Decoding the Ending of ‘Echo Valley’: Summary of Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney’s Film on Apple TV+

The new Apple TV+ original movie, Echo Valley—which began streaming today—will strike a heartbreaking chord for anyone with a loved one who’s struggled with addiction.

Directed by Michael Pearce, with a screenplay written by Brad Ingelsby (known for writing the HBO series Mare of Easttown), Echo Valley stars Oscar-winner actor Julianne Moore as Kate, a woman grieving her late wife, struggling to run their horse farm on her own. She could really use some help from her daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney). Unfortunately, Claire is a drug addict, and Kate is forced to clean up Claire’s messes time and time again. One night, Claire shows up covered in someone else’s blood. Kate is forced to confront just how far she is willing to go to protect her daughter.

Also starring Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan, and Fiona Shaw, Echo Valley is more of a drama than a thriller. That said, there is some action at the very end. If you got lost or confused, don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of the Echo Valley movie plot summary and the Echo Valley ending explained, including what it means that Sydney Sweeney shows up at the end of Echo Valley.

Warning: Major Echo Valley spoilers ahead. Duh!

We meet Kate Garrett (Julianne Moore) as she’s grieving her recently deceased wife and struggling to run their horse farm by herself. She needs $9,000 to fix the roof of her barn, and is forced to beg her ex-husband (Kyle MacLachlan) for the money. He reluctantly gives her the money, along with a lecture about how Kate needs to stop giving money to their troubled daughter, Claire (Sydney Sweeney).

Soon after, Claire shows up at Kate’s farm. Claire promises she is no longer using drugs. She doesn’t have a phone, because she says her boyfriend Ryan (Edmund Donovan) destroyed it. She tells her mom that she got Ryan back by throwing his stuff off of a bridge. Kate, thrilled that Claire is home, agrees to buy Claire a new phone.

Ryan shows up at the farm, and urgently informs Claire that there was a large amount of drugs in the stuff she threw over the bridge. Now they are both going to be in trouble with someone named Jackie. Sure enough, Jackie (Domhnall Gleeson) shows up at the farm, and threatens Claire to either cough up the drugs or the money. Kate scares him off, and Claire promises her mother that he won’t come back.

A few days later, Claire announces she and Ryan are going camping, and demands Kate give her money for food and supplies. It’s obvious that Claire is going through withdrawal and needs money for drugs. Kate refuses to give Claire money, prompting Claire to physically and verbally abuse her mother, before she finally leaves with Ryan.

The next time Claire comes home, she is covered in blood. She tells her mother that it’s Ryan’s blood, and that Claire (accidentally) killed Ryan while the two of them were fighting. Claire has Ryan’s body in her car. Kate promises Claire she will take care of it. She dumps the body in a nearby lake, proving that she loves her daughter enough to, quite literally, bury a body for her. And she does more than that: She uses the money from her ex-husband to pay off Claire’s debt to Jackie.

Kate seems to think this act of selfless love will be enough to get her daughter to stay with her and help out on the farm. But just a few days later, Claire once again disappears. She doesn’t answer any of Kate’s calls or texts. Haunted by the memory of what she did, Kate uses her iPad—which Claire had previously logged into to check her messages—to track Claire’s phone. When Kate goes to the address, she finds Claire with a very-much still-alive Ryan. Kate demands to know whose body she buried, but Claire and Ryan flee. Kate goes through Claire’s texts on the iPad, and sees a text that says, “I can make her do anything.” She realizes Claire took advantage of her motherly love, and that she was played.

A distraught Kate calls up her friend Jessie (Fiona Shaw) and confesses everything. Jessie invites Kate to come stay with Jessie and her wife, a few hours away. While at Jessie’s, Jackie shows up at Kate’s house. Communicating via Kate’s Ring camera, he informs her that he knows what she did, and he knows whose body it was. Kate agrees to meet with him.

Jackie tells Kate that after Claire accidentally dumped his drugs, she and Ryan started dealing in an attempt to repay their debt. Ryan cut the drugs with fentanyl, added too much, and one of the buyers—a young man—overdosed on the drugs Ryan sold him. Jackie came up with the plan to manipulate Kate into taking care of her daughter’s mess, though he was surprised when she actually did it. Now that Jackie knows how far Kate will go to protect her daughter, he wants to squeeze her for everything she is worth.

Kate protests that she has no more money. In response, Jackie drugs her, and takes her keys, phone, and wallet. Basically, he has kidnapped her and is holding her hostage in her own home. He stays in the barn, and cancels all of Kate’s upcoming horseback riding lessons. Meanwhile, Claire texts Kate with an apology. She tells her mother the name of the body she buried: Greg Kaminski.

Kate is able to secretly use her iPad to contact her friend Jessie. She asks Jessie about a mutual friend who burned down his own farm to collect the insurance money, but was caught. Jessie said the friend was caught because he used a flare to start the fire, and a piece of the flare was left behind. Kate comes to Jackie with a plan to burn down the farm to get him $100,000 in insurance money. Kate will make Jackie an official employee of the farm, in order to pay him. Jackie asks Kate to burn her horses, too, so that he can get an additional $50,000 on the horse’s insurance.

Before they can execute the plan, one of Kate’s clients, Emma, comes by to pick up a saddle. Kate offers to get rid of her, but Jackie insists on handling it. He introduces himself to Emma as the new farmhand, and sends her on her way.

Kate gets a shipment of hay to fill the barn, and Jackie purchases the flares. Jackie stays to make sure Kate actually lights the fire, and then flees in his car. The next day, the police and fire department tell Kate that they believe the fire was set intentionally. They found a piece of the flare at the point of ignition. Also, there was a dead body in the barn that burned up, too. Wait… what?

Here’s what happened: Kate framed Jackie for everything. She intentionally left a piece of the flare behind. The authorities found evidence that someone was living in the barn. Kate tells the cops it was her new farmhand, Jackie. She gives the name of her client, Emma, who witnessed Jackie on the farm. Kate also tells the cops that she met a friend of Jackie’s, named Greg Kaminiski, who, of course, is identified as the dead body through dental records. To top it all off, Jackie was seen buying flares at a nearby gas station. Yeah, he’s cooked.

As it turns out, when Kate called her friend Jessie, the two of them went back to the lake and recovered Greg’s body. After Jackie drove away, they quickly stashed the body in the burning barn. (Also, Kate was able to free her horses, so they didn’t die. Yay!)

Jackie is arrested for burning down the barn, and for causing Greg’s overdose and burning the body. Kate rebuilds her farm, and is finally able to replace that roof, thanks to that insurance money. She finds peace in her work there, continues teaching riding lessons, and does not answer texts from her daughter, who begs for her forgiveness. That said, Kate does listen to an old voicemail from her deceased wife, who tells Kate that Claire loves her, and is sorry.

In the final scene of the movie, Kate’s dog starts barking, which can only mean one thing: Claire is home, again. Sure enough, Claire is at the front door, with tears in her eyes. Kate stares at her daughter, with an unreadable look on her face. With that, the movie ends.

What does Claire want? Will Kate forgive her daughter? Will she once again become an enabler to Claire’s addiction? The movie leaves it up to you to decide. The point is that this is what addicts do: They keep coming back to ask for money and forgiveness, over and over again. That won’t change until they overcome their addiction. There is no “one last favor” that will finally be the end of it, because they will always ask you for more. Even if you help them bury a body.

My guess? Kate will take her daughter in, and give her a place to stay, but will not give her any money. She’ll be much more guarded and less trusting of anything Claire says. Or, at least, I hope so. Stay strong, Kate.