At the very end of the Netflix limited series Echoes, the fate of the twins is revealed, in a sense, but questions as to their true identity linger. Spoilers ahead for the ending of Echoes.
Gina and Leni (played by Michelle Monaghan) have been switching identities every year on their birthday since the birth of Leni’s daughter, spending a year living each other's life. Gina, a writer, is married to her former therapist Charlie (Daniel Sunjata) and they have a life together in Los Angeles. Leni is married to Jack (Matt Bomer) and they have a life together in Mt. Echo, where the twins grew up.
Echoes begins with Leni going missing. In reality, though, the missing twin is actually Gina, who was pretending to be Leni. Gina was trying to escape the twisted situation Leni put her in. From a very early age, Leni controlled Gina’s life, telling her twin that they had to switch places to avoid being caught when things went wrong. This led Gina to become known as the bad twin, and it's the main reason she wanted to start fresh in LA.
Leni and Gina have their final confrontation on a waterfall in the last episode, with Gina leaping from the cliff, presumably to her death. But her body is never found.
The last time we see the twin we know to be Leni, she was fleeing to Australia to avoid murder charges. However, a TSA agent at the airport swore she saw someone who looked just like Leni heading to Kansas the day before, suggesting that Gina is indeed alive and well. The key, though, is that Leni is the only person who knows it.
That leads to a final scene that is certain to raise a lot of questions for not only the characters of Echoes, but viewers as well.
What happens to the twins at the end of Echoes?
At the very end of the series, enough time has passed for Gina’s former husband Charlie to write and publish a book about the twins and their story.
At his reading, a woman dressed in black who bears a striking resemblance to Gina (thanks to her hairstyle) asks about the "sister who killed herself." Charlie confirms that the twin who jumped was his wife, Gina, and that her body was never found. The sheriff suspects the body could have been stuck in the undergrowth, but he adds, "that’s one of the ton of things that could have happened."
Later, Charlie arrives home and we see that someone is there waiting for him. When one of the twins walks up the stairs dressed in a black dress, he doesn’t seem surprised, rather he notes that he felt foolish about not changing the locks after so long. He pours them drinks and adds a garnish to her glass, noting that he remembered "she" liked it that way even though he doesn't know which twin it is. She smiles indulgently.
Charlie mentions the hat and glasses she wore at the reading. She’s confused and tells him she’s been waiting for him at the house for over an hour; this suggests she wasn’t the twin at the reading.
He studies her for a long moment before telling her that he’ll figure it out, eventually. The twin says she might not even know who she is anymore. When asked why she returned, though, she has a very clear answer. "So many scores to settle, Charlie. I thought I should start with you."
What does the Echoes ending mean?
The brilliance of Echoes is that there’s no way to tell which twin was at the reading and which one was standing in Charlie’s house in LA. Was it the same twin or are they both in LA for Charlie’s reading? It's open for interpretation.
It feels like Gina was at the book signing, testing the water to see how her husband would react.
It feels like Leni was at the house because her relationship with Jack was over while her relationship with Charlie was left fairly open-ended and he loved them both, even though Leni wasn’t the woman he married.
Charlie's reaction is also telling. He makes the drink the way he thinks she likes it, but soon we see that he's not sure which twin is there with him.
When it comes to scores to settle, Gina had more reasons to exact revenge for all of the horrible things she’d been subjected to over the years, but Leni was the vindictive one.
Since we all like answers, Monaghan revealed to The Wrap that she believes Gina was at the book signing and that Leni was at the house. Co-showrunner Brian Yorkey explained they had to go with one twin or the other "for Michelle’s sake and for the sake of, you know, the production team, Roland, our awesome costumer. So Gina is at the book reading." He confirmed that they considered Leni to be the twin at the house.
Will there be an Echoes season 2 on Netflix?
At this point there’s no indication that Echoes will receive a second season. It was designated a limited series and that usually signals a single season run. However, with such an open-ended conclusion, there’s room for more if Netflix gave Yorkey and co-showrunner Quinton Peeples a green light for another season.
Yorkey said he's open to a second season, but that will be determined by Netflix and the viewers.
"Netflix and the audience will decide whether the show wants another season. I love the story as we told it. I also — Quinton and I have all sorts of — we’ve been we’ve been pitching each other season 2 since even before we started choosing shooting season 1 because these women are fascinating and this situation is super tangled."
Echoes is now available to stream on Netflix. If you want to learn more about the series, we have a guide to Echoes' filming locations.
