‘The Family Stone’ Ending Explained: Who Do Meredith & More End Up With?
The holiday season is officially here, which means it’s time for a necessary rewatch of The Family Stone. The beloved holiday film from 2005 features an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Craig T. Nelson, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, and the late Diane Keaton.
December 16 marks the 20-year anniversary of The Family Stone’s release, so we’re looking back at the film for a refresher on who everyone ended up with. First, let’s quickly recap the established couples in the film.
Sybil (Keaton) and Kelly (Nelson) have been happily married for decades and welcome their family to their home for Christmas. Sybil and Kelly’s son, Thad (Tyrone Giordano), is in a relationship with Patrick (Brian J. White). Susannah, the eldest Stone daughter, is pregnant and expecting her second child with her husband, John (Jamie Kaler). Scroll down for the complete rundown on the rest of the characters.
Who does Meredith end up with in The Family Stone?
The Family Stone centers around the relationship between Meredith (Parker) and Everett (Mulroney). Everett brings Meredith home for Christmas to meet his family for the first time, and they struggle to warm up to the uptight businesswoman, especially after learning that Everett wants to propose with a family heirloom.
After an awkward dinner, which led to a blow-up with the family, Meredith accidentally crashes Everett’s car, and finds comfort in an unlikely place — with his brother, Ben (Wilson). Ben and Meredith get drunk at a local bar, and it’s the first time in the movie that she actually seems relaxed and content. When she wakes up in his bed the next morning and can’t remember the night before, she assumes (incorrectly) that they slept together.
Everett Collection
So, when she thinks Everett is about to propose, she stops him and tells him she can’t marry him. It turns out that he wasn’t going to ask her anyway, as he also realized he had feelings for someone else (more on that below).
At the end of the film, time flashes forward to a year later and reveals that Meredith and Ben are together, but all seems to be copacetic with Everett when they all reunite to spend another Christmas together.
Who does Julie end up with in The Family Stone?
Amid Meredith’s issues with the Stone family, she calls her sister, Julie (Danes), to come and serve as a buffer. The family immediately feels a connection to Julie that they didn’t with Meredith, and they are much more welcoming to her.
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It doesn’t take long for Everett and Julie to realize they have a connection. In fact, before his originally-planned proposal to Meredith, he even asks Julie to try on the family ring so he can see what it looks like. The ring ends up getting stuck, which is how Meredith finds out that Everett was going to ask her to marry him at one point.
Julie slips out and leaves the house as the drama between Meredith, Everett, and Ben unfolds. When Ben points out that Everett doesn’t actually love Meredith, Everett realizes that Julie is the one he wants to be with. He chases her to the bus stop and convinces her to stay.
The one-year time jump shows Julie and Everett arriving to the family Christmas gathering together.
Do Amy and Brad end up together in The Family Stone?
McAdams’ character, Amy (Everett and Ben’s sister), gives Meredith the toughest time out of everyone in the family. During Meredith and Ben’s night out, they run into Amy’s ex Brad (Paul Schneider), whom Meredith had heard mentioned in a few family conversations.
She decides to drunkenly invite Brad to the family’s gathering the next day, and he shows up amid a whole lot of chaos. It ends up working out, though, because he and Amy reconnect and end up together. The flash forward shows them kissing one year later.
What is Sybil’s secret in The Family Stone?
While love plays a huge part in The Family Stone, family is the true theme of the film. In the movie, the family learns that matriarch Sybil’s (Keaton) cancer had metastasized. She had been keeping the news a secret from her family.
Everett Collection
At the end of the film, Meredith gifts everyone a framed photo of Sybil with one of her children. Meredith is under the impression that the baby in the photo was Everett, but Sybil reveals that it’s actually Amy. Everyone is incredibly touched by the thoughtful gesture. The gift, along with Sybil’s cancer diagnosis forcing the realization that life is short, helps everyone finally warm up to Meredith.
The movie’s ending reveals that Sybil died, as she was not present for the Christmas gathering one year later. However, the framed photo is front and center as the family reunites for the holidays.
Will there be a Family Stone sequel?
Following Keaton’s death in October, Thomas Bezucha, who wrote and directed The Family Stone, revealed that there is a sequel in the works.
“I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it, and so this was a blow on a tender bruise already,” Bezucha told CNN in November. “Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.”
He explained that Keaton’s death made him want to “honor her even more” with a new installment to the film. However, Bezucha also noted that he only wants to produce another installment if the rest of the original cast was on board.
While no one has officially signed on and there is no official project in the works, Bezucha said he received a unanimously positive reaction from the original movie’s stars. There is no final version of the sequel script yet.
The Family Stone, Streaming Now, Hulu
