His & Hers shocking ending explained
Just when you think you know who the killer is....
Cheers to Netflix. Hot on the heels of HBO Max's Heated Rivalry making streaming steamy, the service gives us His & Hers, a miniseries with sex, smoking hot stars, and a climax that has audiences screaming. Totally different vibes, though, as this is less a romantic drama with occasional hockey scenes and more a crime thriller where violence is guaranteed along with vengeance.
Adapted from Alice Feeney's mystery novel into a 6-episode series, His & Hers stars Tessa Thompson and John Bernthal as an estranged married couple who are weirdly brought back together by a homicide in their hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia. Anna Andrews is a news reporter based in Atlanta who's determined to make this murder big news, while he's police detective Jack Harper, tasked with solving the case. As each investigates, they not only get in each other's way, but also unearth each other's dark secrets. Could it mean one of them is the murderer?
Below, we'll dig into the case's suspects and red herring, and the ending, where the killer was revealed and viewing audiences went wild. Spoilers ahead!
Do Anna or Jack have a hand in the killings in His & Hers?
Filmmaker William Oldroyd has previously made such critically heralded movies as Lady Macbeth and Eileen, both of which involve deadly women and dangerous partnerships. So, as the secrets begin to spill in this Dahlonega murder case, you may well have had meta reasons to suspect Jack and Anna. After all, that's the kind of story Oldroyd seems to favor. And from the start, the show itself gives you plenty of reasons to suspect either character. But things get tricky as the bodies pile up.
The first victim in the His & Her murder spree is rich white local Rachel Hopkins (Jamie Tisdale), who has a bad reputation and ties to both Jack and Anna. The brooding cop was the secret lover Rachel met out in the woods, where her corpse was found. So, had her cuckolded husband guessed right, and she said something so nasty during sex that it got her killed? Or, did Anna axe the woman who was not only sleeping with her husband, but also tormented her to a hellish (and frankly criminal) degree when they were friends back in high school?
What might have initially seemed a crime of passion or jealousy soon looks like one of vengeance as Rachel's bff Helen Wang (Poppy Liu) turns up murdered in the school where they were once a part of the same friend group — along with Jack's screw-up sister Zoe (Marin Ireland). But when Zoe also turns up dead, Jack's policing partner, Priya Patel (Sunita Mani), begins to suspect the long-lost girl from this toxic circle, Catherine Kelly, could be the sneaking killer.
Catherine Kelly was a red herring.
In flashbacks over the course of the series, His & Hers reveals that Rachel, Helen, and Zoe weren't just any mean girls. They were downright vicious, luring their friends Anna and Catherine to the woods for a horrible 16th birthday party. Essentially, Helen nonconsensually pimped out Anna and Catherine to three men, who crashed the party to commit sexual assaults on the teen girls. That would definitely give Catherine motive to kill Rachel, Helen, and Zoe, who watched while it happened. But where's Catherine been all these years?
The B-plot for Anna was all about her rivalry with bubbly blonde anchorwoman Lexy Jones, who took Anna's spot at the news desk while she was on bereavement leave. In their professional battle, Anna used some pretty unprofessional mean girl tactics, like asking that Lexy's husband, Richard Jones (Pablo Schreiber), be her cameraman, and then promptly seducing him. But it turns out Richard was more loyal to Lexy than we thought.
However, Lexy didn't just come to Dahlonega to steal the murder story from Anna. She seemingly did it to wreak some revenge of her own, because Lexy is Catherine Kelly, slimmed down, dyed blonde, renamed, and seething with rage. It seems she and Richard plotted together to get Anna to the Kelly home, remote and private, for a deadly end. Anna calls Jack for help, and ends up facing off with the incensed couple. But before Catherine can kill Anna, Catherine is shot dead by Detective Patel. That happens with nearly a half an hour to go on the show. So what else can there be to reveal?
Well, for starters Anna finally is able to tell Jack what happened to her when she was 16. From there, Jack and Anna reunite and adopt Zoe's orphaned daughter. A flash-forward shows them back at home in Dahlonega. They are a family again, ready and willing to care for each other, their upcoming baby, and Anna's mother, Alice (Crystal Fox), who's been suffering from dementia. Little do they know, Alice is more than capable of caring for herself. And she's capable of much, much more.
Who is the serial killer of His & Hers?
It's Alice, Anna's seemingly dementia-addled mother, who killed Rachel, Helen, and Zoe.
In episodes 1 through 5, much of Alice's screentime was her making confused mistakes, like preparing eggs with shells in them or forgetting that Jack and Anna had separated. Anna got reports that her mother would wander at night. Her cognitive issues seemed another element of loss that Anna was eager to avoid, in part because of the guilt she may hold for leaving her family after the pain of her own child's unexpected death.
However, Anna finds out how intense Alice's love for her is when she comes across a curious letter midway through episode 6.
Through voiceover, Anna muses on whether anger is a destructive force or a sustaining one as she finds an envelope sitting on her vanity that has her name written on it. "It all comes down to how you use your anger, and who you aim it at," she muses as she unfolds delicately handwritten pages.
"There are at least two sides to every story," the letter begins, "Yours and mine, ours and theirs. His and hers. Which means someone is always lying."
Notably, this quote is how Anna's voiceover begins in episode one, after she's gotten home late at night, soaked, and scrambled to clean herself and her apartment. Early on, that made Anna seem suspicious. But later, it's clear she was distraught not because she'd just killed Rachel, but because she'd accidentally caught her husband cheating with her ex-bestie, while she was grieving the loss of their daughter. Who could possibly understand the pain Alice was in at that moment? Her mom.
Like mother like daughter, her mom was in the cemetery too, quietly watching her love. She witnessed Anna witnessing Jack banging Rachel. And while this might have been reason enough to ambush Rachel, Alice had more reasons.
In a thorough series of flashbacks, episode 6 reveals how Alice got away with murders. Phrases previously played out in the voiceover take on new meaning as her daughter comes to understand what really happened.
For years, Alice was happy to see her daughter thrive as a news anchor. She was proud of her marriage and motherhood. Then the baby Charlotte died while Alice was watching her.
Heartbroken, Anna fled her husband, house, hometown, and mother for parts unknown. In her absence, Alice made regular visits to Charlotte's grave, both in mourning and in hopes of seeing Anna there. And as Anna took time off from her news broadcast, Alice turned to a box of Anna's old self-tapes for some way to see her. In seeking Anna, she ended up discovering things about Rachel.
While in the cemetery at night, she spotted Rachel meeting up with her fling of the week on the dirt road nearby. Then, after six months of rationing out watching Anna's old tapes, Alice found the video shot on Anna's 16th birthday, where Rachel lured her and Catherine to the woods.
All these years later, Alice watched her daughter rescue Catherine, only to be abandoned and raped while Rachel, Helen, and Zoe watched and sang "Happy Birthday." (Taking a beat because all that happened and Anna still married Zoe's brother! I'm not sure if that's a testament to true love or deep denial, because how are you going to family events with that woman stumbling in like nothing happened?!)
Anyhow, it was on the anniversary of Charlotte's death that Anna came to the cemetery, and like her mother before her, saw not only the baby's grave but also Rachel having car sex. But this time, it was with Jack.
How Alice got away with murder in His & Hers.
"I wanted to shout at you, 'Leave this place. Come home to me now,'" Alice's letter continues, as the flashback shows Anna in the graveyard, drop-jawed in agony. "Your Momma's here now. [Rachel] can't hurt you anymore." The flashback then reveals how Alice came out of the woods after Jack had driven off. "Whoever said two wrongs can't make a right lacked imagination, and a sharp knife," Alice writes as the murder of Rachel plays out onscreen.
A professional cleaning woman, Alice knew how to clean up after herself. She clipped the fingernails to get rid of her DNA. She stripped off her own clothes, bloodied from Rachel's wounds, and walked naked home, in the rain, in the dark, in the street. No one stopped her.
She notes all the elements of her identity that urged others to look away from her. "No one expects a woman to be a serial killer," her letter goes on, "Add the sin of age, mistake determination for dementia, there I am, the picture of frailty." While her naked wandering at night drew attention from the authorities, no one expected this habit to be dangerous to anyone but Alice, who faked dementia as a smokescreen.
Beyond this, flashbacks show how Alice worked as a cleaning woman at the Kelly home. So, she recognized the glowed-up "Lexy" on the news, and Alice still had a key to the family house, just as she did the school, where she killed Helen. "Like back doors and the workers who use them, we're usually forgotten, ignored, invisible," she muses as the Black woman who's long been ignored by folks younger, wealthier, and whiter (or closer in proximity to whiteness) than herself.
Alice goes on to note not everything went to plan at first. She'd plotted to kill Rachel, Helen, and Zoe for the rape they brought upon Anna. Catherine she planned to frame by leaving evidence in the Kelly home. "I thought prison for abandoning you that night was fair."
Masterful multitasker she is, Alice also notes that Catherine being the killer would give Anna "a juicy story" and assure Lexy would no longer be a professional rival. And to make sure Anna would find her way to Catherine, it was Alice who canceled Richard and Anna's hotel reservation — not Lexy/Catherine!
Why does Alice go on a killing spree?
It wasn't just revenge. It was Alice's path to restorative justice, vigilante style thought it may be.
Alice rightly deduced Jack would save Anna — though she admits Patel fatally shooting Catherine was not part of the plan. "But I'd be lying if I said I lost any sleep over it," she writes.
"Killing Rachel brought you home. Killing Helen kept you here," Alice continues, before delivering maybe the wildest revelation, "And killing Zoe gave you the family you lost."
Yep. Alice murdered Zoe — who knew her and smiled as she approached her in the tub — not only for revenge, but so Anna could adopt Zoe's neglected daughter as her own.
Why does Alice confess to Anna?
Alice sees this all as a life lesson that Anna can apply to raising her own children.
"I'm writing this now, baby, because soon you'll be a mother again," she concludes in the letter, "Love my grandbabies as I've loved you. Teach them the value of hard work and planning. Prepare them for a life both ugly and beautiful, unpredictable, always changing — except for one thing. Show them that a mother's love never dims, never weakens."
All this sounds lovely. It's the kind of speech that could play over a montage of a mom's long commute, scrubbing floors, and hugging her children. However, Alice's montage also includes scenes from the murders she committed for her daughter. Here is Alice puncturing Rachel's tire, so she'd be stranded and defenseless. There Alice is holding Zoe down in the bathtub, as she thrashes helplessly below the bloody water.
And as Alice signs off with "All my love, my precious girl," she and Anna make eye contact. A tear runs down Anna's cheek, but she smiles at her mom, seemingly in appreciation. And His & Hers ends.
Will there be a His & Hers Season 2?
Well, narratively Oldroyd leaves us on a curious cliffhanger. Anna nows knows the truth. But will she ever tell it? Having finally broken down the lies between her and Jack, will she hide another? Or will she tell him and risk him trying to collar his mother-in-law? Or perhaps the couple could figure out their path forward with this troubling truth while exploring a new case together?
Well, that currently seems unlikely. Feeney's His & Hers was a standalone novel. So unlike the recent mystery thriller The Housemaid, which is based on a novel that has a follow-up in The Housemaid's secret, Feeney hasn't penned a clear path forward for Anna and John.
Plus, Netflix released this as a limited series, suggesting one season is all that was intended. So, it is unlikely His & Hers will see a Season 2.
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