‘Heartstopper Forever’ Romance Recap: Who Ends Up Together in the Movie?
Guard your hearts, folks, because Heartstopper is over.
Netflix’s sweet boy-meets-boy (but in a romantic way, not a friends way) series closed out its journey of love and self-discovery with the finale film, Heartstopper Forever, written by series creator Alice Oseman.
The film finds boyfriends Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) and Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) at a crossroads. They are the envy of their friends and the ideal of the perfect couple who seem destined to last forever. But proximity has always kept them within arm’s reach of each other, and that’s about to change. Nick is graduating and heading off to university, forcing them to not only consider long-distance but also their separate futures as life starts to change.
Over the course of the film’s two hours, Nick and Charlie are tested like never before, left to question the viability of young love, and the role they play in each other’s lives. Are they really perfect, or are they just pretending?
But they aren’t alone. For all the couples that have blossomed in this series, the finality of Heartstopper Forever solidifies who will grow up together and who will grow apart. Here’s who ends up with who at the end of Heartstopper Forever.
Heartstopper Forever, Streaming Now, Netflix
Nick & Charlie
We won’t drag this out any longer: Yes, Nick and Charlie stay together at the end of Heartstopper Forever, but they don’t get there without overcoming major hurdles. At the start of the film, they are happy as a lark, having not only devoted themselves to each other but also come out completely. Whether it is kisses in the hallways at school, or hand-holding at parties — to say nothing of their very active (and surprisingly public) sex life — the boys are everything fans hoped for when the cartoon sparks started to fly in Season 1. But they aren’t saying everything that needs to be said. Nick is avoiding the fact that he is entirely defined by how much Charlie needs him, and that’s increasingly less as Charlie gets elected Head Boy and becomes an advocate for his fellow students at Truham.
Pretty quickly, the fractures start to show when Nick begins to drink excessively at one of Charlie’s concerts, almost getting into a fight with a guy who is flirting with Charlie. Unsure of what he wants to do with his life, let alone the thought of being away from Charlie, Nick spirals into a hot mess, to put it bluntly. He gets aggressive on the rugby pitch (well, more than the standard aggression necessary for the sport), and eventually he just kind of loses it at a party. At the same time, the stress of their issues begins to trigger Charlie’s eating disorder, causing Nick to become a helicopter boyfriend, which doesn’t help the situation, regardless of how sweet it is. Ultimately, he pushes Charlie away by saying breaking up might be best for both of them, and Charlie is too stunned to fight back.
After some time apart, though, and some soul-searching on Nick’s part (his abandonment issues are rooted in his absentee father), the boys migrate back to each other. Charlie develops the candid photos he encouraged Nick to take to commemorate his senior year, and uses them to invite Nick to where they began — the beach where they declared themselves boyfriends. After some heart-stopping back and forth, the two reunite and agree to be better boyfriends with their own lives, instead of just living for each other. Nick decides to go to Leeds, which is just a train ride for Charlie, and in the end, they make it work. They even go back to the room where they shared their first kiss. Maybe young love is destined to be fleeting, but not for Nick and Charlie. They defied the odds, thank goodness!
Elle & Tao
One of the biggest shocks of the film is that Tao (William Tao) and Ellie (Yasmin Finney) have become the on-again, off-again couple of the group. Despite all that work to finally get Tao to admit his feelings and turn these cinephiles into something more, they can’t seem to make it work for more than a few weeks at a time.
Tao is still a bit wayward, while Elle has always known exactly what she wanted to do in life: to be an amazing artist and a profound activist. She is well on her way before she’s even out of high school, and that drive and passion have always been a sore spot for Tao. But in the end, perhaps encouraged by Nick and Charlie’s reunion, Tao surprises Elle in Berlin while she is showcasing her work, giving audiences some hope that these two may be on again — for good.
Tara & Darcy
With limited time, the film doesn’t have as much space for the other couples, and Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) are definitely the ones that get the least quality time in the finale. But in many ways, that’s a good thing because these two crazy kids are doing just fine. They have found a groove, they communicate well, and the problems of the past seem to have melted away.
Does that mean they aren’t still going through rough patches? Nope, but the film doesn’t harp on them. Tara and Darcy just get the good stuff here at the end, which finds them jetting off on a backpacking trip hand in hand.
Tori & Michael
If fans of Heartstopper only know the story from the TV series, they might not know that Tori Spring (Jenny Walser), Charlie’s protective sister, is actually the origin of Oseman’s story. The first story published in 2014 was called Solitaire, and featured Tori as the main character, as she came to terms with her asexual identity. Nick and Charlie were first introduced as part of her story.
But it isn’t until Season 3 that viewers see Tori find a companion in Michael (Darragh Hand), a gentle giant of a man who seems to complement her bookish demeanor. Only in Heartstopper Forever does Tori share with Charlie her asexual identity, and express to him that she and Michael just work. As they watch him speed skate (he really is an eclectic guy!), she says their companionship isn’t something everyone will understand, and it is not something that is guaranteed to work forever. But it works for them now, and that’s all that matters. Good enough for us!
Mr. Ajayi & Mr. Farouk
Low-key one of our favorite slow-burn relationships of the last few years, the soft-spoken attraction between Mr. Ajayi (Fisayo Akinade) and Mr. Farouk (Nima Taleghani) really paid off for fans. Mr. Ajayi has been Charlie’s rock at school since the beginning, giving him shelter from the bullies and the advice to keep going. He deserves to have his own love story, and he finds it right down the hall. After their beautiful side-quest storyline in Season 2 during the Paris trip, these two are still going strong and confirm their relationship to their students in the film. Like us, the gang couldn’t be more excited for Truham’s coolest (and hottest) teachers.
Imogen
Imogen (Rhea Norwood) has come a long way by the end of Heartstopper Forever and seems to have found who she is and who she likes. In the film, she tells Nick that she now identifies as a lesbian, which is something she has wrestled with since Season 2 when she had a brief relationship with Sahar (Leila Khan). While she ends the series without a romantic partner, she seems quite proud about where she’s at, especially given where she started, fawning over Nick outside the school gates when his attention was on the lanky kid in his homeroom. The scene in the film between Imogen and Nick reminiscing on those mornings is very sweet, and acknowledges they have drifted apart, but their friendship has been important to both of them.
Issac
Sweet, sweet Issac (Tobie Donovon). His life motto has always been to read like no one is watching, and that doesn’t change in the finale film. He remains proudly himself. And as an aromantic asexual, he gets to watch all the messy relationship drama in his friend group from a safe distance with his books. Our drama-free king!
