The Woman in Cabin 10 ending explained: Who was thrown overboard?

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Like all great thrillers, ‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ on Netflix keeps its biggest surprises for the very end.

Keira Knightley’s latest movie premiered on Netflix this Friday, October 10th. Even though critics haven’t been very impressed, it quickly became one of the most popular titles on the platform.

The new film, based on Ruth Ware’s book, stars Keira Knightley as Lo, a journalist who believes she witnesses someone being thrown from a yacht. Despite her conviction, everyone else on board insists nothing happened and that no one is missing.

The mystery deepens as the investigation continues, culminating in a surprising reveal. If you’ve finished watching and want a full breakdown of what happened, check out our explanation of The Woman in Cabin 10’s ending.

The Woman in Cabin 10 ending explained: Who was thrown overboard?

Lo’s increasing paranoia proves she was justified in fearing the other passengers on the boat; she had been right to be suspicious from the start.

Once she realizes the woman in cabin 10 looks exactly like Anne (Lisa Loven Kongsli), she begins to understand what’s happening.

Okay, so here’s the setup: this guy, Richard – played by Guy Pearce – had a really twisted plan. He invited a woman who looked almost exactly like his wife, Anne, named Carrie, onto his fancy new yacht. The idea was they’d swap places temporarily, and Carrie, pretending to be Anne, would change the will so Richard got everything. Seriously, the lengths people will go to for money!

But, like a classic Agatha Christie mystery, everything falls apart. Anne discovered Carrie and her husband plotting in cabin 10, and a struggle ensued. Anne was fatally injured, and Richard then pushed her into the sea. Terrified, Carrie followed Richard’s instructions and pretended to be Anne for the remainder of the voyage.

Carrie tells Lo everything, cornering the journalist in a storage room. Lo quickly figures out the woman she saw in cabin 10 was likely Anne, or someone who looked just like her. Lo disappears for several days, and Dr. Robert Mehta and Richard pretend she’s sick to cover up her absence, keeping a worried Ben from discovering the truth.

As the ship empties for the day, with Ben staying behind because he worries about his ex-girlfriend, Lo, Robert begins a thorough search for her. He can’t find her, but once the ship is quiet, Lo slips out of her hiding place. She goes to Anne’s study, finds a hidden key, and steals Anne’s confession – the same one Anne had read to her a few days earlier.

Lo was heading back to her cabin when Robert suddenly stepped in front of her, holding a syringe and intending to harm her. A struggle broke out, with Robert attempting to strangle Lo, but Ben intervened and fought Robert off, saving her.

It was awful to watch. Robert and Ben got into a fight, and somehow, Robert ended up accidentally injecting Ben with something deadly. I was completely horrified! Robert kept yelling at me to run, but I was frozen, I couldn’t leave Ben. He kept trying to fight Robert off, but he was getting weaker and weaker, and then… he just collapsed on top of Robert and… he died. It was so fast, and so tragic.

With Ben’s assistance, Lo quickly returned to her room and jumped from the balcony into the cold water. Frantically, she swam to the shore, found a shed to hide in, and built a fire to warm herself up.

As a real cinema fan, I’ve been following this story closely! It turns out Robert’s been tangled up in Richard’s dodgy plan all along – Richard has something on him, keeping him quiet. In this scene, Robert tells Richard there’s no way Lo could have made it after falling into that icy water, and they both sadly conclude she must have drowned while trying to get away.

Richard brings the imposter Anne (Carrie) to a meeting with their lawyers to change Anne’s will. He wants to ensure that, when Anne dies, all of her money goes to him, not to charity. Carrie is forced to sign the documents as Anne, even though she’s worried Richard will discard her after the gala, just as Lo predicted.

Carrie tries to mask her insecurities as she prepares for the gala, determined to continue pretending to be Anne for another night. However, Lo unexpectedly arrives and is quickly stopped by a staff member. Lo then questions the staff member about any changes in Anne’s behavior, before revealing the truth: the woman everyone believes to be Anne is actually a double. To prove it, Lo shows the staff member a speech that Anne herself wrote.

Lo is permitted to remain at the event, and during Richard’s speech honoring his wife, she interrupts to announce she has a letter Anne would want to see. Although Richard tries to remove her, Carrie, portraying Anne, allows the letter to be read. Even Richard’s guests – including those who previously dismissed Lo’s ideas – remind him that the gala is meant to celebrate Anne, and she should be heard.

Lo discovered the speech Anne had written for the gala, revealing her plan to donate her wealth instead of leaving it to her husband. This news deeply upset Richard, but he couldn’t object to what Lo said without exposing his secret: he had murdered the real Anne and replaced her with an imposter.

While Lo continues to uncover damaging evidence, Richard becomes increasingly frantic and grabs Carrie, holding her hostage with a knife. He attempts to escape, running towards the docks and a lifeboat. A crew member, now working with Lo, shoots Richard in the shoulder, but he doesn’t give up. He tries to strangle Carrie before Lo delivers a final, fatal strike, causing him to fall to his death.

Carrie and Lo share a relieved embrace, finally safe from the dangerous plot. We then see a glimpse into the future: Carrie is back with her family and sends Lo a video invitation to come visit. At the same time, Lo has published an article in The Guardian detailing Anne’s generous final gesture, her lasting impact, and the tragic events that unfolded on the ship.

A junior reporter praised Lo for framing the story as a tribute to Anne, rather than just focusing on what Richard did. The article also honors Lo’s late ex-boyfriend, Ben, who bravely protected her from being silenced on the ship, and reveals the identities of the two remaining conspirators – Robert and Captain John Macmillan.

It’s so Lo to just bounce right back to work, but before she did, she gave one last, sweet smile to the picture of Ben on her screen. It just feels like *her*, you know?

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2025-10-13 17:36