A Simple Favor 2’s Perfect Blake Lively Twist Was Ruined By 1 Line In The Original Movie

This article contains major spoilers for A Simple Favor (2018)

Summary

• It is revealed in A Simple Favor that Emily was actually a triplet, but her other sister, Charity, was stillborn.
• If the third sister was still alive, it would have set up a potential plot twist in A Simple Favor 2.
• To compensate for the lost twist, Emily’s mother, Margaret, should return and bring more shocking revelations in A Simple Favor 2.

One line in A Simple Favor prevented the perfect plot twist in A Simple Favor 2. Directed by Paul Feig, A Simple Favor stars Anna Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers, a widowed single mother who tries to solve the mystery of her best friend Emily Nelson (Blake Lively)’s sudden disappearance. Emily is seemingly found dead in a lake, but Stephanie suspects she is somehow still alive and starts digging into her past. She discovers that Emily faked her death to collect a sizable life insurance claim and that her dead body actually belonged to her long-lost twin sister Faith.

A Simple Favor ends with Emily going to prison after getting tricked into confessing to the murders of her father and sister. Now, a sequel is in the works which will see the main cast of A Simple Favor reprising their roles, including Kendrick as Stephanie and Lively as Emily. A Simple Favor 2‘s story will be centered around Emily’s extravagant wedding in Italy, which is expected to lead to more murders and surprises. One reveal in A Simple Favor could have set up the perfect plot twist for A Simple Favor 2, but a specific detail nullified it.

Emily’s Triplet Secretly Surviving Would Have Fittingly Set Up A Simple Favor 2 To Repeat The Original’s Big Twist

Emily & Her Twin’s Third Sister Was Stillborn

When Stephanie confronts Emily about having a secret twin sister in A Simple Favor, Emily reveals that she isn’t actually a twin but a triplet. Emily, whose birth name is Hope, and Faith had a third sister named Charity who was stillborn. Emily explains that their uber-religious parents believe they killed Charity in the womb. After burning their house down and killing their abusive father as teenagers, Hope and Faith get matching flame tattoos with charity symbols to honor their stillborn sister before splitting up to evade the eye of the law.

The reveal that Emily was actually a triplet was one of the many changes A Simple Favor made to the 2017 book that the film is based on. The decision to include this detail in the movie is puzzling, though, because it doesn’t actually add anything to the story that the initial twin sister twist didn’t already. A Simple Favor would’ve been almost exactly the same without Charity, showing that this was just an unnecessary layer to all the campy plot twists at the end of A Simple Favor.

Charity’s existence could have served a purpose in the long run once
A Simple Favor 2
came to fruition, but only if she was still alive.

The addition of a third sister would have made sense if it was left as a loose thread for the sequel to tie up. Charity’s existence could have served a purpose in the long run once A Simple Favor 2 came to fruition, but only if she was still alive. Charity’s survival would have set up the perfect twist in A Simple Favor 2 by having her show up in the sequel, mirroring the initial twin sister reveal from the first movie. However, the fact that she was stillborn prevented this from happening, making the whole triplet thing pretty pointless.

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A Simple Favor 2 Still Has To Bring Back Jean Smart For Emily’s New Murderous Twists

Jean Smart Played Emily A.K.A. Hope & Faith’s Estranged Mother In A Simple Favor

Since Charity can’t appear in the sequel, Emily’s estranged mother Margaret (Jean Smart) needs to return in A Simple Favor 2. Margaret is introduced in A Simple Favor when Stephanie visits her to find out more about Emily and her secret twin sister. She shows major contempt for Faith due to her bad behavior and addiction struggles as a teenager. Margaret clearly (and correctly) believes that her daughters started the house fire that killed their father, but she seemingly hasn’t heard from them since.

If Margaret makes a surprise appearance at Emily’s wedding, it could lead to more shocking reveals about their family.

A Simple Favor does not show Margaret finding out that Faith is dead or that Emily a.k.a. Hope admitted to killing both her and their father and was sent to prison. On the off chance that they make amends sometime before the sequel begins, Emily may invite her mother to her wedding. However, if Margaret makes a surprise appearance at Emily’s wedding, it could lead to more shocking reveals about their family. Depending on what her presence dredges up, Jean Smart’s return as Margaret in A Simple Favor 2 could make up for the lost Charity plot twist.

• A Simple Favor

  Based on the novel by Darcey Bell, A Simple Favor stars Anna Kendrick as Stephanie, a widowed mother and vlogger who becomes friends with the wealthy mother of one of her son’s classmates, a woman named Emily. When Emily suddenly and inexplicably disappears, Stephaine begins to search for her and in doing so uncovers a series of dark secrets about Emily’s past. Blake Lively and Henry Golding also star. 

  Cast

  Eric Johnson , Linda Cardellini , Joshua Satine , Jean Smart , Henry Golding , Anna Kendrick , Blake Lively

• A Simple Favor 2

  In A Simple Favor 2, we see the return of Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) as they head to the beautiful island of Capri, Italy, for Emily’s extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman. Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSVP for a wedding with more twists and turns than the road from the Marina Grande to the Capri town square. The film is targeting a spring start-of-production and will be available to stream on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

  Cast

  Blake Lively , Anna Kendrick , Henry Golding , Andrew Rannells , Bashir Salahuddin , Joshua Satine , Ian Ho , Kelly McCormack , Allison Janney