You’ve probably seen the name popping up in your feed lately. Cherry Laine. If you haven't watched the Prime Video thriller The Girlfriend yet, you’re basically missing out on the most stressful mother-in-law drama ever put to screen. Honestly, it's a lot. The show dropped in late 2025 and it’s still causing massive arguments on Reddit and TikTok because people can't decide who the real villain is.
Is it Cherry, the working-class girl just trying to fit into a world of old money? Or is it Laura, the overprotective mom played by Robin Wright who seems a little too obsessed with her son Daniel?
Most people going into the show think they’re getting a standard "evil girlfriend" story. But then things get weird. Very weird.
Why Cherry the Girlfriend Is Such a polarizing character
The series, based on the Michelle Frances novel, sets up a brutal power struggle. Cherry Laine, played by Olivia Cooke, is young, beautiful, and—let's be real—a massive liar. But the show does this clever thing where it shows you two perspectives. One minute you're seeing Laura’s POV, where Cherry looks like a calculated gold-digger. The next, you see Cherry’s side, where she looks like a victim of a rich woman's paranoia.
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It's messy.
One of the wildest things Cherry does early on is faking a drowning incident just to get Laura to like her. She literally stops breathing in a pool to force a bonding moment. Who does that? Yet, on the flip side, Laura actually tells Cherry that Daniel is dead after a rock-climbing accident just to get her to leave.
That’s the level of unhinged we’re talking about here.
The dark truth about Cherry's past
For most of the season, you’re rooting for Cherry because Laura is acting so diabolical. But then the finale hits. We find out about Cherry’s father, John. Laura tracks him down and finds him paralyzed and unable to speak in a nursing home.
The "accident" that put him there? Yeah, it wasn't an accident.
Tracey, Cherry’s mom, eventually spills the beans. Cherry pushed her father off a building site. Why? Because he was leaving them in debt and she wanted to "make him come back." It turns out Cherry has a history of reacting... poorly... when people don't do what she wants. Her mom’s warning to Daniel at the end is chilling: "Don't be fooled by the good times because sooner or later she'll want something from you... and then she’ll find a way to get rid of you."
That ending: Did Cherry actually win?
If you're looking for a happy ending, look elsewhere. The finale of The Girlfriend is a total bloodbath for the Sanderson family.
During a final confrontation in the pool (pools are a huge theme here, clearly), Daniel thinks his mom is trying to drown Cherry. He intervenes and ends up holding his own mother's head under the water. Laura dies.
- Cherry wins: She gets the house, the husband, and she’s pregnant by the end.
- Daniel loses everything: He killed his mother for a woman who might be a literal psychopath.
- The Phone: The final shot of the season shows Daniel finding Laura’s phone under a sideboard. He hits play on the recording of Cherry’s mom explaining how dangerous Cherry is.
The look on his face? Pure horror. He realize he's trapped. He’s married to the woman who likely pushed her own father off a roof, and he’s just killed the only person who was trying to warn him.
Lessons from the Cherry Laine drama
If there's anything to take away from this show, it’s that trust is a fragile thing. Cherry represents a very specific kind of "dark femme" archetype that’s been trending on "Cherry Emoji Twitter" (CET). It's all about being mischievous, attractive, and unapologetically ambitious.
But there's a line between "securing the bag" and "pushing your dad off a building."
If you're watching the show and trying to spot the red flags, pay attention to the small stuff. The way Cherry threw the family cat, Moses, out a window? Huge red flag. The way she smashed a glass into her own face to frame Laura? Massive red flag.
If you want to dive deeper into the themes of the show, look up the "sunk-cost fallacy" in relationships. Daniel stayed because he'd already invested so much in defending Cherry against his mom. By the time the truth came out, he’d already crossed a line he could never come back from.
To fully understand the nuances of the "Cherry" archetype, you should go back and watch Olivia Cooke’s earlier work like Thoroughbreds. She’s perfected the art of playing characters who lack empathy but are incredibly charming. Understanding how she portrays "emotional blankness" makes her performance as Cherry way more terrifying. Also, keep an eye out for news on Season 2; with that cliffhanger ending, there's no way Daniel and Cherry's "happy" marriage stays quiet for long.
Next Steps:
- Compare the perspectives: Re-watch Episode 3 and Episode 5 back-to-back to see how the "truth" shifts between Laura and Cherry.
- Read the source material: Pick up the original novel by Michelle Frances to see the even darker ending that the TV show decided to change.
- Check the subreddits: Head over to r/TheGirlfriendTVShow to see the latest fan theories about what Daniel does after hearing that recording.