Nicole Kidman is doing bits for Netflix right now. Following on from A Family Affair, a rom-com that she starred in opposite Zac Efron, comes The Perfect Couple, where the actress plays a best-selling author and matriarch of a super wealthy family in Nantucket. When a woman dies under suspicious circumstances at a wedding at their house over Fourth of July weekend, everyone becomes a suspect. But who actually killed Merritt Monaco? Here’s what you need to know about the ending of The Perfect Couple.
What is The Perfect Couple?
The Netflix summary explains: “Amelia is about to marry into one of the wealthiest families on Nantucket, until a shocking death derails the wedding — and turns everyone into a suspect.”
Starring a stellar cast, including Billy Howle, Eve Hewson and Liv Schieber alongside Nicole, all seems to be going well, until Amelia’s best friend and maid of honour is murdered on the eve of their wedding. Suddenly, everyone is thrust into the spotlight, and varying motives and secrets are examined by the police, until they finally get to the bottom of what happened.
Who are the suspects, and what are the motives in The Perfect Couple?
Shooter Dival
Early on in episode one, Shooter is seen as the main suspect for Merritt’s murder after his finger prints are found on her phone. He also tries to flee the scene, which is suspicious, and investigators later find out he made a mysterious $300k payment to Greer.
Tag Winbury
We learn quickly that Tag and Merritt were having an affair, and Merritt is pregnant with his child. When she decides to keep it, Tag is suspected of her murder, especially considering he was one of the last people to see her alive.
Greer Garrison-Winbury
Of course, due to the fact Tag is having an affair with Merritt, Greer also becomes a suspect, on the basis that she might want her husband’s mistress out of the picture.
Thomas Winbury
Thomas, Benji’s brother, has a bad temper and a bit of a drinking problem. He’s having an affair and cheating on his pregnant wife Abbey with Isabel, and isn’t very pleasant his brother or future wife. Could he want Merritt out of the picture to spite his father or brother?
Will Winbury
The youngest of the Winbury family, Will, is about to turn 18, and has a major crush on Merritt. When he’s found with her bracelet on the night of the murder, and attempted to flee the wedding on his father’s boat, investigators are suspicious of him.
Isabel Nallet
While there isn’t much suspicion at Isabel’s door, she is having an affair with Thomas, and he owes her over $2million. In the final episode, Thomas makes the connection that Isabel will only receive her money when the youngest Winbury brother – Will – turns 18, as their trust fund is then released. But if Merritt is having Tag’s baby, Isabel would have to wait until that child turns 18 to receive her money, so does that make her guilty?
Who killed Merritt in The Perfect Couple?
Well, no – it doesn’t make Isabel the killer, but it does later emerge that Abby – Thomas’s wife – is responsible for Merritt’s death. But let’s rewind for a second.
Investigators Dan and Nikki finally piece together why Shooter loaned Greer $300,000 – for her secret brother Broderick, who owes a gang money due to his gambling addiction. No one knew about her brother because of Greer’s intense desire to keep up a picture perfect family image, something she feels he would tarnish.
It’s at this moment that Greer comes clean to her family about her true past – she was actually an escort, organised by her brother, and met Tag in a bar when he was paying for her services.
Another twist comes when Amelia’s mother Karen, who is in Nantucket for her wedding to Benji, realises one of her euthanasia pills is missing. She has cancer, and brought three with her incase her health deteriorated and she was in too much pain to go on. The investigators have already discovered pentobarbital in Merritt’s system when she died, and so the missing pill is likely responsible.
Thomas had stolen the pill for ‘prescription roulette’, where he takes medication from different people in the house, and ‘plays’ with anyone who’s keen. While he’s taken in for questioning, his alibi is strong – he and Isabel were hooking up at a nearby motel, and there’s footage to prove it.
At this point, investigators realise that Abby was lying to them, because she had told them she went to bed at 10:30pm on the night of the murder, and Thomas had arrived back in bed at 1:30am. But they know this isn’t true because he was at the motel with Isabel.
They then dig into what else Abby could have lied about, and remember something the housemaid had said: Abby was obsessively cleaning a glass the morning after Merritt’s murder.
While the evidence that the pill was potentially in the glass now no longer exists, investigators use this theory to find out what really happened. Yes, Abby had crushed up the pills and put them into a drink, and followed Merritt down to the beach to give it to her.
She pretended to be consoling her over Merritt’s pregnancy, when she convinced Merritt to go for a night swim with her. Once the pills started to take effect, Abby held Merritt’s head underwater until she drowned, and the final piece of evidence – the fact Merritt had tallow in her hair from Abby’s body lotion – clicked into place.
What were Abby’s motives for killing Merritt in The Perfect Couple?
Thomas was right about his theory when it came to the trust fund being the motive, but he was wrong about who was behind it. It wasn’t Isabel, who he was having an affair with, but actually his wife, Abby.
If Merritt were to give birth to Tag’s baby, it would’ve meant the couple had to wait 18 years before they received their part of the trust fund, and it would also be split four ways, not three. Abby, who throughout the series was pictured as money-obsessed and wanting to move into a bigger house, was blinded by this, decides to kill Merritt to take her and her unborn baby out of the picture.
The Perfect Couple ending explained
At the end of the series, Greer tells Tag she’s going to finish writing her novel in New York, and that he should stay in Nantucket. The series then takes a six month time jump, where we see Amelia working at London Zoo, when Greer turns up.
She explains how Amelia had actually inspired her latest novel, because Greer was both jealous and impressed by how Amelia lives her life just being herself. She tells her “Give it a read, and if you don’t hate it, give me a call. We can have some dinner.”
We never do find out if the pair link up again, but maybe kindred spirits could be on the horizon?
Dusty Baxter-Wright is an award-winning journalist and the Entertainment and Lifestyle Director at Cosmopolitan, having previously worked at Sugarscape. She was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work covering pop culture, careers, interiors and travel, and oversees the site’s Entertainment and Lifestyle strategy across print, digital and video. As a journalist for the best part of a decade, she has interviewed everyone from Louis Theroux and Channing Tatum to Margot Robbie and Ncuti Gatwa, while she has also spoken on Times Radio and BBC Radio. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram here.