By now plenty of viewers have already binge-watched their way through Netflix’s new show One Day, which follows two friends Emma and Dexter throughout their friendship over 20 years. For those who want to recap the finale (perhaps your eyes were too swollen with tears so you missed a moment or two), or for those who aren’t planning to watch but want to know why their friends are sobbing over a Netflix show, here’s what went down in One Day’s final episodes…
The show follows Emma and Dexter’s relationship from 1988, when they meet on their graduation day at university, with each episode checking in on them every subsequent year of their lives as they both go through ups and downs.
While Emma struggles to get her career and love life off the ground, she eventually grows in confidence and becomes a successful children’s author. However, Dex immediately hits big fame and success by becoming a TV presenter but struggles with drugs and alcohol. The loss of his mother also sends him further down a destructive path. His attitude eventually causes him and Emma to have a huge fight, resulting in them not speaking to one another for several years.
The pair reconcile at a mutual friend’s wedding, where Emma is shocked to hear that Dexter is getting married and is expecting a child with his partner, Sylvia. The pair eventually split up due to their mutual unhappiness in the relationship, with Sylvia having an affair while Dexter struggled to find his place in a domestic setting. He travels to Paris to stay with Emma, believing them both to be single at the same time for the first time. However, he is crushed when he discovers that Emma has a new boyfriend.
Upon realising that Dexter wants a serious relationship with her, Emma splits up with her boyfriend and the pair finally get together. The subsequent years share a snapshot of their very happy lives, where Dex opens a cafe while Emma works on her novels as they spend time with Dex’s daughter, try for a baby of their own and get engaged.
However, while looking at a potential new house together, Emma is hit by a car on her way to a viewing and killed.
The following episode - and finale - follows Dexter on the first anniversary of her death as he struggles to cope with the loss, resulting in being beaten up during a drunken night out. Sylvia and his father help him out, and for the following year, everyone close to Dexter and Emma congregates together to spend time with him and surprise him at the new house he has bought for himself.
Despite the awkward meet-up, it ultimately leads Dexter to avoid his usual self-destructive habits, and the episode concludes with him taking his young daughter to the spot in Edinburgh that he and Emma visited on their first date.