The Firm ending explained (spoilers)

[marc]

Distrusting the FBI, Mitch takes matters into his own hands. He enlists the help of seedy detective, Eddie Lomax, but the firm suspects he and #8217;s involved and has him murdered. Eddie and #8217;s secretary and former lover, Tammy, agrees to help Mitch.Before he will aid the FBI further, Mtich demands ,000 be deposited into an offshore account. The money is for his brother, Ray, to start a new life. Ray is released, but the FBI secretly intends to return him to prison soon after.Mitch and Tammy begin photocopying client files that Mitch smuggles from the office. They plan to go to the firm and #8217;s Caribbean office to copy critical files stored there, but Mitch is unexpectedly delayed. Tammy decides to go alone and do what she can. Unknown to Mitch, Abby returns from Boston. She left after Mitch told her what he knew about the firm and confessed to a one-night-stand while on a business trip in the Caribbean. Tammy fills Abby in on what and #8217;s happened, and she decides to help. Abby goes to the island and meets up with Avery Tolar, Mitch and #8217;s mentor at the firm, who is there on business. Avery previously propositioned Abby, and she pretends she and #8217;s interested so she can get to the files. She drugs Avery and #8217;s drink, and he passes out. She gets the files, which Tammy photocopies and returns just before Avery wakes up. A groggy Avery receives a phone call from the firm telling him Mitch has been copying files. Corrupt, but inwardly decent, Avery tips off Abby that the firm is on to them. He tells her Mitch and #8217;s affair was a set-up so the firm could blackmail him.At the Memphis office, Mitch is confronted by his superiors, but he escapes by jumping out a window. He eludes the firm and #8217;s ruthless security men and makes his way to a Mafia don and #8217;s home. Mitch tells the don he and #8217;s discovered that the firm has been grossly over billing its clients and he and #8217;s reporting it to the authorities. However, he needs the don and #8217;s signed cooperation. To provide evidence, Mitch says he has photocopied every client and #8217;s file. However, as their lawyer, he will always honor the attorney-client confidentiality privilege, even if he is no longer with the firm. Regardless of what he knows, he is legally bound never to reveal it, otherwise he risks disbarment. It is subtly implied that as long as nothing happens to him, the files will remain safely hidden. Assured that the firm will only be reported for over billing clients, the don agrees to sign.Mitch provides the FBI enough evidence of massive over billing and mail fraud for the government to indict and bring down the firm. Avery Tolar is killed by the firm. With help from Tammy and #8217;s truck driver ex-husband, Ray evades the FBI and slips out of the country. Ray is smitten with Tammy, and it appears they will get together. Abby and Mitch move back to Boston, where Mitch has accepted a job with a small, but promising law firm.