#SpoilerAlert: Who killed Merritt Monaco in ‘The Perfect Couple’? We explain the ending

Fans of the murder mystery genre want one thing and one thing alone—for the writers to tease them enough to leave them hooked right till the end for the final reveal. And that’s exactly what audiences got at the start of this month as The Perfect Couple on Netflix kept everyone guessing about who murdered the maid of honour, Merritt Monaco, on the eve of a wedding. 

If you’ve seen the show, you probably know what and who we’re talking about. If you haven’t, let it be known that there are a host of spoilers ahead as we reveal the name of the person with blood on their hands. 

What’s the show all about?

Based on Elin Hilderbrand’s eponymous New York Times bestselling novel, the six-episode Netflix series starts with the rehearsal dinner of Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) and Benji Winbury (Billy Howles). Everything seems to be smooth sailing on the island of Nantucket only for the first episode to end with the body of Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), the maid of honour, found floating by the shore of the Winbury estate just hours before the wedding is set to take place. 

The remaining episodes follow detectives Dan Carter (Michael Beach) and Nikki Henry (Donna Lynn Champlin) get to the bottom of the mystery to find out who drowned Monaco and why. Everyone in the dysfunctional Winbury family is a suspect, from Benji’s father Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber), who was having an affair with Monaco and got her pregnant, to Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), the family matriarch and famed murder-mystery novelist who knew about her husband's affair. 

What happens in the finale? 

The start of the season finale sees the two detectives believe that they’ve nabbed the murderer, Greer. They believe Greer hired a criminal named Broderick Graham to kill her husband’s pregnant mistress. They have proof of a $300,000 wire transfer that was sent to him by a family friend Greer seems to have a special fondness for—Shooter Dival, played very smoothly by Ishaan Khatter. This theory falls flat very quickly when Greer reveals that Broderick is her brother and the transfer was a loan from Shooter to settle his gambling debts. 

Further investigations reveal Amelia telling her parents that Merritt had consumed barbiturates (sedative drugs) at the time of her death. This is when her mother, Karen (who has cancer) realises that one of her pills is missing. The suspicion then shifts to Thomas aka Tom (Jack Reynor), the eldest Winbury son, known to steal pills to play ‘prescription roulette’.

But if you think Tom did it, he didn’t. While he admits to stealing the pills, he mentions to the police that he didn’t give them to Merritt. He throws his mistress Isabel (Isabelle Adjani) under the bus and says that she had a motive—he owed her $2.5 million that he planned to pay back when he gained access to his trust fund. This would only take place when the youngest Winbury child would turn 18. While the youngest of the lot, Will (Sam Nivola), was to turn 18, Merritt being pregnant would throw off these plans. While Isabel was one of the last people to be seen with Monaco, video footage from a cab driver shows her leaving for her hotel. So it’s clearly not her either. 

So who killed Merritt?

Detectives Carter and Henry soon (finally) realise who the killer is—Tom’s pregnant wife, Abby Winbury (played by Dakota Fanning). The puzzle comes together—they realise that she lied to them about Tom’s whereabouts, she was found washing a glass the morning after the murder, (she’s seen asking the Winbury’s housekeeper Gosia (Irina Dubova) to assist her every five minutes, so why would she clean a glass all by herself?). The traces of tallow in Merritt’s hair, an ingredient in Abby’s expensive tummy butter that she uses, was the final nail in the proverbial coffin. 

With just a few weeks until Tom could access his Winbury inheritance, she wanted to get rid of the threat to the inheritance money that was on offer. “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself,” she tells Merritt on the beach before killing her by holding her head under water until she drowns.

Well, there you have it.

All images: Netflix

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