Before proceeding, know that there will be
major spoilers ahead
The final episode of HBO’s The Undoing aired this Sunday, and the major mystery behind Elena Alves’s murder was answered. The series, based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel You Should Have Known, had the culprit in front of us from the very beginning: It was Hugh’s character Jonathan, who was an unfaithful husband to Grace (Kidman) and shockingly enough, a stone-cold sociopath who had secrets that were decades old.
When the series was being written, producer David E. Kelley made it a classic “Who is Mr. X?” story with many suspicious characters in the list. Even Grace and Jonathan’s 12-year-old son (Noah Jupe) wasn’t crossed off from the suspects’ list. Others included Grace’s father Franklin (Donald Sutherland), Elena’s husband Fernando (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and Grace herself.
Hugh’s take on the character
Jonathan says, “I might be the easy answer, but I’m not the right answer,” towards the end. Don’t get fooled because this is a man who was an expert at lying and keeping secrets.
About the character, Grant says it’s a relief now that the secret’s out and he doesn’t have to keep mum on the character during interviews. Towards the beginning, he got to know that he was the killer, and afterwards, they had to film the four remaining episodes. In the sixth episode, his guilty actions were shown, but not clearly. Grant said he was disappointed and so was director Susanne Bier. They reshot the scene so that it becomes clearer that he’s the murdered, and Susanne decided to shoot the murder as well.
Grant also didn’t want the killer’s identity to be left a mystery so that a second season could be produced. He was playing a killer and he wanted to get that point across.
(Cover: HBO)