‘The Perfect Couple’ Ending Explained: Who Was the Killer?

Netflix‘s The Perfect Couple is a show that loves to toy with its audience. Over the course of six episodes, it tricks us, taunts us, and ultimately leaves us shrieking over the final twists. It’s the rare murder mystery that doesn’t even tell us who the murder victim is until the end of the first episode! We’re only initially told that zoologist Amelia Sacks’s (Eve Hewson) dream wedding to Nantucket native Benji Winbury (Billy Howle) can’t go forward because a dead body was found on the morning they were supposed to be getting married.

**BIG SPOILERS for The Perfect Couple, now streaming on Netflix**

By the end of The Perfect Couple Episode 1 “Happy Wedding Eve,” we have confirmation that the victim of the crime is none other than Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy), Amelia’s closest friend and Maid of Honor. Over the next five episodes, however, we’re offered conflicting clues pointing us down wildly different explanations of what happened to the beautiful Influencer.

Did crime novelist Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) murder the younger woman because she was pregnant with her husband Tag’s (Liev Schreiber)? Did Tag’s former flame Isabel (Isabelle Adjani) off Merritt for the same reason? Did Tag slay her in a fit of passion? Was young Will Winbury (Sam Nivola) pushed to kill her out of jealousy? Why did Best Man Shooter Dival (Ishaan Khattar) try to leave Nantucket in a guilty rush? What does the mysterious Broderick Graham (Thomas Flanagan) have to with the case?

Still trying to make sense of The Perfect Couple‘s wild ending? (Secretly just want to be spoiled?) Here’s everything you need to know about who killed Merritt Monaco and why…

The Perfect Couple Ending Explained: Who Killed Merritt Monaco?

So who killed Merritt Monaco in The Perfect Couple? Well, as it turns out, it was the Winbury no one expected. Pregnant Abby Stokes-Winbury (Dakota Fanning) is the one who murdered Merritt.

Here’s how it went down, and here’s how Amelia’s dying mother Karen (Dendrie Taylor) and Abby’s husband Tom (Jack Reynor) inadvertently helped Abigail almost pull off the perfect crime:

As word spread amongst the rehearsal dinner that Merritt was not only having an affair with Tag, but that she was also pregnant with his child, reactions varied. Tag pulled a bait and switch on Merritt, at first leading her to believe he was happy before later breaking her heart. Sweet young Will tried to tell Merritt his father would never leave his mother and he would do anything he could to help (including saving her discarded bracelet from the beach). Amelia freaked out that her best friend was pregnant with her fiancé’s half brother. Greer offered the younger woman an icy warning, while Isabel (Isabella Adjani) offered booze and condolences.

However, it was Tom who freaked out the most, drunkenly pointing a gun at Merritt as a threat before Isabel wooed him away. The reason Tom was pissed? Because the Winbury wealth was tied up in trust. He and his siblings can only access their vast inherited fortunes once all of them come of age. With Will’s 18th birthday on the horizon, Tom assumed he would soon have the means to get out of debt. If Merritt gave birth to another Winbury child, the trust would reset until that kid turned 18 and be now divided in quarters, not thirds.

Realizing this, Abby grabs a few random pills from Tom’s stash of stolen prescriptions. Did she know he had taken one of Karen’s three euthanasia pills? Doesn’t matter. Abby still crushed a few pills (including Karen’s stolen pill) into a powder and mixed it into a glass of “cold press” orange juice to serve Merritt.

Then Abby convinced the doped up Merritt to join her for a night swim. As soon as Merritt began to faint, Abby cruelly held her head down until she drowned.

Even though Abigail sagely washed the glass she served Merritt’s drug-laced juice in, she didn’t realize that the exotic tallow moisturizer her sorority sister sourced for her was found on Merritt’s scalp. She also lied about Tom being in bed with her — his alibi came courtesy of an uber driver’s dash cam catching him and Isabel in the act.

Who is Broderick Graham? How Does Nicole Kidman’s Greer Know Him in The Perfect Couple?

Throughout The Perfect Couple, we’re told that a mysterious man named Broderick Graham is trying to get in touch with Greer Garrison Winbury. When Detective Nikki Henry and Chief Dan Carter discover that Broderick called Greer in the early hours of the day Merritt died and that Shooter Divall wired Broderick $300,000 on behalf of Greer, they believe he’s a hitman hired to take out Merritt.

As it turns out Broderick Graham may be a criminal, but he’s not a hitman. Rather, he’s Greer’s brother!

Broderick had been calling Greer and begging for a $300,000 loan to pay off some gambling debts he’d incurred. The piece of vital information that he held over her for this money? It’s not just that Greer comes from the lower classes, but that she used to be an escort. In fact, she met Tag while working as a sex worker — and Broderick was her pimp.

After she and Tag married, she transformed herself into the pristine Nantucket ice queen and sold the world the story of their idealized love story via her Dash and Dolly books.

The Perfect Couple ends with Greer not only admitting this to her family, but leaving Tag. Six months later, she finds Amelia in London to share that her new novel — a departure from Dash and Dolly — is inspired by her would-be daughter-in-law.