 |
| This, That and Everything in Between Ending Explained: What Happens to Jo, Paz and Matti? |
This, That and Everything in Between ends on an emotional note as Joanne “Jo” returns to San Rafael and finally chooses to spend time with her estranged mother Paz, despite years of resentment between them. The Filipino drama, also known as Ganito, Ganyan, Ganoon, follows a Manila TV writer whose carefully organised plans for a writing fellowship in Brooklyn are thrown into disarray when Paz returns to the Philippines after 27 years away. What begins as an uncomfortable reunion gradually becomes a complicated family story about regret, independence, forgiveness and the rather inconvenient fact that people are rarely as simple as we would like them to be.
Jo has built her adult life around moving forward, with her writing career and a potential fellowship in Brooklyn giving her something concrete to work towards. Paz's sudden arrival forces her to look backwards instead. The situation becomes even more complicated when Paz arrives with Matias “Matti”, a son Jo never knew existed.
Meanwhile, Jo's father Rene has built a new life with Modesta “Des”, the woman Jo regards as the mother who actually raised her. So, naturally, the family reunion is about as relaxed as anyone might expect from a gathering involving 27 years of unresolved history.
Jo initially has little interest in meeting Paz. Her relationship with Migs, her therapist, also becomes part of the story as he tries to help her navigate the emotional mess surrounding her mother's return.
Eventually, Jo travels to San Rafael, where she comes face to face with Paz and discovers that her mother was once a locally recognised actress. The reunion is awkward rather than sentimental, with both women carrying very different versions of the past.
Paz's health soon changes everything. She secretly takes medication and attempts to hide the seriousness of her condition, while Matti struggles with anxiety and finds himself trying to adjust to a family he barely knows.
The atmosphere becomes even more chaotic when relatives gather for a party, with Pipo, Stella and other members of Paz's family joining the increasingly crowded household. Then, during dinner, Paz reveals that she has cancer and has returned home because she believes she has less than six months left.
The revelation leaves Jo caught between her personal ambitions and a mother she still regards as a stranger. Her writing fellowship in Brooklyn is finally within reach, but accepting it now means leaving Paz behind.
Despite Paz's objections, the family seeks further medical confirmation, and doctors confirm that her condition is serious. Jo starts taking responsibility for her mother's care, even though Paz's difficult personality makes the arrangement anything but peaceful.
There are, however, moments when the hostility begins to soften. Jo talks to Paz about her script, allowing them to connect through writing rather than arguments about the past.
Rene teaches Matti to swim, while Jo and her newly discovered brother begin developing a genuine sibling relationship. A family boat trip provides one of the rare occasions when everyone can simply enjoy being together without turning the afternoon into an emotional courtroom.
But the calm does not last. During a family dinner, Paz asks everyone how they think she will be remembered after she dies. She wants to believe she can be remembered as someone who stood up for herself and perhaps even as a good mother.
Jo cannot accept that description. To her, Paz is still the woman who left her behind, and no amount of last-minute reflection can magically rewrite decades of hurt.
The argument becomes brutal in emotional terms as Paz explains that she sacrificed aspects of her acting career after Jo was born and eventually left for America because she believed she could protect her daughter from a difficult life.
Paz admits that she was far from perfect, but insists her decision was not as simple as Jo believes. Jo rejects the explanation, arguing that Paz abandoned her and later returned because circumstances had changed rather than because she suddenly wanted to become a mother.
Paz then turns the criticism back on Jo, accusing her of having her own flaws and pointing towards her complicated relationship with Migs. The exchange strips away any possibility of a neat reconciliation.
Jo calls Paz a loser and leaves San Rafael, returning to Manila the following morning. At this point, it appears that the mother-daughter relationship may remain permanently broken.
That changes when Matti turns up at Jo's home to return a phone charger she accidentally left behind. Their conversation gives Jo information she never knew. Matti explains that Paz did care about her daughter and regularly remembered Jo while living in America.
He recalls how his mother would become quiet and visibly affected whenever she thought about the daughter she had left behind. It does not erase Paz's choices, but it gives Jo a different perspective on the woman she has spent years judging.
The following morning, Jo takes Matti to the bus station so he can return to San Rafael. As his bus pulls away, Jo suddenly changes her mind. She gets on the bus herself and returns to her mother's home. When she reaches Paz's bedroom, she embraces her, choosing to stay with her rather than continue running from the complicated feelings between them.
So, does Jo forgive Paz? Not completely, and that is arguably the point. The film avoids turning forgiveness into a convenient switch that can be flicked simply because someone is ill.
Jo does not suddenly decide that Paz's absence was acceptable, nor does she forget everything that happened during their years apart. Instead, she begins to understand that her mother was a flawed person who made choices she believed were necessary at the time.
Jo's decision to return is therefore less about declaring Paz innocent and more about choosing compassion before it is too late. Their relationship remains complicated, but Jo finally allows herself to see Paz as a whole person rather than simply the mother who abandoned her. It is a quieter form of reconciliation, and arguably more convincing than a dramatic apology that magically fixes everything in five minutes.
Paz does eventually die, although the film keeps her death offscreen. A few days after Jo's return, the family gathers to scatter her ashes at sea. The moment is sad without becoming overwhelmingly bleak, as Rene, Jo, Des and Matti come together to remember the woman who caused plenty of complications but also left a lasting mark on each of them.
Jo and Rene hang a family portrait as a tribute to Paz, while the family chooses to remember her through affection rather than allowing her mistakes to define everything.
Rene tells Jo that he loves her deeply and acknowledges that some emotional wounds never completely disappear. The family then scatters Paz's ashes into the sea and offers a prayer, turning her final farewell into an act of togetherness.
Jo's response to the loss is particularly significant. She floats in the water and looks towards the sky with a sense of calm, suggesting that she has finally begun to separate her future from the anger she carried about her mother's past. Paz's death does not magically resolve Jo's pain, but it allows her to stop being controlled by it.
As for Matti, his future is deliberately left somewhat open. What begins as an awkward introduction gradually develops into a meaningful relationship between the siblings. Rene and Des also accept him into the family after spending more time with him, recognising that beneath his unusual behaviour is a young man looking for somewhere he belongs.
Matti therefore leaves San Rafael with something he did not necessarily have before: a family that knows him and cares about him. Whether he eventually remains in the Philippines or returns to America is left uncertain, but his relationship with Jo suggests that their connection is unlikely to disappear simply because Paz is gone.
Jo's career also remains important. Her Brooklyn fellowship initially becomes another source of conflict because she does not know whether she can leave Paz while her mother is seriously ill. She tells Ben, the fellowship coordinator, that she is occupied with caring for her mother, but the opportunity continues to hang over her.
After returning to Manila following the argument with Paz, Jo finally completes her script and sends it to Ben. He is delighted and tells her to prepare for Brooklyn the following week.
Although Paz dies shortly afterwards, the ending strongly suggests that Jo intends to follow through with the fellowship. Her return to San Rafael does not mean abandoning her ambitions; instead, she learns that caring about her family and pursuing her own future do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.
The same uncertainty surrounds Jo and Migs. Their relationship becomes increasingly close throughout the film, and Migs makes the effort to travel to San Rafael and help Jo's family during Paz's illness. Eventually, however, he recognises that Jo needs to focus entirely on her family and steps away, leaving their future unresolved.
The film strongly suggests that their relationship is not finished. Jo clearly cares about Migs, and he has shown that his feelings for her extend beyond their original professional connection. Whether they eventually build a lasting relationship is left to interpretation, but there is enough warmth between them to suggest that the story has not closed that particular door.
For fans, the ending is likely to divide opinion because This, That and Everything in Between refuses to offer the easy emotional payoff that a conventional family drama might provide. Some viewers may see Jo's decision to return to Paz as a beautiful act of empathy, while others may feel that Paz's explanations arrive far too late to repair the damage. The film's strength is that both reactions can coexist: understanding someone does not necessarily mean agreeing with their choices.
Review: This, That and Everything in Between is a thoughtful Filipino family drama that works best when it allows its characters to be messy rather than conveniently lovable. The performances give the mother-daughter conflict a grounded quality, while the story balances career ambitions, family expectations and old resentments without turning every scene into a grand speech.
It can occasionally feel overly dramatic, and some of its emotional turns arrive with the subtlety of a door being slammed, but the central relationship keeps the film engaging. Jo's journey is especially effective because forgiveness is never treated as a simple reset button. Instead, she learns to make room for empathy without pretending the past never happened. The ending leaves a gentle impression, even if it occasionally pushes its message a little too hard.
Ultimately, This, That and Everything in Between is not really about whether Jo can completely forgive Paz. It is about whether she can stop allowing the past to dictate what she does next. By returning to San Rafael, saying goodbye to her mother and still choosing to pursue Brooklyn, Jo finally claims both sides of her life: the family history she cannot change and the future she still has time to build. What did you make of Jo's final decision — was returning to Paz the right choice, or should she have stayed away?