The Netflix thriller The Hunting Wives closes its first season by solving the central mystery around Abby’s death, then immediately hands Sophie a brand-new problem that could blow up her life next.
What Happens At The End?
For most of the season, the show steers viewers toward the idea that Abby’s death is tied to Brad and his mother, Jill. The finale confirms that suspicion was the setup, not the truth. Abby was killed by Margo, who used Sophie’s gun, then worked to push the blame toward Jill so the scandal wouldn’t reach Margo’s husband and his political ambitions.
The “case closed” moment comes after a chain of events that leaves Jill dead and gives local authorities an easy ending, especially once Margo plants evidence to make Jill look responsible. Sophie, however, can’t let it go, and she starts pulling at inconsistencies until the story cracks.
The Cliffhanger
Once Sophie finally learns the truth about Abby, she tries to re-stabilize her life—but the finale doesn’t let her walk away clean. In the last stretch, Sophie ends up in a confrontation with Kyle (Margo’s brother). The show frames it as self-defense, but the key point is what happens next: Sophie doesn’t report it. She covers it up, leaving the season on a cliffhanger where she’s now carrying a secret of her own.
That’s the real hook for a potential next season: Sophie started as the outsider pulled into other people’s mess. The finale flips that. Now she’s trapped inside it—with motive, panic, and evidence all working against her.
How The Ending Differs From The Book?
The show’s biggest twist is also its biggest departure from May Cobb’s novel.
In the book, Abby’s death is tied to a pregnancy storyline centered on Abby and Brad, and Jill is the one who kills Abby. The book also doesn’t preserve Margo in the same way the series does.
In the series, Abby is not the one who’s pregnant. Instead, Sophie discovers it was Margo who got pregnant by Brad, and that revelation becomes the fuse for everything that follows—ending with Margo revealed as Abby’s killer.
Sophie’s endpoint is also darker on screen. In the book, she moves toward stepping away and getting help; in the show, the closing minutes make her complicit in a new, escalating secret.
Why The Show Changed It?
The creative team has been pretty open that the adaptation wasn’t trying to be a scene-by-scene translation. One reason is simple storytelling physics: if the show copied the book’s end exactly, a lot of viewers who already know the novel would see the finish line too early. Another is that the showrunner, Rebecca Cutter, wanted the series to engage more directly with the realities and conversations around abortion in Texas, rather than treating it as a quick plot device.
And from a TV-business standpoint, the new ending keeps the “engines” running: the whodunit structure and the volatile Sophie–Margo dynamic. Cutter has discussed that those two spines are what a follow-up season would continue to explore, likely with a time jump and a fresh mystery rather than a straight replay of the book.
