Based on a novel written by May Cobb and adapted for the screen by Rebecca Perry Cutter, The Hunting Wives is an entertaining 8-episode crime drama. I won’t deny that the storyline is a bit predictable, but still the show manages to grab your attention and keep you hooked. So let’s find out what happened when Sophie O’Neil moved to a small town in Texas and what kind of trouble she found herself in.
Spoiler Alert
How did Margo and Sophie become friends?
It was not easy for Sophie to move to Maple Brook, but over a period of time she had learned to suppress her own needs. Sophie’s husband, Graham, was not a bad man, but due to certain tragic incidents in his past, he had started controlling every aspect of Sophie’s life. Back in the day, Sophie had certain complications during her pregnancy because of which she ended up losing her baby. She was just not able to move past that trauma, and she ended up doing things that still haunted her. She was drunk driving once, when she hit a pedestrian who eventually succumbed to his injuries. Life was never the same for the couple after that. Graham had made it very clear that Sophie wouldn’t get behind the wheel, and that she would have not even a drop of alcohol. But things changed when Sophie met Margo, the wife of Jed Banks, who was running for governor of Texas in the upcoming elections. Margo liked Sophie from the moment she saw her, and the sexual tension between them was quite evident. There was something about Sophie that intrigued Margo. She felt protective towards her, and she wanted to spend time with her. Soon, Sophie realized that Margo and her husband had an arrangement: they were in a sort of open marriage where they both could go for the girls they liked, but hooking up with boys was off limits for Margo. But obviously, Margo was not the kind of woman who suppressed her desires. She had an affair with a teenager named Brad, who happened to be the son of her own friend, Jill. One day, Sophie came to Margo’s lake house, and she saw both of them making love to each other. Margo noticed Sophie standing just outside the window, but still, she didn’t stop. It felt as if Margo wanted Sophie to see her that way. Margo’s move worked, and Sophie just couldn’t stop thinking about Margo from that day onwards. Also, the feeling was not just sexual: Sophie felt liberated whenever she was in Margo’s company. Sophie shared her trauma with Margo, and the latter told her to stop judging herself and, for once, just seize the moment and do what she wanted. Before Sophie came to town, Margo had had a prolonged affair with Callie, her good friend and the wife of the local sheriff, Jonny. But things had changed after Sophie arrived, which was why Callie hated Sophie to the core. Sophie had no clue what she had signed up for. There were people in Maple Brook who believed that Margo and Jed were dangerous people and that they could go to any lengths to get what they wanted.
What happened to Abby?
Margo was an excellent manipulator. She knew how to influence somebody, how to lead them on, and how to have her way with them. One night, when Sophie was at Margo’s house, the latter told her that she had a surprise for her. Margo called Brad and his friend, Jamie, to her place to indulge in some intimate activities. Margo knew that Sophie would resist but ultimately give in. That night, Sophie not only crossed her moral boundaries, but from drugs to alcohol, she consumed everything. Sophie found herself lying on the wharf the next morning, not knowing how she ended up there. Sophie couldn’t remember a single thing that happened in the night after a certain point in time. She remembered kissing Margo and taking drugs, but after that she had no recollection of what had happened. That very night, a girl named Abby, who was in a relationship with Brad, got killed in the woods just adjacent to Margo’s cottage. Things became even more complicated after Sophie realized that somebody had stolen her gun, which she had bought just a few days back. Sophie at first felt that Brad probably had something to do with Abby’s murder, and maybe he was the one who took her gun and killed her. We had seen at the beginning of The Hunting Wives that Abby and Brad had an argument, and the latter treated her very rudely. But according to Jamie, he had dropped Brad home that night. Also, the kind of reaction Brad had after he got to know about Abby’s demise made it a little difficult to accept that he could have killed her. Sophie was eventually arrested by the authorities because all the evidence pointed in her direction. It was her gun that was used to kill the girl; she had a past criminal record, and the final nail in the coffin was trail camera footage where Sophie was seen wandering the woods that night. Sophie was terrified, and Margo, who claimed to be her best friend, just cut all ties and, in fact, intentionally made things difficult for her, throwing her under the bus.
Why did Jill kill Starr?
Jill, the wife of the local priest and one of Margo’s friends, had a very strange relationship with her boy, Brad. There were times it felt as if she objectified him and was attracted to him in some twisted manner. The way she looked at him and the way she was possessive about him were not normal. She didn’t want her son, who she believed to be the greatest catch, to indulge with somebody like Abby. Abby loved Brad, but all Jill could see was a gold digger who was laying a trap for her son. After Abby’s murder, Jill acted quite strange. She asked Brad to tell the police that he was with her all night, as she didn’t want the authorities troubling him or ruining his reputation. Jill had a problem with signing Margo’s NDA, since Margo didn’t want anybody talking to the media or leaking any information about her and Jed that could ruin their political campaign. Also, Jill told Margo that she was not comfortable showing her her phone. I believe that she had clicked some objectionable pictures of her son, and she knew that if others saw them, they would judge her. Meanwhile, Sophie was also doing her research, since she too wanted to find out who the real murderer was, since she knew that all the blame would be pinned on her otherwise. Brad had told the local pastor, Pete, that he had sinned and that his girl had had an abortion. Sophie felt that that could be one of the reasons Jill could have killed Abby. Sophie went to Abby’s mother, Starr, and told her what she thought about her daughter’s death. Obviously, Starr lost her calm, as she felt like Sophie was trying to insult her daughter. That night, Starr reached Jill’s house, as she wanted some answers, and she was done beating around the bush. At the same time, Margo and Callie decided to meet their friend and ask her if she was hiding something from them. Margo and Callie showed up at Jill’s house too, and they saw Starr lying in a pool of blood. Jill tried to make them understand that Starr didn’t leave her much of an option, and that she had to kill her to protect herself. The situation got aggravated, and Jill just didn’t put her guard down, as she was scared that Callie or Margo might end up calling the police. Callie realized that Jill could end up shooting at Margo, and that’s when she took out her gun and shot Jill. Jill died on the spot, and Callie and her husband, Sheriff Jonny, got all the fame for saving the town. Brad couldn’t understand why his mother would do anything like that, but the entire town was relieved that at least the killer was found.
Who Killed Abby? And why?
We soon realized that the story wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Before the Abby incident, a girl named Kaycee Krummel had gone missing, and it came to be known that the local pastor, Pete, was the one behind it. Pete shot himself in the middle of the road after Detective Salazar and Flynn got hold of him. There was a time when people believed Pete could have been the one who killed Abby, but then the blame shifted to Jill. But they both had nothing to do with Abby’s murder. At the end of The Hunting Wives, Sophie was at Margo’s house when she saw tampons in her cupboard. Sophie remembered how Margo had told her that she didn’t use tampons, but she claimed that she had never said that. It was just a hunch, but Sophie felt that it was not Abby who had gotten pregnant, but Margo. She went to Brad to confirm that fact, and she realized that she was not wrong. Also, a private investigator, probably working for the Democrats, was trying to find dirt on Margo and Jed. Sophie met the investigator, and she got to know that Margo and Kyle’s (Margo’s brother) father worked as a doctor in Alba. Sophie connected the dots, and she realized that Margo’s alibi had been confirmed by Doc Blevins in Alba, who said that on the night Abby was killed, Margo and Kyle were with him. After paying the doctor a visit, Sophie came back to Maple Brook and confronted Margo. She told her that she knew everything about that night. Margo confessed to her crimes in front of Sophie. She told her that Abby had gotten to know that she was pregnant and that she was threatening to leak that information. Margo said that she didn’t have any other option, and she used Sophie’s gun not because she wanted to frame her, but just because it was lying there in front of her. Margo didn’t know what to do after that. She went and told Jed about it, and he got really angry at Margo and asked her to leave his house immediately.
Will Sophie Be Able To Save Herself?
Margo used to be an escort, and Jed fell for her when he called her for the first time to avail her services. Margo and her brother, Kyle, had had a very difficult childhood. Their father left them and married a nurse, and their mother was just not mentally stable enough to take care of them. Margo and Kyle indulged in all sorts of illegitimate activities since the very beginning. Margo went back to Kyle and told him that she had ruined everything. She also told Kyle to not act impulsively and do anything they would later regret. Margo had gone to meet Callie, as she wanted her to keep a close watch on Sophie. Margo was a really shrewd woman who knew how to play her cards. She went to Callie, as she knew that she would do anything for her, and she would pester her husband to give her all the information. But then Kyle did something that he shouldn’t have. He decided to go and threaten Sophie, and that didn’t end well for him. Sophie hit him with her vehicle as she felt that her life was under imminent threat. Sophie froze for a moment, and didn’t know if she should run or call somebody for help or inform the authorities. But then she decided to deal with the matter by herself. She dragged the dead body to a nearby cliff and threw it in the river from there. Margo gave a call to her brother around that time, and she realized that something had happened to him.
The ending of The Hunting Wives laid a rather interesting foundation for the next season (if there is one). Sophie’s marriage had already suffered a lot, and Graham was heartbroken after he had gotten to know of her affair with Margo. He didn’t like the fact that she had started drinking, and he made it very clear that he didn’t want her around while the investigation was ongoing. I don’t think that Sophie is going to tell Graham anything because he won’t be able to take it. I think this time around Sophie will trust her instincts and do what she felt was right. As for Margo, I think she also wouldn’t stay quiet, and also, deep down, I think she knows that Sophie had killed her brother. Margo will hit back, and it will be interesting to see if she was able to bring the odds in her favor or if Sophie gets the better of her.
