Explanation of the ending of “The Perfect Couple” and the changes from the book to the film adaptation

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for all episodes of “The Perfect Couple”.

On a calm summer morning, a body washes up on the beach in Nantucket. A scream rips through the air – and a prominent family is immediately thrown into chaos.

So ends the first episode of Netflix's soap opera “The Perfect Couple”, based on the novel of the same name by bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand. Developed for the screen by showrunner Jenna Lamia (“Good Girls”), the series follows Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), whose upcoming wedding to Benji Winbury (Billy Howle) is derailed on her wedding day when she discovers the body of her maid of honor, Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy). When the police investigate Amelia and her fiancé's family, they discover that every member of the wedding party – from Benji's imposing mother Greer (Nicole Kidman) to his charismatic best friend Shooter (Ishaan Khattar) – is harboring secrets that could destroy the facades everyone has worked so hard to maintain.

The series' release on Netflix on September 5 marks the culmination of five years of development that included many changes to Hilderbrand's original novel. diversity has compiled a list of the biggest differences between the book and the film adaptation of “The Perfect Pair” – including the stunning ending.

Featherleigh Dale, meet Isabelle Adjani

In the series, renowned French actress and two-time Oscar nominee Isabelle Adjani plays the cunning, seductive Isabel Nallet, a friend of the Winbury family and, perhaps more importantly, the lover of Thomas (Jack Reynor), the eldest son.

Isabel, however, does not appear in the book – although the model for her personality is to be found, if only tangentially, in the character of one Featherleigh Dale. In Hilderbrand's novel, Featherleigh is a British interloper whose financial problems and wasteful selfishness significantly spoil the weekend's festivities. Like Isabel, Featherleigh is having an affair with Thomas; unlike Isabel, Featherleigh is a pretty hopeless case, although she plays a crucial role in the book's reveal of who killed Merritt (more on that later).

Greer’s knowledge is profound

Matriarch Greer Winbury — played impeccably by Nicole Kidman in yet another role as a rich white woman struggling to make ends meet — bears many similarities to the Greer of the book. Both versions of the character are crime writers, with Kidman's Greer being a successful novelist who somehow convinced her publisher to throw an expensive-looking party to celebrate her new book (though maybe she paid for it herself?), and in the book Greer fighting to revive her dying series. Both characters find strength in composure, preferring to remain distant and reserved when dealing with other people. Yet the final episode of “The Perfect Pair” portrays a Greer who isn't in the book. In a pivotal scene midway through the finale, Greer unleashes what may have been years of pent-up anger and frustration, revealing to her adult children that she actually met her husband, Tag (Liev Schreiber), while working as an escort. Adding to this shocking announcement is the fact that the man who keeps calling her throughout the series – the man who the police say has ties to the Turkish mafia (???) – is actually her brother, Broderick Graham (Tommy Flanagan). Greer's entire backstory as revealed in the series, as well as the existence of Broderick, are not mentioned at all in the book.

Amelia's parents play a much smaller role in the series

Although we get a glimpse into the bride's relationship with her parents in the series, Celeste's parents, Karen (Dendrie Taylor) and Bruce (Michael McGrady), are given much more space in the novel. Bruce, a salesman who has worked in a department store his entire life, drunkenly confides to Tag that while he never cheated on Karen, he briefly had intense feelings for a former colleague, Robin. Karen overhears this and is stunned: although Bruce characterizes Robin to Tag as a woman, she knows that Robin is actually a man. The scene has no real bearing on the actual crime, as it mainly serves to deepen the relationship dynamic between Karen and Bruce. Perhaps that's why it was cut for the screen.

Day is a stoner

In the series, Tag often smokes weed. In the book, it is unclear whether he knows what weed is.

The end explained

In the final episode of “The Perfect Couple,” it is revealed that Thomas' pregnant wife Abigail (Dakota Fanning) intentionally slips one of Karen's barbiturate pills into a glass of orange juice and gives it to a heartbroken Merritt, who is sitting on the beach. After Merritt drinks the juice, Abigail suggests the two go into the water, where she holds the maid of honor's head underwater until she drowns. Abigail's motive is money: She and Thomas are in debt, and he would have had access to his trust fund once their youngest son, Will (Sam Nivola), turned 18. Merritt's affair with Tag and her subsequent pregnancy put a damper on that plan: If she had given birth, the clock on Thomas' trust fund would start over with the baby's birth, and they would have to wait until the child was 18 to access the money. Too long, Abigail decided. So: murder.

In the book, the drowning is officially ruled an accident by the police and there is no direct killer. Greer is the only one who solves the mystery, and she keeps it to herself. Abigail discovers Thomas' infidelity and slips a pill into Featherleigh's drink, hoping to put her to sleep so she won't fool around with Abigail's husband. However, Featherleigh takes the drink to Merritt instead. Merritt drinks it and pities the family friend, who then leaves her to go inside. The maid of honor wanders along the beach, reminiscing about her affair with Tag, and then accidentally cuts her foot on a glass. She goes into the water to wash it off, spots something shiny at the bottom, and realizes it's the ring Tag gave her, so she dives in, gets sleepy, and drowns.

Fast forward

At the very end of the final episode of “The Perfect Couple,” it flashes forward six months and it is revealed that Amelia now works at a zoo in London. While she is showing some children penguins, Greer sneaks up on her.

“I wrote something. Something new,” she says, handing over the manuscript for a new book that is supposedly about Amelia. The two have a heartfelt conversation in the middle of the penguin enclosure, during which Greer admits that she used to hate Amelia, but not anymore. In fact, she now hopes that the two can be friends. The title of the new book? “Your Move.”

This scene doesn't appear in the book – which ends with Merritt's drowning, told from her perspective – and is perhaps an attempt to add a metafictional element to the series: the happy coincidence of a crime writer writing about her own real-life crime novel. While we're not sure Amelia accepts the peace offering, the joy of the show's final dance sequence – in which director Susanne Bier twirls with the characters – perhaps suggests that viewers can take away a sense of resolution that exists, if not on the shores of Nantucket, then at least in the glory of another realm.