emily calls Stephanie with a request for a “simple favor.” Emily asks if Stephanie can watch Nicky for a few hours while she attends to a work emergency and Sean is out of town. Emily goes silent and a few hours turns into a few days. Eventually, Stephanie contacts Sean. Sean remarks that this sounds like typical Emily.

Emily’s Body Is Found/Brother Nature

Sean and Stephanie search for Emily, and eventually, tragedy strikes: they uncover her dead body in a lake at a summer camp in Michigan. The police reveal that she had mass amounts of heroin in her system, as well as severe liver damage. Furthermore, Stephanie finds out that Sean had taken out a multi-million life insurance policy on Emily mere months ago. Turns out, Emily and Sean were having more money troubles than met the eye. All this aside, driven in part by their grief,

Stephanie and Sean begin a romantic relationship
and Stephanie assumes care of both Miles and Nicky.

Soon after, ​​​​​​​Stephanie started to receive threatening messages that could only come from Emily. Nicky starts claiming that he has seen Emily at school. Due to Emily’s looming presence, Stephanie’s guilt about her past starts to bubble up and the audience sees what really happened between her and her brother. Her husband suspected him to be Miles’ biological father and her lover, and thus her husband drove himself and Stephanie’s brother into a wall, killing them both instantly.

Is Emily Dead? (No, Times Three!)

Stephanie, determined now to prove that Emily is actually still alive, finds a past lover of Emily’s, Diana (Linda Cardellini), through a nude portrait hanging in Emily’s house. Diana reveals that Emily’s name is not, in fact, Emily, but Claudia, and she knows her as a reputable con artist who broke her heart. Diana also divulges the most imperative piece of information of all: Emily/Claudia was a biological triplet.

Her birth name was Hope, and her sisters were Faith and Charity. Stephanie visits Emily/Hope/Claudia’s mother (Jean Smart), who absent-mindedly reveals that Faith and Hope set their childhood home on fire, killing their abusive father in the flames. The sisters escaped with a plan to reunite years later, but Faith never showed.

However, Faith reappeared many years later with a threat: she would go to the police with claims of patricide unless the now rather successful Hope paid her off with $1 million. ​​​​​​​Instead, Emily/Hope drowned Faith in the lake where they once went to summer camp together and the police believed it to be Emily’s body.

Stephanie and Sean vs Emily and Sean vs Stephanie and Emily

While Stephanie is off sleuthing, Emily makes the decision to reappear to Sean. Emily’s plan is to collect the insurance money and flee the country. She tries to seduce Sean,​​​​​​​ but whether his loyalties remain with Emily or Stephanie remains nebulous. Emily and Stephanie meet up, at which point Emily convinces Stephanie to frame Sean for Emily’s death. He is almost immediately released on bail, but then things get really dicey.

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Stephanie switches teams again and she and Sean are now in cahoots. They stage a fake argument in the hopes that they can get Emily to confess on tape. They perform a scene in Emily and Sean’s house in front of Emily that ends with Stephanie fake shooting Sean (hold on, it gets more confusing). However, Emily sees through the theatrics immediately. Emily presents all the planted microphones that she has found and disabled, a gun, and then boldly confesses to all her crimes.

Emily tells them that now she will stage Stephanie and Sean’s murder-suicide. She shoots Sean, but just before she can shoot Stephanie, Stephanie reveals that she has been live-streaming all of this to her mommy vlog the whole time (meaning Emily’s confession has been recorded after all). Emily attempts to run away, but at the last minute is ​​​​​​​hit by the car of another parent from school (Andrew Rannells). Emily is arrested.

Where Does That Leave Emily and Stephanie?

In A Simple Favor‘s epilogue, we see Emily enjoying life in prison. She is serving a 20-year sentence for the murder of her father and sister. Sean has become a professor at Berkeley, and he and Nicky are doing well. Stephanie’s vlog, bolstered by the publicity of having a disappearance and murder confession take place on the channel, now boasts over a million subscribers. ​​​​​​​She has also started a private detective business on the side where she takes on cold cases.

A Simple Favor moves at breakneck speed and is a lot to swallow, so we can only imagine what might be in store for Another Simple Favor. You can stream A Simple Favor on Netflix now.