In the book The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand, Merritt's murder is left unsolved. Greer suspects that their daughter-in-law, Abby has killed Merritt. However, Greer chooses not to share this suspicion with anyone.
She narrates,
"The police have ruled Merritt’s death accidental and an accident it indeed was. Abby may not even realize she's to blame, and Thomas will never put two and two together. The secret resides with Greer, and with Greer, it will remain until her death."
The events leading up to Merritt's murder on The Perfect Couple
In the final moments of The Perfect Couple on Netflix, there is a flashback to the events surrounding Merritt's death. When Abby sees Merritt sitting alone on the beach, she takes a pill from Tom, crushes it, and puts it into a glass of juice.
She brings the juice to Merritt and she drinks the juice. Abby then suggests they go for a swim. During the swim, she drowns Merritt. After this, Abby calmly returns to the house.
The investigation and revelation of Abby's guilt
In the show’s finale, Detective Nikki Henry gets to know everything. Abby is arrested. This scene reflects Abby's privileged attitude. As the expectant wife of Jack Reynor’s Tom Winbury, she has shown entitlement since Merritt's mysterious death. In one of the episodes, Abby says that the police can't arrest her since she's a white woman, which seems to show her privileged behaviour.
Unlike the book’s source material, Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 bestseller, pregnant Abby is guilty of Merritt’s murder in the show. Early in the series, Abby is upset about sacrificing her Fourth of July plans for the wedding of her brother-in-law Benji and his fiancee Amelia. Despite her complaints, the entire Winbury family, gathers at their large Nantucket estate owned by Nicole Kidman’s Greer, a famous British novelist, and Liev Schreiber’s Tag. Their weekend, filled with wine and luxury, is interrupted when Merritt’s body is found washed ashore.
Abby soon becomes the main suspect. She is already on shaky ground with the Winbury family. Abby gets very angry when she gets to know that Merritt is sleeping with Tag and is pregnant with his child. This news messes up the inheritance plan. The Winbury siblings can only access their trust fund when the youngest child turns 18. If Merritt had Tag's child, the trust would be divided into four parts instead of three.
This is something Abby cannot accept. The night before the next Winbury wedding, she crushes a lethal dose of barbiturates into some orange juice. She takes it to Merritt, who is sitting on the beach, upset. They sit together, and Merritt confides in Abby. Abby suggests they go for a swim. Then, she holds Merritt's head underwater until she drowns.
Dakota Fanning, who plays Abby, explains her approach to the character
“It’s so true that even when you’re playing a bad character, you don’t think of them as bad. You’re not supposed to be judgmental of the characters that you’re playing because you’re ultimately telling their truth—whether it’s good or evil, or whatever.”
The Perfect Couple: Abby's arrest and the aftermath of the murder
Abby has certainly changed the family dynamics. Greer left for New York to write her latest novel and Tag remained in their Nantucket house. Tag told Greer that he never thought Greer would leave him someday despite all their differences.
After six months, in the final scene of The Perfect Couple, the setting changes from Nantucket to London. In London, Greer finds Amelia working at the penguin exhibit in the zoo. Greer shares that she has finished her new book. Instead of writing about her life as an escort, she wrote about Amelia. Despite their past conflicts, Greer tells Amelia she hopes she will read the book and call her afterward.
The book is titled 'Your Move' and it refers to Amelia's loss of her best friend, Merritt. The dedication says, "To absent friends, and hopefully, to new ones". It was a chance for Amelia and Greer to be new friends.
You can watch The Perfect Couple only on Netflix.
