Let's Break Down ‘The Better Sister’ Season Finale

Amazon's latest murder mystery show The Better Sister dropped on May 29 and if you also managed to blow through it all in a single day then welcome, we have lots to discuss.

In the last few seconds of the penultimate episode, we ended with Nicky (Elizabeth Banks) admitting she was the one who killed Adam (gasp!). She said she did it to keep Chloe (Jessica Biel) safe, knowing the violence Adam was capable of.

So what happened in the fallout of that admission? Let's break down that dramatic season finale.

We finally see how the murder went down

The episode starts jumping back in time to the night of the murder. Nicky is in her car, watching Adam from outside the house. Once she sees him go inside, she approaches the house and rings the doorbell. Nicky walks right inside asking for Chloe and she and Adam start arguing. He threatens to call the cops and Nicky tells him to go right ahead so that she can tell them everything he's been doing to Chloe. She also tells him that Ethan knows too.

Enraged, he grabs Nicky and they start physically fighting. Nicky tries to leave but Adam grabs her again and pushes her against the wall and he starts to strangle her. Nicky manages to pull out her pocket knife and stabs him. Adam falls to the floor and Nicky takes off running.

Another jump back in time

Cut to 12 hours earlier and Nicky is at Adam’s mother’s house where she's helping to take care of her. She gets a call from Ethan and he tells her about what he saw with his dad choking and shoving Chloe. He also says it wasn’t the first time he’s hurt her. Nicky angrily leaves the house in a bit of a hurry but notably leaves her phone behind, we assume so she can't be tracked.

And cut back to the present where Nicky has just told Chloe the truth. Nicky says she's worried Detective Guidry isn’t going to stop until she’s locked up. She also lets Chloe in on the fact she still has the knife and Adam's gun. Chloe tells her to let her hold onto the knife for now.

Nicky's suspicions aren't too far off. Even though the cops realize Adam's mom has a criminal record and know Adam was working with the FBI as a possible informant on his client (and apparently evil company), Gentry Group, Guidry seems dead set on getting Nicky's DNA to see if it matches the crime scene.

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We finally find out what Gentry is up to

Chloe sends Nicky out for a hike with Ethan and tells her to keep her phone on. After a quick call with Catherine about how a book from Chloe and her sister could be a big hit, there's a loud bang at the door. It's Jake, and he's flipping out because he got fired by Bill and is panicking because he can't get the FBI agent, Olivero, the files they want. And what is it that they want? Proof of how Gentry was able to build things so quickly and cheaply. As it turns out, the answer is human trafficking and indentured servitude. Jake tells Chloe that the law firm helped Gentry build out their holding structure. Chloe says Adam's computer, and any proof he would have had, has been wiped. But she's willing to be he kept a paper trail somewhere.

After, in an attempt to mess with Olivero and slow his roll, Chloe calls an FBI hotline and reports him for sexually inappropriate and aggressive behavior.

Ethan is feeling a type of way about his mom

Out on their hike, Ethan says that he's realized he's mad at his mom for choosing his dad over Nicky. He asks Nicky is she's going to stay around or go back to Ohio, but Nicky isn't sure. She tells him that not a day has gone by where she didn't want to be there with him, but it wasn't up to her.

The documents come to light

Chloe is looking all through her house trying to find the documents Adam may or may not have hidden. After checking the safe and just about every other place she can think of, she looks at the safe again and realizes it has a false bottom. Underneath is a big file folder and a tape recorder. Jackpot.

Bill, meanwhile, gets to his office building and Detective Bowen is there wanting to talk to him about Gentry. Bill essentially tells him to get the hell out but Bowen just says he'll be back with a subpoena. Bill decides he's going to go work from home, which, like, understandable.

But once he's at home, Chloe shows up. She says she wants to apologize for the other day and hands him all the files Adam had stashed on Gentry. She says she wants nothing to do with it and wants them off her hands.

Bowen, meanwhile, is out at a restaurant and gets a courier delivery of a folder. We don't see what's in it but he calls someone and says he's got something big, so we can only assume it's a copy of the Gentry files.

Nicky learns about Guidry's coverup

Chloe's cyber security guy worked his magic and dug up the file on Detective Guidry and the man in the wheelchair that she visited. It has all the deets on how she beat up and permanently injured the wrong guy and how it was covered up by the police department.

Guidry is still out there doing her thing, and she shows up at Adam's mom's house. For whatever reason, Adam's mom starts letting it all fly and tells Guidry about Nicky leaving her phone there the day of the murder and how it was Nicky who told her about Adam being stabbed. Guidry asks her to sign a statement with those facts in it and she starts to realize what Guidry is getting at and tells her she "hasn't told her shit."

Nicky, with the newly uncovered documents about Guidry in hand, goes to Catherine and asks her to publish a story based on them. Catherine mentions the book to Nicky and she has no idea what she's talking about, meaning Chloe clearly hasn't told her about the book idea at all.

The cops are closing in

Bowen gives the files he received to Agent Olivero, giving the FBI agent the info he needs against Gentry and their co-conspirators, which includes Bill. A warrant is issued to search Bill’s home office and the police start going through his things.

While that's happening, Guidry calls her boss to tell him about what Adam's mom said, and how Nicky knew Adam had been stabbed before that was public information. Unfortunately, it's a little too late for her because the captain tells her to check the news, and the story about her coverup is already out there. He says she's going to have to be taken off the case and put on leave. He's also put a stop to the DNA tests she requested, since personnel on leave can't make tech requests. He also tells her they've already got another person of interest in the case.

Ethan wants to live with Nicky

Ethan and Nicky are driving home from their day out and Ethan says he wondered if he was supposed to be in jail, like maybe he deserved it. He tells her that on the night of the murder, he came home and saw his dad dead on the floor. He thought his mom did it and he wanted to protect her so he staged the place to look like a break-in. He then tells Nicky that if she's leaving, he wants to go with her.

Once they get back home, Nicky tells Chloe about Ethan wanting to come with her. Chloe doesn't understand why Nicky even wants to leave. Then Nicky tells her that she knows about the book idea and wants to know where Chloe's loyalties lie. Chloe says that Nicky and Ethan are all there is to her life and that Nicky has no idea how much she missed her.

Bill takes the fall

On the news, Chloe and Nicky see that Bill was arrested and the police seem to believe he's connected to Adam's murder. We cut to a scene showing Chloe planting the pocket knife at Bill's home during her visit, so we have her to thank for that.

Later, Nicky and Chloe are sitting on the beach in front of a bonfire smoking cigarettes. They lay down in the sand and say their (kinda morbid) family prayer one last time.