This article contains major spoilers for the ending of A Perfect Story Season 1 Episode 5.
A Perfect Story is a rom-com out of Spain, adapted for Netflix from a book by Elísabet Benavent, so in some respects, you very much know what to expect.
Will they? Won’t they? Do you care? These are the most essential questions of a five-episode miniseries that languishes in admittedly picturesque but ultimately dull climes, mostly treading water in the period of a relationship between meet-cute and commitment that most rom-coms rightly skip over.
Our beaus are Margot, the rich heiress of a hospitality fortune, and David, a man making ends meet by working three jobs who has been left broken-hearted by an ex-girlfriend. Margot has just fled from her own wedding, so a chance meeting with David seems like a good opportunity to make both of their exes jealous while simultaneously — all together now — falling for each other.
It’s an unlikely — therefore likely — romance, then, about two people from very different backgrounds who keep certain details secret for the purpose of late-game plot reveals and character drama. But the show makes a rather obvious effort to muddle the usual formula towards the end, so let’s unpack the overall sweep of the narrative and address some of the most important questions.
A Perfect Story Season 1 Ending Explained
Why do David and Margot part ways?
For a good chunk of the series, David has no idea that Margot is a woman of means, and when he eventually discovers this it leads in a roundabout way to them parting ways since he doesn’t imagine he would be able to provide anything for her given his social status (which is ex made him feel terrible about, hence this very specific anxiety.)
Fearing being the trophy husband of a rich woman, David decides they should go their separate ways.
Do David and Margot end up together?
Despite Margot hoping David would stop her from leaving, the show depicts them moving on separately.
Margot becomes a more assertive vice-president of her company, bringing gender parity to the board and seeing much success. She eventually settles in London, where, despite still being wistful for the one that got away, she meets and falls in love with another man.
David opens a flower shop and it’s there, three years later, that Margot goes to visit him, presumably for one final time. She gifts him an iPod filled with all the songs they listened to during their time together and tells him she’s in love with another man. She leaves, and David doesn’t stop her.
However, this is one potential, mostly imagined outcome, and it is the insistence of the series that the other alternative really took place — David stopped Margot from leaving, and they decided to give their relationship a chance.
It’s a tale as old as time, and the Romeo & Juliet ill-fated-lovers trope ends, at least, on a happy note, with love overcoming all socioeconomic boundaries — even if it took a while to get there.
You can stream A Perfect Story Season 1 Episode 5 exclusively on Netflix. What did you think of the ending of A Perfect Story? Let us know in the comments.
