Do not go pick up your kid from a playdate if you haven’t watched all of “All Her Fault” — spoilers ahead!
This article contains discussions of addiction.
Based on Andrea Mara’s 2021 novel of the same name, “All Her Fault” — a new miniseries from Peacock — brings “Succession” star and Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress Sarah Snook back to the small screen for the first time since 2023. The show, which casts Snook as Marissa Irvine, a suburban working mom to her only child Milo (Duke McCloud), focuses on every parents’ worst nightmare: what if you went to pick up your kid from a playdate, only to discover that they’re not there, there was no playdate, and you’ve been tricked somehow?
That’s exactly the conflict set up by “All Her Fault,” where Marissa goes to get Milo from a playdate with Jacob Kaminsky (Tayden Jax Ryan), the son of fellow working mother Jenny (Dakota Fanning). When a woman named Esther Bauer (Linda Cropper) opens the door and tells Marissa she doesn’t know Jenny, Jacob, or Milo and this isn’t the right address, Marissa tries to get answers from Jenny … who was unaware that Milo and Jacob even had a playdate scheduled. From there, we follow Marissa through her understandable spiral as she desperately tries to find Milo.
Snook and Fanning are excellent on the series — and they’re flanked by an outstanding supporting cast that includes Jake Lacy, Michael Peña, Sophia Lillis, Abby Elliott, Jay Ellis, and Daniel Monks — but what happens at the show’s conclusion? Do Marissa and her husband Peter (Lacy) find their son? Who took him, and who pretended Milo was on a playdate in order to take him in the first place? Let’s unpack everything that happens in “All Her Fault,” including that shocking ending.
What you need to remember about the plot of All Her Fault
We’ve been over that the inciting incident in “All Her Fault” is Marissa being misled into thinking that Milo is on a playdate with Jacob — in fact, this horrifying discovery is the sole focus of the scene that opens the entire show. After a few hours, police, including Detective Jim Alcaras (Michael Peña), start investigating Milo’s disappearance, and eventually, they learn that Jacob’s live-in nanny Carrie Finch (Sophia Lillis, known for “It” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”) is the one who picked him up from school before the two of them apparently vanished.
Brian (Daniel Monks), Peter’s brother who became physically disabled after a tragic childhood accident and lives with Peter and Marissa, Peter’s sister Lia (“The Bear” star Abby Elliott), and Marissa’s best friend and work colleague Colin (Jay Ellis) all show up at the Irvine house to help — as does Jenny, who feels horrible about her completely accidental role in the entire situation. (As it turns out, Carrie faked the text from Jenny to Marissa about the playdate in the first place so that she could steal Milo, and there’s also a guy named Kyle, played by Dominic Masterson, who may or may not be helping her.)
While Jenny and Marissa’s friendship deepens during a time of crisis, nobody seems able to figure out where Milo could possibly be, even Jim — who, as we learn, is trying to give his non-verbal autistic son the best possible education by dabbling in some very light corruption to appease the administrator of a high-level school. As the story progresses, though, we learn the truth about Carrie, Milo, and, shockingly, Peter.
What happens at the end of All Her Fault?
“All Her Fault” doles out information at a pretty slow pace throughout its eight episodes, withholding key facts and clues until they’re absolutely necessary — including the fact that, around the time of Milo’s birth, Marissa and Peter were involved in a horrible car accident. The car they hit, as it happens, was Carrie’s … though, back then, her name was Josephine Murphy. Carrie, née Josephine, had just given birth to a baby boy she named Noah (who’s also Kyle’s son, though he’s in prison for a low-level drug offense when Noah is born) when the crash happens, and while she’s unconscious, Peter — who discovers his and Marissa’s infant son died in the crash — steals Noah and passes him off as Milo when Marissa recovers from her injuries. Carrie is led to believe that her baby died, but when she meets Milo and realizes they both have synesthesia, a genetic condition that allows people to experience words or concepts as colors, tastes, and feelings, she figures out what Peter did.
Kyle helps her kidnap Milo, as does Carrie’s birth father and loan shark Rob Murphy (Erroll Shand), and they attempt to hide the child Carrie knows is biologically hers … until Peter gets involved. He brings a cash ransom to Rob’s hotel room and kills the man, angrily telling Rob’s corpse that Milo is “his son” (this is after Rob kills Kyle, so he’s certainly not blameless here). Ultimately, Carrie shows up at Peter and Marissa’s house with a gun, demanding the truth about the little boy — who’s ultimately found in a car after Peter places him there after killing Rob — and she accidentally shoots Colin, who later dies from his injuries. Peter shoots Carrie and tells Marissa they have to claim it was self-defense, because otherwise, Milo will be taken away from her. There’s one final note, though.
What the ending of All Her Fault means
In the final moments of “All Her Fault,” Marissa gives her husband Peter a strange albeit passionate kiss during Colin’s funeral … only for him to experience a severe allergic reaction. (We learn, early in the series, that Peter has a deathly allergy to soy products.) Despite the fact that she usually ensures there’s an Epi-Pen available, Marissa can’t find one, and Peter dies. When she and Lia are questioned by the police, both deny that there was any foul play, and the entire thing was merely an accident, but based on how Marissa looks at Peter as he’s gasping for breath, she absolutely planned to kill her husband with a soy-infused smooch.
Ultimately, what the ending of “All Her Fault” “means” is that Peter is finally held accountable for his many lies and outright crimes. Not only was he the one responsible for the accident that left Brian disabled even though he blamed it on Lia when they were all young, but Peter is a cold-blooded killer, and Marissa is terrified about her safety and Milo’s safety. Shortly before the kiss of death, Peter is casually cruel to Lia, essentially blaming her for a variety of sins — including Colin’s death — because she’s working to overcome an addiction to prescription painkillers (and was in a relationship with Colin, who was a recovering gambling addict and also quietly stealing money to feed his addiction). Peter destroyed lives, stole a child, and was capable of extremely dark deeds, and Marissa, a loving mother, did what she had to do.
Is the ending of All Her Fault the same as the book?
Yes and no, actually. There’s still a major reveal that, in the wreckage of the car accident between Carrie and the Irvine family’s car, Peter picked up the only surviving baby, passed it off as Milo, and left Carrie with a dead infant. Carrie still realizes Milo is her son when they discuss their shared synesthesia. The biggest difference, though, is how Colin dies.
In the book, Colin is killed by Ron Murphy, who’s his loan shark, over some missing money, and Carrie never shows up at the Irvine household with a firearm to hold anyone accountable … so she never accidentally shoots and kills Colin. Instead of watching Marissa “seduce” and ultimately kill Peter at Colin’s memorial service, we learn, at the very end of the book, through a news report on the Irvine family that Peter died during a vacation (he’s also allergic to shellfish, not soy, in the book, and the reason for this change isn’t clear).
This is the biggest difference between the versions of “All Her Fault,” but it should also be noted that Peter is just more … evil on the show. (Brian doesn’t have a physical disability in the novel, nor did he ever have an accident, and therefore Peter played no role in either a childhood accident or a lie he perpetuates for decades.) Otherwise, “All Her Fault” does stick pretty faithfully to the book, apart from building out characters like Jim, Lia, Brian, and Colin a bit more.
Will there be a sequel to All Her Fault?
Because the TV adaptation of “All Her Fault” sticks so closely to the book, it does feel like a sequel is unlikely; at the end of both versions, Marissa and Milo are safe and happy with Peter out of the picture and simply trying to resume their lives as best as they can. For that reason, it does seem really unlikely that it’ll get a sequel, because the story is pretty self-contained and is definitively “over” by the time credits roll on the eighth and final episode.
Still, crazier things have happened. If the show eventually becomes some sort of huge sleeper hit for Peacock, it’s possible that the streamer will take notes from HBO, the premium network that elected to greenlight a second season of “Big Little Lies” after its first season, based on Liane Moriarty’s hit novel of the same name, was an enormous success. This meant that the narrative of Season 2 of “Big Little Lies” had to be constructed from the ground up, but unfortunately, thanks to a clear lack of inspiration and a fairly disastrous turn from Meryl Streep, the second season never lived up to the heights of the first. With that in mind, we can only hope that Peacock doesn’t make a second season of “All Her Fault,” but if it does, it would presumably catch up with Marissa and Milo after the events of Season 1.
“All Her Fault” is streaming on Peacock now.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).