The Love Hypothesis Ending, Explained: Do Olive and Adam End Up Together?
What started as a Reylo fan fiction became a BookTok sensation and, from there, was adapted for the silver screen. The result? A cosy rom-com for all the nerds.
The Love Hypothesis follows driven Stanford PhD candidate Olive (Lili Reinhart). As she navigates grad school life with best friend Ahn (Rachel Marsh), she discovers Ahn has feelings for her longtime crush — but willingly sacrifices her chance at happiness to save Olive’s feelings. So Olive does what anyone would do: randomly kiss the scariest professor on campus (Tom Bateman) to convince Ahn not to throw away her chance at happiness.
That one impulsive moment ends up becoming the basis of an agreement between Olive and Adam, who is nicknamed ‘Dr. Evil’ by the students. She pretends to date him to convince her friend to date her dream man, and he pretends to date her to get his research funding renewed. Despite the control variables in this particular experiment, things don’t end up going to plan…
Proceed with caution: If you read any further, you will get spoiled. That isn’t a hypothesis — it’s just fact. So, if you haven’t read the book or watched the film yet, please be warned.
What Happens At The Conference?
As the movie progresses, Olive and Adam’s deception continues to go well, with the pair genuinely bonding in the process. Dr Benton, who is considering funding Olive’s research at Harvard, encourages her to give a speech about her research at a prestigious biology conference. With Ahn wanting some alone time with her new boyfriend, Olive ends up having to stay with Adam in his hotel room.
Her speech at the conference goes well, and that night, she and Adam finally give in to their feelings and sleep together. The next morning, when Adam leaves the conference early due to a work commitment, he runs into Dr Benton, who tells him he is prepared to accept Olive’s proposal and fund her research at Harvard. However, he gets into Adam’s head by saying he doesn’t want Olive to be distracted by who she has left behind. As a result, Adam distances himself from Olive.
Later on, Dr Benton goes to her hotel room and tries to blackmail her into sleeping with him, saying that if she doesn’t, he will steal her work, and that if she tries to report him, she will get a bad reputation in the industry. A devastated Olive tries to text Adam, but he ignores her. When she returns home, she learns that Malcolm (Jaboukie Young-White) has been fired from Adam’s research team. She confronts Adam, and he says their experiment has concluded: he’s got his funding, and Ahn’s got her boyfriend.
Do Olive And Adam End Up Together?
After telling Ahn what happened, Olive tries to pitch her academic advisor, Dr Juliet Asla (Jeananne Goossen), for funding to continue her research at her lab in Stanford. She gives Olive a chance, and she’s successful.
Later, Ahn runs into Adam and tells him the truth about what happened between Olive and Dr Benton. Adam then confronts Benton while he is teaching, with students livestreaming the interaction: something that will presumably ruin Benton’s career.
Olive sees this livestream and goes to confront Adam. They hash out their issues and, after a bit of scienc-y flirting, finally get together properly. The movie then jumps forward two years, showing Olive and Ahn thriving as doctors at Stanford, with Olive and Adam still going strong. Aww.
It’s a happy ending all round, but for Olive and Adam, it is arguably just the beginning.
