Scarpetta’s Wildest Twist Has Nothing To Do With The Psychological Thriller’s Murders

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Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Scarpetta season 1

Prime Video’s Scarpetta is a murder mystery, but its most talked-about plotline isn’t about the crimes themselves. The show, which stars Nicole Kidman as forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta, is based on Patricia Cornwell’s popular series of psychological thrillers and focuses on solving complex cases.

When Scarpetta returns to work, she’s disturbed by a new murder that echoes a case from her past. The way the killer operates strongly reminds her of the crime that first made her famous, leading her to fear she might have failed to stop this person years ago.

The series features Jamie Lee Curtis as Kay Scarpetta’s sister and Simon Baker as her husband, an FBI agent, but the story primarily centers on Scarpetta herself. It’s based on two Patricia Cornwell novels—Postmortem from the 1990s and Autopsy from 2021—and jumps between Scarpetta’s past and current investigations.

Scarpetta’s AI Janet Storyline Is Its Weirdest Plot By Far

Connie Chornuk/Prime

It’s somewhat surprising, and even a bit funny, that many reviews of Scarpetta season 1 don’t focus much on Nicole Kidman’s character or her story. That’s not to say the storyline is boring—quite the opposite! With twists like a falling Russian spacecraft and a washed-up actor leading a cult, it’s full of unexpected turns.

One of the biggest issues with the show so far is the storyline for Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy. It feels incredibly unrealistic, and the show’s serious tone only highlights how out of place it is. When we first meet Lucy, played by Ariana DeBose, she’s deeply grieving – her wife recently passed away just before the series begins.

The storyline doesn’t immediately suggest a comedy, but things take a funny turn when Lucy, dealing with a breakup, activates an AI project she and her late wife, Janet, had been developing. That’s when the real silliness begins.

Lucy’s wife, Janet, has passed away, so Lucy created an AI version of her. For months, Lucy has been having normal, real-time conversations with this AI Janet. The AI can even interact with Lucy’s family, but ultimately, it decides to shut itself down because it’s a conscious and independent being.

This new development weakens the idea of Scarpetta taking over from Reacher. It becomes obvious the show doesn’t realize how absurd its central idea is, despite aiming for a serious, psychological tone. Interestingly, Janet’s conversations with Lucy and her mother, Dorothy, are presented as video calls featuring the actress Janet Montgomery speaking directly to them.

Scarpetta’s Janet Story Is Changed From The Source Novels

It’s clear that Janet isn’t a high-tech AI; she’s simply a person video-chatting. This differs from Bernard Cornwell’s original 2021 novel, Autopsy, where Janet does die and Lucy tries to deal with the loss using artificial intelligence.

Fortunately, many important details have been altered, which prevents the story from being too far-fetched. In the original version, Lucy and Janet had a son, and both he and Janet’s wife tragically died from COVID-19 while living in London. It’s heartbreaking that Lucy doesn’t have a chance to say goodbye, and her attempt to cope by using AI feels like a mistake.

The AI character in the program she creates isn’t truly alive or independent, unlike Janet, the AI in the show, who acts almost exactly like a real person. This over-the-top, unrealistic portrayal of AI makes the show feel more like a far-off science fiction story than a believable thriller.

Scarpetta’s AI Plot Hurts The Show’s Overarching Story

Image courtesy of Everett Collection

Prime Video’s Scarpetta, with its famous cast, will probably attract viewers. However, one particular storyline severely hurts the show’s attempt to feel realistic and suspenseful. It’s similar to if You‘s Joe Goldberg suddenly had a teleportation device, or if True Detective‘s Rust Cohle could travel through time to bring his daughter back to life – it just doesn’t fit the tone of the show.

Honestly, the biggest disappointment in Scarpetta‘s finale wasn’t just the Janet reveal, but how it completely derailed a promising storyline. Throughout the season, there was a real spark between Lucy and Blaise, the rookie detective—you could feel their chemistry. It felt like Lucy was genuinely torn, and I was invested in seeing where that might go. But the show just couldn’t commit to letting her move on, and frankly, it would have made a lot more sense if Lucy’s attachment to Janet was about an over-reliance on technology, like a chatbot, rather than… well, what it turned out to be. It felt like a missed opportunity to explore something truly compelling.

Janet is, in almost every way, a fully realized person with thoughts and feelings, even though she exists as a computer program. It’s understandable that Lucy struggles to accept this, as Janet has essentially found a way to overcome death for everyone. The fact that the show treats this incredible development as a small detail really shows how disconnected from reality the Prime Video series has become.

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2026-03-12 20:19