‘Apples Never Fall’ Ending Explained: What Happened To Joy Delaney?

Following the success of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, bestselling author Liane Moriarty’s latest book-to-screen adaptation Apples Never Fall premiered on Peacock Thursday, March 14, telling the twisted tale of the Delaney family and their arsenal of secrets.

The seven-episode limited series from Melanie Marnich follows spouses and former tennis coaches Stan (Sam Neill) and Joy (Annette Bening) after they sell their local tennis academy and embark on what they hope will be a relaxing retirement. To outsiders, the couple and their four adult children — Troy (Jake Lacy), Amy (Alison Brie), Logan (Conor Merrigan-Turner), and Brooke (Essie Randles) — were seemingly picture-perfect, until a stranger named Savannah (Georgia Flood) invaded their lives and Joy mysteriously disappeared.

After Episode 1 introduced us to “The Delaneys” as a unit, Apples Never Fall put Logan, Amy, Brooke, Troy, and Stan under the microscope in their own installments, and the finale solved the long-awaited mystery of the season: What happened to Joy?

As the members of the Delaney family questioned, challenged, and turned on each other, damning secrets were revealed and outlandish, worst-case scenarios started to look like probable realities. So is Joy Delaney dead? Did Savannah kill her? Or worse, did Stan kill his wife? Decider’s Apples Never Fall ending explained has all the answers.

Looking for recap of Apples Never Fall Episode 7, aptly titled “Joy”? Buckle up for some seriously unexpected finale twists.

Apples Never Fall Ending Explained: What Happened To Joy?

In the penultimate episode of Apples Never Fall, we learned that not only was Joy still alive, but she was staying with Savannah of her own free will. The finale takes us back to the start of the story — the day Joy disappeared — and shows events from her point of view. So what the hell happened? It all started when she accidentally hit a pothole and fell off her bike that day, hence the blood and symbolic fallen apples. With her knee bleeding and her bike destroyed, Joy made her way to the side of the road and tried calling all her family members, only to get their voicemail. She wrapped her white shirt (you know, the one the neighbor’s dog digs up?) around her knee and walked home, tossing the bloody garment in the trash can outside before she went inside, which is how the dog picked it up and buried it.

Joy got cleaned up, sorted through the mail, and saw a memoir manuscript from Harry Hadad. She called for Stan, who was in the middle of recording a podcast, and asked if he knew Harry cheated when he was a kid. “You saw it and never said anything. You did the opposite. You defended him against your own son, because he was your prodigy. Your ticket,” Joy said. As the two fought, Joy claimed Stan was too proud to get rid of Harry’s trophies and if it wasn’t for her he’d be a washed up tennis hack. Stan started destroying his office in a fit of rage, and while police thought the audio of the interaction proved Stan physically abused Joy, she’s the one who hit him, giving him that scratch on his face.

When Joy stepped away to cool off she saw all four kids declined her invitation to brunch. She tossed her phone in the laundry basket, grabbed a letter Savannah sent her, walked to a bar, and asked to use the phone. Shortly after her call, Savannah walked in and sat down in front of her. Joy asked why she did it all, and Savannah explained, “I’m not a good person. I’m kind of a con artist. Nothing big or evil — just to survive. I find people who have big hearts and then I move on. I left because Troy paid me to leave.” Savannah declined to share her real name with Joy, but assured her, “It started as a lie, but you were so kind I started to love you and your whole world…[You] made me feel like I was worth something. The happiest I ever was was in your home. I meant what I said in card. You could have asked me to leave a million times, but I gave you something your family couldn’t.” In a way, Joy knew she was right. After all, Savannah answered the phone while the rest of her family ghosted her. When Savannah said goodbye, Joy followed, hopped in the passenger seat, and said, “I don’t believe a word you say. Now let’s go.”

In a present day scene, a lawyer tells Stan that first degree murder means the death penalty or life in prison in Georgia. Though they hired a diving team to find the bag of Harry’s trophies Stan claims he tossed off his son’s boat, the hurricane had delayed the search, so Stan was left struggling to accept that his kids thought he was a killer.

Apples Never Fall takes us back 11 days and shows Joy and Savannah arriving at her home, where Joy decided to spend the night. Since she didn’t bring her cell phone, Savannah said she could use the landline if needed, but Joy decided to let her family miss her for once. Just when Savannah’s intentions seemed pure, she got up in the middle of the night, grabbed a knife, and sliced the phone line, removing Joy’s only form of communication. UH OH! In the morning, Savannah made breakfast and Joy shared how she grew to resent her family. “You wake up one day and you realize the person you were meant to be is gone — you gave her up for people who don’t even see you,” she said. “Something broke between me and Stan.”

In present day, Joy’s kids headed to the family home and sorted through old photos for a future celebration of life. Logan announced he’s moving to Seattle to be with Indira, and as the siblings continued to bond, they found a curious photo of the woman Brooke and Amy visited in the Florida Keys (who they now recognize as Harry Hadad’s mom) alongside…SAVANNAH.

After the shocking reveal, we rewound six days and saw Jo and Savannah gardening together. Savannah apologized, Joy said she didn’t hate her, and a new neighbor interrupted their heart-to-heart to invite them to karaoke night at the only bar in town. Before learning if they accepted, we cut back to present-day where Troy, Logan, Amy, and Brooke were visiting Harry Hadad in hopes of getting some answers.

A concerned Harry hugged them all (yes, even Troy) and explained the woman in the photo with his mom, who they know as Savannah, is his sister Lindsay. Harry had no idea Lindsay lived with their parents because he got a restraining order against her. In recalling his terrible childhood and “delusional, dependent” mother, he said that when he and his dad left, Lindsay had to care for their mom all on her own. When Harry went pro, he sent money but stopped talking to his mom and sister, until Lindsay started threatening his family and showed up in their house with a gun. “I retired, wrote Lindsay a check for $500,000, got an order of protection against her, and prayed that would be the end of it,” he explained.

We travel back in time four days and learn that Savannah and Joy took the nice neighbor up on his karaoke night invite. While Joy belted a hit for the bar, Savannah let people believe she was Joy’s daughter and stealthily scrolled through Amy’s social media accounts to get updates on their search. After a cathartic karaoke experience, Joy told Savannah she was less angry at her family, but Savannah assured her she should stay mad. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “I watched how they treated you. I told Troy they don’t deserve you.” The next morning, Savannah found Joy outside giggling with the neighbor, who finally asked her out for a dinner date. Joy revealed she was married and lived in West Palm Beach, which is when she learned they had a horrible hurricane. She told Savannah she had to call and check on the family, and when the phone was dead, she decided to go home. Savannah, clearly scrambling for a plan, offered to fill up the car with gas while Joy packed. Joy stumbled on a bag filled with money, a gun, fake IDs, and the aforementioned restraining order from Harry Hadad to Lindsay Hadad. Finally aware of who Savannah really was, Joy raced to put the bag back, but when Savannah returned home she saw it had suspiciously fallen on the floor and knew her plan was ruined.

Savannah played it cool and hopped in the car with Joy, only to speed past her turn, which gave Joy a real scare. “My whole life, the idea of a real mom and a real family felt like a fairytale, but when I met you that all changed,” Savannah said. “You’re just gonna go back and I’m never gonna see you again…You went in my room. You know who I am.” Joy tried to calm her down by apologizing to her for her traumatic childhood, but Savannah slammed her foot on the gas until their car crashed. When she came to, she fled the scene of the accident, leaving Joy unconscious in the passenger seat.

Back home, Stan received news that Joy was alive. Cops brought her home safely where her four kids emotionally greeted her, and as Joy told the family Savannah is still on the run, she was baffled to learn police seized some of their belongings as evidence. “It was bad like beyond bad,” her kids said. Just then, Stan returned home looking furious only to embrace Joy and break down crying. She learned he was arrested for her murder, that the kids turned on him, and that the family fell apart, and she apologized…sort of.

“I shouldn’t have left like that,” she admits. “But let me point out that he got to leave all the time and no one thought I killed him. [I left] because I was lonely, and confused, and scared, and Savannah/Lindsay answered the phone, which is more than you all did. It hurt. It hurt every minute of every day that you shut me out. Maybe I needed a break from that. I made some mistakes, but I didn’t deserve to be ignored.”

Later that night, Stan found Joy sitting on their bed and finally gave her the answer she’s wanted for years. “You wanted to know where I went when I left and I never told you. Nowhere. I drove. I slept in a car. Sometimes I just walked. I’ve always told you that my dad died when I was a kid…he didn’t,” Stan said. “I came to this country to get away from him — from who he was. He was a coward, a violent coward who never walked away from anything when he should have.” (Apples never fall far from the tree! Get it?!) Stan said he left so he wouldn’t lose the family, then begged Joy not to leave him. The next morning Joy was shocked to learn all four kids stayed the night for her. They apologized to Stan for turning on him, and Stan reciprocated, taking accountability for years of horrible behavior and even hugging Troy.

Before the series ends, Joy looked outside and saw the hurricane-wrecked tennis court. She walked to it, her family followed, she admitted she “fucked up,” then she said, “Well shake a leg! I’m not gonna clean this up by myself!” They started putting their lives back together, and in the end, the near demise of the Delaney family was all the result of a series of misunderstandings. It may not be the conclusion thriller fans hoped for, but there’s no denying that Apples Never Fall keeps you guessing until the very end.

Apples Never Fall is now streaming on Peacock.