What The Final Scenes In ‘The Kissing Booth 3’ Mean For Elle & Noah

At long last, the pain is over. Yep, The Kissing Booth trilogy has come to a crashing end, with the third and final film dropping on Netflix over the weekend.

The first film arrived way back in 2018 and despite mostly terrible reviews, it proved to be an unexpected phenomenon on the streaming platform. The Kissing Booth 3 picks up at the end of the second movie, as Elle (Joey King) finally makes the decision to join her boyfriend Noah (Jacob Elordi) at Harvard, instead of following her bestie Lee (Joel Courtney) to Berkeley. In the meantime, Elle has to navigate a new summer job, her dad starting to date, spending time with Noah, along with trying to appease Lee’s constant need for attention by undertaking a bucket list.

If I was Elle, I would drop needy freaks Noah and Lee and run off with uncomplicated dreamboat Marco — but that’s just me.

This post contains major spoilers about Elle and Noah’s relationship, so if you haven’t watched the third film, then get going! Cya!

In a twist some fans will probably hate, Elle and Noah breakup about two-thirds into the final film. This follows them fighting constantly over Elle spending too much time doing Lee’s bucket list, or hanging out with Marcus. Ultimately, Noah breaks up with Elle after finding out she chose Harvard over Berkeley, as he didn’t want to be responsible for her making a choice that would impact her life in order to stay with him.

The final scenes skipped six years ahead, and despite splitting before college commenced, Lee and Rachel got back together and were set to get married. However, Elle and Noah’s fate was left fair more ambiguous. King spoke to Variety regarding the ending, saying that “I’m so happy with the way we wrapped this trilogy up, because not only do we give the fans what they’re hoping for, in a way we also don’t. I’m excited for people to paint their own picture.”

That being said, it’s pretty clear from the final two scenes what became of the film trilogy’s love story.

Let’s break down the final scenes in The Kissing Booth 3, shall we?

The two pivotal ending scenes in The Kissing Booth 3 see Elle and Noah reunite. Six years after Elle left for college, she sees Noah back at the place where it all started: the kissing booth. Noah is now a lawyer, we know this as he’s wearing a suit (for no explicable reason), while Elle is a game designer, which means she has a hipster cropped haircut, of course. They give life updates, discuss going on a motorcycle ride together next time Noah is in town, and say goodbye.

Then there’s a moment where Noah walks up the stairs. We’ve seen this exact sequence before, back at the end of the first movie, when Elle bids farewell to Noah at the airport as he leaves for Harvard.

In the first film, she watches him go up the elevator, waiting expectantly for him to turn around.

He doesn’t.

Was this scene the biggest hint that Noah and Elle were headed for heartbreak?

Whether intentional or not, after leaving for college Noah shut himself off to Elle. They were in different stages of life, with Elle in her final year of high school and Noah in college. The second movie was all about their failing long-distance relationship, as both Noah and Elle grew jealous over the new people in each other’s lives — proving that neither were emotionally mature enough to survive their relationship.

By comparison in the third film, as Noah ascends up the stairs, Elle watches him again…

…but this time he looks back and smiles.

Noah turning around might signify that the door is back open! The Noah who Elle fell in love with has returned.

If this wasn’t enough to convince us that Noah and Elle get back together, the movie’s closing scene ends with two motorbikes riding alongside each other. Again, this is a nod to the previous films. The first movie concluded with Elle leaving the airport, and riding Noah’s bike alone — symbolising that Elle was still tied to Noah but ready to try to carve out a life of her own in her senior year of high school.

In The Kissing Booth 2, at the end of the movie Elle sits on the back of Noah’s motorcycle, which represents how Elle lets other people — namely Noah and Lee — take the reins when it came to her own future. In the second movie, all we hear about is whether Elle should follow Noah to Harvard or Lee to Berkeley, without ever exploring what Elle actually wants to do with her life.

In addition, this riding position shows how much Noah saw himself as Elle’s ‘protector’ (*eye-rolls into eternity*) in the first three movies up until their breakup.

The final film is all about Elle finding herself. She finally stands up to Lee for making her feel bad for not spending 24/7 with him, like the big baby that he is. While initially planning on following Noah to Harvard, Elle ends up applying and getting into the University of Southern California and studying video games.

Following Noah and Elle’s brief reunion, Elle mentions she now owns her own motorbike and the final scene sees two seperate motorbikes driving together in the same direction. We can safely assume this is Noah and Elle, who after six years apart, have grown up, come back together, but the main difference is that Elle is now her own person and makes her own decisions.

The film’s overarching message is about loving and understanding yourself, before you can be ready to love someone else.

She don’t need no man controlling her journey, she can do it herself. And Noah no longer positions himself in some archaic protector role – they are now equals. For a movie franchise that has done my head in with its sexist double standards, this was a pretty damn satisfying ending.

The Kissing Booth being an unsung feminist manifesto? We have to stan.