Who Killed Merritt in The Perfect Couple? The Big Way the Show Changes the Book’s Ending

Like any murder-mystery miniseries, The Perfect Couple centers around one question: Who killed Merritt?! The show took a massive creative liberty from the book .

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The Perfect Couple is Netflix ’s mystery drama series based on Elin Hilderbrand’s popular 2018 novel of the same name. The story revolves around Amelia Sacks, a woman who is about to marry into a wealthy family from Nantucket despite the disapproval of their matriarch, novelist Greer Garrison Winbury. The night before Amelia and her fiance Benji’s wedding , however, Amelia’s best friend and maid of honor, Merritt Monaco, is found dead on the beach. As secrets are revealed around what happened to Merritt and who her killer was, everyone at the Winburys’ beachfront mansion becomes a suspect.

Who killed Merritt in The Perfect Couple TV show?

In the last act of The Perfect Couple finale, “That Feels Better,” it’s revealed that Merritt was killed by Abby Winbury (played Dakota Fanning ), Thomas’ wife and Benji and Will’s sister-in-law. In the finale, Thomas claims to the police that the Winburys’ family friend, Isabel Nallet—who Thomas is also having an affair with—killed Merritt because of her pregnancy with Thomas’ father Tag’s baby, which would divide the Winbury children’s trust fund by four instead of three and would prevent any of them from seeing the money until another 18 years.

“Look, I owe her like two, two and a half million. She knows that I’m gonna get my trust fund when the youngest sibling turns 18. That’s Will. Now, if my dad and Merritt had a kid, the trust automatically resets and no one gets access to the money for another 18 years. Plus we got to spread it four ways instead of three,” Thomas said.

While Thomas’ thought process was correct, it was Abby who killed Merritt to prevent her from having Tag’s baby, not Isabel. The police discovered Abby was the one who killed Merritt when the Winburys’ maid, Gosia, told officers Thomas didn’t sleep in their bed the night of Merritt’s death, even though Abby claimed that he did. Gosia also told the police that Abby ordered her to wash her sheets, pajamas, and a water glass with very “hot water” the morning after Merritt’s death, which led Detective Nikki to remember seeing Abby nervously washing a glass that same morning. After suspecting that Abby used the glass to drug Merritt with barbiturate, the police call Abby to the station.

After Abby lied again about being in bed the night of Merritt’s murder, the police arrive at the Winburys’ house and arrest her.

How did Merritt die in The Perfect Couple show?

After Abby’s arrest, The Perfect Couple flashed back to the scene of Merritt’s death, which showed Abby seeing her from her window in the house and crushing Thomas’ stash of pills, including barbiturate, into a glass with orange juice and serving it to her. Right before the drugs take effect, Abby asks Merritt if she wants to take a swim in the ocean before they head to bed. Merritt agrees before collapsing into the water from the drugs. Abby then holds Merritt’s head down and drowns her until she’s unconscious.

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Who killed Merritt in The Perfect Couple book?

Abby also kills Merritt in Hildebrand’s Perfect Couple book, however, the motive is different. Abby actually tries to drug a character named Featherleigh, who was the original name of Isabel’s character from the TV show. Furious at Thomas for restarting his affair with Featherleigh, Abby steals one of Greer’s extra-strong sleeping pills and slips it into what she thinks is Featherleigh’s water glass.

What she didn’t realize is that Featherleigh poured the water for Merritt. Unaware that the water glass has been drugged, Featherleigh delivers it to Merritt, who drinks the whole thing. After drinking the water, Merritt—who starts feeling woozy soon after downing the glass—asks Tag on a kayak ride so they can talk about their affair. The conversation goes awry as Merritt struggles to form coherent sentences and in order to make a point, she jumps into the ocean. Due to the drugs, Merritt starts to sink as Tag jumps in to save her.

He drags her back to land, where Merritt throws the expensive ring Tag gave her into the ocean and slices her foot on a broken glass. Alone on the beach, Merritt walks to the water to wash the blood off as she becomes increasingly sleepy. Before she takes a nap on the beach, however, she notices the same ring she threw into the ocean and goes to retrieve it, thinking it would be a nice gift if her and Tag’s baby was a girl. As Merritt wades into the water, however, to get the ring, she loses her balance and falls under before drowning.

In the book, Greer is actually the one who discovers how Merritt died after overhearing Abby and Thomas fight and realizing that Abby was the one who stole her sleeping pill. She texts Abby and Thomas to shut up before anyone else in the house hears and vows internally to take her realization of Abby and Thomas’ involvement in Merritt’s accidental death to the grave.

The Perfect Couple is available to stream on Netflix .