Who is the real killer in ‘Fool Me Once?’

There’s really only one question viewers are asking when watching a mystery-thriller series like Fool Me Once. I mean, it’s the name of the whole genre itself: whodunnit? Forget the whys and the hows, what you want to know is which character pulled the trigger, wielded the knife, or killed Professor Plum in the library with the lead piping.

Sometimes, though, the answer isn’t quite so clear-cut, as is the case with the aforementioned Netflix smash-hit series As anyone who’s seen any of the other Netflix adaptations of the best-selling author’s works will know, Harlan Coben stories pile on twist after twist, making them much more ambitious and complex than your average crime thriller.

So, once you’ve blasted through the (oddly short) Fool Me Once finale, you might find yourself wondering: who exactly dunnit in this show, anyway?

Who counts as the “real” killer of Fool Me Once?

Here’s the root of the killer confusion: there are actually three murderers in Fool Me Once, making it difficult to determine which one is the ultimate culprit.

When the series begins, Maya Stern is grieving after the murders of both her sister, Claire, and her husband, Joe — Claire from a home invasion and Joe from an apparent mugging. Things aren’t exactly as it seems, because we find out in the penultimate episode that Maya killed Joe. Why did she murder her husband? Because she discovered he was the one who murdered her sister.

Joe, it turns out, has been a killer all along, as he murdered both schoolmate Theo Mora and his brother, Andrew, during his teenage years. When Claire turned corporate spy for whistleblower Corey the Whistle, uncovering evidence of Joe’s crimes and that his family company Burkett Global were guilty of major pharmaceutical malpractice, Joe murdered her, along with Tommy Dark — who knew the truth about Andrew’s death.

The third killer in the series, tragically, is the one who murders Maya herself. To entrap the Burketts into admitting the truth about Joe’s crimes and the company’s, Maya confronts her in-laws while recording them on a secret nanny cam, even laying down her gun to entice one of them into using it. The oldest surviving son Neil grabs the weapon and shoots her dead. Maya loses her life but her plan comes to fruition and the corruption of the Burketts is outed to the world.

So who’s the true killer? Certainly, the character with the most blood directly on their hands is Joe, as he’s painted as someone with a taste for killing dating back to his adolescence. Then again, Neil is the one who murders the show’s heroine. And yet Maya is a killer herself. While we can perhaps forgive her for murdering Joe, she’s also responsible for firing on civilians during her service in the armed forces. Still, her deep guilt over this mistake means it’s hard to describe her as the villain.

However, it’s also possible to argue that the most reprehensible character never actually kills anyone. Judith Burkett, the head of Burkett Global since the death of her husband, is the person ultimately responsible for releasing dangerous drugs into the world which did many people — including Sam Kierce — serious harm. Likewise, by her admission, she is guilty of raising Joe to believe he was better than everyone else and for ignoring her son Neil, which no doubt fostered his murderous temper.

The identity of the “real killer” of Fool Me Once pretty much depends on the interpretation of each individual viewer, then. Although, whoever it is, it’s clear virtually every member of the Burkett family has some skeletons in their closet.