The Good Nurse (2022) Ending Explained – Why does Charlie admit to committing the crimes?

The Good Nurse (2022) Plot Synopsis

The Good Nurse is a semi-autobiographical crime thriller available on Netflix, based on Charles Graeber’s 2013 book of the same name. The crime drama tells the tale of healthcare ignorance, insanity, and murders.

The plot revolves around Amy, a sympathetic but overworked nurse who does not lead an easy life. In addition to being a single mother and having a fatal heart ailment, her night hours at the hospital push her to the brink on both an emotional and physical level. The assistance of Charlie Cullen, a colleague turned friend, fortunately, makes things better for her.

Amy and Charlie grow close with time, and a rare glimmer of hope comes when she feels reassured about the future. However, she must use every resource at her disposal to uncover the truth when he is labelled as a key suspect in a string of ambiguous patient deaths

What serves as the movie’s inspiration?

The true crime novel “The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder” written by Charles Graeber, which is based on a real-life serial killer, serves as the inspiration for this one.

Charles Cullens, who is believed to have murdered over 400 people, is presented with a dramatized depiction of his life. The way Cullen goes about perpetrating the horrifying atrocities forms the foundation of this unsettling tale, despite the fact that the movie mostly revolves around Amy’s life.

What sort of person does Amy seem to be?

Amy appears to be a single mom to two lovely girls. She balances her duties as a dedicated and well-liked nurse, and a mother, while also managing her deteriorating health challenges. One day she experiences a severe panic attack and shortness of breath while catering to one of her patients.

When Amy visits another hospital to get examined, we find out that she has a blood mass around her heart, making her a top candidate for a heart transplant. Considering her financial situation, she is unable to afford the surgery, and because she hasn’t spent a full year at Parksfield, is ineligible for medical insurance.

Amy is resilient and smiles while using two different credit cards to pay for her doctor’s appointment and test results. Amy manages to balance the late shifts at work while also being a loving mother to her small children as she barely has four months to secure a definite position at the hospital.

How does Charlie learn about Amy’s medical condition?

Charles “Charlie” Cullen, who is assigned as Amy’s colleague during the hospital’s night shift, enters her chaotic life as a blessing. He walks in with a wealth of practical expertise and fits right in, immediately picking up the responsibilities and working carefully to complete them.

As Amy grows accustomed to Charles working night shifts, she finds his oddly calm temperament to be comforting. Charles, on the other hand, assists relieve some of the pressure off her by allowing her to take breaks from her busy schedule as she walks him through the rules and guidelines of the everyday routine.

Charlie once notices Amy gasping for air and vulnerable behind a curtained hospital ward. He pats her back calmly and guides her to manage her irregular heartbeats. Amy informs him that she suffers from cardiomyopathy, which causes blood blisters around her heart, once she has caught her breath. She begs him not to tell anybody about it because doing so could result in her being fired. He makes a promise to Amy that he won’t inform anybody and that he would assist her in staying put for the following four months.

What kind of bond do Amy and Charlie have?

As Charlie and Amy proceed to regulate their hectic professional lives, they discover a friend in one another. Along with taking care of her children, Charlie also assists Amy by teaching her daughter the scripts for the play she intends to audition for. Amy realizes that her life has become simpler because of Charlie.

How does Charlie behave around the deceased patient?

When Amy starts her shift at the hospital one night, she discovers that one of her beloved patients passed away unexpectedly for an unspecified reason. She asks her superiors about the cause and nature of the death thereafter.

Amy departs to console the grieving spouse while leaving Charlie in charge of cleaning and dressing the lifeless patient. The purpose of this scene in the movie is to turn our attention to Charles’ odd behavior. We observe him as he stares icily into the deceased patient’s eyes.

How do the detectives go about with the investigation?

After conducting an internal inquiry into the nature of the death, Linda Garren, the hospital’s administrator, suggests that it would be reasonable to discuss the matter with the cops.

The investigators learn that Charles was accused of criminal trespassing and harassment around 1995 while employed at a hospital in Pennsylvania. They discover that he allegedly slashed a co-worker’s tyres following a breakup. Despite them taking back the complaint, something seemed off.

We observe that the hospital attempts to justify the tragedy as nothing more than an “adverse reaction to medication” that wasn’t anticipated. People guarded information whenever Charlie’s name was mentioned at the several facilities he worked at.

Why does Amy insist that Charlie is innocent?

Amy informs the investigators that the double medication blunder is rare and that, for a multitude of reasons, she doesn’t think Charlie is guilty. The fact that Ana passed away during the day, while Charlie and she had night shifts would make it virtually impossible. She also found it difficult to accept the idea that somebody who was so devoted and sincere could be guilty of such a crime.

How does Amy find out about Charlie’s killings?

Amy begins to inquire about the possible culprits after a second patient passes away following a double medication error. She meets a former co-worker who used to work with Charlie and finds out that there used to be a rumor about Charlie murdering patients, but no one ever did anything about it. After this revelation, Amy investigates the storeroom area where the IV bags are kept and notices many of those had small holes, indicating that they had been tampered with before being used for the patients.

Amy informs the investigators of what she had learned and requests them not to expose her as the provider of the new information since she would lose her job if they did so.

How does Charlie murder the patients even when he isn’t there?

Amy informs the detectives that Charles injects the bags just before they leave the storage room. She goes on to say that because the insulin enters the bloodstream slowly, it might take hours or even a day to kill someone once he injects it into the bags.

What justifications does the hospital give for firing Charlie?

They dig up the remains of the second victim and conduct an autopsy since Ana was cremated. Amy secretly obtains documentation that proves Charlie removed the lethal dosages, however, this is insufficient evidence. The hospital is also questioning Charlie regarding the actual dates he listed on his paperwork for his tenure at St. Elizabeth’s.

Charlie gets fired for a minor date error that was deemed a contract violation. The hospital, which has been hiding evidence from the authorities that would have further shown Charlie’s culpability, used this small contract violation as an easy way to get rid of Charlie. But if there’s one thing we’ve discovered, it’s that Charlie would certainly have no trouble finding a new nursing position.

Why does Charlie admit to committing the crimes?

Amy appears to be wearing a wire while having a meal with Charlie but she is unable to get a confession. Nevertheless, she does learn the details of the new hospital where he is employed The police eventually get hold of Charlie as he is heading to his shift.

When the cops patiently question a reserved and stoic Charlie and speculate that perhaps he murdered these patients since they resembled his mom or ex-wife, the Good Nurse comes to its tragic ending. The typically quiet nurse yells “I can’t” multiple times while lashing out with great intensity.

Amy says she will speak to him and requests that the handcuffs be taken off. She holds his hands while tenderly wrapping him in a sweater. She assures him, “I forgot about your goodness” as if nothing has happened. Amy keeps apologizing for doing things behind his back and leaving him feeling alienated, but she insists that she wants him to be honest.

He responds, “I just did it”, without giving any further explanation. He discloses the names of the other patients, among them Any Martinez, after some probing. He could only utter the statement, “They didn’t stop me”, in response to Amy’s emotional question about why he killed so many people while Amy continued to hold his hands gently.

Was Charlie sentenced to death?

We are given information on Charles and Amy just before credits start to roll. Despite the fact that the actual number of deaths is suspected to be close to 400, Charles admitted to the crimes, and he wasn’t given the death penalty. Instead, he has to serve 18 consecutive life sentences and won’t be released until the year 2403.

Many hospital authorities believed that he was suspicious over his 16 years as a nurse, but nothing was done. The hospitals he served at have not been the subject of any legal action as of yet. Amy is relishing the results of a fruitful heart surgery, residing in Florida with her children and grandkids, and continues to be a good nurse.