Juror #2 ending explained: What happens to Justin and James in the end?

Co-produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, Juror #2 is a legal thriller film that was theatrically released in the United States on November 1, 2024. Written by Jonathan Abrams, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons, Chris Messina, and Zoey Deutch, among others.

The film follows a lengthy trial in which James Michael Sythe is the accused in a case of assault. However, as the plot progresses, it becomes clear that James is innocent. Instead, it is Justin Kemp, a journalist and member of the jury, who committed the crime.

The already complicated case is rendered more complex by the fact that several people have their own interests tied to it. By the end of Juror #2, Justin walks away scot-free, despite being the guilty one, while James is wrongly convicted of the crime.

Juror #2 ending: Justice is not served

John is wrongly accused (Image via Prime Video)

The film opens with Justin and Ally having their baby shower ceremony. The latter previously had a miscarriage, so this pregnancy is taking a toll on her mental health. It is during this time that Justin, a journalist, is called up for jury duty.

It has been alleged that following a violent argument, James stalked his girlfriend Kendall Carter as she walked out of the bar and then beat her to death and dropped her down a bridge where her body was later found. While Eric, James’ defender, states that his client is innocent, Faith, the prosecutor, wants to make a point by winning the case.

As the case is deliberated upon in court, Justin remembers that he was in fact present at the bar on the night of Kendall’s death. He also remembers having hit something by his car on his way home. Though he then dismissed it thinking he had hit a deer, he now knows that it is he who unwittingly killed Kendall.

As Juror #2 moves on, Justin is consumed by pangs of guilt. Thus, even though the other jurors are in favor of declaring James guilty, Justin tries to convince them that Kendall could have died by other means and that they should be more patient before coming to a conclusion.

Justin even considers confessing his crime, but Larry, his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor and later his defense attorney, advises against it since it could still mean a 30-year sentence.

Thanks to Howard and Faith’s proactive investigation, new evidence emerges, and Faith comes quite close to figuring out that Justin is guilty of the crime, since she reaches his home and meets Ally, in whose name the car with which Justin had hit Kendall was registered.

Sensing his and his family’s future in danger, Justin now decides to sit back and let the case take its course. James is eventually found guilty of Kendall’s murder and given a life sentence without possibility of parole.

Toward the end of Juror #2, upon hearing the verdict, Justin breaks down, which Faith notices. Only then does she look him up and find out that Ally’s husband is in fact Justin. She later confronts him about it, but the latter subtly tells her that he unwittingly committed the crime under very different circumstances.

Justin walks away and sells his car to sever all ties with the case. Ally gives birth to a healthy baby, and the couple seems to be having a good time. However, one day, Faith shows up at their residence and knocks on the door before the scene cuts and the credits start rolling.

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Exploring Faith’s character in the film

The character of Faith Killebrew is introduced toward the beginning of Juror #2. She is running for the post of District Attorney, and her agenda is eliminating domestic violence. Thus, by portraying Kendall as the victim of domestic violence and by bringing James to book, she seeks to score a professional point.

She and Eric are long-time friends, but even then, she does not initially pay heed to Eric’s insistence that there is a possibility of James being innocent. Instead, she comes down hard on James.

However, as the trial progresses, she has second thoughts, and she is humble enough to acknowledge, even if privately, that she may have made a mistake. Her budding skepticism regarding James’ guilt is further watered by Howard’s warning that she is headed the wrong way.

Eventually, she starts her own investigation into the case, using Howard’s research to narrow down the list of suspect cars. Halfway into Juror #2, she even reaches Justin’s house and talks to Ally but does not know just yet that he is Ally’s husband.

As the film nears its conclusion, Faith comes to terms with the fact that no matter her victory, justice has not been served, and James has been wrongly accused. Though Eric greets her with a pot of plants at her new office, she is dejected.

At the very end of the film, things take an ambiguous turn when Justin opens the door to find Faith standing there. Is she going to reopen the case and try to hold Justin accountable for what he did? The film does not answer that.

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What happens to Howard?

Harold Chicowski (Image via Prime Video)

A former homicide detective and a fellow juror on the case, Harold Chicowski is one of the first persons to acknowledge Justin’s theory that James might be innocent after all. He uses his experience to argue that due to poor visibility on that rainy night, the eyewitness’ account identifying James on the crime scene cannot be entirely trustworthy.

As the plot of Juror #2 thickens, Howard starts his own investigation into the case, something that jurors are not allowed to do. He can sense that Justin is following him and later confronts him about the same. He also tells Justin that he has taken favor from a friend of his and has obtained a list of cars that had passed by the crime scene on the night.

Fearing that he might be exposed, Justin cleverly ousts Howard from the jury by bringing the court’s attention to the unsanctioned research carried out by Howard. Thus, Howard is dismissed by the judge. However, it is his research that eventually helps Faith figure out that James is innocent.

Juror #2 is available for streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Max.

Edited by Somava