The finale of the HBO miniseries “The Undoing” airing on Sunday night set off a flurry of wannabe sleuths theorizing who killed Elena Alves. Among those embroiled in the whodunit guessing game: Ava DuVernay, Issa Rae and Kerry Washington.
For those not up to speed, “The Undoing” is a psychological thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as Grace and Jonathan Fraser, a rich Manhattan couple whose son goes to an elite boarding school. They comfortable life is shattered when Jonathan is arrested for the murder of Elena Alves, who befriended — and then kissed — Grace over the course of several encounters in the first episode.
As Jonathan’s murder trial drags on, everyone in Grace’s life, including herself, becomes a suspect in the murder. In last week’s episode, Grace is horrified to find the murder weapon in her son’s violin case.
With loads of evidence pointing in several different directions, fans of the miniseries have different suspicions about who the murderer is — and they’ve gathered to DuVernay’s Twitter account to suss it out.
“I think it’s Detective Joe Mendoza,” DuVernay said, referring to the lead investigator in the murder. “I have the slightest theory on why it’s him that no one around me is buying. That’s fine. I’m basically just trying to see more Edgar Ramirez.”
“I am all ears my beautiful Ava…pitch me your theory,maybe I’ll buy it,” Ramirez responded.
And she happily obliged, writing: “Ha! You weren’t supposed to see this! Okay, here it goes. For me, it was the passion when he took the stand. It might be nothing. And our man Joe Mendoza might just be a passionate protector of justice and truth. Or he might be the protector of… a lie.”
The replies to the tweet are filled with guesses as to who the killer is, including one from Washington, who said her whole family has started playing amateur detective.
My mom made us each write down who we think the killer is on a piece of paper and has locked it away until after the finale!!!!
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) November 28, 2020
https://twitter.com/Moore_Darnell/status/1333160325412126723
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1333140440325840897
still considering the blonde lawyer friend a suspect … also possibly the violin teacher ??
— Anna Swartz (@Anna_Snackz) November 29, 2020
https://twitter.com/VintageBlkGlam/status/1333140704395227145
The theories have become so intense that Kidman herself has begun responding to some of them on Instagram. While she hasn’t tipped her hand on who is on the right track, she asked rapper Travis Scott — also a fan of the show, who he thought was the killer. “You, ya pops, or both,” he replied.
Issa Rae, on the other hand, is just here for the drama. “‘The Undoing’ is the perfect Thanksgiving binge. I love white mess,” she wrote on Twitter.
“The Undoing” airs at 9 PM on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.