The final chapter of the ‘After’ series lets its toxic protagonist off the hook way too easily.
After Everything tries hard to absolve Hardin of his harmful actions towards women and rewards him with an undeserved happily ever after.
Hardin’s history of deceit and betrayal with Natalie makes his character even worse, rather than humanizing him or indicating growth.
After Everything uses image-based sexual abuse as a plot device for Hardin’s redemption arc, sending a dangerous message to teenage girls.
After Everything, the final installment of the After franchise, made its way to Netflix on January 13, ending the steamy, Wattpad-inspired series on a chaotic note, begging you to forget everything you know about Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin). Protagonist Tessa takes a backseat, with Josephine Langford getting very little screen time, and instead introducing a new love interest for Hardin in Natalie (Mimi Keene), who he harmed in similar ways long before he met Tessa. We’ve seen Hardin manipulate and emotionally abuse Tessa throughout the past four movies, but instead of humanizing him or indicating character growth, his history with Natalie somehow manages to make his character even worse. After establishing his years-long pattern of devious behavior, After Everything absolves Hardin of the harm he’s caused multiple women and brings the series to a close by rewarding him with an undeserved happily ever after.
What Is ‘After Everything’ About?
For its fifth and final film, After Everything ditches Tessa as the protagonist in favor of Hardin, focusing on his life after their breakup as he struggles to write his second novel and move on from Tessa. Written and directed by Castille Landon, After Everything is the first and only film in the series not based on Anna Todd’s titular novels, but on an original story written by Landon herself. Todd’s book series ends with After Ever Happy, but the 2022 film adaptation of the same name ended with “to be continued…” This left viewers confused as to the future of the franchise, especially with the announcement of a forthcoming prequel about Hardin’s childhood and a sequel about Tessa and Hardin’s children. However, Voltage Pictures confirmed in 2023 that After Everything would be the last film in the series, and thus serves as something of a hybrid prequel/sequel, showing Hardin’s downward spiral after the events of the previous film, and a brief glimpse into his behavior years before his relationship with Tessa.
After Everything opens with a wedding that appears to be Tessa and Hardin’s –– but is later revealed to be Landon (Chance Perdomo) and Nora’s (Kiana Madeira) –– followed by a recap of Tessa and Hardin’s breakup at the end of the previous film. While Tessa has moved on with her life in New York City, Hardin sulks in London with the deadline for the draft of his next book looming. His mother encourages him to get out of the city, mentioning Natalie from Hardin’s past who moved to Lisbon.
After Hardin flies to Portugal and shows up to Natalie’s work unannounced, we get a five-year flashback to the day he and Natalie first met. After losing his watch during a game of poker with a friend, Hardin accepts a bet to have sex with Natalie and record video proof of their hook-up in order to win the watch back. Hardin succeeds, and despite reassuring Natalie the video would be kept private, sends it to said friend, resulting in the video being posted online and ruining Natalie’s life, prompting her to leave the country.
Hardin’s deceit and betrayal of Natalie brings to mind the beginning of his relationship with Tessa, which also began as a cruel, self-absorbed bet to sleep with a woman he perceived to be prude or hard to get. Tessa forgives him for his initial lies in the first film, but their relationship is never smooth sailing from then on, and when she finds out that Hardin published a book about their relationship and her trauma without asking her, it appears to be the last straw in their relationship.
After Everything clumsily tries to hold Hardin accountable for his actions when Natalie tells him, “it’s not nice being exposed without your consent,” after finding out that he published his best-selling book without Tessa’s permission. Even his attempts to make amends with Natalie involve crossing boundaries, with Hardin showing up in Lisbon and going to her place of work unannounced, to apologize for a life-altering betrayal (and literal crime), that he clearly never learned from. Natalie’s character is used exclusively to attempt to convince viewers that Hardin deserves a redemption arc, as she encourages him to move on from Tessa just as she moved on from what he did to her.
Hardin Needs Therapy, Not a Relationship
Just as After Everything teases a Tessa/Hardin wedding at the beginning of the film, we’re also at some point led to believe that the series might actually end with Hardin and Tessa going their separate ways, with Tessa living her life in New York City and Hardin learning how to move on. Instead, after we’re shown Hardin’s history of criminal behavior, we’re expected to still root for him and Tessa to get back together, when he should be going to therapy and staying far away from Tessa.
As soon as they reunite at Landon and Nora’s wedding, Hardin does apologize and Tessa is more than ready to take him back, and even apologizes to him for pulling away after she read his manuscript. Despite the majority of After Everything following Hardin as he tries to move on from Tessa and learn from his behavior, he’s ultimately still rewarded with Tessa’s open arms, and the film predictably ends with them getting back together and starting a family.
The After series has never been the most progressive in terms of its treatment of women, but After Everything does a disservice to both of the women Hardin has hurt, using image-based sexual abuse –– a serious and ever-growing problem–– as a plot device for his redemption arc. After Everything expects the audience to root for Hardin and Tessa to end up together because, as Tessa says, “We’re inevitable,” but this is a dangerous message for a film marketed towards teenage girls. Despite the film attempting to convince us Hardin has changed and grown from his mistakes with Tessa, his history with Natalie becomes a massive red flag that we’re expected to overlook once they reunite. After Everything rewards Hardin for pulling Tessa back into the cycle of abuse and passes this off as a happy ending.
After Everything is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.
