The 7 lives of Lea: the ending, explained: What happened to Lea and Ismael?

By okaybliss — ON May 06, 2022

The new addition to the time-travelling genre on Netflix certainly does not disappoint. Narrated around the mysterious freaky Friday type of situations happening to Lea, the season offers a very deep and emotional plot with a rather complicated ending. Like many time-related drama suspense genres, the series is shown in two timelines; 1991 and the present.

Caution: Major spoilers ahead!

Also note: Leia gets trapped inside different people, but her thoughts and personality remain the same.

Lea finds a dead body and is transported back in time

The series starts with Lea (Raïka Hazanavicius) partying near a river and trying to take some drugs. Just then she stumbles and sees a skeleton buried in the sand. She touches the bracelet of the corpse and after calling the authorities, her parents arrive and take her home.

Lea wakes up the next morning in a different bed and she sees herself transformed into a boy. The other boy in the room called her Ismael. Although she tries to explain what had happened to Ismael’s parents, they don’t believe her and just pretend that Ismael is pranking them.

Her journey to the river is cut short by Patricia who takes her (Ismael) to her own house where she sees her parents playing in a rock band. She realises that her mother Karine was the lead guitarist, and her father Stephan was the drummer while Ismael was on vocals. She finds a book Ismael used to write lyrics and she buries that book intending to find it later at the present and goes to sleep. The next day she wakes up as Lea in the present day.

Lea believes the dead body is Ismael

Lea searches on the internet about Ismael and realises that a person by that name had existed, confirming her suspicions that she wasn’t dreaming. She also finds the notebook of Ismael she hid in the past.

Meanwhile, Ismael’s brother Soufiane calls for a meeting to confirm if the body they found is Ismael. Lea announces that she was certain it was Ismael’s body and gives them the bracelet worn by him.

The next day Lea is again woken up in 1991 inside the body of her mother. She sees Karine and Ismael were best friends who planned to move out to Paris and perform as street musicians. But Lea’s grandparents had wanted Karin to study at a London Conservatory. Lea knows that Karin didn’t do either of them and she suspects that her parents are hiding something important.

The next day she wakes up in the present again and the police officer says that they have confirmed the body was that of Ismael. Lea’s father Stephan also tells her that they were supposed to perform on World Music Day, but they cancelled it because Ismael didn’t show up after being highly intoxicated and fighting with Pye.

Lea tries to change the past

Lea wakes up in the past as Pye, a friend of Ismael who used to sell drugs. She believes that Pye killed Ismael as revenge because Ismael used to beat him at school. Wanting to change the timelines, Lea beats up Ismael with the intention of Pye not returning to take revenge.

Meanwhile, Ismael is kicked out of the house by his father after Pye had lied by saying that Ismael is selling drugs. Ismael convinces Karine to go to Paris, but she declines. Lea later wakes up in the present only to see Ismael still dead, meaning her plan hasn’t worked.

Lea suspects Patricia as the killer

Lea is woken up as the owner of the record store, Patricia the next day. Ismael comes to visit her asking for a place to stay and they both make love. Lea also notices that Patricia had a gun with her.

Later when she wakes up in the present, she and her best friend Romane discovers that Patricia had killed her husband. They also hear a gunshot when playing back some VCR tapes of Lea’s parents. Almost sure that Patricia killed Ismael, Lea and Romane confront her, but she denies any wrongdoing. The same night she throws her gun in the river.

Lea wakes up as her father the next day. She realises that her father was gay and attracted to Ismael. After waking up in the present, Lea realises that if Ismael doesn’t get killed, her father would be with him, and Lea would never be born. She decided not to sleep that night, but eventually, she fell asleep and woke up again as Ismael on the same day he was supposed to be killed.

Does Lea change the timeline and save Ismael?

Ismael, Karine and Stephane were scheduled to perform on the World Music Day, but they go to the woods and light a bonfire before getting intoxicated together with Pye, Sandra and Patricia.

After all of them get high, Pye points a gun at Ismael and Stephan has an emotional breakout and reveals that he can’t live like this anymore pretending to be straight. He takes the gun from Pye and attempts to shoot himself. Just then Karine arrives and pushes the gun away from him.

Stephan accidentally shoots the gun which should have hit Ismael, but knowing what would have happened, Lea (in Ismael’s body) quickly moves aside and jumps to the river which changes the whole timeline.

Just then, Jonathan arrives and tries to bully Ismael by almost killing him and putting his head inside the water. But Lea manages to break free and goes back home. Ismael’s father welcomes him back home that night. Lea realised that she wouldn’t exist now that Ismael is alive, and the timeline is changed. So she writes everything in Ismael’s notebook and darts off to sleep.

Ismael wakes up the next day with Lea, not in the scene and reads the notebook. He sees all of Lea’s notes in the diary and asks his brother about this girl. The brother tells him about the time when Ismael woke up one day and pretended to be Lea and the season ends here.

Given the way storylines change in time travel plots, it is safe to assume that Lea had to sacrifice herself for Ismael, ceasing her existence. But this ending would also mean that another season would be coming and if the past were any indication, Ismael would go searching for Lea. So all is not lost.