“One Small Shift, Total Devastation” — His & Hers Finale Quietly Alters a Single Detail, Surpassing the Book, Deepening the Twist, Darkening the Meaning, and Leaving Viewers Stunned Long After the Final Scene Fades

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the finale of His & Hers

One of the challenges with adapting a hit novel is finding a way to alter the material to fit a new medium without sacrificing what readers enjoyed in the first place. While some aspects of a book may not be as effective when depicted on screen, fans of the novel may be disappointed if the twists and turns don’t sync up in the same way. His & Hers is an effective means of adaptation because the changes it introduces compliment the original ending, rather than contradict it. While the identity of the killer and their motivation remain the same, the addition of new information makes the stunning conclusion even more brutal.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Alice Feeney, His & Hers is the story of the couple Anna and Jack Harper, played by Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal, respectively. The couple has essentially been separated after a tragedy, as Anna continues to pursue opportunities as a news anchor, and Jack serves as a detective for the sheriff’s office. The murder of Rachel Hopkins (Jamie Tisdale), a childhood acquaintance of Anna’s, inspires her to conduct her own investigation, even though Jack has also been circling the case. The couple has been hiding secrets from one another, but there is another shoe that drops when the real killer reveals who they are.

It’s quickly proven that not only is there a serial murderer on the loose in Dahlonega, Georgia, but that the deaths are all linked: Rachel, her best friend Helen (Poppy Liu), and Jack’s sister Zoe (Marin Ireland) are all brutally killed, which seems like no coincidence considering they all attended St. Hilary’s Girls School with Anna when they were younger. It’s during her reflections that Anna remembers that Helen was involved in tormenting their overweight classmate Catherine Kelly (Astrid Rotenberry), who was responsible for the inadvertent death of her sister, in a detail not included within the novel. The show includes the same revelation that Catherine has masked her identity to become Lexy Jones (Rebecca Rittenhouse), one of Anna’s rivals within the WSK TV News station. While Catherine changed her name in the book to “Cat Jones,” the show takes greater lengths to mask her true identity so that it comes as a greater shock. The flashbacks that show Catherine being bullied, as well as the information about her sister’s death, make her seem like a likely suspect.

His & Hers packs the same punch as the novel because the series retains the twist involving the real culprit. It is revealed that Alice (Crystal Fox), Anna’s elderly mother, had obtained recordings of her daughter’s sixteenth birthday, in which she was lured into the woods by Rachel, Helen, and Zoe, and assaulted by a group of men. Catherine was present but was not involved in the trap. However, she refused to help Anna and abandoned her.

Based on her history of being bullied, Lexy would seem to be the perfect person for Alice to pin the murders of Rachel, Helen, and Zoe on. Alice was the killer in the book as well, but Lexy’s involvement on the night of Anna’s trauma makes the reveal even colder, as she was not selected randomly to be framed for the crime. Lexy’s death, which occurs after Jack’s co-detective Priya Patel (Sunita Mani) comes to Anna’s defense, could have sealed the case up if Alice didn’t also decide to write a letter to her daughter explaining her actions.

Jon Bernthal and Tessa Thompson’s ‘His & Hers’ Has a Thought-Provoking Conclusion

By making the situation murkier, showrunner William Oldroyd was able to create a more complex solution that becomes more than a simple case of good and evil. Neither Lexy nor Alice are clear-cut villains or heroes, as they are both coping with trauma that results in them taking extreme actions. Lexy was humiliated by Rachel and her friends, and still holds on to some animosity towards Anna as well; even though Anna did not commit the same egregious acts of bullying, she was complacent and didn’t give Catherine any protection. Catherine’s decision to abandon Anna, while unbelievably cruel, was the instinctual decision of a traumatized child who didn’t see the purpose in defending someone who she didn’t think would offer her the same protection.

However, Alice sees Catherine as being equally in the wrong, which is particularly devastating to her because of how long it takes her to learn the truth about what happened to Anna. Alice may have only intended to frame Catherine — a far less severe punishment compared to the brutal ways she murders Rachel, Helen, and Zoe — but Lexy still ends up perishing when she breaks into a fight with Anna, resulting in Priya coming to save the day.

The ending of His & Hers, as shocking as it is, becomes more melancholy because the show took the time to flesh out the interpersonal relationships, including some that were only briefly explored in the novel. Jack is shown to be intensely protective of Alice and provides her with care, even after Anna disappears, which makes it feel like an even greater betrayal when she kills his sister Zoe. Similarly, Alice’s guilt over the death of Jack and Anna’s child, which she feels personally responsible for, makes her more motivated to do something that will bring her closer to her daughter.

The decision to turn Alice into a somewhat more sympathetic character who was wounded and vengeful was a smart way to reflect how a bleak situation like this leaves nobody unscathed. Just as the show’s title refers to the fact that there are two sides to every story, Alice is a character who can be seen in both a positive and negative light based on the details added by Oldroyd. It’s the rare adaptation that uses the source material as the first draft of an even deeper story, and shows that the creatives involved were interested in fleshing out the ideas of the original author.