HIS & HERS premiered on Netflix on January 8, 2026, delivering a psychological thriller that dissects truth, trauma, and the devastating lengths a mother will go to protect her daughter. Based on Alice Feeney’s bestselling novel, this six-episode limited series stars Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal as estranged spouses whose lives collide when a series of murders rocks their small Georgia hometown. Created by Dee Johnson and executive produced by Thompson herself, the show transforms Feeney’s British village setting into the American South, where secrets buried in the past resurface with deadly consequences. With its shocking twist ending, stellar performances, and haunting original score, HIS & HERS has quickly become one of 2026’s most talked-about Netflix releases.
The Story Behind HIS & HERS
HIS & HERS opens in Dahlonega, Georgia, a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business—or at least thinks they do. Anna Andrews, a once-promising news anchor now relegated to field reporting for WSK TV News in Atlanta, receives a career-making opportunity when a brutal murder occurs in her hometown. The victim is Rachel Hopkins, a woman Anna grew up with but hasn’t seen in years. The murder is particularly disturbing: Rachel’s major neck veins were severed, her eyes were stapled shut, and the word “LIAR” was written across her forehead in black ink.
Eager to reclaim her position at the anchor desk and prove herself to her boss Jim Pruss, Anna convinces her cameraman Richard Jones to accompany her back to Dahlonega to cover the story. What she doesn’t expect is to find her estranged husband, Detective Jack Harper, leading the investigation. The two have been separated for some time, their marriage fractured by secrets, lies, and fundamental disagreements about their future.
As Anna pursues the story with journalistic determination, she finds herself staying at her childhood home with her mother Alice, who appears to be suffering from rapidly progressing dementia. Alice’s condition has deteriorated significantly, with the once-sharp woman now wandering, forgetting, and behaving erratically. The decline weighs heavily on Anna, adding emotional complexity to her already fraught return home.
The investigation takes a horrifying turn when a second victim appears: Helen Wang, another woman from Anna’s past, killed with the same brutal signature. Then comes a third murder—Zoe Harper, Jack’s own sister and Anna’s former high school friend. The pattern becomes undeniable: someone is systematically targeting women connected to Anna’s teenage years, and the killer is escalating.
As Jack and his partner Detective Priya investigate, they face mounting pressure from the terrified community. A fiery town hall meeting reveals residents’ growing panic and distrust in law enforcement’s ability to protect them. Meanwhile, Anna’s professional and personal boundaries blur as she becomes both reporter and potential suspect, her every move scrutinized by Jack’s investigation and her own colleagues.
The series weaves between present-day murders and haunting flashbacks to Anna’s teenage years, gradually revealing the traumatic event that connects all the victims. During Anna’s 16th birthday party in the woods, something terrible happened—something that Rachel, Helen, and Zoe were intimately involved in and that has remained buried for decades.
Complicating matters further, Anna begins an affair with her cameraman Richard, partly to hurt Richard’s wife Lexy (who Anna believes stole her anchor position) and partly to punish Jack. Richard’s own secrets emerge as the investigation progresses, revealing his connection to the town’s dark history runs deeper than anyone realized.
The truth, when it finally surfaces, is more devastating than anyone could have imagined. The killer isn’t a stranger or even someone obviously connected to the crimes. It’s Alice, Anna’s supposedly dementia-addled mother, who has been methodically executing the women who destroyed her daughter’s innocence decades ago.
Alice discovered a VHS tape hidden in Anna’s childhood bedroom—footage from Anna’s 16th birthday party that revealed the horrifying truth. Rachel, Helen, and Zoe didn’t just bully the young Anna; they orchestrated her sexual assault while singing “Happy Birthday,” recording the entire traumatic event. Alice, consumed by maternal rage and grief for the suffering her daughter endured in silence, took matters into her own hands. The dementia was an elaborate ruse, allowing her to move freely without suspicion while she enacted her brutal revenge.
The series culminates in a tense confrontation at a lake house, where Catherine Kelly—the overweight teenager Rachel, Zoe, and Helen bullied in their youth—attempts to kill Anna, believing her complicit in the past torment. In the chaos, Catherine stabs Alice, Jack is shot by Priya (who has her own complicated motivations), and Anna must make an impossible choice about what truth to reveal and what to protect.
Complete Season Breakdown
HIS & HERS delivers its complete story across six episodes, each approximately 45 minutes long, with all episodes premiering simultaneously on January 8, 2026. The limited series format allows for tight, focused storytelling that builds relentlessly toward its shocking conclusion.
Episode 1
The premiere establishes the central dynamics and introduces the first murder. TV newswoman Anna Andrews returns to her small Georgia hometown of Dahlonega to report on Rachel Hopkins’s brutal killing. Her estranged husband Jack Harper is the lead detective on the case, creating immediate tension between Anna’s journalistic ambitions and Jack’s need to conduct a proper investigation. The episode introduces Anna’s mother Alice, whose apparent dementia raises concerns about her care, and begins revealing the complicated history between Anna and the murdered woman. Each episode opens with a voiceover narration that, in retrospect, takes on entirely different meaning after the final reveal.
Episode 2
As Anna settles into covering the story, a second body is discovered—Helen Wang, killed with the same signature as Rachel. The connection between the victims becomes impossible to ignore, and suspicion begins to spread through the community. Anna and Jack’s unresolved romantic history surfaces as they’re forced to work in proximity, their emotional wounds still raw. Richard Jones, Anna’s cameraman, becomes more prominent as Anna begins an affair with him. The episode deepens the mystery while introducing flashbacks to the characters’ teenage years, hinting at the traumatic events that connect everyone.
Episode 3
Anna jumps at a chance to return to the anchor desk when her reporting gains traction. Zoe Harper confronts Jack about secrets he’s been hiding, creating family tension that will have deadly consequences. Alice’s decline forces difficult conversations about her future care, with Anna torn between her career ambitions and family responsibilities. The investigation reveals more connections between the victims, and Jack’s partner Priya’s suspicions about everyone involved begin to intensify. The episode explores how the past continues to shape the present, even for those trying desperately to escape it.
Episode 4
Jack struggles to placate increasingly frightened locals at a fiery town hall meeting. The community’s fear has reached a boiling point, with residents demanding answers and protection. Priya’s suspicions reach a breaking point as she begins to question Jack’s objectivity given his personal connections to everyone involved. Anna is haunted by painful memories that begin surfacing more frequently, triggered by her return home and proximity to the crime scenes. The mounting pressure on all sides creates an atmosphere of paranoia where no one fully trusts anyone else.
Episode 5
Backed into a corner, Jack grows increasingly erratic as the third victim is discovered—his own sister Zoe. The personal nature of this murder shatters his professional detachment and forces him to confront the possibility that someone close to him may be involved. Anna finds herself on the opposite side of an interview, being questioned rather than asking questions, as she becomes a more prominent person of interest. Richard’s past comes to light, revealing secrets about his connection to the town and potentially to the murders themselves. The episode accelerates toward the inevitable confrontation, with all characters moving toward the lake house where truth will finally surface.
Episode 6: The Devastating Finale
As the case comes to a close, Jack and Anna must reckon with the sins of the past and the brutal consequences in the present. The series ending delivers the series’ most intense sequences: Anna discovering the VHS tape revealing her teenage assault, Alice’s confrontation with Catherine at the lake house, the violent melée where multiple people are shot and stabbed, and finally, the truth about Alice’s methodical revenge plan. The episode concludes with Anna making the conscious choice to protect her mother, destroying evidence and keeping the secret of who really killed Rachel, Helen, and Zoe. The final shot shows Anna and Alice together, united by shared knowledge of the truth and bound by a conspiracy of silence that will define the rest of their lives.
The Cast: Powerhouse Performers Bringing Darkness to Light
HIS & HERS assembles an exceptional ensemble to bring Alice Feeney’s twisted tale to life, with the cast delivering performances that balance psychological complexity with raw emotional power.
Lead Cast
Tessa Thompson stars as Anna Andrews, the ambitious news reporter whose return home unravels decades of buried trauma. Thompson, known for her roles in Creed, Thor: Ragnarok, Westworld, and Passing, brings nuanced vulnerability to a character who appears confident and controlled on the surface while hiding deep psychological wounds. As an executive producer on the series, Thompson had significant creative input, helping shape Anna’s journey from driven professional to someone forced to confront the worst moments of her past. Her performance captures Anna’s complexity—simultaneously victim, survivor, and ultimately accomplice to vigilante justice.
Jon Bernthal portrays Detective Jack Harper, Anna’s estranged husband navigating the impossible position of investigating murders connected to his own family. Bernthal, an Emmy winner known for The Punisher, The Bear, The Walking Dead, and Daredevil: Born Again, excels at playing men wrestling with violence and moral ambiguity. His Jack is both tender and tough, devoted to justice while recognizing that the law doesn’t always serve the traumatized. The chemistry between Bernthal and Thompson creates believable history, showing a couple whose love has been complicated but never fully extinguished despite their separation.
Pablo Schreiber appears as Richard Jones, Anna’s cameraman whose affair with her masks darker connections to the town’s past. Schreiber, recognized from Halo, Orange Is the New Black, and American Gods, plays Richard with charming surface appeal that gradually reveals more sinister dimensions. His character represents the show’s theme of how everyone presents curated versions of themselves while hiding uncomfortable truths.
Crystal Fox delivers the series’ most devastating performance as Alice, Anna’s mother who weaponizes perceived dementia to hide her systematic murder spree. Fox, known for The Haves and the Have Nots and A Fall from Grace, creates a character who is simultaneously sympathetic and terrifying. Her portrayal makes Alice’s violence understandable even while acknowledging its horror—a mother so consumed by rage over her daughter’s suffering that murder becomes an expression of protective love. The revelation that Alice’s dementia was elaborate performance recontextualizes every scene, making the series intensely rewatchable as viewers recognize her careful manipulation.
Sunita Mani plays Detective Priya, Jack’s partner whose growing suspicions about everyone involved drive much of the investigation’s tension. Mani, known from GLOW and The Franchise, brings sharp intelligence to a character determined to find truth regardless of whose feelings get hurt in the process.
Rebecca Rittenhouse portrays Lexy Jones, Richard’s wife and the woman who Anna believes stole her anchor position. Rittenhouse, recognized from The Handmaid’s Tale and Lessons in Chemistry, plays Lexy with complexity that prevents her from becoming a simple antagonist, revealing instead a woman navigating her own professional and personal challenges.
Poppy Liu appears as Helen Wang, one of the murder victims whose past connection to Anna’s trauma makes her a target. Liu, known from Dead Ringers and Hacks, creates a memorable character despite limited screen time, making Helen’s death feel genuinely tragic rather than simply a plot point.
Marin Ireland portrays Zoe Harper, Jack’s sister and another of Anna’s former friends whose involvement in the past assault leads to her murder. Ireland, celebrated for her work in The Umbrella Academy and Sneaky Pete, brings depth to a character whose death devastates Jack while serving Alice’s brutal sense of justice.
Chris Bauer plays Clyde Duffie in a recurring role. Bauer, a veteran character actor from The Wire, True Blood, and The Deuce, adds gravitas to the ensemble.
Supporting Cast
Kristen Maxwell portrays teen Anna in flashback sequences, capturing the innocence before trauma and the gradual understanding of what happened to her. Isabelle Kusman appears as teen Rachel, Astrid Rotenberry as teen Catherine Kelly, showing the cruel hierarchy among teenage girls. Jamie Tisdale plays the adult Rachel Hopkins before her murder, Ellie Rose Sawyer appears as Meg Harper (Zoe’s young daughter), and Mike Pniewski portrays Jim Pruss, Anna and Lexy’s demanding boss at the news station.
The ensemble works together to create a claustrophobic small-town atmosphere where past and present collide with deadly consequences.
Timeline and Setting
HIS & HERS unfolds across two timelines that gradually converge as secrets surface. The present-day investigation spans approximately two weeks in January 2026, with the murders occurring in rapid succession and the case reaching its violent conclusion at the lake house.
The flashback sequences take viewers to Dahlonega in the late 1990s or early 2000s, showing Anna, Rachel, Helen, Zoe, and Catherine as teenagers navigating the brutal social hierarchies of high school. The pivotal event—Anna’s 16th birthday party in the woods—occurred approximately 20-25 years before the present-day murders, meaning the trauma has festered for decades before Alice’s violent intervention.
The Georgia setting proves crucial to the story’s identity. While Alice Feeney’s original novel was set in a British village, the American adaptation relocates the action to the American South, specifically the small town of Dahlonega in Lumpkin County. This change allows the series to explore particularly American dynamics around small-town life, Southern social politics, and the way communities protect their own even when protection enables continued harm.
The production filmed extensively in Georgia, utilizing the state’s diverse locations to create Dahlonega’s claustrophobic atmosphere. Executive producer Dee Johnson and key locations assistant manager Melissa Mortensen worked closely with Tessa Thompson to find locations that captured the book’s essential elements while feeling authentically Southern. The Georgia setting adds visual richness—Spanish moss, dense forests, the lake house location—that wouldn’t translate from the British countryside but works perfectly for this American reimagining.
The Soundtrack: Mac Quayle’s Haunting Score
The musical landscape of HIS & HERS comes from Emmy-winning composer Mac Quayle, whose previous credits include Mr. Robot, American Horror Story, Leave the World Behind, and the upcoming FX series The Beauty. Quayle creates an original score that underscores the psychological tension, building dread, and moments of devastating emotional revelation that define the series.
Title Track and Musical Themes
The “His & Hers” title track introduces the main musical theme that recurs throughout the series. Quayle describes it as telling “the story of one of the first big moments of the series,” establishing the sonic identity that will follow viewers through all six episodes. The composition balances elegance with underlying menace, reflecting how the polished surface of small-town life conceals horrifying secrets.
Unlike series that rely heavily on licensed pop songs, HIS & HERS uses original instrumental composition almost exclusively, creating an immersive soundscape that mirrors the characters’ psychological states. The score swells during moments of revelation, creating emotional punctuation for shocking discoveries. Quieter, more intimate themes accompany scenes between Anna and Jack, Anna and Alice, and the flashback sequences showing teenage trauma.
The music also plays with perspective, subtly shifting tones depending on whose viewpoint drives a scene. When following Jack’s investigation, the score emphasizes procedural tension and mounting pressure. During Anna’s reporting sequences, the music reflects her ambition mixed with growing unease. In scenes with Alice, the score becomes particularly complex—sometimes playing her dementia performance with sympathetic strings, other times hinting at the calculating mind beneath the confused exterior.
Quayle’s work on Mr. Robot particularly informs his approach here, using electronic elements blended with traditional instrumentation to create unease and psychological disorientation. The score helps viewers experience the confusion and paranoia affecting the characters as trust disintegrates and everyone becomes a potential suspect.
The complete soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records on January 8, 2026, coinciding with the series premiere, and is available on major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Ending Explained: A Mother’s Terrible Love
The final episode of HIS & HERS delivers one of Netflix’s darkest twists, recontextualizing everything that came before through the revelation that Alice has been the killer all along, methodically executing the women who destroyed her daughter’s innocence.
The Truth About Alice
Throughout the series, Alice presented as a woman rapidly declining into dementia—forgetting conversations, wandering confused, behaving erratically. In reality, every confused moment was calculated performance. Alice’s mind remained sharp, her memory intact, allowing her to plan and execute three murders while deflecting all suspicion. The dementia gave her the perfect cover: who would suspect an elderly woman who can’t remember what day it is of carrying out sophisticated, brutal killings?
Alice’s motivation stems from discovering the VHS tape hidden in Anna’s childhood bedroom. Unlike the novel, where Alice found a suicide note revealing Catherine’s assault, the Netflix adaptation changes this crucial detail—the tape shows Anna’s own sexual assault during her 16th birthday party. Rachel, Helen, and Zoe not only failed to protect Anna but actively participated, filming the attack while singing “Happy Birthday” as Anna was violated.
For Alice, discovering this tape approximately six months before the murders meant learning that her daughter suffered unimaginable trauma that she had hidden for decades. The revelation that Anna’s supposed “friends” orchestrated and recorded her assault filled Alice with rage that could only be satisfied through vengeance. Each murder became an act of maternal love twisted into violence—Alice punishing the women who destroyed her daughter’s innocence and then allowed her to suffer in silence for years.
The Symbolic Murders
The staging of each murder reflects Alice’s emotional state and her view of the victims’ sins. The word “LIAR” written on their foreheads represents Alice’s judgment—these women lied about what happened, lied about being Anna’s friends, lied through their continued existence while pretending the assault never occurred. The stapled eyes prevent the victims from ever seeing again, a literal manifestation of their metaphorical blindness to Anna’s suffering. The severed neck veins ensure a brutal, violent death—Alice wasn’t interested in mercy or quick endings.
Catherine’s Role
Catherine Kelly, the overweight teenager Rachel, Zoe, and Helen bullied mercilessly in high school, serves as the series’ red herring. Viewers are led to believe Catherine might be the killer, seeking revenge for her own teenage torment. The twist reveals Catherine as another damaged person seeking vengeance, but for different reasons and against different targets. Her attempt to kill Anna at the lake house stems from believing Anna was complicit in her teenage suffering, not recognizing that Anna herself was a victim of the same cruel social hierarchy.
Anna’s Choice
The series’ most morally complex moment comes when Anna discovers the truth about her mother’s actions. Rather than turn Alice in, Anna makes the conscious decision to protect her mother, destroying evidence and maintaining silence about who really committed the murders. This choice binds mother and daughter in conspiracy, united by shared trauma and a vigilante justice that exists outside legal systems.
Anna’s decision is both understandable and troubling. Alice murdered to avenge Anna’s assault, operating from maternal protective instinct twisted by grief and rage. The legal system failed to deliver justice for Anna’s teenage trauma—there’s no statute of limitations that can address what Rachel, Helen, and Zoe did, no court that would punish them decades later for assaulting a teenager and filming it. Alice took justice into her own hands, and Anna chooses to honor that sacrifice even while recognizing its horror.
The final shot shows Anna and Alice together, both smiling with full knowledge of what they’ve done and what they’re hiding. It’s a deeply unsettling image that asks viewers to consider: Is this justice? Is this healing? Or is it simply another form of damage that will echo through generations?
What Happens to Jack?
The series leaves Jack’s fate somewhat ambiguous. He’s shot by Priya during the lake house confrontation, though the wound doesn’t appear fatal. More significantly, he doesn’t learn the truth about Alice’s role in the murders. Anna keeps this secret from her husband, maintaining the wall between them even as they potentially reconcile romantically. Whether Anna and Jack’s marriage can survive this new layer of deception remains an open question—one the limited series format doesn’t require answering.
Book vs. Series: Key Differences
While HIS & HERS remains faithful to Alice Feeney’s novel’s core premise, the Netflix adaptation makes significant changes that creator Dee Johnson and the writing team felt would strengthen the story for television.
The Assault Victim: In the book, Catherine Kelly was the one assaulted in the woods. The series changes this to Anna herself being the victim, making Alice’s revenge more directly about protecting her daughter rather than avenging a stranger’s suffering.
Alice’s Certainty: The novel maintains more ambiguity about whether Anna knows the full truth and what she’ll do with that knowledge. The Netflix series makes both Alice’s guilt and Anna’s knowledge crystal clear, providing definitive answers rather than leaving interpretation to the audience.
The Setting: The original novel takes place in a British village. The American adaptation relocates the story to Georgia, fundamentally changing cultural context and social dynamics.
Anna and Richard’s Affair: The television series adds Anna’s sexual relationship with Richard, creating additional moral complexity and relationship drama not present in the source material.
The Ending’s Emotional Tone: While both versions feature Anna protecting Alice, the series ends on a more united mother-daughter image that some critics argue makes the conclusion more emotionally satisfying, even if morally complicated.
Critical Reception and Cultural Impact
HIS & HERS premiered to strong viewership and polarized responses. Critics praised the performances, particularly Crystal Fox’s layered portrayal of Alice and the chemistry between Thompson and Bernthal. The series’ willingness to tackle sexual assault trauma and maternal rage earned recognition, though some reviewers felt the show’s sympathetic treatment of a serial killer might glamorize vigilante violence.
The twist ending became a major talking point on social media, with viewers debating whether Anna’s choice to protect Alice represented empowerment or a continuation of the cycle of silence around sexual violence. The series sparked conversations about how legal systems fail assault survivors and what constitutes justice when traditional institutions offer none.
The limited series format received praise for allowing complete storytelling without unnecessary padding or sequel setup. Six episodes proved sufficient to tell this story with impact, and the lack of renewal pressure allowed for a definitive, if unsettling, conclusion.
Latest Updates and Season 2 Prospects
As a limited series, HIS & HERS was designed as a self-contained story with no plans for continuation. However, the show’s strong performance and open-ended questions about Anna and Jack’s future have prompted speculation about potential follow-up seasons exploring new cases or the consequences of Anna’s choice to protect her mother.
Netflix has not announced any plans for additional seasons as of late January 2026. The complete story has been told, and any continuation would likely require significant creative justification to avoid diminishing the original’s impact.
For now, HIS & HERS stands as a single, powerful exploration of trauma, revenge, and the terrible things love can drive people to do.
Where to Watch
All six episodes of HIS & HERS are streaming exclusively on Netflix worldwide. The series carries a TV-MA rating for violence, sexual content, and mature themes appropriate to its psychological thriller genre. Each episode runs approximately 45 minutes, making the complete series easily bingeable in a single viewing session.
For fans of psychological thrillers exploring dark family dynamics, sexual trauma, and moral ambiguity, HIS & HERS offers a gripping, devastating experience anchored by exceptional performances and a twist that recontextualizes everything that came before.
Check out It’s Netflix Nerd for our latest reviews, updates, release news, and information about Netflix movies and series.