Every Young Lily & Atlas Flashback In It Ends With Us Explained

It Ends with Us alternates between Lily Bloom’s present-day life and her abusive relationship with Ryle and flashbacks to her high school years and relationship with Atlas that reveal a cycle of abuse. It Ends with Us is based on the hit Colleen Hoover book, with some changes made to the story for better or worse. The book occasionally gets marketed as a romance novel, but it’s a dark, chilling tale of domestic violence. As such, the flashbacks of Lily and Atlas are about so much more than them falling in love for the first time.

Blake Lively leads the It Ends with Us cast as Lily Bloom, with her younger self played by Isabela Ferrer. The actors do a great job of making Lily feel like one character, using similar mannerisms and even vocal techniques to match each other’s performances. Brandon Sklenar has a smaller role as Atlas, with Alex Neustaedter splitting his screentime as young Atlas. It Ends with Us has received mixed reviews, but the flashbacks are used to great effect to establish the characters and a dramatic throughline.

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Atlas & Lily Seeing Each Other For The First Time

Lily First Sees Atlas Sneaking Into An Abandoned Building

When Lily first meets Ryle, they share “naked truths.” Lily tells him that she lost her virginity to a homeless boy, who is later revealed to be Atlas Corrigan. In the first It Ends with Us flashback, Lily looks out the window of her room and sees a boy sneaking into an abandoned building. When the boy, Atlas, looks up at her, she immediately hides away, but it becomes clear later on that he saw her. Lily later sees Atlas rooting through a garbage can for food and decides to help him.

Lily takes food from her house and her garden, filling up two tote bags full and bringing them to the abandoned building where he’s staying. She knocks on the makeshift door and hides, again not wanting him to know it was her. When Atlas shows up on her school bus, Lily is surprised, as she didn’t know he was her age. It was likely eye-opening for her, as she realizes people her age could experience homelessness, which only makes her want to help him more in It Ends with Us.

7

Atlas & Lily At The Bus Stop

Atlas & Lily’s First Interaction Was At The Bus Stop

The second flashback in It Ends with Us between Atlas and Lily takes place at the bus stop. While waiting for the school bus, Atlas thanks Lily for bringing her the food, which she pretends not to know about. This is likely because Lily doesn’t want Atlas to think she pities him, but he is appreciative of what she’s done. Wanting to further help him, Lily invites Atlas over to her house to let him shower and wash his clothes, as he’d been bullied for his smell.

In the present-day storyline of It Ends with Us, Atlas tells Lily he went to the abandoned building not to look for shelter, but to commit suicide. Seeing her and her kindness made him change his mind. At the point of this flashback, Lily and Atlas don’t really know each other, but It Ends with Us makes it obvious that they will become important to each other. As much as Lily helps Atlas, he helps her as well, becoming a confidant.

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Atlas Visiting Lily’s House For The First Time

Lily Invited Atlas Over To Take A Shower

Atlas’ first visit to Lily’s house is awkward. While he takes a shower, she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She sits on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, adjusting her outfit and seating position multiple times before he comes back into the living room wearing her dad’s clothes. Lily invites him to stay and watch a movie with him. In the It Ends with Us flashbacks, Atlas is the only peer Lily interacts with, suggesting she doesn’t really have friends.

This could be because of her abusive father. When Atlas visits, he has to leave before Lily’s dad comes home from work, which becomes an important detail in a later It Ends with Us flashback. At just 15, Lily probably doesn’t know how to interact with boys, let alone one she might have a crush on. It’s endearing to see Lily this way, especially after seeing her confidence as an adult in the present-day storyline. In turn, Atlas is just as shy, unsure of how to interact with Lily at first.

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5

Atlas Helping Lily In Her Garden

Atlas & Lily’s Conversation Inspired Her Tattoo & His Restaurant

The scene in It Ends with Us that reveals the most about Atlas and Lily is when Atlas helps Lily in her garden. It Ends with Us pokes fun at the book, with a character named Lily Blossom Bloom becoming a florist being something even she finds a bit ridiculous. However, the movie also explains why Lily loves flowers so much. As she tells Atlas, she is rewarded with food and their beauty when she takes care of her plants. When she doesn’t, they don’t die.

Gardening gives her a sense of purpose and reminds her of the importance of nurturing something. Lily explains to Atlas that roots are the strongest part of a plant, which he hadn’t known and was fascinated by. Atlas was forced to be independent when his mom kicked him out of the house for trying to save her from her abusive boyfriend. Lily compares him to an oak tree, which grew strong and beautiful by itself.

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4

Atlas & Lily Kiss On The Bus

Lily Stood Up For Atlas When He Was Being Bullied

Though it’s unclear whether their peers knew Atlas was homeless, he was bullied by other students on the bus. They made fun of him for smelling, likely because he had a limited closet and could only wash his clothes at Lily’s place. Atlas didn’t stand up for himself, shrinking at their words and trying to keep to himself. In a bold move, Lily got up and kissed him in front of everyone, giving one of the girls who’d been bullying him the middle finger.

It was their first kiss in It Ends with Us, and though she did it to stand up for him, it was also something she’d been wanting to do for a while. Unlike her quick relationship with Ryle, Lily and Atlas were genuine friends before their relationship turned romantic. Ryle refuses to let him and Lily just be friends, even though that’s what she wants at first, but Atlas lets Lily guide their relationship.

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Atlas & Lily Making Cookies

Atlas & Lily’s Friendship Turns Romantic

Shortly after Lily kisses Atlas for the first time in It Ends with Us, Atlas comes to her house to make hot chocolate cookies. She tells him he can’t bake, but Atlas says he’s always loved cooking and baking. This sets up the foundation for his owning his own restaurant, which he names Root in a tribute to Lily. Along with the cookies, Atlas also gives Lily a wooden heart he carved out of her oak tree, which she kept in her childhood room in It Ends with Us through the present-day storyline.

The gift represented Atlas’ love for Lily, something neither of them truly move on from. Lily even got a hollow heart tattooed on her collarbone in college, showing how much the gift and Atlas mean to her. In her kitchen, Atlas asks Lily if she kissed him just to tell his bullies off or if she really wanted to kiss him. She confirms it’s the latter, but he has to leave quickly because her father is coming home, narrowly escaping him.

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Atlas & Lily Having Sex For The First Time

Atlas & Lily’s First Time Was Interrupted By Lily’s Dad

It’s unclear how much time passes between the previous It Ends with Us flashback and the one where Atlas and Lily have sex for the first time, but their relationship has progressed quickly. The book states that they wait until Lily turns 16 to have sex, though this isn’t something the movie focuses on. Instead, it’s portrayed as a lovely moment where Lily tells a patient Atlas that she’s ready, and he’s gentle with her, knowing it’s her first time.

It Ends with Us features multiple sex scenes, mostly between Ryle and Lily, which are shown to be sensual and intense. In contrast, Atlas and Lily’s scene is sweet and innocent, focusing on their emotional connection rather than their physical one. Unfortunately, Lily’s dad comes home and catches Atlas in Lily’s bed. He reacts quickly and violently, beating Atlas up to a point that Lily later describes as nearly fatal.

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Atlas Being Taken Away In An Ambulance

The Last Time Lily Saw Atlas Before The Present-Day Storyline

The final flashback between Atlas and Lily in It Ends with Us is short and shows Lily watching an ambulance take a beaten Atlas away. It’s the last time she sees him until she dines at his restaurant in Boston, not knowing he owned it. This is seen as a moment of fate, as he told her he planned on moving to Boston, but they’d gone months without ever seeing each other. Sadly, the timing was off, as she was already with Ryle when they reunited.

Atlas not only knew about Lily’s father’s abuse, but he witnessed it firsthand and became a victim of his violence. This makes him extra protective of her, and in turn, it makes Lily protective of him. When Ryle reacts violently to seeing Atlas and Lily together, Lily’s first instinct is to protect him in a way she couldn’t when she was a teenager. As traumatic as their upbringings were, they brought Atlas and Lily closer together in It Ends with Us.

It Ends With Us

Based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel, It Ends With Us is a drama-romance film directed by Justin Baldoni. The film follows a recent college graduate named Lily, who meets a man named Ryle and falls in love with him. However, a traumatic incident compounded with her former high-school sweetheart re-entering her life complicates her plans.

Director

Justin Baldoni

Release Date

August 9, 2024

Writers

Christy Hall
, Colleen Hoover

Cast

Blake Lively
, Justin Baldoni
, Brandon Sklenar
, Jenny Slate
, Hasan Minhaj

Runtime

130 Minutes