Can We Talk About That Twist Ending on HBO’s ‘The Undoing’?!

*Warning: Major spoilers ahead*

As an entertainment editor, I'm not usually late to the game when it comes to watching shows that literally everybody is talking about. But sometimes there is just so much content out there that I can fall a bit behind. So when this past Saturday arrived—aka the day before the dramatic finale of HBO's The Undoing would air—I was kicking myself for not having watched a single episode of the Nicole Kidman vehicle.

My social media feed was full of theories about whodunnit: It just has to be Nicole Kidman—clearly she has a split personality. My friends were all texting about which major or minor character had wielded that fateful hammer: Oh, it's definitely Donald Sutherland. He's hated Hugh Grant's character for years, so he'd obviously want to frame him and get him out of the picture. Even my partner wouldn't shut up about it: I know you haven't watched yet, but I think it's that blonde one from American Horror Story working with Nicole Kidman—they're in it together! 

Having no clue what anyone was talking about and desperately suffering from the most severe FOMO since Beyoncé appeared at Coachella 30 seconds after I finished saying something snarky like, "Is Coachella even a thing anymore?" I knew I had to watch. And I knew I had to watch as quickly as possible before the finale aired.

So my Saturday evening and early Sunday morning were spent bingeing the first five episodes of The Undoing, and with each episode the theories started to roll in as to who could have done it.

At first I thought I’d cracked the case: It had to be one of the moms at school, but not one of the main moms. But then—no, no, wait. It had to be the doctor that Hugh Grant's character used to work with at the hospital. But no! Actually I think Donald Suther-noooo OMG wait it's gotta be the son, right?! Yes, it's definitely him. Nope, scratch that, my partner was right, it's definitely Nicole working with Lily Rabe. Like why else would Lily Rabe be in all of these scenes if she wasn't at least partially involved?

Finally, after five hours of straight bingeing, with no actual clue as to who the killer could be, I was ready for the finale. Or so I thought. Clearly I was not ready because that ending left me shook. (Kelly Ripa knows what I'm talking about.)

The major twist we'd been waiting for...Hugh freaking Grant. Such a smart and surprising choice. And the show even made me think it was going to be him when they showed his flashback to the argument with Matilda De Angelis (aka Elena) before making me unthink that option seconds later as he threw keys at her and turned to leave. But then obviously she didn't let him leave and he attacked her brutally.

I'm so thrilled with this choice as the killer for several reasons. To begin with, it would be really disappointing if the killer had not been one of the main characters. Anyone besides Grant, Kidman, Rabe, Sutherland or Noah Jupe (the son) would've been a total letdown. 

I'm also extremely pleased that it wasn't the husband, played movingly by Ismael Cruz Córdova. The show does such a nice job setting him up as a victim of circumstance—and contrasting his family with the white-privileged world of Kidman and Grant—that I think it would have done a disservice to the overall impact of the series to have him be the guilty one. 

And I'm also quite happy that it wasn't one of the women. Had Kidman or Rabe so brutally murdered De Angelis, it would have been for some stupid reason like “revenge,” which is so less interesting than a crime of passion. If it had been Kidman, I would've been left wondering why she didn't just kill Grant instead.

I think the best, most satisfying option was the one we were served last night by HBO. Grant was the obvious-from-the-beginning choice that none of us were actually taking a hard look at. So rarely am I left pleased with the twist ending in shows or movies such as this, but the excitement I felt at the realization that it had been him all along was the only indicator I needed that things had played out exactly as they should have.

The only downside to this all? Season two would be quite a stretch. But if Big Little Lies can make it work...