Is the woman in the window a psychopatic killer?

The woman in the house across the street in front of the girl in the window, Netflix series, starring Kirsten Bell.

First of all, lets address the elephant in the room: Isn’t this a really long title for a series? I vaguely recall some other movies seen in the early 2000s, about the girl next door or was it girl in the window. Wasn’t there some thriller movies with this title/topic?

This series shows an upperclass suburban woman, Anna (Actress Kirsten Bell), very depressed from a previous tragedy.

Have you binge watched the Netflix series already?

Slowly the series starts unraveling the life of this lonely woman. She is an alcoholic, with a habit of taking prescription pills, which are not recommended to be taken with alcohol. Her psychiatric doctor prescribes her these. His identity is kept secret and will be revealed only later. They don’t want us to know who he is. I actually don’t know why he was revealed later.

Did you have that “aha” moment? Or where you surprised when he was revealed?

I mean it angered me even more, that he had not been there for her and even given her prescription pills without checking her alcohol consumption before! I can’t believe it. Where has he been all this time? By giving her space and letting her grieve alone? If you haven’t seen it yet, big spoiler, it was her ex husband, Douglas (Actor Michael Ealy).

He is a psychiatric doctor, working in prison with serial killers. Douglas and Anna had a daughter, Elizabeth, who they loved very much. The storyline slowly builds up, uncovering Annas trauma, since the death of her daughter. Her fear of rain, her drinking problems, the hallucinations of her late daughter. It all slowly comes together. Revealing that her daughter has been killed and eaten by a serial killer, on “go with your parents to work” day.

That day, he was working with a serial killer interviewing him, while young Elizabeth was with him in the room. When he exited the room to talk to a supervisor, she was left without supervision and the room was locked from the inside, leaving Elizabeth and the serial killer alone.

All this happened on a rainy day. Since this terrible murder happened, Anna has never been the same since. Honestly, I don’t know why they wanted to add to the story such a gruesome murder of her own daughter, me as viewer I would have understood Annas grief also without this terrible murder. Plus the story is so extreme, nearly unbelievable.

Why wasn’t there a guard in the room?

When the new neighbour, Neil, moves in across the street with his younger daughter, Emma, Anna is so intrigued and interested in them. Usually a painter and a mildly successful artist, now a drunk and lonely woman, confined to in her beautiful big house. Where she sits, on her big white armchair, with a glass full of red wine, in front of her window facing the street. This is also where she became the stalker of her neighbor. Whose house she can see directly from her favorite spot in the house,

maybe she feels less alone sitting there?

To get closer to the neighbor, she makes him a chicken casserole and brings it over to his house, like a good suburban woman should do. He asked her to stay for dinner, that he got some wine to share. She agrees to stay and they make a genuine connection, also with his daughter, who loves to paint. After dinner, she reads Emma a bed time story. While she leaves, Anna and the Neil have a moment of eyes glaring and hand touching, while he passes her the clean casserole dish.

This chicken casserole is a continuous theme in the series. She would make one, when visiting someone unannounced. It is the only dish she cooks during the netflix series.

Why, we discover later in the series, do you know?

The whole tremendous stalking, on instagram and in real life, began when she meets his girlfriend, Lisa (Actress Shelley Henning). Beautiful flight attendant, who was at Neils house, exactly the morning after their dinner. At that time, Anna brings Emma some markers for drawing. Anna feels out of place, tries to give the present to Neils daughter, but Lisa freezes her out with a smile. Somehow threatened by her presence.

Did something like that ever happen to you?

From that moment on, Lisa is the bad girl of the show. Anna even sees her later that day throwing away the markers she got for Emma and confronts her. The tensions are high, so when she goes home, she searches for her instagram, and it is public. When she finds someone who comments on all her pictures, she gets curious and clicks on him. His instagram is private and has sexy name. So she makes a new sexy profile and adds this guy. After seeing a picture with Lisa on this ripped guys lap, Anna is convinced that Lisa is cheating on Neil.

All this to build up to the murder, Anna witnesses. Yes, the murder of Lisa, who she sees from the window, holding her blood flowing neck, that had just been stabbed. Lisa looks Anna right in the eyes from across the street. She immediately calls the police from her armchair, where she has been drinking a big full glass of red wine and taking a prescription pill. The inspectors go to the neighbor and ask about the murder, finding no signs and ending up not believing Annas story. Eventually even thinking she invented or hallucinated the whole story.

Would you believe her?

I really enjoyed the suspense, the small episodes and the slow uncovering of bits and pieces of the story. Since the main character is not very stable, we had to understand if we can trust her. Kirsten Bell did a great job, in keeping us on edge yet making us love this character.

Did you trust her?

For a moment, I really doubted her, when she gets questioned by the detectives. Then I remember, her fear of the rain and that night when she witnessed the murder, she ran over to the Neils house, but passed out on the street because her trauma of the rain paralyzed her. Soon later, a mysterious someone brought her back home and laid her on the couch.

Why should that have happened if she was culpable?

We always hear rumbling in the attic, but never understands what it is.

What did you think it is? Who did you suspect?

I did not really suspect anyone. Besides mice or birds who usually can live in attics. Then, big reveal, no it is this ex convict who seems odd since the beginning.

Didn’t we all for a moment think he was the murderer? Yes, I did.

No, it wasn’t him!

Many side-stories, like the real identity and the criminal lifestyle of Lisa (actually a stripper), the school teacher of Emma and the friend of Anna, who always keeps startling her. All to distract us from the real culprit. The little girl Emma, who murders not only the man living in the attic, but also her own father. The end of the series show this massacre and something super weird, the fight between Anna and Emma, which finishes with Anna killing Emma.

This little girl is a serial killer, who killed also her own mother and school teacher. Nobody would have believed Anna, if it wasn’t for her ex husband Douglas, who came to the scene because he was concerned about their phone call, which was cut off by Anna running to the neighbours.

The greatest inconsistency in the story is the ending.

How does a small kid, 8 or 9, kill someone in the house, clean up everything and get rid of the body, all alone? The body was found only weeks later in the forest somewhere nearby. How can a 9 year old pull that of? Many questions left unexplained about this murderous little child. Please help me out if I missed some important detail.

What are your thoughts about the ending of the series?

By the way, Anna loves making chicken casserole, because her en used to love that dish. The question remains, is Anna a killer? Yes, she is, not a psychopathic one, but she kills Emma in self defence, thus she is a murderer. Maybe she also released herself in this ways from the trauma and the depression she had after the murder of her own daughter? Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she fell even in a deeper hole then before. I mean, she had to kill a serial killer little girl, right? But no after that, she is back painting, even rekindling the relationship with Douglas and having a baby? So she overcame the trauma?

Let me know in the comments.