The Girl From Plainville – Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

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Episode 8 of The Girl from Plainville begins in 2014, with Michelle texting her friends about how Conrad is still missing. A few days later, Michelle asks why Conrad hasn’t killed himself yet. She tells him he has to do it today.

What does Conrad Roy do on his last day?

Despite Michelle’s urging, Conrad keeps putting off taking his life. He texts Michelle that he’s going to the beach, but he swears he’ll do it after. At the beach, Conrad and Lynn share their last conversation. It’s a poignant scene because we’ve heard about these last moments from Lynn and now see them play out: Conrad’s first time trying guacamole, Lynn asking if he is okay, Conrad insisting he is fine.

Conrad texts Michelle that he doesn’t know how to leave his family. He wants them to know that he loves them. He asks her to do him a favor and take care of his mom and sisters after he’s gone.

“Of course,” she says. She asks for him to look over her forever, and they pledge their love to each other. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” she tells him.

Michelle sits alone in her room. “Still haven’t found him,” she texts Natalie and Cassie. “I’m a mess.”

Conrad enjoys a few last simple pleasures: running sand through his fingers, watching a child build a sand castle.

At home, he writes a note for his dad and one for Michelle. With one last look at his mother and sisters, Conrad heads out the door. 

He texts Michelle as he sits in his car in the K-mart parking lot.

Is Michelle Carter found guilty?

Michelle did not testify in her case, and now the community waits for the judge’s decision regarding the trial.

In the bathroom, Michelle runs into Katie Rayburn. She tells the prosecutor she knows she’s doing this for Conrad, and she thanks her for caring about him so much.

In the courtroom, the judge rules that Michelle is guilty.

Does Michelle still see Conrad?

The scene cuts to Michelle driving in her car a couple of years later. Almost a college graduate now, she’s going home for Christmas. Her mom, dad, and sister hug and greet her.

Michelle talks to her mom about life in California. She feels that it’s weird to be almost done with college. She says she feels like she had her life figured out up to this point. Now her future feels like a blank slate.

That night, she goes to a bar and orders three beers and three jello shots, claiming to the bartender that her friends are almost there. Across the way, she sees Susie (or someone who looks like her) throwing darts.

Conrad suddenly appears beside her. At first, they speak as if they’ve only had one interaction before–the one on the pier in Florida. They play their word association game; he almost kisses her.

But then, the atmosphere around them shifts. Conrad tells her that her friends never showed. She says she wanted them to like her. “I know,” he says. “But they didn’t.”

The bar scene around them stills and quiets. “This hasn’t happened before,” Michelle says. “‘Cause you ruined it.”

Michelle tells him she always thought she would run into him in a place like this when they were older. And things would have been different. 

Conrad says she can’t keep hiding here. It’s not real. But Michelle doesn’t care. She wants them to just go to Florida, just be somewhere else.

Michelle then becomes angry with him. She tells him she wasn’t in the car. It was he who tortured her and said he didn’t want help.

He gets up to leave, and she pleads with him, “Don’t do this.” But he walks out of the bar. 

Why did Michelle Carter want Conrad to die?

The next scene either implies that Michelle didn’t truly want Conrad to die, or that she has deceived herself into believing that she didn’t do anything wrong. Either way, she is full of bitter regret about what happened to Conrad Roy.

Michelle goes to the K-mart parking lot.  She sees a truck parked there, watches Conrad getting out of the car and coughing. He pulls out his phone to text her, and she yells at him, “You said this is what you wanted!” 

She’s angry. She says she didn’t think he would actually do it. “Conrad!” She drops to her knees and sobs, asking him not to listen to her. “Go home. Just go home.”

But Conrad gets back in the truck. “I don’t want to be alone,” Michelle says.

How Does The Girl From Plainville End?

In 2019, Gail brings Michelle to a hair appointment. She gets her hair cut in a short bob. After the cut, the hairdresser notices Michelle’s picture in the paper and starts to treat her coldly. 

Michelle’s parents drive her to court for her sentencing hearing. Lynn and Co sit in the crowd. 

The Girl From Plainville ends with the judge revoking the stay of sentencing. On February 11, Michelle is taken into custody for her 15-month sentence at Bristol County Jail.

Where is Michelle Carter now, in 2022?

The end of The Girl From Plainville also includes a few facts about what happened after the texting-suicide trial.

Co ran a marathon for suicide awareness. Lynn helped get “Conrad’s Law” on the docket in Massachusetts.

As for Michelle, she was released early for good conduct in January 2020. For now, she is keeping a low profile and remains on probation until August 2022.

The Episode Review

The Girl From Plainville finale won’t be totally satisfying for those seeking concrete answers about the texting-suicide cast–but it well captures the ambiguous nature of these real-life cases.

While this adaptation certainly comes with its own bias, it (rightly) leaves room for many varying interpretations regarding Michelle’s character and motivations.

The show doesn’t wave Michelle’s crimes away, nor does it strip her of any sympathetic qualities. By the end of The Girl From Plainville, Michelle Carter comes across as a character of blatant contradictions. Reflecting a confused, unstable young woman? Or a malicious, lying attention seeker? That’s up to the viewer to decide.

In the end, it’s hard to say whether The Girl From Plainville was a truly necessary adaptation. It is clear, however, that the series does something to raise awareness for mental health and suicide–in darkly intriguing way.