How Enola Holmes' Ending Differs From The Book
A new Holmes has entered the film world: Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown), younger sister of the famous Sherlock Holmes. The Netflix debut of Enola Holmes marks her first time on screen, but she's been traipsing around fictional London in a series of books since 2006. The film is based on the first novel, The Case of the Missing Marquess.
Enola Holmes' whole life is turned upside down on her 16th birthday when her mother Eudoria disappears. While Enola's brother Mycroft wishes to send her to a finishing school for young ladies, Enola runs away once she finds clues to her mother's whereabouts. She uncovers Eudoria's secret plans and is alarmed by what she seess. Enola then finds herself wrapped up in the case of a young runaway Lord that turns into attempted murder.
At the end of the film, it's Eudoria that finds Enola. After showing up in her daughter's new apartment, she gives a partial explanation for why she left, saying it was to protect Enola. While she doesn't say it explicitly, it seems she's going back to work with the other suffragettes. According to Bustle, however, the ending between Eudoria and Enola is different in the book.
Enola finds a different cipher in the book than in the movie
In Enola Holmes, Enola finds a cipher in a newspaper, hoping it's from Eudoria. Instead, it's from her brothers, trying to ploy her out of hiding. In the book, however, it is from her mother. It says Eudoria has left Victorian society to go live with the Romani people, a traveling nomadic group. There is no bittersweet reunion between the two.
The book's ending seems to suggest Eudoria is running away from society's oppression of women, while the film implies she's still fighting it. It's an interesting change of message that may have something to do with the differing political climates between 2006 and 2020. Enola Holmes is all about enacting political change, as it tells viewers that every vote counts, but book-Eudoria is quite a bit older than the character in the film. At 64, maybe she was retiring from the risky life of a suffragette.
After finding the cipher and solving the case of the missing Marquess, book-Enola crafts a new persona for herself: Ivy Meshle, secretary to detective Dr. Ragostin. It's a ploy for her to get her own missing persons cases on which to work. She also poses as a nun in the alleys of the East End, helping people in need. While we saw neither of these disguises at the end of Enola Holmes, it's possible they could appear if Netflix makes an Enola Holmes 2. Enola suggests that she will continue detective work, so it only makes sense she will follow her book counterpart in becoming a "finder of lost things and people."