Maggie Moore(s), directed by John Slattery, is probably way too simple and predictable to invoke any sense of suspense or thrill. The film opts for a lighthearted approach, but the humor isn’t sufficient to keep you engrossed when your expectations are for a true-blue crime thriller. Writer Paul Bernbaum tries to provide some depth to the character of Chief Jordan Sanders, but again, that is not enough to impact us in any manner, though seeing John Hamm is always delightful, and we want to see him in good films where he could utilize his talent and bring back the magic that he created in Mad Men. In Maggie Moore(s) summary, we will see how Chief Jordan finds out the real perpetrators who were responsible for the death of Maggie Moore and what the man gets to know about himself during the course of his investigation.
Spoilers Alert
Maggie Moore(s) Plot Summary: Jay Moore Finds Himself In A Mess.
Jay and Maggie’s relationship was on the verge of breaking up. Jay had been married to Maggie for the longest time, but now the couple was facing a lot of problems for which they didn’t have any solutions. Jay was trying really hard to make ends meet as his venture, Castle Subs, wasn’t working at all. Castle Subs was a franchise, and according to the contract, any person who opened the shop had to take all his raw products from the authenticated wholesaler only. But Jay wanted to cut costs, and that is why he used to take raw materials for making the subs from a man named Tommy T, who used to sell him everything way below the market rate. But Tommy T was not doing it out of goodwill or charity, and he had an ulterior motive about which even Jay was aware of. Jay had to transfer certain mysterious packages in exchange for the raw material.
Jay was strictly told by Tommy T never to open the package, and he abided by it. One day, Maggie found Tommy T’s package at her home, and out of curiosity, she opened it. She was horrified to find out what lay inside. There were pictures of children being abused, and she was disgusted, thinking that her husband had stooped so low. When Jay came back, he tried to make her understand that he himself had no clue about what he was delivering, but Maggie told him that she didn’t want to see him again. She threw Jay out of the house and threatened to complain to the police about what he had been up to.
Back at his shop, Tommy T also assaulted Jay and warned him about the consequences of going against him. Jay was in a fix, and he didn’t know what to do. After he realized that he had exhausted all his options, he called Tommy and told him to fix the problem. Tommy gave Jay the contact information of a man named Michael Cosco, who was a contract killer. Jay went up to his house and found that he was deaf and an extremely curt man. Jay had clearly told Cosco that he just wanted him to scare his wife so that she surrendered Tommy’s parcel, but Cosco ended up killing her as she probably resisted and tried to fight back. Jay was horrified when he got to know about it, as now he had to deal with another mess. He knew that once the police found his wife’s charred body, the default suspicion would fall on him alone.
How Did Rita’s Inquisitiveness Help, Chief Sanders?
Rita was Jay’s neighbor, and she was a chatterbox and a gossipmonger of the highest order. She was always interested in what was happening in her neighbor’s house, but this habit of hers became quite useful for Chief Sanders, who was trying to find the killer of Maggie Moore. Rita told Sanders that she had heard Jay and Maggie fight one day, after which Jay had been thrown out of the house. Sanders and Rita developed a liking for each other, and they both started going out on dates and meeting quite often. Sanders just wanted a simple and straightforward relationship, and he was not looking for anything temporary. But Rita, on the other hand, was a bit confused and didn’t mind indulging in affairs or flings with other men.
One day Sanders came to Rita’s place, and he found out that her ex-husband was in her house. That really triggered Sanders, and he felt like he was unnecessarily being serious about everything when it was just a passing fling for Rita. Rita told Sanders that she would stop seeing her ex-husband the moment Sanders said that he had a problem with it, but it was not enough compensation for an already disheartened Sanders. He left the place and decided that he would never see her again. But fate made them cross paths once more, though not in the manner they would have expected it to.
What Was Jay’s Master Plan?
Jay approached Cosco once again, as he had a plan in mind to mislead the police officers and prove his innocence. Jay had gotten to know that there was another Maggie Moore living in the area, and he asked Cosco to kill her, too, so that the murder of his wife would look like an accident. Cosco murdered the second Maggie Moore, and the police believed in the narrative that Jay wanted to create. They thought that either the first murder happened by mistake or maybe the second murder was just a cover-up for the first one. The suspicion first fell on Andy Moore, the husband of the other Maggie, but the police didn’t have any incriminating evidence that could prove his guilt. Andy told them that he had his suspicions about a guy named Duane Rich, a colleague of his wife, who used to harass her in the workplace.
After interrogating Duane, Chief Sanders and his deputy were stranded in the dark, as this guy, too, seemed genuine, and they believed that he was speaking the truth. He said that he loved Maggie, and when she didn’t show any interest in him, he started acting like a high schooler. By now, Jay had also gotten to know that the police were interrogating a guy named Duane Rich, so he went to Cosco once again and asked him to murder Duane and make it look like a suicide. Jay wanted the police officers to believe that Duane had killed both the women and then committed suicide out of guilt. Maybe Jay overdid it, and he should have stopped interfering after he got the second Maggie killed. But he wanted to give the law enforcement authorities a foolproof story, and that’s where he botched up the entire plan.
‘Maggie Moore(s)’ Ending Explained: How Did Jordan Sander Find Out About The Real Killer?
There were a lot of discrepancies, and Chief Sanders found the entire thing to be a bit convenient. He couldn’t understand why Duane had to kill Jay’s wife if he wanted to just take revenge on Andy’s wife. Sanders and his deputy went to meet Tommy, who was in prison for child trafficking. They threatened Tommy, and he ended up spilling the beans and telling them the name of Cosco, the hired gun who had killed both Maggies. Sanders and Deputy Reddy went to Cosco’s home, and that’s where we got to know that Cosco was not deaf and that he was just pretending. Cosco said that his name was Don Lindowski, and the person they were searching for was his squatter, and that he had gone missing. Sanders didn’t believe Cosco even for a second, and he also saw Maggie’s diabetes kit in the dustbin, which strengthened his suspicions. Sanders and Reddy were heading to their vehicle when Cosco, out of nowhere, fired shots at them.
Reddy died on the spot, but Sanders was able to survive. Sanders fired back at Cosco, but finding an opportunity, Cosco fled from the scene. Cosco went straight to Jay and assaulted him, as he thought he must have told the police. Jay told him that he was not the one who had snitched, but Cosco killed him anyway. Rita saw Cosco killing Jay, as she was always looking out of her window, wanting to know what was happening in her neighbor’s house. Cosco went after Rita because he knew that she would inform the police about him. Cosco sat in Rita’s car and asked her to drive if she wanted to stay alive. Earlier, we had seen in Maggie Moore(s) that when Rita had gone to the car wash, she had asked the mechanic not to put the airbags on the passenger seats since they were very expensive. Rita got reminded of it while Cosco was making her drive at gunpoint, and she pulled the brakes, and Cosco fell out on the road and probably died.
At the end of Maggie Moore(s), Sanders found the courage to be happy. He knew that he was not one of those people who could move on easily. Sanders was stuck in his past, but now that he was with Rita, he felt that he could finally get rid of the additional baggage and see the brighter side of things.
