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Abby just wants to knock her out for a bit.
The cops never figure it out.
No arrests are made.
The only person who knows what happened is Greer.
The police have ruled Merritts death accidentaland an accident it indeed was, writes Hilderbrand.
Abby may not even realize shes 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.
She sees it.Like love, she thinks.It is just beyond her reach.
The motive for murder in her story is rooted in what always drives people like the Winburys money.
Any of them could have done it.
In the book, Abbys depicted as a social-climbing sorority girl and the daughter of a Texas oil magnate.
The Dakota Fanning version of Abby is much more self-aware.
Including, as it turns out, murder.
In the TV version ofA Perfect Couple, there are no accidents.
The book never gets anywhere near this ghastly it doesnt have the stomach for it.
It also doesnt possess the sense of the dramatic required to actually hold any of its central figures accountable.
This is not a problem for the Netflix series!
But shes notreallyone of them.
After Abbys arrest, its as if no one even notices that shes gone.
That feels appropriate and true to what might happen in real life.
But Greers too ensconced in her high-end environs to really remember what it feels like to have very little.
Shell always be more than fine in life, and so will her kids.
Hilderbrand understands that and so does the ending of her book.
On the page, that might have seemed too extreme.
But in the Netflix version ofThe Perfect Couple, it has just the right amount of juice.
