How Did "Missing You" End? Unpacking the Netflix Thriller's Final Twists — Including the True Fate of Kat's Father

01/07/2025 12:14 PM

At the end of Netflix's 'Missing You,' Detective Kat Donovan solves both her father's murder and an ongoing missing persons case

Warning: Missing You spoilers ahead!

Harlan Coben's new Netflix series, Missing You, takes ghosting to a whole new level.

The five-part limited series centers around Detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar) as she unravels the mysteries surrounding her fiancé Josh Buchanan's (Ashley Walters) sudden disappearance and the murder of her father Clint Donovan (Lenny Henry).

At the beginning of the show, Kat shockingly comes across Josh's profile on a dating app and matches with him to find out why he left her. After she sends him a song connected to their past, "Missing You" by John Waite, he blocks her.

Despite enlisting the help of her private investigator best friend, Stacey (Jessica Plummer), Kat can't seem to track down Josh. When she finally catches a break and finds Josh, he tells her that he never made the dating app profile.

Related: Meet the Real-Life Loves of the Missing You Cast (Including One Couple Who Co-Hosts Love Is Blind: UK!)

As Kat unravels what happened to Josh, she also finds the answers to her father's cold case murder and solves the other missing persons case she was working on throughout the season.

"What I actually found interesting is that she [Kat] never uses her skills to figure out where he [Josh] went in those 11 years until he pops up on a dating site," Eleazer told Tudum. "I think she could have found out where he went, what happened, but I think she was afraid to find out why he left because that might be heavier."

So, what happens at the end of Missing You? Here's everything to know about the Netflix thriller's final twists.

How does Missing You End?

At the end of the series, Kat is shocked to discover that her father, Clint, was not the idealistic family man she believed him to be, but instead a corrupt cop working for gangster Dominic Calligan (James Nesbitt) who was blackmailing him for being in a secret relationship with a man named Parker (Cyril Nri).

The series ends with Josh confessing that he accidentally killed Clint, and that's why he had to disappear without a trace.

On the night of Clint's death, Kat's friend, and Josh's flat mate Aqua Vanech (Mary Malone), witnessed an argument between Clint and his secret lover Parker, causing Clint to panic. As Aqua returned home, Clint called fellow policeman Ellis Stagger (Richard Armitage) in a frantic hurry, asking him to run an address search for Aqua and send it to him immediately.

Clint then confronted Aqua at her house, pleading with her not to tell Kat about his affair with another man. Aqua reluctantly agreed but told him he should be the one to confess to Kat and her mother. However, when a call from Kat comes through on Aqua's phone, Clint's frustration boils over, and he becomes aggressive.

This leads to a violent altercation, and Aqua grabs a knife to defend herself, which Clint ends up getting a hold of. Josh arrives amid the fight and intervenes, grabbing the knife from Clint and accidentally stabbing him. Stagger arrives just as Clint can share his last words, pleading to him that it's his fault and Kat can never find out.

Stagger, who audiences first know as Kat's boss, covered up Clint's death by paying murderer Monte Leburne (Marc Warren), who was already on trial for multiple murders, to take the fall.

"She gets revelation after revelation, and she doesn't really have time to breathe," Eleazar told Tudum of Kat's solves. "You almost want her to just stop and take a breath, take stock and move forward. But she doesn't. She literally doesn't have a moment to reflect on how much trauma she has been through, and how much trauma she's still going through." 

Who made Josh's profile on the dating app in Missing You?

Josh's profile on the dating app was made by the same people connected to the missing persons case Kat was working on.

As the final episode unravels, Kat figures out that Titus Monroe (Steve Pemberton) and his team create fake profiles on dating apps to lure victims to a remote farm, where they are extorted and even killed.

In the last episode, Kat and her team trace the profiles back to the farm. When Titus realizes that Kat is investigating him, he tries to kill one of his scam victim's sons, Brendan (Oscar Kennedy), who has been working with Kat.

The detective saves both Brendan and his mom, Dana (Lisa Faulkner), by shooting Titus first.

Dana helps free the rest of the captives, the remaining criminals are arrested and the survivors are treated at a hospital.

Where do Kat and Josh stand at the end of Missing You?

After Josh confesses to Kat that he accidentally killed her father, the show ends with the two silently sitting side by side, with the detective reaching her pinky towards her ex's hand.

"That was a really hard scene to shoot," Eleazar told Tudum. "Both Ashley and I were shattered by the end of that day because it was so heavy."

She added, "There's something quite nice about her reaching toward him in the end. I think you could read that in many ways."