Everyone Had a Motive for Killing Merritt in The Perfect Couple—Here’s Why [Spoiler] Did It

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Perfect Couple.

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We love a good murder mystery and The Perfect Couple is no exception. Netflix’s latest film starring Nicole Kidman centers on a wealthy Nantucket family gathering, but when a body washes up on the beach, everyone is a suspect—so why was it that Abby killed Merritt?

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The Perfect Couple is based on a best-selling novel by Elin Hilderbrand. “I wanted them just to make the best television show, and I wasn’t really concerned about it being the same as the book,” the author told Parade . “And so, I said, ‘Whatever you guys need to make the best show, please do it and make the changes.’ People can always go back and read the book, and they can enjoy that as a separate piece of art. But I wanted the TV show to be really compelling.”

Why did Abby kill Merritt in The Perfect Couple ?

The reason Abby (Dakota Fanning) killed Merritt is very simple: money. The Winbury children would only receive their trust funds when the youngest child turned 18. A lot of characters were banking on their trust funds coming through for various reasons—Thomas owed Isabel money and Abby was hoping to buy an apartment.

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But thanks to their salacious affair, Merritt was pregnant with Tag’s child, which means once the child was born, the family would have to wait another 18 years to receive their fortunes. Thomas threatened Merritt to get an abortion, but Abby ultimately decided to take care of the problem herself by crushing up pills and putting them in Merritt’s glass of juice. Once Merritt was drowsy, Abby led her down to the beach and drowned her in the ocean.

“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 in the film.

In the book, Greer (Kidman) 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 pills. She texts Abby and Thomas to stop talking before anyone else in the house hears and vows internally to take her knowledge of Abby and Thomas’ involvement in Merritt’s death to the grave.