‘The Perfect Couple’ Ending Explained: Netflix’s Murder Mystery Series Will Continue

It may be a little early to be watching Halloween movies, but as fall approaches, viewers are hungry for a good murder mystery. To their delight, Netflix delivered a six-episode miniseries this month called The perfect couple. The series is based on Elin Hilderbrand’s New York Times bestseller of the same name; it is set in beautiful Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the prestigious Winbury family is celebrating the wedding of their son, Benji (Billy Howle), to Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson). Unfortunately, their plans are disrupted when the bride’s best friend/maid of honor, Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), is found dead on the shores of the Winbury estate, known as Summerland House.

Detectives Dan Carter (Michael Beach) and Nikki Henry (Donna Lynn Champlin) set out to unmask the social media influencer’s killer. They immediately put Benji’s father, Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber), in the picture because he was having an affair with the victim who was carrying his child. Matriarch Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) – a renowned murder mystery author – was also brought into question. The former’s smartwatch data confirmed he was asleep at the time of the murder, but his wife was not exonerated because she had a motive to kill Tag’s love interest. In The perfect coupleIn the final episode, detectives attempt to accuse Mrs. Winbury, but major twists send the story taking a completely unexpected turn.

‘The Perfect Couple’ Ending Explained

According to People, police’s working theory is that Greer hired Broderick Graham, a known criminal with ties to the Turkish mafia, to kill her husband’s pregnant mistress. Their evidence is a $300,000 wire transfer from family friend Shooter Dival to Broderick; detectives believe Greer asked Dival for help because of his diplomatic immunity. However, the Winbury matriarch shocks everyone by revealing that Broderick is her brother, to whom she loaned money so he could pay off his gambling debts. The duo returns to Summerland to share the news with the family, and Greer also reveals that she and Tag met when she was an escort and he was her paying customer.

As that drama unfolds, Carter and Henry delve deeper into Merritt’s death. When Amelia reports that barbiturates were found in the deceased’s body, her mother, Karen, discovers that one of her three pentobarbital pills is missing; the last one is a cancer patient who obtained the medication for euthanasia. Since Thomas Winbury (Jack Reynor) has a reputation for stealing pills to play “prescription roulette,” all eyes are on him. He admits to stealing the medication but insists he didn’t use it to kill Merritt. Instead, Tom suggests that his mistress, Isabel (Isabelle Adjani), is the culprit.

It turns out that Tom owes his lover $2.5 million, and he planned to pay her back after accessing his trust fund when the youngest Winbury brother turned 18. Will (Sam Nivola) was set to turn legal age in late summer, but Merritt’s pregnancy would reset the clock to 18 years. Isabel was one of the last people seen with Merritt, but her alibi — video footage from a cab driver showing her leaving the mansion with Tom — saved her.

Who killed Merritt?

He may have been wrong about his mistress, but Tom’s conversation with detectives did point them to the right killer, his wife, Abby Winbury (Dakota Fanning). She previously claimed that her partner had woken her up as he was going to bed the night of the murder, but the taxi footage proves otherwise. After watching Tom leave with Isabel, she crushes the stolen pill into a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice for Merritt. The two scorned women discuss how untrustworthy men can be as Abby convinces Merritt to go swimming. She forces her companion’s head under the water until she drowns, then calmly walks back to the house as Merritt’s lifeless body floats in the water.

As People notes, Tom’s wife had financial motives behind her murderous actions. She didn’t want her husband’s debts or infidelities to get in the way of her extravagant lifestyle after marrying the Winburys, and she even pressured him to ask Tag for a loan so they could get a new apartment. When he learned of her pregnancy, Tom tried to scare Merritt into having an abortion with his grandfather’s gun, but he didn’t dare and instead left with Isabel. Abby watched this from the balcony and then decided to take action herself. “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” she told Merritt on the beach before killing her.

To the disappointment of some, the Netflix conclusion differs from Hildebrand’s book. On paper, Abby is still responsible for Merritt’s death, even though it was an accident. Her original plan was to slip a pill into Tom’s mistress’ drink to keep them apart for the night, but Merritt ended up drinking the drink with an anesthetic added. She cut her foot while wandering the beach alone at night, got distracted by a shiny ring in the water while washing herself, and drowned. In this version, the police rule Merritt’s death an accident, and only Greer learns the truth. Which ending do you like best? Let us know in the comments!