What You Didn't See in "Fifty Shades Darker"
Fifty Shades Darker is fantastic and everyone should see it. But some fans may leave the theater obsessing over the whereabouts of certain characters, plot lines, and major sex scenes. It’s nearly impossible to spot every single difference between James Foley’s film and E. L. James’s book (plus, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, and it takes a lot of work and creativity to squeeze 544 pages into a two-hour film) so here are the major ones you should care about.
1. There’s no pool table sex scene. There’s no pool table playing whatsoever, even though I saw Jamie and Dakota at the pool table in promo clips. I guess there’s only so much spanking one (this one was with a ruler though!) can fit in a Fifty Shades movie.
2. There’s no vanilla ice cream sex scene either. We were warned about this one and I guess we'll have to live with the nice little wink it gets when Ana picks up a vanilla Ben & Jerry’s at the grocery store with Christian. Related: They don’t end up eating the stir-fry they make after ~*reuniting*~ in Ana’s bed. They just go straight to sleep. What a waste of good stir-fry.
3. Ethan Kavanagh does not exist. Not that Ethan had major lines in the book, but it’s sad to see Kate as an only child. It's also sad to see Mia without a potential man friend.
4. José lives in Seattle and not Portland. This is convenient for José in the movie to join Ana and friends for drinks at Lori’s and not have to worry about the three-hour drive. This is also convenient for Christian’s jealousy to not go overboard, since movie José doesn’t have to stay over at the penthouse after delivering Ana’s photos.
5. Elena’s presence at the hair salon is not explained. In the book she’s only at that location of Esclava because a technician called in sick. Nope, Kim Basinger is just there with her pearls, ready to give the death stare to anyone who comes into contact with her former sub.
6. Christian’s U2 and Sheryl Crow ticket stubs are missing from his childhood bedroom. His posters of The Matrix and The Truman Show are also nowhere to be seen, but we do get Riddick (LOL) and a UFC poster.
7. Jack Hyde is at the masquerade ball. Jack’s revenge plotting arrives much earlier in the film. And since he doesn’t get to confront Ana about her sexy work emails to Christian (yes, they’re missing too), it makes sense that he creeps early by going to the Grey family mansion. Did you miss him? He’s the masked creature who takes a photo of the Grey family photo by the staircase, just as Ana is descending from Christian’s childhood bedroom (post-spanking and post-Ben Wa balling).
8. The sexy work emails don’t exist. Showing text messages on screen is already kind of tacky, so I’m actually glad this was left out. Also, Ana has an iPhone and not a Blackberry! Christian, on the other hand, has some non-iPhone thing that could be a Blackberry or some other Android. I don’t really care, but it sort of bothers me that his texts appear as green and not blue on Ana’s pretty rose gold iPhone.
9. They don’t go to a hotel after Leila’s intrusion at Escala and paint job on Ana’s Audi. That’s too bad because I was really looking forward to seeing Ana tell Taylor she checked in as “Mrs. Taylor.” Instead of a hotel, Christian and Ana spend the night on his boat, The Grace. This is convenient because the film gets to dive right into the boat scene next.
10. Christian doesn’t show Ana the “big house” on the Sound. He doesn't get to surprise her on a drive to the mansion he plans to demolish and rebuild for their future. This also means Olga Kelly the realtor has also been eliminated from the film. Guess we’ll have to wait until Freed to see the house.
11. José is at Christian’s birthday party at his parents’ mansion in Bellevue. Why?!
12. The lemon martini Ana throws in Elena’s face is Kate’s special cocktail, not Carrick Grey’s. Poor Carrick.
13. There isn’t a first-dance auction at the masquerade ball. This could have been a fun bit to see the other party guests, including fighter pilot and Olympic gymnast Jada, who also speaks Japanese.
14. Dr. Flynn is nowhere to be seen. Hugh Dancy was cast last year as Flynn but it looks like you’ll have to wait until Freed for his scenes. That’s too bad because I was really looking forward to watching Christian and Flynn bid on Ana for a first dance. I was also looking forward to meeting his wife.
15. At the masquerade ball, Elena tells Ana she’s not right for Christian. In the book, Mrs. Robinson tells Ana not to hurt him again and references his sadness during the weekend they were apart. This is not mentioned in the film.
16. Leila’s gun actually goes off. OMFG, I did not see this coming. I mean, I sort of did from the trailer but I thought that was just to make things more dramatic in a this is a trailer-only moment. But I did not expect her to actually pull the trigger.
17. Christian walks in on Ana playing with nipple clamps in the Red Room. In the book she also inquires about butt plugs (not in the film) but sure, I enjoyed watching him test the clamp on her finger.
18. Christian doesn’t force Ana to cancel her New York trip. He says no in a few silly texts but ultimately, she pulls out of the trip herself because Ana can speak for herself, damnit.
19. Sawyer has zero screen time in the film. Did anyone see him? Is he hanging out with Ethan somewhere? Also not included in the movie: Sawyer telling Ana he doesn’t mind hanging out at the coffee shop by her office all day (to protect her from Leila) because it’s his job, Sawyer telling Ana he doesn’t need to keep a photo of Leila because it’s locked in his memory, and Sawyer giving Christian a letter from Elena to Ana after the ball. Is it too early to launch a #JusticeForSawyer campaign?
20. Christian doesn’t give Ana an iPad with sappy love songs. It’s just a Macbook Pro and a rose gold iPhone, which I guess are nice too.
21. The restaurant they celebrate at after her mini promotion wasn’t clearly owned by him. He didn’t get the special treatment he usually gets at places he’s familiar with/owns/has stock in. Damn, I really wanted to see what the Mile High Club looked like.
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