UK’s newest Netflix show is now streaming on the platform. Called Fool Me Once, it is adapted from Harlan Coben’s eponymous novel.
The series is also the first of 2024’s long slate. As fascinating thrillers are, they can be a little convoluted in nature.
Therefore, in this blog, I will shed light on the ending of Fool Me Once and answer all the questions that you may have (just like I did).
Before I get into a long, detailed explanation of the seventh and eighth episodes, here is what happened at the end of the sixth episode:
– Sami and Marty separately trail Corey and the former is forced to drive after a malware attack on the precinct’s computer systems.
– Maya manages to find Christopher Swan at a rehab center suggested by Judith. He tells her that it was Joe who killed Andrew.
Fool Me Once Detailed Ending Explained (Ep 7 Onwards)
Swan, who was a friend of both Joe and Andrew, details what exactly happened back in 1996 at the Franklin Biddle Academy.
It started with Theo Mora’s entry into the school. He was a bright, funny, and outgoing student.
He shined as a footballer and would play better than most students, including Joe, which is why he considered him a threat.
Maya nods in affirmation saying Joe hated anyone better than him. Swan feels a lump in his throat and takes a pause, but Maya pushes him to speak up. This is how he describes the incident when Theo died…
How Did Theo Mora Die in Fool Me Once?
During a celebration on the Founder’s Day, Joe, along with Swan and Andrew, decided to pull a prank on Theo.
They grabbed him from his hostel room and took him to an isolated place. Unaware of Joe’s plans, Theo initially went ahead with their act of jumping him on their shoulders.
Later, while others danced and sang around a bonfire, Joe tied Theo to a chair. He then stuck a funnel in his mouth.
While the rest of the guys danced, Joe poured Vodka into the funnel and kept doing it continuously.
Everybody joined in as a funny prank but Joe wanted to push it to extreme lengths.
When the pouring didn’t stop, Theo had a seizure and his body started thrashing before he went unconscious.
Soon, he passed away due to an overdose and the five friends present on the scene agreed on keeping it a secret forever.
When Maya asks about Andrew, Swan goes on to explain…
Who Killed Andrew?
A few weeks later, the same five people went on the yacht for a friendly voyage.
Andrew felt remorse and he wanted to come out in the open about the crime they had committed.
However, Joe charmed him into keeping quiet. But he knew Andrew was the only one in the group who could break.
Therefore, he decided to shut him up forever. During nighttime, Andrew went up to the dock to have some time alone.
He was followed by Joe, who then pushed his own brother into the ocean. Maya asks why is he telling her everything now.
Swan replies saying since Joe is dead, he finally feels safe about his life.
Sami reaches Corey’s secret hideout and kicks open the door forcefully. He manages to uncover a secret basement inside the hut.
Along with the task at hand, Kierce also finds it hard to keep himself steady as he occasionally feels dizzy.
In the dark room underground, he is pushed down by someone from behind.
Quickly, he gets up and runs behind the guy, assuming him to be Corey. Out of the shed, it is confirmed that indeed the man who pushed him was Corey.
The police officer gives a long chase and eventually manages to pin him down in the forest region, leading to his arrest.
Maya drops her daughter at the school and receives a call from Shane. He tells her that Kierce knows about him testing the bullet for Maya.
He expresses surprise at both the bullets that killed Joe and Claire being fired from the same gun.
When she requests him to trust her, Shane doesn’t believe in it anymore since that’s what Maya always says.
The latter senses that things are getting out of control and hence, tells him to calm down. She sets up a meeting with Shane at his place.
When they meet, Maya finally reveals what exactly transpired on the battlefield:
The armed forces on the ground were fighting enemies while Shane and Maya were providing them aerial support through separate fighter planes.
They had already lost people after the IED blast in a wagon when they noticed another suspicious vehicle approaching the vulnerable friendly forces.
She wanted to engage but since the superiors couldn’t confirm the same, she was directed to not engage unless enemy forces were formally identified.
Shane also toed the line. While waiting, Maya could hear soldiers pleading for their lives, requesting her to take out the white vehicle and that’s what she did by firing a missile at the car.
Shane thought that the order to engage came from the higher-ups but, in reality, Maya had disconnected the comms and taken the call on her own.
The command line always wanted them to wait. However, she couldn’t see fellow soldiers die on the ground while she waited for formal approval.
According to the superiors, at least one civilian was present in the vehicle, which is why they didn’t give the go-ahead.
However, Maya couldn’t see her men die if there was a chance to save them. It was okay for her to sacrifice a civilian as collateral damage.
She agrees that it may not be the right decision, but it was the best one considering the situation, where she decided to prioritize the life of the soldiers over the probable presence of a civilian.
To date, she sees flashbacks of innocent lives being put at stake due to her. All she wants is another chance to do things differently where all the casualties could be avoided.
Emotional with tears flowing down her eyes, Maya goes to the washroom to gather herself.
That’s when her phone buzzes and she looks at it to find Luka’s car is on the move, thanks to the tracker she had placed on it earlier.
She sneaks out of the house to follow Luka. Her act leaves Shane furious.
Marty and Sami interrogate Corey, accompanied by his lawyer.
They tell him about Tommy Dark’s body, his blood in Maya’s car, and that she admitted that he took her to Tommy’s rental unit.
When Corey asks why are they doubting him if the blood is found in Maya’s car, Sami returns by saying they have evidence of him traveling with Maya hours before Dark’s body was found.
Moreover, the police have proof that Corey had unauthorized access to police systems with the intent to commit an offense.
Kierce bluntly asks why he broke into Tommy’s rental unit.
An adamant Corey remains hostile, but he finally speaks when Sami provokes him by calling his whistleblowing stuff a mere call to attention to topics that he feels are important for the world to know about.
Corey says he deals in facts and not online hearsay. Everything that goes on his website is thoroughly researched and vetted before final publication.
At this point, Corey’s lawyer states that he admits to breaking into Dark’s private property, but not the other charges.
According to Corey, Tommy was a shipping security boss and a former Yacht captain.
He was being paid, off the books, huge sums by the Burketts on a regular basis. He found this abnormal and told Maya. Joe’s family had been covering up medical trial fixing.
Their medicines were making children ill across the world. And the Burketts were doing everything in their power to ensure the information didn’t go public.
Sami concludes that Corey thought Dark was involved in these medical dealings but the young lad doesn’t approve of the same.
Neither does he answer why was he at his rental unit. When all the odds seem stacked against him, Corey asks for a one-on-one interaction with Sami without any bugs around.
Following the tracker, Maya makes a stop in between to destroy her SIM card.
She buys a new SIM and puts in a keypad phone so that she can’t be tracked by anyone.
Then, she slightly camouflages herself using a cap and a different hairstyle.
Once done, Maya dials Eddie and asks for a meeting. She signs him up for Lily’s school so he can officially pick her up without any hassle.
Maya wants him to look after her till she works on finding the truth behind her sister’s death and Joe’s reappearance.
At the playschool, she looks at her daughter from far away as if that’s the last time she was going to be near her.
Since the keypad handset won’t run the internet, Maya uses Eddie’s phone to track Luka and sets off, leaving a scared and worried Eddie behind.
The detective takes Corey to a safe space, where he opens up, putting his life at risk since the discussion involves the shady business of the Burketts.
He says that the Burketts have been falsifying data about their medical drug trials.
All the drugs they make at Lambur Pharma have dangerous side effects, ranging from hallucinations to seizures, which then lead to the thought of killing oneself.
They officially say that 99.6% of their patients observe zero to mild ill effects after consuming their medicines, which is not true as Corey has seen the data.
Claire was killed because she was about to reveal the truth behind Lambur Pharma.
Probably, Dark was about to do the same. If he wants to find out who killed him, he must look in the direction of the Burketts.
His explanation prompts Kierce to think about his own condition. For quite some time, he has been using medication manufactured by Lambur Pharma.
The symptoms he was witnessing were actually the side effects of those drugs. He quickly rushes to his desk inside the precinct.
Kierce takes out the pills, focuses on the words BURKETT GLOBAL ENTERPRISES, and then looks at the photo frame of him, Pam (his boss), and another woman who looks like Nicole.
Therefore, it is implied that Nicole was his fiancé who died on duty. He looks in front to find her sitting on the chair.
Sami now understands that Nicole was never a real entity. She was just a side effect of the medicines he was taking.
It all started around the time he decided to get married.
And if you remember, Pam had also suggested something along these lines happening due to the trauma he was facing.
Nicole had died just before getting married to him.
So, his marriage with Molly rekindled the trauma and created an entity out of Kierce’s guilt that he felt when he couldn’t save her.
In his mind, Nicole became his sponsor from the support group.
Just in case you are wondering, a sponsor is someone who helps a recovering addict and has been through the 12 stages of recovery.
Kierce blamed himself for her death. However, his conscience in the end, appearing as Nicole, tells him, he wasn’t on duty when she was murdered and it wasn’t his fault.
She suggests he go back to Molly and their child. Marty witnesses Sami talking to himself (in reality) and gets concerned about his well-being.
Maya follows Luka into a parking lot, where she identifies his car. She tries to get inside but the vehicle is locked.
Therefore, she decides to wait for Luka to arrive.
Soon, the man comes around and takes the driver’s seat. Just as Maya inches closer to the vehicle, still hiding behind a pillar in the parking lot, she notices Izabella coming out of the elevator.
She sits inside the car beside Luka. Sensing a perfect opportunity, Maya takes the gun from behind her jeans and confronts them.
Stunned by the sudden intrusion, the couple is caught by surprise. They are forced to get out of the car at gunpoint.
Maya wants answers from Izabella and she is in no mood to let the hook loose.
When Luka tries to play mind games, mentioning her daughter to gain a sympathetic high ground, Maya punches him in the face as a gesture to shut the fuck up.
She swears to shoot Izabella in the knee if she doesn’t answer her questions. Feared for her life, the nanny finally speaks.
Izabella tells Maya that they deep faked the video on the nanny cam.
In reality, Luka wore Joe’s shirt and they switched his face with that of Joe’s from his wedding video.
They did all this because Judith paid them. She thinks Maya is lying about Joe’s death and wants her to make a mistake after finding that Joe is alive.
Surprised by the revelations, Maya puts the couple inside the trunk of their own vehicle.
Marty informs Sami that coach Phil Dawson’s son, PJ, showed up for his shift at Busy Burrito and that he has asked the staff to keep him there until they reach.
The cop duo gets into action and arrives at the eatery. But before they can enter, PJ sees him and runs for his life.
They chase him around the premises, through the corridors, stairs, and under-construction shops.
Sami finally spots him from the terrace, trying to escape while climbing onto other buildings via their roof.
However, the slippery slope forces him to cling on to a pillar. Kierce also climbs to the top and asks him to come back so that they can talk somewhere more safe.
When he doesn’t agree, the cop tries to get the truth out without coercing him.
He says the police know he was present at the scene where Joe was murdered. PJ tells him that he, and his gang, would go out on their bikes during the dark hours and snatch valuable belongings from pedestrians.
Phones, handbags, cash, etc., are their usual targets. He agrees to be present that night along with another guy but not to the murder.
While PJ was in the park, his friend came running, saying one of their friends had been shot.
They quickly rushed out of the place. He fell on the way and got injured before calling his father, who helped him cover his tracks (that’s why his van had blood stains).
PJ tells Sami that he doesn’t know anything else about the murder.
When the detective asks about the other guy, he says his name is Rambo and also gives him his address.
Sami’s blackouts return and he finds it hard to stand on the roof. PJ steps forward to help the dizzy cop find his ground.
However, while attempting to save him, he slips and rolls down the shed, falling to the street road.
The ambulance takes a badly wounded PJ to the hospital. Thanks to the awning, the kid didn’t die.
Marty feels regret for not reporting Kierce and he says to his face that he is not fit for duty.
Pam suspends her from work and Kierce has to leave the precinct. Marty follows him outside the office and asks whether PJ gave out any crucial information before the fall.
However, Kierce denies any such thing. Marty also asks if the superiors know about his condition but Sami shakes his head in response.
He only tells him that Corey didn’t kill Dark and that his investigation into him was actually because of the Burkett family’s medical negligence.
From there, Kierce goes straight to the address PJ gave him and waits near the building for any noticeable clues.
He sees a guy with a girl, who addresses him as Rambo. Hence, Sami starts following the couple right through to the restaurant they stop at.
He patiently waits for the right moment and when Rambo goes to the washroom, the detective grapples him from behind.
His professional hold doesn’t leave any chance for Rambo to escape. He asks him about the night of the murder and whether he is being paid by the Burketts.
Rambo denies all the allegations. When Kierce further tightens him, the guy has no option but to reveal the real killer whom he had seen firing the shots at the murder spot.
Shane arrives at the parking lot after a call from Eddie. He must have known her location from the time when she checked the tracker on his phone.
Maya explains to Shane what Luka and Izabella did on the instructions of Judith.
He asks her how could it be possible that Joe and her sister were killed by the same gun.
Maya finally reveals that she is the one who killed Joe. This is where the seventh episode ends.
The final episode begins with Maya narrating the past to Shane:
When Claire died, Maya felt something fishy in the murder. She asked Joe why would someone try to rob him since she didn’t have anything worth stealing at her house.
But why did Maya Suspect Joe for her sister’s murder?
Joe was the only one who saw Claire more than her family since they worked together.
Moreover, Joe’s behavior was shady as he had recently added his fingerprint to the weapon cabinet at their house.
Maya asked Shane to check the bullet of her Gun against the one that killed Claire and when the results came out to be positive, her suspicions regarding Joe strengthened further.
Now, to confirm her fears, she pushed Joe’s hand and called him for a meeting.
She didn’t clearly mention the motive behind the same and said it was about something he knew.
Meanwhile, she switched the real gun with the deactivated one, and kept the former with herself, just in case he tried to come armed.
What happened the night Joe was killed?
As decided, Joe came to their meeting spot. He asked Maya what was she trying to imply on the phone.
She asked him if he could look her in the eye and deny killing Claire. Joe brushed away the allegation with a smile but Maya kept pushing.
He took a step back and nudged his head a bit before pulling the gun and aiming it at Maya.
He pulled the trigger but since it was deactivated, the bullet didn’t fire. This cleared any hopes Maya had of Joe being innocent as she pulled out her Gun.
Though she wanted to reveal his real face in front of the world, Joe said she would never be able to do that.
The burning pain of her sister’s murder instinctively made her push the trigger. She fired three shots, the first two to make it look like a robbery gone wrong and the third to kill him.
Maya covered herself in his blood to make it look like she held him while he died.
Since she had seen two men on the bike earlier, Maya deliberately kept telling the cops about them to divert their attention.
She came back home and cleaned the fingerprints from the guns.
Afterward, Shane releases Luka and Izabella from the trunk at an unknown location somewhere along the road and doesn’t even give them their car back.
Joe murdered her sister because she learned the truth about him. But how did Maya suspect him in the first place?
Kierce calls Marty at the station to ask for an ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition).
He tells him that Maya killed her husband and Rambo witnessed the murder. She is presently driving Joe’s car and hence, he wants Marty to check its current location.
The young detective denies helping him at first since he is under suspension but eventually agrees considering their longstanding partnership.
He tells Kierce her last location and both of them are now individually behind Maya.
On the way, a fresh update makes them head for Lily’s school. Sami breaks all the traffic rules and drives roughly with an end to the case finally in sight.
In the school’s parking lot, Kierce confronts the Range Rover only to find Eddie inside.
He tells them that Maya switched cars with him, saying people were behind her, and asked him to pick Lily up from school.
An angry Sami asks Eddie if he knows where she must be. The latter uses the tracking application and informs the cop that she is at her house right now.
Who Killed Tommy Dark?
When Maya reaches home and puts the car keys in their place, her mind triggers a memory of Joe doing the same.
She puts one and one together to realize that Joe killed Tommy and used her car to take his body to the rental warehouse since his Range Rover had broken down.
It was probably an excuse to cover his tracks.
Maya writes a letter for Lily and leaves the house.
Just when she reaches her car, Sami comes from behind and pins her down on the bonnet.
He cuffs her but Maya promises to tell him everything. She convinces him of a plan to expose the Burkett family.
Now, while Maya goes to the Burkett house, Sami gets to Corey’s hideout.
What Happened at the Burkett House in the End?
After Judith, Neil, and Caroline see off their guests and get back inside, they find Maya sitting alone in their living room.
Maya begins confronting Judith even though the triplet is surprised to see her there.
She starts by taking out her gun and putting it on the side table, separating the magazine from it.
Meanwhile, she begins narrating Judith’s plan to use her nanny and plant doubt in her mind about Joe’s death.
Maya calls it one of her psychological tricks. Even Caroline telling her about Sami being on their payroll was a planted narrative.
She asks Judith what made her think she would murder Joe. Judith replies calling it a mother’s instinct.
But Maya ridicules her falsehood and asks for the real reason. However, Judith keeps beating around the bush.
Maya then reveals that the real reason was Judith knew Maya had a motive as Joe had killed her sister.
Claire was aware of the Burkett family’s corruption. Neil calls the revelation nonsense but, according to Maya, Judith knew all the way about Joe’s criminal misdeed.
When Caroline starts getting stressed, Judith tells her that Joe murdered her because she wouldn’t give him back the stolen documents.
From Theo Mora and Andrew, his own brother, to Tommy Dark, Joe had killed many people throughout his life.
Neil doesn’t believe a word she says. Maya admits to killing Joe as she didn’t want a monster to raise her daughter.
Judith counts herself, Neil, and Caroline, as witnesses to her admission. But if she goes to jail, everything else about their pharma company and Joe would come out in the open.
Is Judith willing to take that risk, she asks? That’s when the old lady comes up with a settlement offer.
She offers to put the whole drug trial corruption blame on Joe, which led to his death.
While she proposes the terms of the agreement, Neil quietly grabs Maya’s gun. Judith brings Lily’s future into the discussion but Maya remains adamant.
She denies her proposal. Neil breaks their discussion and points the gun at her.
After some provocation from Maya, he fires a bullet that ends up killing her.
Caroline is shocked to see the murder while Neil remains unaffected by his actions.
Judith notices Maya’s finger pointing towards a particular direction. She follows it to find the same photo frame in which Maya had installed the nanny cam.
Disbelief strikes her hard when she realizes that the whole murder and her confession was being recorded in the camera.
Consequently, it is revealed that Sami went to Corey’s hideout to seek his help in setting up a livestream that would expose the Burketts.
Through his wide reach and assistance, the video reaches millions of people. The police arrest the Burketts after widespread hubbub.
While everything was planned, Maya’s murder was an unexpected outcome, which triggers anxiety in Kierce.
Corey calms him down saying Maya must have planned all of it, and she must have put the Gun down on purpose.
She provoked Neil so that he would kill her. For her miseries to end, this was the only way possible.
The scene cuts to 18 years in the future, where we see Kierce alive and kicking. He walks into a hospital and meets Eddie.
They go together to a ward, where Lily is carrying her child. Shane is also there.
Kierce holds the baby and when he asks what they have named her, Lily says, “Maya.” That’s when Fool Me Once ends.
Now, some essential questions about the British show’s ending…
Why Kierce Helped Maya in Exposing the Burketts in the End?
Kierce had also suffered at the hands of the medications manufactured by the Burketts’ pharma company.
He knew how tough it can be for anyone to go through suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, and blackouts.
Moreover, he empathized with Maya. Sami couldn’t let the Burketts get away with all their wrongdoings. Hence, he decided to help Maya in her pursuit.
Who Killed Joe?
Maya Stern killed Joe, her husband, in Fool Me Once.
If Maya killed Joe, why was she worried that he’d be alive?
Paranoia, probably. Otherwise, I don’t see any reason why she would believe the footage since she had killed him by his own hand.
Being an army veteran, Maya was the best person to know if he was alive or dead back then.
Was Joe on the Nanny Cam for real?
No, it was a deepfake video. The man in the footage was Luka. He did it on the direction of Judith who wanted to shock Maya.
Judith knew Maya was the murderer of her son because she was the only one with a motive after Joe killed Claire, her sister.
Why did Shane put a tracker on Maya’s car?
He did it out of fear for Maya’s well-being. The makers have shown the said scene suspensefully, but, by the end, we know Shane didn’t have any ill-will against Maya.
In fact, he was always by her side. So, he tracked Maya’s car to be aware of her location, in case of an emergency.
Who Was Nicole?
Nicole embodied the face of Kierce’s former fiancé who died in the line of duty.
When he was about to marry Molly, the trauma of losing her combined with the side effects of his medications.
In his mind, Kierce thought of Nicole as his sponsor from the support group. But all of it was part of hallucinations.
Why Didn’t Kierce Die in Fool Me Once?
Kierce didn’t die because he was not suffering from a terminal disease.
All he had were the side effects of medications manufactured by Lambur Pharma, owned by the Burketts.
Why did Joe Kill Claire?
She knew about Theo and Andrew and also the Burkett family’s corrupt medical practices.
Why Was Fool Me Once Predictable, to some extent, for Me?
The minute Luka appeared for the first time, you could notice him being physically similar to Joe.
Moreover, even the plot itself didn’t give much weight to the nanny cam footage after the first episode.
Therefore, the only theory remaining was video alteration or deepfake editing.
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