‘The Postcard Killings’ Ending Explained: Why Did Jeffrey Dean Morgan Let the Killers Go?

The 2020 crime drama The Postcard Killings is trending on Netflix this week, because, apparently, audiences just can’t get enough of movies about serial killers. This one is based on on the 2010 novel The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund. Why did they change the title from “Killers” to “Killings?” No idea! It’s just one of many things about this cop thriller that doesn’t make sense.

Directed by Danis Tanović, with a screenplay by Tove Alsterdal, Ellen, Brown Furman, Liza Marklund, Andrew Stern, and Lena Štivičić, The Postcard Killings is all over the place. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, aka Negan from The Walking Dead, stars as a grizzled cop hunting down the serial killer who mutilated his daughter on her wedding day. But what ought to be a simple story is instead convoluted and confusing. Lucky for you, Decider is here to help.

Read on for a complete breakdown of The Postcard Killings plot summary and The Postcard Killings ending, explained.

The Postcard Killings movie plot summary:

Jacob Kanon (played by The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a New York City cop who gets the worst call a father can get: His daughter is dead. She’s not just dead—she and her new husband were brutally murdered while honeymooning in London. A mysterious sick killer drained their blood, mutilated their bodies, and stuffed other body parts from other victims in their orifices. The killer also positioned the bodies in a couples’ embrace on the bed.

Jacob quickly grows frustrated by the British police investigating his daughter’s murder. It’s clear to him that this is the work of a serial killer—there have been other murders across Europe that left similarly mutilated bodies in embraces, including a previous murder in Madrid. When Jacob hears on the news that a local London journalist received a cryptic postcard that the authorities believe was sent by the killer, Jacob corners that journalist in a parking garage. (That’s the place meet journalists, after all.) The British journalist confirms to Jacob that a Spanish reporter also received a postcard before the murders in Madrid. We also see snippets of an American couple traveling across Europe who meet a scary-looking Russian dude on the train, and we assume they are the next victims.

After the serial killer strikes again in Munich, Jacob meets with a German detective on the case, Inspector Klaus Bublitz (played by Joachim Król). Jacob wants to know if the inspector has found his daughter’s hands, which were missing from her mutilated body at the crime scene in London. Jacob knows the killer has a habit of leaving body parts from other victims at the scene of new murders, and he hopes to find his daughter’s hands so he can bring her entire body home for a proper burial. The German inspector didn’t find the hands, unfortunately.

Meanwhile in Sweden, a journalist named Dessie (played by Cush Jumbo) receives a postcard that reads, “Love never dies…” Soon after, a couple is murdered in Sweden. Surprise: It was the scary-looking Russian dude and his girlfriend who got murdered! That makes the American couple who was hanging out with them look mighty suspicious. Jacob watches as the authorities question the married couple, Sylvia Randolph (Naomi Battrick) and Mac Randolph (Ruairi O’Connor). Jacob is convinced they are guilty, but their story checks out, so the authorities let them go.

Jacob relays his suspicions about the married couple to his ex-wife, Valerie (Famke Janssen), who is back in New York. Valerie does some digging and discovers that Mac is the son of a Wall Street businessman who was arrested on fraud charges—because his son, Mac, ratted him out. Valerie pays a visit to Mac’s father, Simon (played by Denis O’Hare) in prison. She learns that Simon was an abusive father to both Mac (whose real name is also Simon) and his older sister, Marina. He loved art, but he didn’t love his children. Their mother killed herself, and both children were left with their abusive father.

Meanwhile, the killers murder more people. Jacob teams up with Dessie, the journalist from Sweden, hoping to crack the code of the postcards. When Valerie tells them what she learned from Simon, they realize that the suspicious American couple are actually brother and sister, aka Simon and Marina Haysmith. The reason they are obsessed with killing couples, positioning the bodies in embraces, and writing postcards about love is because they are upset that their kind of love—aka incest—is not accepted by society.

Dessie decides to write an op-ed piece as an open letter to the serial killers. She hopes to get a response that could help authorities track the killers down. In the letter, Dessie says she understands their pain and their message and begs them to stop killing people. It works: The couple emails Dessie to thank her for the story, and to say that “the curtain is pulled back.” Dessie and Jacob conclude that is a reference to the Iron Curtain, because of the couple’s Russian heritage.

The authorities trace the email to a computer in Italy. But Jacob insists that the path of the recent killings and the Iron Curtain reference mean that the couple is fleeing to Russia. He’s right: When the authorities find the computer, it’s in a trash can on a train—a false lead.

The Postcard Killings movie ending explained:

Jacob and Dessie determine that Simon and Marina must be on the road from their last killing in Helsinki and headed to their home country, Russia. Apparently, there is only one read between Helsinki and Russia. Sure, Jan. Regardless of how little sense that makes, that’s where Jacob and Dessie go. And they are right! They find the couple when they are run off the only road between Helsinki and Russia.

Simon and Marina leave Jacob to die, but they kidnap Dessie. They want to make her their final victim before starting their new life. Why? Don’t worry about it! This movie makes no sense! The couple tries to poison Dessie, but Jacob shows up to save the day before they do so. When Marina tries to lunge for a weapon, Jacob shoots at her. Simon leaps in front of her to take the bullet. Marina drags her brother/lover away in the snow. Jacob neglects to chase after the couple, because, as he tells Dessie, “they have nowhere to go.” Man, this guy is a terrible cop. We watch Simon die as Marina cries over his body.

In the next scene, the German inspector visits Jacob in the hospital. It’s revealed during their conversation that Simon and Marina were adopted, and not biological siblings. The hands of Jacob’s daughter were found, so now he can properly bury her. Jacob asks the German Inspector to let him know when the bodies are Simon and Marina are found. He’s so sure that they died in the snow.

But not so fast: In the last scene of the movie, Simon Sr. receives a call from his daughter in jail. In Russian, Sylvia/Marina says, “Hello, father. It’s me.” With that, the movie ends. Does this mean there’s going to be a Postcard Killings sequel? For all of our sakes, let’s hope not.