The Stolen Girl ending explained: Does Elisa find her daughter before it is too late?

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

Soon, the twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 5...

The final episode opens with a flashback to five years before Lucia was taken. We see Elisa at work as cabin crew on a private jet, and she is serving champagne to Marcus, who is looking very smart in his business suit, and nothing like the man we have seen in prison over the course of the series.

It cuts to them in bed together at a hotel and Elisa is saying that her pregnancy is going to start showing soon. Marcus says he can't wait to be a father to their baby, but also to Lucia, too, and Elisa says they will soon be a family, but they have to think about Fred, too, as his relationship with Lucia is important. Speaking of fathers, Marcus questions if Elisa wants to go and visit her father as she has just learned that he only has 6 months left to live.

Elisa is cagy about her dad, and Marcus says she can talk to him about anything. She admits that she had a really weird childhood and that her parents always made her feel like she was the one who was doing something wrong, not the other way around. Marcus says he thinks that she might regret it if she doesn't go back and says he will go with her. Elisa points out it might be weird to visit her parents with her lover and her daughter, but he says she needs someone on her side, and he wants to be that person. In the end, she agrees.

The flashback continues to them visiting the commune and meeting Elisa's parents. Marcus is polite as they have lunch, and Elisa's parents grill him on whether he is a religious man or not. Elisa is cold with her father, and when he says it is good to have them all together as a family, Elisa says there is a reason that she hasn't been back and her father leaves the table. Elisa follows him upstairs and she tells him to get away from a sleeping Lucia, and says that she only came back to make sure that he really was dying, and that after today he will never see her or Lucia again. As he tries to stop her from leaving, she shoves past him, and he falls down the stairs.

The episode then jumps to seven weeks after Lucia was taken and Elisa and Selma are on a private jet heading to France. Selma asks for more information about what happened with the crash and Marcus, and Elisa says if she helps her track down Nina, then she will give her the story - all of it.

Nina goes back to get the passport from Joao, but he's not at home, so she waits in the car. While there, she has a flashback to the day of the crash and she is in the car with Nicolas and their daughters, Rose and Josie. Josie feels sick, so they pull over and Nina gets Josie out of the car and takes her to a grass verge to be sick, and while her back is turned, she hears a car speeding down the road and it smashes into their car. Before she has even turned around, she knows it is bad, and when she looks, the other car is speeding away from the crash, and the car with Rose and Nicolas inside is upside down in a tangled mess. We return to the present day, and Nina is in her car, sobbing quietly as she remembers the horror of what happened.

Fred gets home and finds that Elisa has gone and her passport is missing. He calls Sinclair and she is fuming that Selma and Elisa have gone to France and tells her colleague that they need to get to Selma's colleagues at Dash to find out more about her and also work out if they were picked up at the airport or hired a car.

Caleb calls Selma and he isn't happy at all - especially when the police turn up at the office. Once he knows she is in France, he calls her again and this time, she answers. He says this isn't about her job anymore and that she is putting Lucia in danger and also the reputation of Dash Voice on the line. She is also risking being an accessory, and the police already know she and Elisa are in France trying to find Nina. He hangs up after telling her to call Sinclair and tell her everything she knows.

Elisa asks what has happened and Selma says she is pretty sure she just been sacked becasue she hasn't called the police. Meanwhile, Nina gets a notification on her phone that says there is a new suspect in the Lucia kidnapping case, and when she clicks on it, her own photo comes up, leaving her horrified.

Elisa and Selma scour the local schools to see if anyone knows Nina or Josie, but no one will give out information. One teacher says that if Nina doesn't want to be found, maybe she is home-schooling the girls and that they should check with the mayor's office. But while they are talking, they realise Nina's face is all over the news now and Elisa is terrified she is going to panic and run.

Back at Joao's flat, Nina is desperately trying to get the passport for Lucia but ends up having to pay one of his neighbours 500 euros to find him. They track him down, and she gets the passport, but soon she hears police sirens, and Joao tells her she needs to run. She makes it back to her car and it looks like the police might be closing in on her when they suddenly stop and race into the building that she has just left.

At the mayor's office, Selma gets an address for Nina through the homeschooling register and Elisa wants to head there. Selma says they don't know what they are going to be walking into and says they need to call the police, and Elisa reluctantly agrees at last. But, when Selma turns her back to call the police, Elisa drives off, leaving her stranded in the car park.

At the farmhouse, Lucia finds the key for the lockbox after watching Nina opening it the day before. Inside, she finds wads of cash and the photo that Nina was photoshopping with the birthmark printed out, but there is also the same image without the birthmark and this makes Lucia realise that she isn't Nina's daughter. She quickly replaces the box and walks outside, freaking out when she sees the bloodstain on the floor. She follows the trail where Nina dragged Milan's body and looks into the well where she can see him dead at the bottom. Terrified, she runs away, but bumps into the neighbour who brought the wine round the other evening. He asks if she is okay and tells him she needs help.

He takes her back home as Nina arrives back in her car. He tells her that there is a dead man in her well and she tries to act surprised. He says that he tried to call the police, but he doesn't have a signal, and she tells him they also don't have a phone. He tells Nina that Lucia also said she isn't her mother, and Nina tries to whisk Lucia into the house, telling the neighbor he is being ridiculous. He wants to take Lucia becasue she seems scared of Nina, but Nina tells him no. However, when Nina tells the girls to get their bags becasue they are leaving, Lucia runs out of the front door when Nina's back is turned.

Meanwhile, Elisa is driving to the house and arrives to see Nina's car door open and no one in the house. She gets to the girls' bedroom and sees evidence that Lucia has been there, but then in the hallway she sees the blood stain on the floor and fears the worst.

Outside, she follows a path through the garden and sees Josie and Nina running, not realising they are trying to find Lucia, who has run away. Elisa yells at Nina, asking what she has done with her daughter, and she says she is too late and that she has gone.

Nina says that Elisa has taken everything from her, but Elisa says it was an accident, but that her kidnapping Lucia was premeditated. Nina sees red and lashes out, yelling that she left the scene of the accident and lied about what happened - she shoves her against a tree but Elisa overpowers her and tells her to stop.

She admits that she was the one driving the car, meaning she was the one who killed Nicolas and Rose and drove off when Marcus told her to. Nina tells her she went back to her perfect life when she had just ruined everything for her, but Elisa says her life was far from perfect, and that her father sexually abused her from when she was Lucia's age, and her mother just let him. She says she panicked when she saw her father with Lucia that day, and she had to get her daughter out of there, so she grabbed her and ran. She says it was an accident, but she was driving too fast and their car was in the road. She tells her that she should never have driven off and she's sorry.

Elisa assumes that Lucia is dead after seeing the blood stain and asks her to show her where her daughter's body is so she can at least take her home. But Nina finally admits Lucia isn't dead and that she is hiding in the garden somewhere. Elisa runs off to find her daughter and she eventually tracks her down to her hiding spot. Lucia is thrilled to see her mum and they have an emotional reunion where Elisa tells Lucia she is safe now.

Nina drives off with Josie in the car, and Josie asks where Lucia is. Nina tells her she has gone to live with her other family and that it is just the two of them now.

The episode then flashes to 12 weeks after Lucia was found, and Caleb is at court covering a case for the website when he bumps into Selma. He asks her how it is being freelance now and she says it is good, and that she is there to support Elisa, not as a journalist. Caleb asks after Nina and Selma reveals that she has vanished and no one can find her.

Fred is acting as Elisa's defence lawyer and he tells her that whatever happens, they will appeal, but she says she doesn't want to. She tells him she is sorry for what happened and that she loves him, and he says that although George isn't his biological son, he will always love him like he is, and they hold hands across the table.

Elisa knows that she needs to pay for what happened to Nicolas and Rose, and when the judge tells her she has got six years in prison for death by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice, she accepts her fate.

Fred takes George and Lucia to the crazy golf place we saw them visit in the flashback and Lucia asks if they can come back when her mummy is back and that next time her and George are going to win, and Fred says of course they can.

The shot then pans to Elisa, who is alone in her cell as the door slams shut.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.