“The Perfect Couple”- Ending Explained, A Netflix Murder Mystery: “The Perfect Couple” should have had the perfect wedding, except that they didnt. Netflix’s show, “The Perfect Couple,” wasn’t really a new mystery. Adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s bestseller, viewers thought they knew what was going to happen, but the showrunner and director had some different ideas. Jenna Lamia, the showrunner cum writer, and Susanne Bier knew that this murder mystery had to have a twist that no one could foresee coming.
After all, adapting a book to the screen is always challenging. Stories on the screen are met differently by audiences than in a book, and scenes tend to have a visual element that stays with the audience long after. So, the show kept everyone on tenterhooks in its season finale: the viewers who had read the book and the ones who had not. It was gripping and surprised everyone, and that is what a great show is all about.
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The Perfect Couple
This wedding had the word ‘perfect’ stamped on it- the ‘perfect’ couple marrying into the ‘perfect’ family; it was the ‘perfect wedding’ until it wasn’t. Amelia Sacks and Benji Winbury are the ‘perfect’ couple to get married at Benji’s beachside family home, Summerland, in Nantucket. Benji’s family is one of the wealthiest families in the area. It all seems well until a horror unfolds.
On the eve of the wedding, Amelia’s best friend and the maid of honour, Merritt, is found dead on the Winbury Family Beach.
The storyline then proceeds in a series of surprises and twists where all the guests are under scrutiny for murder. Detectives Dan Carter and Nikki Henry get down to unravel this murder mystery and unspool secrets about every Winbury family member that make them each a suspect at one point in the story.
The Winbury Family Matriarch, Patriarch and Merritt
Tag and Greer are Benji’s parents. Greer Garrison Winbury is a famous novelist with a past that has given Tag the upper hand in their relationship. Tag Winbury was in a relationship with the victim, Merritt Monaco. Merritt was pregnant, and this fact made Greer and Tag the prime suspects. The detectives pursue the clues incriminating Tag, but data from his smartwatch shows that he was asleep at the time of the murder.
They started probing into clues linking Greer and found that she had transferred a large amount of money through a friend to someone with links in the Turkish Mafia. Later, they find that Greer has sent that money to her brother, Broderick, who had a gambling problem. In the finale, Greer finally tells her family about her past. She used to be an escort, and Tag was her former customer. She takes away the power Tag has been wielding over her for decades.
Thomas Winbury, Isabel and Abby Winbury
The needle of suspicion then shifts to Benji’s older brother, Thomas ‘Tom’ Winbury. Tom Winbury is known as someone with a propensity for lifting prescription pills. Amelia’s mom, Karen, is a cancer patient. When Amelia tells her mother that the bloodwork on Merritt shows the presence of Barbiturates in her system, Karen is shocked to find that one of her barbiturate pills is missing. Tom is questioned, and he confesses to stealing the pill, but he refuses that he has given the pill to Merritt. He names his girlfriend, Isabel, as a suspect.
The Winbury boys would receive their inheritance when the youngest Winbury child turns eighteen. Tom’s youngest brother, Will, was about to turn eighteen soon. Tom had borrowed a lot of money from his girlfriend Isabel; however, with Merritt pregnant, Tom’s inheritance would be delayed by eighteen years, and he would not be able to repay Isabel. This theory incriminated Isabel as the murder suspect. However, cameras showed Isabel leaving Summerland with Tom at the time of the murder.
Who killed Merritt in The Perfect Couple?
So, who killed Merritt? Detectives Carter and Henry find gaps in Tom’s wife’s version of events of the night of the murder. She is seen nervous the morning after the murder when the cops visit to investigate, and she is also seen washing a glass. That glass was the one in which she laced the orange juice with the barbiturate and gave it to Merritt.
Abby also uses a unique hand cream that contains beef fat. Beef tallow is non-soluble in water, and when Abby held a delirious Merritt’s head under the water, traces of fat stuck to Merritt’s strands and came up in the forensic report.
She killed Merritt for money. Abby was pregnant and wanted her lavish lifestyle to continue. However, if Merritt became a mother, then Tom Winbury’s inheritance would be significantly delayed, and they could not afford the lifestyle they wanted.
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How Is The Series Ending Different From The Novel?
In the novel, Abby crushes a pill and mixes it in juice to give to Tom’s mistress, named Featherleigh in the book. She does it to prevent Tom from going out with his mistress; however, Merritt drinks this juice. Merritt then wanders off to the beach. She gets dizzy in the waves and drowns. This way, the book differs from the series. In the book, Abby does not intend to kill anyone; she merely tries to prevent Tom and Isabel from getting together, and Merritt is killed accidentally. In the series, she plans to kill Merritt to support her lavish lifestyle.
Conclusion
This whodunnit is a Netflix hit. It was number one in all the countries where it was released. This six-episode miniseries has made a remarkable subtle deviation from the original plot to render it more palatable for screen audiences. The change is subtle and engrosses the viewer. There are other additions to the story that enhance the storyline and make it a fascinating watch. “The Perfect Couple” may not have been perfect, but it is an ideal watch. Do watch it!
