His & Hers spoilers ahead.
This article references sexual assault and rape.
We're calling it. With the release of another Knives Out movie and an Agatha Christie TV series, as well as Netflix hit His & Hers, it's officially mystery season. So snuggle up and get stuck in.
As ever, His & Hers delivers on the shocking plot twist currency that any mystery movie or TV series needs to rank. The series is adapted from Alice Feeney's mystery novel into a 6-episode Netflix series, starring Tessa Thompson (who you may recognise from Hedda and/or the Creed movie franchise) and Jon Bernthal (of The Bear and The Walking Dead fame) as an estranged married couple who are reunited in some way by a homicide in their hometown.
An Emily Henry superfan weighs in.
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Let's break down the plot of His & Hers, as well as every twist and turn before its shocking ending.
What is His & Hers about?
The synopsis for the series reads as follows: “In the sweltering heat of Atlanta, Anna (Thompson) lives in haunted reclusion, fading away from her friends and career as a news anchor. But when she overhears talk about a murder in Dahlonega — the sleepy north Georgia town where she grew up — Anna is snapped back to life, pouncing on the case and searching for answers. Detective Jack Harper (Bernthal) is strangely suspicious of her involvement, chasing her into the crosshairs of his own investigation.”
We see Anna return to town and immediately become a suspect in what becomes a string of murders, not least due to her insistence on covering the deaths as she returns to town after a year-long absence, determined to win back her TV anchor role. Those investigating the murders immediately see her as a red flag due to her connection with the lead investigator, her ex-husband, Detective Jack Harper and her personal ties to the first victim, Rachel, as well. That said, Jack has his own connections to Rachel, as we discover that he had slept with her just before she was stabbed to death. Are you keeping up?
Anna also continues to look more and more suspicious as we see her seduce cameraman Richard (Pablo Schreiber), who is married to Lexy (Rebecca Rittenhouse), who’s taken over Anna’s job as anchor during her self-imposed exile.
It is also revealed that Anna left town after the death of her and John's infant child, Charlotte, who tragically passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) while in the care of Anna’s mother.
How does His & Hers end?
We really should pick up clues early on that there is going to be a serious twist at the end of the series, as during Anna's voiceovers, she often hints that there's “more than one side to a story”, making way for some changes in perspective as the series closes out.
As we approach the end of the season – more specifically, the penultimate episode – the killer has murdered the entirety of Anna's friendship group from school, including Rachel, Helen (Poppy Liu), and Zoe (Marin Ireland), Jack’s sister. This leads to Anna being pitched as the prime suspect once again, but she is also suspicious of him and convinced he is involved in the killings, especially after she discovers him covered in his sister's blood.
Before Zoe was killed, she mentioned another girl from their school days – Catherine Kelly, who was mercilessly bullied and eventually changed her name and appearance. So as the finale gets underway and Richard and Anna find themselves in need of a place to stay after getting booted out of their hotel, they head to Lexy's parents' lake house to crash. But when they arrive, something doesn't feel right. As Anna studies her surroundings on arrival, she gets a nasty surprise. It turns out that Lexy is, in fact, Catherine Kelly.
Not only that, we are shown a series of flashbacks that reveal Catherine Kelly's sinister nature as far back as her school days. We see her heartbreaking responsibility for her sister Andrea's death. After Andrea teased Catherine about her weight, Catherine went into such a rage that she emptied out the contents of Andrea's inhaler before they headed out for a day on the lake with their family. This leads to Andrea suffocating to death after having an asthma attack, and she drowns in the lake without a working inhaler.
The His & Hers final lakeside showdown
Once Anna connects all the dots, she immediately calls Jack to tell him that she's at Lexy's lake house and believes that she is the killer. Jack is held up from rushing to Anna's rescue, however, by Priya – a detective who strongly suspects he is behind the killings – arrive to question him. When he tries to leave to get to Anna, Priya pulls her gun on him. In what is honestly quite a suspiscious move, especially as he remains covered in blood, Jack knocks Priya out in a bid to get to Anna.
Meanwhile, Richard is revealed to be something of a questionable character when he snatches Anna's phone away after she calls Jack. While Anna initially begins to shoot at Richard in defence, she quickly runs out of bullets, leading to her struggling to get a locked gate between them so he could not pursue her any further or stop her from seeking help. Where, oh where is Jack at this point?
Especially as a fight then breaks out between Anna and Lexy, with years of teen resentment spilling over as they battle it out. We see Anna lose a tooth, and Lexy gain the upper hand by grabbing her gun, coming painfully close to ending the fight with Anna's death. But Jack thankfully makes it in the nick of time, pushing Anna out of the way.
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Amid all the action, we see Priya come to and discover that two of the murder victims, Rachel and Helen, were blackmailing Lexy, after Lexy very stupidly confided her dirty little secret about aiding her sister's death to Rachel. This leads her to come to her own conclusion that Lexy is at the centre of the murders. Priya somehow arrives just behind Jack and shoots Lexy in the head.
Then, another reveal. When Jack asks what could have possibly happened to cause such beef between the teen friendship group, Anna reveals a shocker. It turns out that on Anna's 16th birthday, Catherine was sexually assaulted by a group of older men in the woods, which was planned by Rachel as the men paid her to bring her into the area. Helen and Zoe also saw it happen, somewhat explaining why Catherine/Lexy was seeking revenge against them all. Anna explains to Jack that she pretended the assault never happened by keeping it secret. “I wish I told you,” she tells him.
A murder weapon and Rachel's fingernails are then discovered in Lexy's family home by Priya and the sheriff, leading to Lexy being deemed the perpetrator of the murders.
But was she? After all, at this point, we are nowhere near the end of a 39-minute series finale. Cue the twist.
The His & Hers final twist
Of course, we are then hit with a time jump. Because what would an epilogue of a TV series be without a time jump?
We check back in with Jack and Anna a year later, which sees them reunited and Anna is pregnant, and back at her job as co-anchor. Herself and Jack are also acting as guardians to Zoe's daughter Meg, who is Jack's niece. So all is well, right?
Well, it turns out not. When Anna goes to visit her mother, we discover that the voiceover of Anna's voice was actually her reading a letter from her mother, Alice. It turns out she was the one who committed the murders, not Lexy, and the reason why is a lot to take.
While watching Anna's old tapes in her self-imposed exile after Charlotte's death, Alice came across what really happened on her daughter's 16th birthday. She hadn't told Jack the truth – what had really happened was Anna intervened when Catherine was pinned down in the woods, leading to Anna herself being raped. Most chillingly? Catherine was mouthing “f**k you” to Anna as this was happening. The others also sang happy birthday to Anna as it was happening. Harrowing.
We couldn't be happier.
While grieving Charlotte's death and Anna's disappearance, Alice stabbed Rachel to death and stripped her blood-stained clothes to walk the street naked, feigning mental illness. What was Alice's perfect cover for her crimes? That she was old, and a woman. “No one expects a woman to be a serial killer,” she writes in her letter. “Add the sin of old age, mistake determination for dementia; there I am, the picture of frailty.”
The plan was to frame Lexy, not kill her. But either way, Anna seems to understand Alice's motivations. “Killing Rachel brought you home,” Alice explains. “Killing Helen kept you here. Killing Zoe gave you the family you lost… A mother's love never dims, never weakens. It’s constant, continual, relentless.”
Truly haunting stuff. As the series draws to an end, it's suggested that Anna won't tell anyone about what her mother did, not even Jack.
