Ever since the drama starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman first appeared on our screens, viewers wondered who had killed Elena Alves (Matilda De Angelis).
Following the plan of a detective novel, theories circulated and the stories separate. Everyone seemed to have a hunch about who struck the fatal blow on the woman who had no other purpose than to be the tragic victim of the show.
With each turn, a different character was centering the suspicions. As the plot unraveled, the HBO drama also increased in purpose – the payoff, after all, would have to satisfy the hours invested by the audience.
The final episode, aptly titled ‘The Bloody Truth’, gave us all the answers we had been looking for. Through flashbacks, we saw Elena’s final violent moments and the true identity of her killer.
There were no last-minute revelations or shocking twists on this matter; the evidence had pointed to Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant) at all times and he is, in fact, the culprit.
His son Henry (Noah Jupe) had the murder weapon, but he had discovered it in the fireplace of the family beach house. Convinced that his father must therefore be guilty, he decided to try to protect him by hiding the evidence that would undoubtedly have sent his father to prison for a long, long time. Not only that, but Henry put it in the dishwasher, twice! Thus cleaning the gun of blood and fingerprints.
Following questionable unofficial advice from their attorney Haley Fitzgerald (Noma Dumezweni), Jonathan, Grace (Nicole Kidman) and their father Franklin (Donald Sutherland) ended up deciding not to turn this over to authorities. Jonathan’s trial was on a razor’s edge, and this new “coincidence” would have been too much for his defense team to explain an excuse to the jury.
From the outside, it may seem lazy of ‘The Undoing’ to have chosen the obvious suspect. But what the final episode shows us that the series was never a whodunit after all.
Rather than trying to outsmart the series and guess who the killer really was, it turns out that we should have been paying more attention to the man in the spotlight all along: Jonathan Fraser.
Like, Grace, we had been dazzled by his charm and we didn’t want to believe he could have. At what point would she (and, by extension, the audience) finally see him for what he really was?
The breadcrumbs had appeared a few episodes before, his mask was beginning to slide. Jonathan’s lawyer saw through him instantly, pointing out that his misguided visit to Mr. Alves had been a symptom of his heightened sense of greatness and experience of winning over people.
