Susie Searches (2023) is a story straight outta a pulp fiction enthusiast’s closet. It tries to make sense, whereas it doesn’t make any. A middling combination of crime and humor, this unhealthy marriage needed more froth to create enough lather to rinse the dirty linen. It boils but never cooks. It excites but never satisfies. And it is always too close to hitting it out of the park, yet very far from it at the same time. There are lots of instances where we are led to think that it actually could have worked. Had the director worked out the story logistics, many inconsistencies could have easily been removed. But the result is not pacifying though certainly mystifying.
Here, I dive deeper into the story and explain its ending.
Susie Searches (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Susie Wallace is a young adult true crime podcaster based in Ohio. From childhood, she had a rare talent for guessing the culprit in mystery detective novels, much to the annoyance of her mother, who read her those stories. Her mother is bedridden, and she works part-time at a diner to earn money for her medical expenses. Also, her true crime podcast has a dismal audience, forcing her to work at that place. It doesn’t help she has close to no friends at her college.
Her diner owner, Calbot, shows some weird interest in her. She goes to the local sheriff’s police station to convince them to hire her as an assistant. They dismiss her arguments as they have already got their hands full. The sheriff receives a piece of troubling news. A popular college meditation mentor, Jess, goes missing. She grabs this opportunity to dive into this case and solve the crime herself.
She investigates Jesse’s family background and finds that his uncle, Lawrence Wilcox, has a history of misdemeanors. Additionally, she finds many of his dad’s properties are officially unlisted. She goes to one such abandoned estate and finds Jesse tied to a chair in the basement. Her rescue missions turn her into an overnight sensation, and her podcast’s listeners soar tremendously, catapulting her to the heights of fame.
But it turns out to be a ruse. She had actually stalked Jesse, collected information about his daily routine, and kidnapped him to plant herself as the rescuer. She goes to her hideout and burns all the evidence except his nightcap. A local news channel conducts their interview where Jesse offers her to join him at dinner with his friends as a token of gratitude.
There, Ryan, Jesse’s friend, starts grilling her about the repetitive words in all her interviews. Susie becomes rattled and leaves the dinner. Jesse comes out and thanks her for her help, while Susie seems impressed by him. Unfortunately, her co-worker at Calbot’s diner doesn’t share the same enthusiasm. Her college principal coerces them to attend a morning talk show in LA. Meanwhile, the sheriff indirectly warns her that she might be on their suspect list. She finds Ryan stalking her, who says he is looking for Jesse. She assures him that Jesse can trust her.
The morning talk show gives a flirtatious swing to Jesse and Susie’s mutual admiration. At night in their hotel room, Jesse and Susie bond over their shared trauma, and he has a flashback episode. He is unable to eat after recalling a particular instance where the kidnapper instructed him on how to calm himself. Afterward, he receives the information that his uncle is free of charges since he was in Peru at the time of the crime. Susie loses the ground beneath her feet, and Jesse leaves for home with her.
When she reaches home, she hears suspicious footsteps in her room above. There, she finds Ryan, who shows the nightcap in his hand, revealing he knows everything about what she was up to. He requests her to get psychiatric help and claims to understand her motivations. She has a baseball hat in her hand, and he accidentally slips off the window while taking back steps resulting in instant death. She wears fully covered nylon gloves and apparel to dispose of his body in a famous suicide spot so that it appears to be the same. The next morning, Jesse confesses he was in a secret relationship with Ryan and knows he won’t kill himself, shattering Susie’s heart. She tells her mother about this heartbreak.
She becomes overly suspicious after the police recover DNA from the crime scene. One of the officers tails her, which further disorients her. Asking her listeners to send their presumed suspects, she then goes on to make a list based on their responses. In fact, her employer Calbot turns up as the prime bait for the police. She goes down to the station and plants Calbot’s hair she cut in the evidence box.
Then, Susie goes to Calbot’s den, where she finds his collection of stuffed pet animals he killed. Obviously. he goes on to threaten and injure her, and just when he is about to kill her, the sheriff arrives and shoots him to death. All suspicions around her dissipate. At a late-night talk show, the interviewer asks her how she survived the ordeal. She gives the same tip she gave to Jesse when feeding him during his confinement period.
Susie Searches (2023) Movie Ending, Explained –
Who was Edgar Calbot?
Edgar Calbot was her employer at the food joint, where she worked part-time. Moreover, he had a history of misdemeanors, especially the killing of animals, which hinted at his sociopathic tendencies. Susie chose him as her target to frame for her kidnapping as he already had a strong criminal record which could easily get him behind bars.
Why did Susie visit Calbot’s home?
She went to his home to keep Jesse’s nightcap, the incriminating evidence, in his drawer to implicate him in her crime. The twisted den shocked her with imagery of brutal animal torture and violence. Calbot found her, and she tried deep breathing to ameliorate her panic before being rescued by the Sheriff.
What happened at the late-night talk show?
The host asked her how she coped with the situation. She said she imagined an ocean and took three deep breaths, just like her mother told her. In fact, this was the same technique she told Jesse earlier when he refused to eat in her captivity. Hence, Jesse quickly recognizes that Susie is the actual kidnapper. Susie also realizes her mistake that she gave herself away. All her crime novel reading, careful precision, and planning ended with a big thud. A simple slip of words, a moment of unawareness, led her to dive into the mud and demolish all her efforts in a single swift stroke of the proverbial axe.
