I Want You Back Ending Explained: Do Peter & Emma End Up Together?

Warning! SPOILERS for I Want You Back.

Amazon Prime’s romantic comedyI Want You Back premiered February 11, with the ending of the film ambiguously implying that lead characters Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) get together. The film begins with the two breaking up from their respective partners – Peter from Anne (Gina Rodriguez, Jane The Virgin) and Emma from Noah (Scott Eastwood, The Fate Of The Furious). Heartbroken, Peter and Emma find each other crying in the stairwell of their office building, and they bond over a night of drunken karaoke. Finding out that their exes are in new relationships, they form a scheme to help each other end the relationships and get back with their old partners. Peter will befriend Noah, and Emma will flirt with Anne’s new boyfriend Logan (Manny Jacinto, The Good Place). 

Following a standard rom-com formula as the genre revives itself from a 2000s slump, this plan is a recipe for awkwardness, especially when only Peter successfully reunites with Anne. The couples involved find each other on a riverboat wedding for Noah and his partner, Ginny (Clark Backo). Emma reveals the whole plan to the couples, leading their old partners to cut ties with them permanently. In the end, Peter and Emma sit silently across the aisle from each other on a plane, where an “airplane safety mask person” callback comes into play with Peter putting on Emma’s oxygen mask before his own.

There’s not much about I Want You Back that challenges audiences, but its ending still prompts unanswered questions. The ending’s discourse is more about its characters than about the movie’s straightforward plot. I Want You Back is really about Emma becoming a more independent person and Peter becoming more self-accepting. Combining their respective character developments, I Want You Back as one of 2022’s most anticipated comedies concludes itself on larger overarching themes about love and personal growth.

Do Peter & Emma End Up Together In I Want You Back’s Ending?

Peter and Emma look at each other across the airplane aisle before I Want You Back fades to black. While neither explicitly says anything about beginning a relationship together, this is heavily implied. Earlier on the riverboat, Peter rushes to Emma, apologizing for abandoning her when their plan works out for him. He declares her a “slow burn” kind of love, referring to a conversation from earlier in the movie about the value of someone whom one develops strong feelings for over time, as opposed to right away. The airplane oxygen mask at the movie’s end also refers to Emma’s recollection to Peter about her childhood fantasies of meeting a person that she would love so much, she would put their oxygen mask on before her own.

Will Peter & Emma’s Relationship Last (& Will There Be An I Want You Back 2?)

Unlike the movies in Netflix’s rom-com cinematic universe, there likely won’t be an I Want You Back 2 to answer whether or not their relationship will last. That said, the two are relatively compatible, at least when compared to their former partners. A foundational part about their relationship is their unquestioning acceptance for each other. Peter tells Anne on the riverboat that she didn’t always support him on his retirement home dream, unlike Emma. Likewise, Emma receives the What Color Is Your Parachute? self-help book from Peter, who gives it to her knowing that she wants to grow more as a person. Peter doesn’t tell Emma what she needs to do to fix herself, instead respecting her enough as a person to find her own way. Their relationship has a strong enough foundation to hopefully last, but the movie keeps this question’s answer open-ended.

Why Emma’s Story Was Never About Getting Her Ex Back

Contrasting with Emma, Jenny Slate’s Mona-Lisa in Parks and Recreation doesn’t grow as a person, remaining statically horrible throughout the show. Meanwhile, Emma grows enough in the film to arguably make her I Want You Back’s primary character focus. Noah breaks up with Emma for being “stuck” as a person, unsure of what to do with her life and still living in the same apartment since her sophomore year of college. Emma admits to Noah in the end that being in a relationship with him was less about compatibility and more about settling down. The film follows Emma’s storyline more as she helps Logan and Anne with a production of Little Shop of Horrors, making the movie another middle school-centered project for Slate along with Netflix’s Big Mouth.

Emma never wins Noah back, but that’s not where her success story lies. She finds a new apartment, looks into continuing her education, and gains further confidence in herself. Her telling Anne and Noah the secret plan she had with Peter is a climactic moment of her character growth. She’s confronting the situation and owning up to her wrongs. She devised the plan with Peter when her character was still unassertive. After all, the plan requires another person to fix a problem for her. Revealing the plan marks her officially moving past that former self. She makes real growth by initiating change in her life.

Peter’s Retirement Home Dream In I Want You Back Explained

Deviating slightly from his usual spastic characters like Luigi in the upcoming Super Mario movie, Charlie Day’s Peter is more mature and focused. Peter wants to run an affordable retirement home that gives its residents a dignified, comfortable living experience. As saccharine as this makes his character seem, the dream actually ties well with I Want You Back’s themes. Between him and Emma, Peter’s relationship was the longest at six years. He expresses wanting to marry Anne and have children, and given the length he’s been with her, this is more than reasonable. However, he realizes that Anne always wanted more from the relationship. He was too safe for her, too uninspiring. Peter takes this advice to heart during his friendship with Noah, displaying the well-developed chemistry between Charlie Day and his Pacific Rim: Uprising costar Scott Eastwood.

I Want You Back is all about developing a substantial relationship, a person to grow old with. The retirement company that Peter works for finds cutbacks that will affect their residents’ quality of life, representing a relationship that’s shallow and unsatisfying. Meanwhile, Peter’s dream of running a retirement home that gives people a proper life even in old age represents a deeper, long-lasting relationship that both he and Emma desire. The movie never shows Peter’s dream fully-realized, but showing Emma supporting his dream symbolically portrays her as someone meant to be in Peter’s life long-term. Enforcing the symbolism is Noah, the character who actually marries someone, who also supports Peter’s dream.

What I Want You Back’s Ending Really Means For Peter & Emma

Self-development is a common theme in romantic comedies, like in When Harry Met Sally or Disney’s Pretty Woman. Peter and Emma begin a relationship after they’ve gone through enough self-growth to become confident and independent people. I Want You Back shows the process of inner reflection that a proper long-term relationship needs to succeed. While their self-growth was motivated by getting back with their exes, their growth wasn’t meant to serve the relationships they were trying to get back to. Peter jumps off a balcony into a hot tub to prove that he can be spontaneous, but Anne never cares about this. She actually admires Peter’s old self more.

Even though Peter and Emma naturally accept each other, I Want You Back still works out their issues before putting them together. The movie isn’t about the relationship they form, but their own growth. It’s the real conclusion, and nothing establishes this more like I Want You Back ending without officially confirming the start of their relationship.

About The Author

Allison Wonchoba
(79 Articles Published)

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Allison Wonchoba is a Features writer on Screen Rant. She holds a degree in Cinema and English, and she knows (probably) all things film and TV. Working at Hot Topic for a couple years also helped her know all things pop culture-y. Once upon a time, she also interned at a radio station in Dublin, Ireland where she got more media training – and built up her Sudoku skills on the side. She likes Pina Coladas and gettin’ caught in the rain – and she knows that’s NOT a Jimmy Buffet song.

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