If You Watched Tyler Perry’s ‘Straw,’ You Probably Have Big Feelings About How It Ended

Spoiler Alert: This article includes spoilers about Straw's ending.

Since Tyler Perry formed a creative partnership with Netflix in 2023, the famed director has hit the ground running. Several of his movies have been successful, resulting in his extension of a multi-year first-look deal with the streamer in 2024 and the release of more successful projects in 2025 like his psychological crime drama, Straw.

Straw, starring Taraji P. Henson, Sherri Shepherd, and Teyana Taylor, was released on Netflix in June 2025 and quickly caught viewers' attention. The film starred Taraji as Janiyah Wiltkinson, a single mother struggling to make ends meet to provide for her 8-year-old daughter, Aria (Gabrielle E. Jackson), who suffers from seizures and is forced into an accidental bank robbery.

Straw is an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end, but the ending is precisely what took most viewers over the edge and led to multiple social media debates.

While one shouldn't watch Straw without 1-10 tissues, the ending will either make you weep or question your emotions for not weeping. In the final scenes of the 1-hour and 48-minute film, Janiyah must come to terms with robbing her local bank and holding multiple employees, including the bank's manager, Nicole Parker, played by Shepherd, hostage. Right before she gets ready to leave the bank and surrender, she gets a call from her mother, played by Cheryl Frazier.

After frustratingly answering the phone, Janiyah's mom tells her something that changes Straw's plot entirely. Her daughter, Aria, the reason she was in the bank trying to secure $40 for Aria's lunch and their rent money, died the night before. Janiyah's mom reminded her that they took Aria to the hospital after she suffered a seizure, and she died there.

As Janiyah freezes with shock and grief, flashbacks show her continuing her and Aria's daily routine, including her taking Aria to school. However, the truth was that she was alone the entire time and hallucinated multiple moments throughout the film, including receiving a phone call from her daughter's school about the lunch money, which was actually from one of Janiyah's bill collectors.

The tragic truth of Aria's death broke many viewers watching the movie and confused others. While Janiyah shared in her revelation that "my baby died; she died last night," some users questioned if that was also a hallucination.

Several users believed Aria was actually died during childbirth, noting a scene where she told her hostages the doctors wanted her to have an abortion due to Aria's health. However, multiple clues, including Janiyah showing up to her daughter's school and holding her backpack and science project, support that she was 8 when she died.

Another theory regarding Straw's ending was Janiyah's fate. The movie ended with Janiyah realizing Aria died, then surrendering to the police. In one scene, a cop shoots her in the chest, killing her in the bank as Nicole screams. However, another scene showed Janiyah coming to terms with Aria's death and her impending prison sentence. With Nicole's help, she walks out of the bank and is handcuffed by Teyana's character, Det. Kay Raymond. As she heads to prison, Janiyah sees multiple "Free Janiyah" signs from people who had been following her story all day.

While some viewers felt the ending showed Janiyah died at the bank, Taraji confirmed it was an alternative to what could've happened that day. The Oscar nominee told Decider that Tyler initially wrote that Janiyah died, but chose to spare her life and told her, "I can’t do that to her, and the audience, because this will just kill them." Turns out, we were heartbroken regardless!