After a theatrical run earlier this year, The Tutor has arrived on Netflix in the US and the thriller’s many twists and turns have left viewers in a spin and wanting its ending explained.
*WARNING Spoilers ahead for The Tutor* — Starring Garrett Hedlund, Victoria Justice and Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp, The Tutor follows in the footsteps of many a Netflix thriller, such as the unsettling Tin & Tina, as its plot gets increasingly complex with each new dramatic revelation, leading to a jaw-dropping – or potentially eye-rolling – ending.
The Tutor plot
This film is about Ethan, who works as a tutor for a wealthy teenager called Jackson. He receives a staggering $2,500 per day to help him.
Ethan will be tutoring Jackson at his family’s mansion but once he arrives at the lavish home, he is struck by the fact Jackson is home alone, except for his sleazy cousin Gavin who is apparently staying for the summer, as the teenager’s parents are nowhere to be found.
As Ethan begins his sessions with Jackson, he starts to develop suspicions of the boy as Jackson appears to know more about Ethan than he lets on, alarmingly asking about how Ethan’s girlfriend Annie is pregnant, despite Ethan having never mentioned it.
Despite rocky few days, one of which sees Jackson hit himself in the leg repeatedly, Ethan receives a call from his agency to tell him that Jackson’s absent father is eager for the sessions to continue at three times the original price.
The whole affair takes a worrying turn though when Jackson drugs Ethan with some spiked strawberries and the tutor awakens to find himself almost drowning in a lake and that photos of him in compromising positions with some of Gavin’s female friends have been taken on his camera – something that could be used to blackmail him as he has previously been unfaithful to his girlfriend Annie.
Jackson’s torment of Ethan is only just beginning, however, as he manages to get the tutor fired from his agency after claiming that Ethan had been abusing him, using the self-inflicted bruises on his leg as evidence.
Ethan’s arrest is made worse by police, who received CCTV video of Ethan attacking Jackson in a back alley.
The drama continues as Jackson tells Annie that Ethan dated a woman named Rachel Platt, who mysteriously died a decade earlier.
Ethan killed Rachel, but why?
Ethan killed Rachel Platt.
After learning about Rachel, Annie kicks Ethan out until he is ready to come clean which prompts the disgraced tutor to confront Jackson about Rachel’s death and they agree to meet at a bay-side manor where her body was found.
Jackson makes the shock revelation that Rachel Platt is his mother. He accuses Ethan, despite Ethan’s claim that she drowned herself.
As Jackson’s interrogation continues, he reveals that Rachel had been pregnant at the time of her death, likely with Ethan’s child, and that she had kept a diary where she explained her growing fear of Ethan and that he was becoming increasingly unstable and violent towards her.
With the truth revealed, Ethan snaps and attacks Jackson and his cousin Gavin, killing the latter, before chasing his former student through the house until Jackson finds himself cornered at the manor’s boatyard.
Annie, who had previously installed a GPS tracker on Ethan’s phone as a way of preventing him from being promiscuous, had followed him to the manor and overheard Ethan finally admitting to Jackson that he did in fact murder Rachel.
Ethan turns against his girlfriend to keep his secret. He then tries to murder Annie, but Jackson shoots him, making Ethan fall in the water that his mother drowned.
That seems to be the end of that but a police search the next morning fails to recover Ethan’s body.
The Tutor end explained
The ending of The Tutor reveals Ethan has survived his gunshot injury to the shoulder. He is shown interviewing for a new tutoring job as if it had never happened.
Ethan’s survival shows that Jackson’s efforts to get justice and closure for his mother’s death ultimately failed.
While he was able to get confirmation that Ethan was responsible for Rachel’s death, the murderous tutor was able to escape and is free to kill again.
Even though The Tutor seemed to be painting Jackson as an unhinged stalker for much of its runtime, the revelation that Ethan turned out to be his mother’s killer shows that you can’t always judge someone on first impressions.
The Tutor can be streamed now at Netflix After being added to streaming services on July 8, 2023, the US.