Breaking Down the Shocking Ending of His & Hers

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The new Netflix series, His & Hers, premieres January 8th and follows a classic mystery format. Based on the Alice Feeney novel, the six-episode show centers around the investigation of three murders in Dahlonega, Georgia.

Dahlonega is a tight-knit small town. Investigator Jack (Jon Bernthal) and Anna (Tessa Thompson), the reporter covering the murders, are married but going through a separation. Adding to the complexity, Anna knew the victims – they all went to high school together and were friends. Despite these personal connections, she’s shocked to discover who the killer is.

Here’s what to know about the show’s shocking ending.

Small town, big drama

The series begins with Anna returning to work as a reporter at an Atlanta news station after taking a year off following the tragic and sudden death of her baby, Charlotte, who died while in the care of her mother, Alice. Grieving and overwhelmed, Anna has spent the last year avoiding her husband and mother. When she returns, she’s upset to find that Lexi has taken over her anchor position. Her boss challenges her to earn her old job back by assigning her to cover a recent murder in her hometown of Dahlonega – a young woman was found stabbed to death in the woods.

Anna arrives at the local hotel with a cameraman – her husband, Richard (played by Pablo Schreiber). Jack is surprised to see her, especially since she traveled all the way from Atlanta to cover the story after months of no contact. Both Jack and Anna are very concerned about Anna’s mother, Alice, who is showing signs of dementia. It’s heartbreaking for Anna to witness her mother’s difficulties with everyday life.

Jack lives with his sister, Zoe, and her daughter. He was having an affair with the first murder victim, Rachel, and even saw her on the night she died. When phone records show Jack called Rachel shortly before her death, his colleague, Deputy Priya, begins to suspect he might be involved in the murder.

Anna and Rachel were high school acquaintances, but they lost touch over the years. As the investigation unfolds, two more women are found dead: the principal of Anna’s school and Jack’s sister, Zoe. Both of these women, like Rachel, were wearing red friendship bracelets. It’s revealed Anna made the bracelets for all of them when they were close friends, but a past disagreement caused a rift in their group, the details of which are slowly revealed throughout the series.

Everything changes for Anna and Richard when they discover their hotel reservation has been unexpectedly cancelled. Richard proposes they head to Lexi’s family’s lake house instead, and Anna is surprised to find out Lexi knows the area well and used to run with their group of friends.

Mean girls

Looking at old family photos at the lake house, Anna suddenly realizes her coworker, Lexi Jones, is actually Catherine Kelly, a classmate from high school. The show reveals difficult memories of Catherine being bullied in high school for her weight and subjected to cruel dares. After graduation, Catherine underwent a complete physical transformation, which is why Anna never connected the two identities.

Suddenly, Anna and Catherine—who now goes by Lexi—confront each other at the lake house, and the reason for their years-long estrangement is about to be revealed. After Anna turned sixteen, Rachel invited older boys to a party in the woods, and during that party, Catherine and Anna were sexually assaulted, causing Anna to withdraw from the group.

Anna and Lexi are both holding grudges. Anna is upset that Lexi took her job, but Lexi blames Anna for ruining her childhood. Lexi angrily accuses Anna of leading her into the woods years ago and of repeatedly exposing her to bullying by a group of women. Now, Anna believes Jones is responsible for the deaths of Rachel, Helen, and Zoe, likely as an act of revenge.

A violent fight breaks out between them, and they crash into a glass coffee table. Lexi spots a gun on the floor, grabs it, and points it at Anna, but it turns out to be unloaded. Just then, Detective Priya arrives and fatally shoots Lexi. She had figured out they all knew each other – from a yearbook photo and a trail of friendship bracelets linking Anna, Lexi, and the victims – and raced to the house.

When Jack arrived, Anna explained she’d always wanted to tell him about the attack, but struggled with how to bring it up, especially since his sister, Zoe, had witnessed it. She’d tried to put it behind her and act like it never happened. Surprisingly, sharing this didn’t push them apart—it actually brought them closer together.

An unexpected culprit

The story concludes a year later. Anna is working as a news anchor and is pregnant with Jack’s second child. They’re also raising Zoe’s daughter together. While visiting Anna’s mother, she discovers a handwritten note meant for her.

In a shocking turn of events, Alice confesses to murdering Rachel, Helen, and Zoe. She’s been faking dementia to throw off suspicion, but a detailed letter proves her memory is actually incredibly sharp, as she describes it.

Following the deaths of her daughters, Anna and Charlotte, their mother obsessively rewatched home movies Anna had filmed as a teenager, hoping to feel connected to them. During this, she discovered footage of the attack on Anna and Catherine, which drove her to seek revenge. She decided to kill Rachel, Helen, and Zoe. The story will show her confronting Rachel in the woods—a place Rachel often went to meet men—and fatally stabbing her after pushing her onto the roof of a car. Helen was killed in her school office, a location the mother knew well from her time working as a janitor there. Finally, the mother broke into Zoe’s house and killed her while she was in the bathtub.

Alice wrote that taking Rachel’s life led him back home, taking Helen’s life kept him there, and taking Zoe’s life gave him the family he’d been missing.

She believed she could commit these murders undetected, reasoning that most serial killers are not women or elderly people. Although she initially intended to blame Catherine, she admitted she wasn’t upset when Priya committed the crimes instead. She hoped the killings would prove the strength of a mother’s love. The series concludes with Anna and Alice making eye contact and sharing a knowing smile from opposite sides of the house, implying they’ll keep this a secret between them.

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2026-01-08 23:07