‘The Hunting Wives’ Ending Explained & How It Differs From the Book | Netflix, Television, The Hunting Wives | Just Jared: Celebrity News and Gossip

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Hunting Wives is Netflix‘s big new series!

Based on the bestselling novel by May Cobb, the series follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), a Boston transplant who gets swept into the glamorous but dangerous world of East Texas socialites known as the Hunting Wives, led by the magnetic and manipulative Margo Banks (Malin Akerman). When local teenager Abby (Madison Wolfe) turns up dead, Sophie finds herself behind bars, and the group’s dark secrets begin to unravel.

Wondering what goes down in the ending, and how it differs from the book?

Keep reading to find out more…

By the season finale, we learn that Margo killed Abby.

Margo committed the murder due to her affair with Brad (George Ferrier), the teenage son of fellow Hunting Wives member Jill (Katie Lowes). Brad got Margo pregnant, and then Margo got an abortion. Abby found out and threatened to expose it, which would put Margo’s husband, Jed (Dermot Mulroney) and his political aspirations at risk.

Amid rumors that Brad got Abby pregnant, Starr (Chrissy Metz), Abby’s mother, suspects Jill of having killed her daughter due to her disapproval of Brad and Abby’s relationship.

She shows up at Jill’s house with a shotgun. When Margo and fellow Hunting Wives member Callie (Jaime Ray Newman) arrive at Jill’s house, they find Starr dead on the floor, with Jill claiming she had no choice. Jill pulls a gun on Margo, and is ultimately killed by Callie.

Later on, it’s revealed that Margo used this opportunity to plant evidence implicating Jill, allowing local police to declare the case closed.

But after Sophie is released from jail, she begins to suspect that Margo is lying and figures it out: Margo killed Abby, recruited her brother Kyle (Michael Aaron Milligan) to clean up the crime scene, and got an alibi from Doc Blevins (David Jensen), who is revealed to be Margo’s father.

We also learn that the photos left in Margo’s car of Margo and Brad having sex with the note “I see you” were left by Margo’s best friend and sometimes lover, Callie.

She admitted she was heartbroken over Margo’s refusal to be with her, saying: “I was tryin’ to hurt you like you hurt me.”

“Seein’ you with Brad… f—, like, even I know how stupid and self-destructive that is.”

The photos were an attempt to “scare you straight.”

Sophie confronts Margo at a campaign event for Jed, where Margo confesses to the murder but says she never meant for Sophie to be implicated. She said she used Sophie’s gun because she was drunk and “it was the closest one.” Her brother Kyle was supposed to dispose of it, but instead he sold it, which is how the police eventually got it in their possession.

Margo said she framed Jill partially to protect Sophie, and that they can both get away with it if they just “move on with our lives.”

Nonetheless, Sophie wants to tell the police the truth, and she calls Det. Salazar (Karen Rodriguez), who doesn’t pick up.

Margo starts becoming afraid of what will happen and tells Jed the truth about the affair, the abortion, and the murder, and Jed slaps her.

Margo tells Kyle she plans to get a lawyer and turn herself in, but Kyle isn’t happy about that, since he would be implicated.

At the very end of the season, Sophie encounters Kyle on the road after a trip to the store. He runs her off the road, threatens her and seemingly reaches for a gun, so Sophie floors it and fatally strikes him.

Afterward, her phone rings, and it’s the detective, but she just committed that murder. So she takes Kyle’s body into the woods.

Margo calls him, and Sophie accidentally answers his phone. She hangs up, then pushes Kyle’s body off a ridge into the water. And that’s where the show leaves off – for now.

How is The Hunting Wives TV show ending different from the book?

In the book, Jill is actually the murderer.

Jill kills Abby because she disapproved of Abby’s relationship with Brad. And after Abby gets pregnant and refuses to get an abortion, Jill murders her.

Plus, she also kills Margo due to Margo’s affair with Brad.

The series’ creators worked with the author, who’s also an executive producer, to create an alternative ending.

“I think that the book was really the blueprint for us taking it and making it our own,” she told Decider.

“And May Cobb, the author, was there a lot on set and with us every step of the way and she was so supportive and so excited by it all. We really got her blessing to take these characters that she wrote in the book and then make them sort of an amalgamation of all these different things that we kind have found along the way shooting.”

All eight episodes of The Hunting Wives are now streaming on Netflix. Find out which Netflix TV shows just got renewed!