Loving Adults: Ending Explained (Plot And Theories)

Loving Adults (Kærlighed for voksne) is a 2022 Danish crime drama directed by Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg based on a novel by the same Danish name. The story is centred on a couple with marriage issues and a Cop who suspects the possibility of a heinous crime. The film’s end makes us wonder – what was that all about? So here’s the plot and ending of the movie Loving Adults explained; spoilers ahead.

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Contents

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

Loving Adults: Ending Explained

Loving Adults Explained Final Scene

The end of the movie Loving Adults iterates that the entire plot is speculation of a police commissioner as he explains his theory to his daughter, who is just about to be married. He narrates the story to let her know that love can be dangerous and that she really needs to think about walking down the isle. Despite the Cop’s horrific tale, his daughter affirms that she is ready for wedlock.

Is he the worst father for telling her that horror tale just before her wedding?

Well, we don’t know the backstory. All we do know is that the Cop lost his wife and appears to be quite possessive of his daughter. We know nothing about the groom, whether the Cop approves of him or not. The Cop’s been through many horrific cases where the crime is perpetrated by one of a loving pair of adults. He finds it his responsibility to ask his daughter to watch out.

Did Christian and Leonora kill Xenia?

It is impossible to know because no evidence points to the Christian and Leonora killing Xenia. While the Cop suspects the two of them, he doesn’t have solid proof, and Xenia remains a missing person, and without her body, there is no way to conclusively say anything.

Loving Adults: Explained: The Only Facts The Cop Knows

  1. A long time ago, a boy who cheated on Leonora ‘mysteriously’ died by falling off a cliff, but Leonora had a solid alibi – being at violin class.
  2. A mother of three was killed in a hit-and-run with no leads.
  3. The Cop meets Christian and Leonara for the first time at their house when Christian tells him he was working late at the office.
  4. The Cop gets a call from Leonara’s phone when Christian tells him that he saw a foreign vehicle on the night of the hit-and-run. The Cop meets Christian right after, and Christian says the car was Romanian.
  5. The Cop investigates a break-in at Xenia’s place; she is missing. The home has been cleaned of all fingerprints, and the bedsheet has been changed.
  6. The Cop finds out that the last message sent to Xenia was from Christian, and it reads, “Dear Xenia. I’m sorry. I can’t do this. My family means everything to me”.
  7. The Cop meets Christian and Leonora. They state they were at a hotel on the night of the break-in and dined in the room. Christian also admits to having an affair with Xenia and breaking it off.
  8. A search for Xenia’s body leads nowhere, and the Cop sees Christian light the bonfire as part of the celebration.

Loving Adults: Explained: The Police Commissioner’s Version

Loving Adult Cop Speculation

The following is speculation by the Cop. While most of it can’t be proved, there is hard evidence for a few events, and we’ll talk about those later in the article.

Was the boy pushed off the cliff?

The Cop suspects that when Leonora was young, she snuck out of her violin lesson and killed her boyfriend, who was cheating on her. She pushed him off the cliff. But she timed her exit from the class with a record playing in her stead, which convinced the instructor that Leonora was in the room the whole time. There is no proof of the murder.

What was the fraud?

Years after, Leonora marries Christian and gives up her career as a violinist to take care of their son Johan who has a medical condition. We aren’t told what the fraud is, but the Cop believes that Christian and his partner Peter committed fraud and extracted money from the office for Johan’s treatment. Leonora is an accomplice to this crime, and we’re never told the exact nature of the scam or medical illness. There is no proof of fraud.

Who is Xenia?

Who is Xenia?

Christian starts having with a woman named Xenia at work. Xenia demands that Christian leave his wife, and when Leonora finds out, she insists that Christian should end it with Xenia or else she will go to the authorities and reveal the fraud. Christian admits to the affair, and his text confirms it. However, what transpired between the three is only speculation.

The Hit and Run

The Cop suspects that Christian drives over a mother of three, believing it to be Leonora. It so happens that Leonora takes a different route from her usual one on the day the other lady is driven over and killed. When the Cop talks to Christian about it, he claims he was in the office late at work.

The Cop further speculates that when Leonora later tries to get her car washed, her card doesn’t have sufficient balance because it was used on the night of the hit-and-run, allowing her to procure footage of Christian taking his office van for a wash.

Did the Cop also get access to the car wash footage?

This is probably the most confusing aspect of this film. If the Cop thought Leonora gained access to incriminating footage, why didn’t he go get that same footage? If a civilian could get it, so could a cop. And if we assume that the Cop did get his hands on that footage, why didn’t he take Christian in for questioning, considering Christian claimed to be at work that night. 

Are we to believe that this entire theory came to the Cop’s mind years after the case was closed? Even so, wouldn’t he take a look at the footage just to reassure himself? If you have thoughts on this, do drop a comment below.

The call to the Cop

The Cop speculates that Leonora calls him, but Christian grabs the phone from her to lie about seeing a foreign vehicle on the night of the hit-and-run. After this, the Cop further speculates that Leonora drove off and finally messaged Christian asking for a meeting at a restaurant.

Why does Leonora not report Christian?

The Cop’s theory is that Leonora is the kind of person who would do anything to preserve what is most important to her. If she went to the authorities, their lives would become miserable, and their son would suffer. Instead, Leonora offers that the two of them hatch a plan to kill Xenia, who is a threat to her survival. There is no evidence for this murder plan.

Killing Xenia

Leonora and Christian check into a hotel; there is proof for this. The Cop theorizes that Christian secretly exits the room, heads to Xenia’s place, and breaks open her door. Leonora orders room service and acts like she’s talking to her husband, who is in the shower, thereby creating a false alibi. She sends a text message from Christian’s phone to Xenia, saying he’s breaking up with her. At Xenia’s house, Christian is unable to kill Xenia and instead has sex with her. Leonora suspects this will happen and shows up at Xenia’s home and kills her. Christian and Leonora clean up the place, remove all the fingerprints, and leave with Xenia’s body. They put Xenia’s body in the bonfire set-up and then sneak back into their room at the hotel. The only proof the Cop has is the broken door; the rest is all speculation.

Honestly, it’s a little far fetched that two guests could jump out and climb back into their rooms without anyone noticing them.

Getting rid of Xenia’s body

The Cop is on the lookout for Xenia’s body with dogs but doesn’t find anything. He remembers seeing Christian and all his friends at the bonfire and suspects that Xenia’s body was in the bonfire and was burned. After that, Christian and Leonora dumped her bones in the lake. Once again, the Cop has no proof of Xenia’s incineration.

I find this theory to be a little over the top, too. That bonfire didn’t look like it was anywhere near enough to incinerate a body leaving only bones. Burning the body would have caused quite the stink, far more than confusing it with hedgehogs.

Loving Adults: Explained: If Christian And Leonora Were Innocent

Loving Adults Christian and Leonora

  • Years ago, Leonora’s boyfriend slipped and fell to his death; it was an accident.
  • At work, there was no fraud. But Johan was sick and got better after treatment.
  • Christian has an affair with Xenia.
  • The hit-and-run was a random vehicle which may have been Romanian.
  • Leonora and Christian call the Cop to tell him this over the phone, and Christian confirms the same in person.
  • Leonora and Christian go to a hotel and order and dine in their room. Christian sends a message to Xenia, breaking up with her.
  • Someone broke in and possibly kidnapped Xenia, and killed her, or sexually assaulted her and took away her body. This unknown person also cleaned up all the fingerprints from the house. We don’t know how and where they disposed of the body.
  • The bonfire did not have Xenia’s body.

And there you have it, all of those possibilities. What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie Loving Adults? Drop your comments below.