Warning: Spoilers ahead for “It's All Her Fault.”
“It's All Her Fault” is a thrill ride filled with kidnapping, deception, twists and turns.
In Peacock's new thriller, released November 6, Sarah Snook plays Marissa Irvine, a businesswoman whose son Milo (Duke McCloud) goes missing.
Marissa had to pick up her son from a date with his friend Jacob (Tayden Jax Ryan), whose mom is Jenny (Dakota Fanning). The two working moms weren't close, but they were briefly brought together by the judgment they received from other mothers at their sons' school.
The plan was for Jenny's nanny Carrie (Sophia Lillis) to pick up the boys from school and they would play at Jenny's house.
When Marissa arrives at what she assumes is Jenny's house, another woman answers the door. She panics when she discovers the woman doesn't have Milo and the phone number that sent her the date message is now disconnected.
Who took Milo?
Carrie kidnaps Milo. She approached Milo's nanny Ana (Cartia Vergara) to get information about his home and family life.
Carrie is also not who she said she was. While investigating Carrie, detectives discover that she was working with an ex-con named Kyle (Dominic Masterson).
What happened to Milo?
In episode six, Milo is returned to the police station. The child is in a good mood and asks where Carrie is. He is questioned by Detective McConville (Michael Peña) and tells them that he and Carrie went on a “vacation”, that he was riding in the trunk of a car and was with a man, but never saw him again.
As they leave the police station, Marissa asks McConville, “My son wasn't found, was he returned? Who?”
McConville and Detective Greco (Johnny Carr) later go to the home of Marissa and her husband Peter (Jake Lacy) to ask Milo more questions. After their visit, McConville tells Marissa, “Usually when a kidnapping victim is returned, it's because a ransom was paid.”
She tells him that they never received any ransom demands, not knowing that it was her husband who did it.
Did someone pay the ransom?
Not trusting Peter, Marissa snoops around the house and discovers a bag of money.
“You got a ransom call? When?” she asks Peter, who says he got a call but never delivered the money because the man never called again.
He tells Marissa not to tell the police. But that still doesn't answer the question of who brought Milo back.
Who was really behind Milo's kidnapping?
Carrie was behind Milo's kidnapping, but there is a very long and convoluted explanation for this.
While detectives continue to investigate Carrie's whereabouts, Kyle is found dead. They also track down a woman named Irene Murphy, who turns out to be Carrie's mother. While talking to Irene, they learn that Carrie's real name is Josephine “Josie” Murphy.
As more information comes in, Marissa learns that her business partner Colin (Jay Ellis) is defrauding her company. Colin is a former drug addict who is also dating Leah (Abbey Elliott), Peter's sister.
When Marissa confronts Colin, he admits that he relapsed and had a “big loss.” His bookmaker visited him over the Easter weekend while he and the whole family were on a group trip. This trip is significant because that's when Milo's favorite toy frog went missing. The toy was found in the hotel room where Carrie was staying with Milo.
Colin, who had been saving money to pay off his debt, didn't think Milo's disappearance was related to his situation. However, Marissa reveals that his bookie, named Rob Murphy, was found murdered. It turns out that Rob is Irene's ex-husband and the father of Josie, or “Carrie”,.
Who is Carrie, aka Josie?
Josie's backstory is revealed in episode seven, where viewers see 16-year-old Josie discover she is pregnant and living in a trailer with her boyfriend. Poor and needy, her boyfriend is arrested for drug trafficking, and she is left all alone.
In one scene, a pregnant Josie is shown getting angry and violently hitting her trailer. She is then seen in a hospital bed, where nurses tell her that she has lost her baby.
Josie moves in with her mom, but their relationship is rocky. Irene is known for calling Josie “crazy.” When Josie spends time with her sketchy father Rob, she asks if she can live with him. He says no, but offers her a job for extra money.
When she starts working with him, he takes her to the house where Colin and the Irwins were spending the Easter weekend to warn Colin about his gambling debt. Josie tells her father that maybe she can pay off Colin's debt because she “saw the signs before” and doesn't want to “feel like dead anymore.” After being called “crazy” by her father, she begins her kidnapping plan.
While her father threatens Colin, she runs into Milo with his stuffed frog. Josie feels a connection with Milo and later begins researching Colin and Marissa's family. She begins to follow them, learning everything she can about Milo and the Irwins.
Now under the name “Carrie”, Josie interviews Jenny to become their nanny. She intentionally made friends with his nanny Ana and how they would spend time together after school.
Viewers will also learn the backstory of her visiting Kyle in prison. It turns out that Kyle was her boyfriend and the father of her child. When he is released from prison, he tells her about Milo's kidnapping.
He calls her “crazy,” only making her mad. At first Kyle is reluctant to help, but ends up helping Josie because she thinks Milo is her real son.
In a flashback scene, it is revealed that Milo and Josie's son, Noah, was born on the same day. Josie gave birth to a child, but then got into a car accident. Nurses told her her son had died, but Josie was adamant that her baby survived because she heard him cry. When she learned about Milo, she thought the hospital staff had mixed up the babies.
What happened to Josie's baby?
After Milo returns, Josie goes to Marissa and Peter's house with a gun in her hand. Colin tries to take the gun from Josie, but she ends up shooting him. He's dying.
Josie says she didn't mean to hurt anyone, but warns Marissa to keep Milo safe from Peter. Why?
When she tries to tell Marissa, Peter grabs Josie's gun and shoots her. He pretends that it went off by accident and that he didn't mean to kill her.
Before Josie was shot, she was holding a phone with a voice recording containing Peter's secret. It turns out he was behind the children's confusion. When Josie was involved in a car accident, she was confronted by Peter, Marissa, and their newborn baby.
Peter believed Marissa and Milo were dead when he called the police. Then he heard Josie's son crying in the back seat of her car and switched children.
“Is our child dead?” Marissa says. “He wasn’t ours, he was hers.”
Peter says he thought Josie was dead and could give the baby a better life. He tells Marissa not to tell the cops. She doesn't.
What happened to Kyle and Rob?
Josie turned to her father for help after she couldn't get Milo a fake passport.
Seeing this as an opportunity to make some money, Rob calls Peter about the ransom. When Kyle meets Carrie, his photograph comes to the attention of the police and news agencies. In defense of his daughter, Rob shoots Kyle and does not tell Josie.
One night, Josie finds her father dead in the hotel room and Milo missing.
As Marissa listens to the voice recording Josie told her about, Peter is heard revealing his secret about giving the children to Rob. Marissa also hears Peter killing Rob.
Marissa tells Peter that she listened to the recording and he confesses to killing Rob and says that he was the one who brought Milo back to the police station. He put Milo in the trunk of the car and made sure the boy didn't see or hear anything traumatic.
What else has Peter lied to his family about?
Peter's brother Brian (Daniel Monks), an invalid, discovers that Peter has lied to him about being a candidate for surgery that could help him walk again.
Confronting Peter, Brian discovers (to the entire family's surprise) that Peter is actually to blame for the accident that changed his life. Peter initially made it seem like Leah accidentally hurt Brian when they were children.
Peter says that while they were all playing, he stuck his foot out to trip Brian. He had no intention of hurting his brother, but he also didn't explain that it was his fault and not Leah's. After the accident, Leah blamed herself for her brother's disability and even struggled with addiction.
Will Peter get away with Josie's death and secret?
Yes and no. Detectives are still skeptical about Josie's death, but cannot prove that Peter killed her. Days pass and Peter tells Marissa that the police have determined that Josie was killed in self-defense.
Over the course of the season, Marissa and Jenny grow closer. In the last episode, Marissa tells Jenny the whole story and how she's scared to be with Peter.
“I don't know how I can divorce him, knowing what he can do. I'm stuck, what can I do?” Marissa says.
At Colin's funeral, Marissa gives Peter something he is allergic to. Pretending it was an accident, she also gives him an expired EpiPen and takes the emergency ones out of their car. The ambulance is too far away and he dies.
Additionally, Detective McConville, who has a neurodistinguishing son, discovers that Josie and Milo had synesthesia, “a phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers such as tasting colors or feeling sounds.” Cleveland Clinic.
When Josie first met Milo, they bonded over the opportunity to try colors and see the days of the week in colors. McConville begins investigating Josie, Peter and Marissa's car accident again.
After Peter's death, detectives question Leah about Marissa's involvement in his death. A few weeks later, McConville visits Marissa and tells her that Milo and Josie have synesthesia. He also gives her the chance to confess that Peter switched the children during the accident, killed Rob and put Milo in the trunk.
“And I'm guessing you had no idea what was going on until Josephine Murphy came to your house with a gun and told you,” he said. “And I know you're stuck… so you made some choices.”
He tells her that the case is closed, but feels okay about not getting confirmation because he, too, will do anything for his child (including getting rid of his criminal record to send his son to a special school).
