His & Hers

Jack struggles to sleep and finally gets up when Priya calls him. Another body has been found in Blackdown, this time at St. Hilary’s school. Zoe and Jack talk in the kitchen, where she asks about the second body. When he asks how she knows, she jokes about killing them before revealing that she heard it from Anna on the news. She also warns him not to trust Anna.

Jack arrives at the school and learns that Anna discovered the body. The victim is Helen Wang, the current headmistress of St. Hilary’s and a former friend of the others. Like Rachel, Helen had a red-and-white friendship bracelet tied around her tongue. Her throat was slit, and the word “liar” was written on her chest using a staple gun. She also had cocaine smeared on her nose.

Jack questions Anna about the friendship bracelet she wore the previous day, to which she replies that she has lost it. He cautions her about her cameraman Richard, who was arrested for grievous bodily harm a few years ago. Jack had looked up his records the day before.

Mrs. Andrews reflects on Helen Wang’s love for power, admiration, and dishonesty as she recalls hiding in Helen’s office and then killing her. She was happy to demonstrate the woman’s character through her death.

Anna had received a tip about Helen’s murder and alerted the news station before the police.

She remembers Rachel guiding her through the world of popular girls at St. Hilary’s. Anna appreciated the opportunity to sit with Rachel and the others at lunch and wanted to extend the same kindness to Catherine Kelly, who always seemed friendly to her.

Eventually, Rachel excused herself to the bathroom, taking her coke with her. When she returned, she instructed Anna to invite Catherine to join them. After Anna did so, she read the note Rachel slipped under her plate, revealing that Rachel urinated in the coke and warning Anna to keep quiet if she wants to avoid being ostracized. Rachel then knocked over Catherine’s Coke and offered her own Coke in return. The cafeteria erupted in laughter after Catherine drank Rachel’s urine.

Jack fetches Anna from the room and interviews her. She received the call about Helen’s murder from someone using a phone at the school who used a voice distortion device. When he escorts Anna to her car, they discover the windows smashed and her overnight bag taken. Anna confides in Jack about the objects disturbed in her room and Rachel’s blackmail but refuses to tell him what happened in school. They see a yellow cardboard air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror by a red-and-white friendship bracelet.

Anna watches as investigators examine her car. Jack questions her about the breathalyzer in her glove box. She thinks about Jack’s face when he told her about the friendship bracelets tied around the tongues of the victims. She acknowledges she knew he was attracted to Rachel.

Anna didn’t speak to Rachel, Helen, or Zoe for days after the incident with Catherine Kelly until Mrs. Andrews, worried about Anna’s mood, brought Rachel home for a surprise sleepover. Rachel pretended as though everything was fine and charmed Mrs. Andrews. They slept together in the same bed, and Rachel climbed in bed naked before touching Anna, who lay there without moving or speaking, not sure what happened.

Rachel’s phone vibrates in Jack’s jacket, and he retrieves to see a text on the screen: “Miss me, lover?” Priya walks up and talks about Rachel’s phone, which she’s ordered traced, and Anna’s viability as a suspect. Jack turns off the phone in his pocket.

Mrs. Andrews regrets damaging Anna’s car with the school’s drama trophy but has decided that misdirection is key to her success. She’s sure no one would ever suspect her of such an act. Always resourceful, she kept the voice distorter (likely confiscated from someone) that she found in Helen’s office. She thinks about the different identities she’s “tried on” throughout her life.

Anna is sure that Priya has a crush on Jack, and she finds the idea distressing. She heads to the spot where she and Rachel would go when they skipped class.

When they were in school, Helen and Zoe grew jealous of Rachel’s relationship with Anna. Anna was willing to do anything to make Rachel like her, and they spent all their time together. She stopped turning in assignments, and her mother grounded her, forcing her to cancel the party she’d planned with the girls at her house.

Rachel insisted that Helen write their papers. Helen initially refused but later caved and gave them the papers. During lunch, Rachel kissed Anna and gave her a new bra before taking pictures of her breasts. Rachel made Catherine Kelly stand guard.

Jack finds Anna easily, knowing the spot from his sister’s reports. They discuss her mother’s health. As they head back to the crowd, he sees one magpie devouring another.

Anna thinks of another time she was in that spot in the woods with Rachel. The English teacher had called Rachel and Anna in because they turned in the same paper. Rachel persuaded him to give them As anyway by performing a sexual act on him, though Anna didn’t realize what Rachel had done. Then, she fondled Anna in the woods. 

Anna tells Jack about the picture she took from her mother’s house and her later discovery of Rachel’s face crossed out. She identifies the girls in the picture: Rachel, Helen, Zoe, Anna, and a girl she assumes he wouldn’t remember.

Jack calls Zoe to warn her that she might be in danger and then informs Helen Wang’s mother of her daughter’s death. Afterward, he joins Priya at her house for dinner. Priya briefly leaves Jack alone in her house while she runs out to get ketchup. Jack opens Rachel’s phone, guessing at her passcode (her birthday). He discovers Rachel’s texts with Helen in which she derided Jack as a potentially useful (due to his position on the force) “loser.”

Priya eventually returns, and Jack struggles to decide whether she’s being a good host or trying to seduce him. When he confronts her, she denies flirting with him, and he kisses her.

Anna remembers how she refused to leave Charlotte’s side after her birth until Jack insisted they go out for her birthday. Anna’s birthday on Monday was also the anniversary of her daughter’s death.

After doing her job, Anna finds herself near the house Jack shares with Zoe and notices a door cracked open. She never told Jack why she fell out with Zoe.

On Anna’s 16th birthday, her mother gave her a kitten. She and Rachel bought alcohol from the grocery store where Helen worked, and Anna noticed her black eye, which Feeney implied Rachel gave her. That evening, the other girls and Catherine Kelly, whom Rachel told Anna to invite, celebrated and drank heavily at Anna’s house. After Jack dropped Zoe off, Anna distributed friendship bracelets to everyone, and Jack took the picture of the five girls before he left.

Jack walks home from Priya’s house. His memories tell the rest of the story of Charlotte’s death. They left her with Anna’s mother while they went out to dinner. Charlotte died from sudden infant death syndrome, also called a “cot death.” It was a tragic fluke, but Anna blamed her mother and Jack. He felt that only Anna was allowed to grieve.

On his walk, he receives a text on Rachel’s phone telling him that he should have gone straight home. His front door is already slightly open with no sign of forced entry. He sees a small knife missing in the kitchen and the picture of the five girls that was taken with Anna’s belongings; now Rachel’s, Helen’s, and Zoe’s faces are crossed out. He searches for his sister, who is in the bathroom. He forces the door open and discovers Zoe in the bathroom, her wrists slit, one eye sewn shut, and a friendship bracelet tied around her tongue.

Jack calls Priya. While she is on her way, he sees that his sister wrote Anna’s last name “Andrews” in blood above the bath.

Anna and Richard wrap up filming and return to the hotel, only to find that their reservations have been canceled. (It is later revealed that Mrs. Andrews canceled them in the hope that Anna would spend the night in her home.) Richard says that he knows somewhere they can stay.

Priya and other police members arrive at Jack’s house. They discover his drugged niece and find a neighbor to stay with her. Jack assumes that Zoe’s mention of “Andrews” was an accusation against his wife, whom she never liked. However, Priya suggests it might be a warning that Anna is also in danger. She informs him that the deputy chief has removed him from the case. Jack realizes he is a suspect. His decision to walk home creates a suspicious gap between leaving Priya’s house and calling the police. They have also found his muddy boots, matching the print at the first crime scene, in the trash. Jack expresses concern that he’s being framed.

Mrs. Andrews recalls slipping sleeping pills into Zoe’s wine after she snuck into the house. She had hoarded them from her prescription. She considered killing herself over Christmas because the pain of being “without her” was too much, and the parallel with Anna’s “plan B” provides a red herring. Zoe then took a bath, and Mrs. Andrews killed her.

Like with Helen’s and Rachel’s murder, Mrs. Andrews uses Zoe’s past behavior (beyond the incident of Anna’s 16th birthday) as an excuse for the murder. Mrs. Andrews pauses by an old shed that still has scratches inside from (she assumes) 20 years ago. She’ll always remember how Zoe locked “them” inside.