The Perfect Couple on Netflix, a new series based on Erin Hilderbrand’s murder mystery novel of the same name, is the equivalent of a beach read but with murder sprinkled atop as a garnish. It stars Nicole Kidman as yet another rich woman present at the scene of the crime.
Spoilers ahead for The Perfect Couple!
What is The Perfect Couple about?
The Winburys are a rich and important family (they know Oprah!), headed by Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), a famous novelist, and her husband, Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber). They have three sons. Thomas (Jack Reynor) is the oldest and married to Abby (Dakota Fanning), who is pregnant. The youngest is Will (Sam Nivola). The middle child, golden boy Benji (Billy Howle), is getting married in their lavish Nantucket home when we meet them at the rehearsal dinner. The bride, Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), is a zoologist and totally not rich.
The other core members of this wedding party are Amelia’s parents—her mother, Karen Sacks (Dendrie Taylor), a cancer patient, and her father Bruce (Michael McGrady). There’s also Amelia’s best friend and maid of honor Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), the groom’s BFF and best man, Shooter Dival (Ishaan Khatter), and a family friend, Isabel Nallet (Isabelle Adjani). Also involved are the wedding planner, and the Winbury family’s housekeeper Gosia (Irina Dubova).
The wedding is poised to be a glorious affair until, on the morning of the wedding, the bride discovers a floating body in the pool—that of her maid of honor, Merritt Monaco. The local chief of police, Dan Carter (Michael Beach), is on the case and is joined by a detective sent from higher up to take point, Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin). Together, these two will have to sift through a mountain of lies and secrets to find out who the killer is.
Throughout six episodes, each of the characters is considered a suspect and cleared one by one. Through the testimonies and memory flashbacks of every character, we can piece together a rough timeline of what happened that fateful night.
So who killed Merritt Monaco on The Perfect Couple?
Merritt was having an affair with Tag Winbury and on the eve of the wedding, revealed that she was pregnant with his child. While Benji had known about the affair for some time now, almost everyone else in the family—Greer, Thomas, Abby, Will, Amelia, and Isabel—found out about the affair and the pregnancy in some way or another on the day before the wedding and during the rehearsal dinner party.
When the cops reveal that they found barbiturates in Merritt’s system, Amelia’s mom Karen panics and finds out that someone stole one of her hidden euthanasia pills. Benji and Amelia figured out it must’ve been Thomas because he loved stealing pills from everyone and playing prescription roulette. Thomas is taken in for questioning, and he points the cops to Isabel Nallet, claiming that she had a strong motive to kill Merritt.
Thomas owed Nallet two million dollars, and he was going to pay her back as soon as he got his trust fund, after the youngest Winbury sibling, Will, turned 18. However, if Merritt had the baby, that would become the youngest Winbury child, and it would reset the trust fund duration for another 18 years. Thus, Nallet had a motive.
As Nallet is brought in for questioning, she tells the cops that they’re looking at all the wrong corners except the one they should be checking, and also reveals her alibi, as she was with Thomas that night. Detective Henry realizes that Thomas’ wife Abby was lying about Thomas coming home to bed because he was at Isabel’s hotel with her. Henry also recalls seeing Abby clean a used juice glass and looking frazzled that the maids hadn’t cleaned it, suspecting she could’ve drugged Merritt with the orange juice.
In a flashback, it is revealed that Abby sees Isabel and her husband Thomas stumbling out on the beach to have sex in the car. She also spots Merritt by the beach. Now, Abby has figured out that Merritt is pregnant, and her anger over her husband and father-in-law’s infidelity coming in the way of her money bubbles over into a cold-blooded murderous rage.
She takes the pill from Thomas’ bedside drawer, crushes it in a glass of orange juice, and brings it to Merritt at the beach, knowing that she would accept a non-alcoholic drink from a fellow pregnant woman. After Merritt has the juice, Abby proposes a swim in the water to cool down. The pill kicks in, and Merritt loses control. Abby forces Merritt’s head to stay underwater until she’s dead.
The cops arrive at the Winbury home to arrest Abby, who is incarcerated, while the rest of the Winbury members and Amelia are finally free from all the lies, which are now out in the open. In an epilogue, six months later, Greer visits Amelia in London (after she chooses not to be with both Benji and Shooter), and gives her a manuscript of her latest novel, which she needs Amelia’s blessing for since it is about her. She asks Amelia if she’d like to catch up for dinner after she’s read it.
This ending is slightly altered from the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, in which Merrit’s death is actually an accident. Merritt drinks a glass of water with the pill crushed in by Abby that is meant for someone else (the woman sleeping with her husband). When Merritt is at the beach alone after, she angrily throws the ring that Tag gave her into the water and then goes to look for it, losing consciousness due to the drug and drowning in the water. The cops, after a day of investigating, rule the death an accident, but one of the characters figures it out.
Well, in my opinion, the show’s ending is definitely more satisfying!
Published: Sep 6, 2024 06:36 am