Apples Never Fall Finale: What Happened To Joy? Plus, Grade The Season!

The following contains major spoilers from Episode 7 of Apples Never Fall, now streaming on Peacock.

Apples Never Fall introduced us to Joy Delaney, then quickly took our Joy away.

For six episodes we were left wondering: Did Joy (played by Annette Bening) plot her own disappearance a la Gone Girl? Was she murdered? Was she kidnapped?

Finally, in Episode 7, everything was revealed and it turns out, Joy's disappearance was hardly as sinister as we thought. The woman was just fed up with her family and wanted to escape the high-pressure, competitive dynamic and unwind in the woods! Of course, as with any Liane Moriarty adaptation, there were some not-so-unexpected twists — mostly having to do with Savannah, the mysterious, middle-of-the-night visitor that moved in with the Delaneys months before Joy's disappearance.

But before we get to all that, let's back up. All we knew heading into the last episode was that Joy met with a divorce attorney just before she vanished and that her bike was left discarded in the street — covered in blood. We knew her husband Stan (Sam Neill) had a gash on his face and that the neighbor's dog found a bloodied sweater in the backyard on Disappearance Day. We, and Joy's children, believed the evidence could only point to one thing: Stan murdered Joy.

But early in the finale, a different picture begins to unravel. On the day of her disappearance, Joy starts off her morning with a bike ride, but it's cut short after a minor accident leaves her with a bloodied leg. She wraps a sweater around her mangled limb as a makeshift band-aid and walks home. Once she arrives, she throws the stained garment in the trash, where it will ultimately be excavated by the neighbor's dog. Then, we learn Stan's scrape isn't the result of a desperate, deadly struggle from Joy; it was the result of an only slightly violent outburst during an argument — he flipped furniture and she scratched his face.

Fed up after said argument, Joy heads to a diner for some much-needed alone time. She calls Savannah and demands an explanation for being thoroughly duped months prior. She knows Savannah lied about her identity, she knows Savannah is a fraud, but she still feels some odd kinship with the stranger and invites her to the restaurant. Without anyone else on her side, Joy accompanies Savannah on an adventure to her cabin in the woods. (Never a good place to be, Joy!)

And surprise! We learn Savannah's lies are much grander than we ever thought! Her name is actually Lindsey and she's Harry's sister. Forgot about Harry? He's the tennis player who ruined Stan's coaching career, tore the family apart and went on to find greater success with a different coach. (The Delaneys are kind of obsessed with him!) Harry, however, hasn't seen Savannah in years. After he became a tennis pro, she demanded he share his money. He ultimately got an order of protection against his sister after she broke into his house and threatened him with a gun.

Anyway, back to our Joy. After a few days of rural bliss with Harry's demonic sister, Joy learns a hurricane will soon hit her family's town and decides she's ready to return to real life — something Savannah doesn't seem to like. Joy then finds out Savannah's actual identity by stumbling upon a physical copy of the restraining order and a gun. (Yikes!) She realizes she's got to get out of that cabin quicker than she thought!

Without any other options for transportation, Joy must accept Savannah's invitation to drive her home. But Savannah has other plans and skips the big turn, attempting to kidnap Joy — the mother she never had. She wants to ruin Joy's happy family like Joy and Stan ruined hers when they helped catapult Harry's career, leaving Savannah feeling lonely and left behind.

But then the car crashes, the scene ends and next thing we know, Joy is rolling up to her front door in the backseat of a police cruiser, unharmed and unbothered. As for Savannah? (Or, should we say Lindsey?) She's still out there somewhere.

What did you think of the Apples Never Fall Season 1 finale? Were you surprised that Joy was alive all along? Let us know in the comments, then grade the episode and season overall!