Netflix’s The Hunting Wives made a lot of changes from May Cobb‘s book — especially when it came to the ending.
The show, which premiered on Monday, July 21, followed Sophie (Brittany Snow) who moved from Boston to an East Texas town where she found herself drawn to prominent socialite Margo (Malin Åkerman). But while the larger story lines were similar to the book — such as Abby’s (Madison Wolfe) death and Sophie’s affair with Margo — much of the remaining events were not.
Those who have read the novel know that Jill (Katie Lowes) killed her son Brad’s (George Ferrier) girlfriend after Abby got pregnant and refused to get an abortion. Jill subsequently killed Margo (named Margot in the book) because she knew about her friend’s affair with her teenage son as well.
The eight-part series, however, took a large departure from the original plot by having Margo be the one that was pregnant with Brad’s baby. Margo had an abortion and was the one who killed Abby, which Sophie figured out in the season 1 finale, Sophie was about to give Margo up before Margo’s brother got involved and Sophie ended up killing Kyle (Aaron Milligan).
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This left the future of the show up in the air since the last episode hinted there could be a second season. Keep scrolling for a breakdown of where each The Hunting Wives character ended up for now after the major changes to the story:
Sophie O’Neil
After being framed for Abby’s murder, Sophie was released and used it as an opportunity to tell her husband, Graham (Evan Jonigkeit), the truth about how she was done with their marriage. Her reunion with Margo was short-lived though because very quickly Sophie realized that Margo hid things from her — like the fact that she was the one who had an abortion and then killed Abby.
Sophie started to spiral and even started drinking while driving again. That is when Margo’s brother, Kyle, got involved and started to threaten her in the middle of the road. Sophie ran Kyle over and dumped his body.
The finale ended on Sophie’s crime so it wasn’t clear whether she got away with it or whether there could be a season 2 where she would have to hide what she did.
Margo Banks
The season made it seem like Margo had nothing to do with Abby’s murder besides not wanting to be associated with it. But the finale revealed that Margo was the one who killed Abby — Brad’s girlfriend — to keep her affair with Brad a secret. She confessed to Sophie and mentioned some of the details to her husband, Jed (Dermot Mulroney), who threw her out of the house.
Margo went to her brother, Kyle, which is how he got the idea to threaten Sophie. While Margo told him not to get involved, she called him while Sophie was dumping his body and seemingly realized what had happened.
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Starr
Abby’s mother, Starr (Chrissy Metz), died before the events in the finale. She thought Abby actually got an abortion and went to Brad’s house with a gun intending to shoot Jill, who she thought killed her daughter. Jill got the upper hand and killed Starr before getting murdered by Callie when she threatened Margo.
Callie
While Callie killed Jill to save Margo in the show, that is where things started to deviate from the book. In Cobb’s novel, Jill killed Margo and then Callie arrived with the police to arrest Jill once Sophie pieced it all together. The finale showed Callie largely serving as a cheese piece on Margo’s board who promised to make sure she wouldn’t be accused of Abby’s murder — not realizing that Margo was actually involved.
