So, I saw Fifty Shades Freed last night, and I'm really confused about something. Most everything that happens in the franchise, at least as part of the A-plot, isn't terribly complicated from a story-telling perspective. Girl meets weird billionaire. Girl finds out weird billionaire has weird fetishes in the bedroom. Girl finds out weird billionaire has a dark past. Weird billionaire is too possessive. Girl leaves weird billionaire. Weird billionaire becomes slightly less possessive. Girl takes back weird billionaire. They have lots of boundary-pushing sex. The end. Pretty straightforward. Except, there's one thing about the movies that really confuses me, and I want to get real specific when talking about it. So...
SPOILER ALERT. There are going to be all manners of spoilers in this article. Big spoilers. Little spoilers. Statements that aren't spoilers. If you haven't seen the new movie, just bail out of this article and come back.
Let's set up the background: in Fifty Shades Freed, we spend a lot of time dealing with Jack Hyde. For those of you who don't remember, when we first met good old Jack, he was the Commissioning Editor at SIP. Ana is his new assistant, and he gets all kinds of creepy and weird. Eventually, Christian, who owns the publishing house, fires him. As revenge, he sabotages Christian's helicopter and then spends basically all of Fifty Shades Freed stalking Ana and Christian. He eventually kidnaps Christians' sister Mia, and after a botched ransom plan, Anna shoots him... hard to tell exactly where. The knee maybe? It could have been in a far worse place. It's unclear. Anyway, we later find out he was in the same foster home as Christian and feels the billionaire stole his life, which is why he put all of this in motion. I think. Or maybe it's because he's mad about losing his job. Or both. You know what? I think it's both.
So, here's the thing: I watch a lot of procedural police/ FBI shows on TV. The idea of someone stalking for weird reasons, then reshaping his or her entire life to get revenge doesn't bother me. I have no idea how often this happens, but I'm willing to go with it. It happens a lot on TV. What bothers me is I'm completely confused by the randomness of Ana's involvement. So, what happened here is that Ana, through sheer randomness, got a job at SIP and her direct boss is her future husband's former foster sibling/ mortal enemy? That's so weird.
I would be more willing to buy he worked there if Christian already owned SIP when Ana got a job there. Maybe he was just playing the long game and trying to sabotage Grey Enterprises from the inside? Maybe. Except he buys the company after Ana starts working there. So, I have no idea. I'm legitimately confused.
Did I miss somewhere this is explained? Did Jack Hyde find Ana and offer her a job? That would make sense, I guess, but that's not shown. I know this is a minor plot point, but I'm just really hung up on this idea that she could have worked anywhere in Seattle and just randomly applies to be the personal assistant of Christian's foster sibling/ mortal enemy. This is a bridge too far for me. Unless I missed something, which is totally possible. I've seen these movies once. It's just such a weird coincidence.
So, I don't know. I spent like an hour in a Wikipedia hole and still can't figure it out. Is this just a weird plot point that never gets explained? Are fans too busy having sex next to Jamie Dornan's house to care? Or am I just a dumbass that missed something? Let me know if you have any answers in the comments below.
