Now that we've watched the entirety of the series... does any of it make sense? In fact, that's all part and parcel of the satire.
'The Woman in the House' had a rather unconventional ending, wouldn't you say? We knew it would be left-of-field, but damn, seeing a little kid wielding a knife and running towards Kristen Bell in an attempt to kill really hit differently.
While we're not afraid to admit to watching every single episode, it was an off-kilter Netflix show that toed the line between comedy, mystery and satire, ultimately creating a viewing experience that didn't really sit right. Even with Bell, Will Ferrell and Jessica Elbaum ('Dead To Me') on board as producers, the muddled-up production fell flat. In our review of the series, we labelled it as not knowing "what it wants to be" and awarded it two and a half stars.
Having said that, however, 'The Woman in the House' ending was undoubtedly the most memorable part of the entire series. Speaking with Collider about that surprise ending, creators Rachel Ramras, Hugh Davidson and Larry Dorf opened up about that season finale.
On the topic of Emma (Samsara Yett) being revealed as the killer all along, Dorf said: "We’ve never seen it done before. We wanted something truly surprising and truly absurd, by that point in the show. We also thought there was something very satisfying about watching Kristen Bell in a savage, brutal, long fight with a little, sweet girl."
And on that surprise cameo appearance on the plane - by Hollywood icon Glenn Glose no less - Ramras said getting the actor on board was a "pinch-me" moment for her: "In talking about it, it was always, 'Someone like Glenn Close,' because she’s the OG of this whole genre. Never in a million years, did we think we’d get her, so it was someone like her.
"And then, one day, I was on the phone with her and her manager, and I gave her the elevator pitch. She said, 'I wanna wear something fabulous.' Two days later, she was on set, filming it. It was a pinch-me moment for all of us, certainly. I can’t conceive of anyone who would’ve been better for that, so it was exciting for us."
Davidson also revealed that if there was no Glenn Close in the final murder on the plane, the team would have had a different ending featuring a prop from earlier in the series: "If we couldn’t have gotten Glenn Close, we could have had the ventriloquist dummy in the seat on the plane."
The creative team said that although 'The Woman in the House...' ending is a cliffhanger, this doesn't mean there's a follow-up season on the way. They were poking fun at all of the various other mystery titles featuring female leads ('The Woman on the Train', 'Gone Girl' etc), that end on a similar note. Ramras added: "It just struck us as very funny that the plots of these books are almost always identical, but they’re bingey, and they’re fun, and they’re exciting, and I could read a hundred of them.
"There’s either women or girls in the title of all of them, so it started with this absurd title. [...] It is a limited series and, in its conception, that’s how it ended. Part of the fun of the ending is that thrilling cliffhanger."
'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window' is available to stream on Netflix.
