The Undoing bails out its main suspect, and immediately proves why he's untrustworthy
TV Reviews Recap
Well, isn’t Jonathan a sneaky bastard! After spending much of the previous couple of episodes on the ropes, once Franklin bails him out of jail, he immediately starts maneuvering for his own advantage without a backward glance. It’s suddenly very, very easy to see what his former colleague meant about his tendency to form inappropriate and manipulative relationships with the families of his patients.
Take, for instance, the way he physically moves into spaces he hasn’t been invited into, the ease and arrogance with which he navigates, especially in situations where he knows it’s not welcome. While walking with Grace, he takes her hand, and then after she’s told him the marriage is over, he pulls her in close and hugs her. It’s claustrophobic and a bit creepy, but his calculation works: She accepts the hug, at least briefly, before pushing him back. Later, when she’s in the hospital, he barges into her hospital room, despite a lack of invitation, and then insists on giving her a physical exam despite her protestations, which, again, eventually subside. Franklin, meanwhile, looks like he’s about to combust in these moments. It’s suddenly a lot clearer how this marriage has functioned, the way Jonathan has undoubtedly weaseled his way out of conflict before in this way. The physical exam is utterly pointless— Jonathan’s medical expertise is in pediatric oncology, and while he undoubtedly knows basic emergency medicine, it’s all pretty obviously for show. And yet she succumbs.
His other physical infringement is more grotesque—he shows up at Fernando’s apartment uninvited, shoves his foot in the door, touches Miguel without asking, suggests their dead family member was unwell, acts like the priority is his defense of his own innocence rather than not harassing a grieving family, and then, out of the blue, offers to adopt the baby Fernando has been caring for. It’s a bit over the top, even by the standards of this show, and to the degree that it works, it’s mostly on Hugh Grant’s shoulders to make it seem remotely believable that even someone as arrogant as him would face the potential legal ramifications of what is clearly witness tampering if not threatening behavior for this poor family in service of pushing Fernando.
But possibly his most heinous behavior is reserved for the end of the episode, when he goes on television and chokes up during the interview. Is he sad because of the trauma that’s been brought on his own family? Nope, he’s sad because he also loved Elena. What a way to reward his wife after she convinced her father to pay his exorbitantly priced bail! He doesn’t stop there, though—instead, he implies that he has some information about who really killed Elena. Someone who might have acted out of rage and jealousy after finding out about the affair. The camera cuts to Fernando at this moment, who looks absolutely ripshit to see him do this, but the show has so far insisted his alibi is airtight. Unfortunately, there’s one other character on this show who could also have been pushed to extremes of jealousy by the affair, and who should really know at this point not to trust him.
It’s the strongest episode of the show yet, although it does have some weak moments—the brief interview with a Black woman on TV saying Jonathan was given bail because of white male privilege is shoehorned in very awkwardly. It’s a real telling instead of showing moment, in an episode filled with ways in which the degree of Jonathan’s extreme privilege is very apparent. The brevity, and the way it’s wedged into the episode almost at random, take away any meaningful critique that might be happening there. Of course he’s experiencing privilege! Every thing that he says and does in this episode is him being privileged. Why include this commentator if not to let her make her point more meaningfully than this? Additionally, the show really needs to figure out what it’s doing with Fernando. He’s made it through more episodes than Elena at this point, but with no more characterization than she ever got. They’re both volatile, perpetually near tears. It’s like the show is only interested in them as objects on which the desires and interests of Jonathan and Grace can rebound. It’s possible this is intended as some form of commentary? We only see them through the eyes of these two wealthy and powerful people, and so therefore our glimpse is just as minimal as theirs is. But it’s getting increasingly odd to have Fernando lurk around the edges without offering anything more about who he is.
Stray observations
- “I don’t make jokes. I’m not funny.” I appreciate a person who knows their limits! And also it was actually funny when Haley the Power Lawyer had to repeat it later in the episode. She looked offended.
- Here to express my absolutely correct verdict that you can’t “no homophobe” your use of a homophobic insult, Franklin.
- Speaking of Franklin, why in the world does he think now is the time to tell Grace he was a shitty husband to her dead mother! Read the room, Franklin.
- Possibly the weirdest moment in the episode was that Grace watched Jonathan’s big interview with Sylvia…and Sylvia’s kid? I can see needing a friend there, but why is her kid watching with them.
- So does Franklin keep office hours at the museum?
- I wish the show had more to say about the media spectacle side of this. We’re told there’s a media spectacle, but the journalists only crowd at very specific moments, and there’s no sign that any of these people have been contacted by journalists trying to get the big story, and Grace and Jonathan are apparently totally unconcerned about the possibility that they might get spotted by the press on their walk.
- The show keeps dancing around the possibility, and I am firmly on the side of Grace and Elena also had an affair.
53 Comments
“the brief interview with a Black woman on TV saying Jonathan was given bail because of white male privilege is shoehorned in very awkwardly.”I mean the episode opens with Grace being called out on her privilege, I think it’s a running theme of the show, especially this episode. Not really shoe horned in. I don’t think we necessarily need anymore clarification on Jonathan’s white privilege and they could have removed that line.I think either the killer truly is Jonathan who really does believe he’s above the law or maybe it’s the son who just wanted to keep his family together? Grace is unreliable and the theme song makes me think there’s something connected to her childhood or a history of mental health episodes, but I don’t see her as the murderer.
I appreciate that Donald Sutherland here pronounced the word, “coke-sucker.” Kidman can’t say “walk” without slipping back to her native Aussie accent.There’s only two suspects, right, if neither Grace nor Jonathan did it. Since casting Sutherland is already telegraphing villainy, I’m going with Sylvia being the killer. I think Ebert had a Movie Law about which character is the murderer in this genre, and Sylvia fits it.The show so far doesn’t have much ambition, content with being a murder mystery. But I remain riveted by Susanne Bier’s direction and the performances. We finally got the good reason the show cast Grant. His natural charm and likability subverted to a darker side.
Lol I love/hate it when a single word trips up an actor. Hugh Laurie nailed a perfect Central Jersey accent….until he had to start saying Amber all the time.
“Since casting Sutherland is already telegraphing villainy, I’m going with Sylvia being the killer. I think Ebert had a Movie Law about which character is the murderer in this genre, and Sylvia fits it.”
I dunno, Blanksheet. You don’t cast Annaleigh Ashford and only give her a cameo where she’s shooed away.
I absolutely agree with you that Sylvia is the murderer. And not only did she kill Elena, she’s also the other woman Jonathan slept with.Note that we got ZERO information on said woman, considering such a significant reveal. The probability being that it’s a major-info shoe waiting to be dropped at the most opportune time dramatically.And if it *IS* Sylvia, think of how loaded it makes all her previous behaviour: the husband blaming, her representing Jonathan regarding his firing (which is how she would have access to all of Elena’s info), her glance to Jonathan at arraignment, her closeness to Grace, etc.
I assume in the next show they will finally disclose that Sylvia’s kid was the one with cancer that Jonathan treated (and then slept with his mom) who the lawyer was questioning him about but then they conveniently cut away just as he was going to name her.
While I believe Jonathan did also sleep with Sylvia, I think Elena is supposed to be the only one whose a mother to a child he has treated.
I thought he told his lawyer he had an affair with another mother of a patient of his?
When his lawyer asks him “Were there any others?”, he says “Just a one-off years ago. I had lost a patient and I was a mess…” So not the mother of a patient.
Yup. I was just coming here to post the same.
The problem is in the economy of characters. There’s only like, four people that could be the murderer.
It would be the kind of ending they pull out of thin air after mostly ignoring it for five weeks, like typical HBO fare, but you are right that it has some merit.
But I’m sticking with their son. I think he killed her for sexing up both of his parents and possibly breaking up his family. After all, now he has a half-sister to split any inheritance with. And the writers have also ignored any REAL build up as to how he could have done it – just some foreshadowing and allusions to knowledge of things.
I came here for this comment- thank you! They should have Donald Sutherland and Ian Mcshane do a “cocksucker” remix!
When it was decided that Jonathan was going to do the tv interview to charm his way out of the hole he dug, that’s when I thought, “ah, this is Hugh Grant’s wheelhouse. I see why he had to be cast in this.”
I agree re Sylvia is the killer and the other affair. The tv interview almost reminded me of Gone Girl, when the husband went on tv, except it was more believable. Johnathan is a sociopath, and Grace, altho being an excellent psychologist and reader of people, fell for his bullshit and never saw through it. If Johnathan was so brilliant and weaselly, why didn’t he just go home after being with Elena? Why take off? That just indicates guilt. Just lay low and act like nothing happened. Because you didn’t kill her, remember? Is he really that hot and charming that two women would be obsessed with him? Connie Chung? Really? I didn’t even know she was still doing anything. That whole interview was insane. Why would you let your children watch that? Elena’s husband went from being furious that Johnathan showed up to “hey bro wanna hold your daughter?” WTFGrace should invest in a good pair of athletic shoes if she’s going to walk the length of Manhattan every day. Why did she need to “ground herself” late at night in her fancy gown and heels? Buy a treadmill. It’s safer.
Elena’s husband went from being furious that Johnathan showed up to “hey bro wanna hold your daughter?” WTF
right? That scene was so cringe.
As I said above, they are really leaning into his teeth. He’s biting, he’s stress-flashing them on TV, i mean these chompers taking up 50% of the frame in some shots.
I wish the show had more to say about the media spectacle side of this.This is the aspect of the show which really strains suspension of disbelief. Not just that it’s a media spectacle, but how it’s SO MUCH of a media spectacle, and how that’s focused on the school? Like, the media are camped outside the school, the detectives were at the school multiple days, and… other than the victim’s son went there, there’s really no connection between the crime and the school. It’s REALLY strange that it’s made such a central focus.And I’ll be shocked if end doesn’t somehow end up being tied to Annaleigh Ashford’s character, who is a bit too big of an actress to pop in for half a scene, where we’re very explicitly told her character’s full name and have her specifically introduced to Nicole Kidman’s character, and then NOTHING ELSE for her not to be a big part of the endgame.
What stood out to me was Grace and Jonathan walking alone in public. How would they not be hounded by paparazzi?
Or him going to the hospital to visit her? I mean come on. Like they all wouldn’t be being followed 24/7. There’d be 9 million people camped outside both their places at all times.
I think it truly would be a massive media spectacle, especially in relation to Grace coming from a family with a big New York reputation. But the reporters outside the school is definitely overkill lol.
But it was a big media spectacle outside the school before it centered on Grace at all. Like, why even go there, instead of centering outside of Elena’s studio or apartment? There’s no information that we’re shown that the school is relevant to the murders, certainly not at the beginning. It would make as much sense as the media camped out at the hospital where the baby was born, or her husband’s job. Let alone the detectives being there for multiple days.It feels like in an earlier draft she was killed on the school grounds, and they changed that part, but didn’t change the rest in turn.
the media seemed to clue into Jonathan as the most likely suspect before Grace, so I didn’t think it unlikely they’d be there the first day, especially since there’s a connection between both boys attending the same school (where I’m sure they’d be interviewing other rich parents about Grace and Jonathan). But them staying for awhile seemed silly.
God yes. Exactly. I’m not sure there were such mobs surrounding Jeffrey Epstein — or even Dahmer!
Another taut episode tonight. Even though Hugh Grant is surprising me leaning into his career long natural charm ( “I behaved badly” worked great in that almost historic mea culpa with Jay Leno) he is adding an admirable oleaginous layer to his performance that is working better than I thought him capable. But tonight belonged to the two supporting players: Noma Dumezwen who is great; an actress of such remarkable command. Then there is Donald Sutherland, who is clearly having a spectacular time delivering his cold blooded lines, an aging lion who hasn’t lost a scintilla of his formidable self. That scene with the principal was amazing, but his clipping Grant at the knees in prison with “We’re done here!” Goddamn, that was spectacularly brutal. Loved ever minute he was on screen tonight. I would be remiss in not pointing out the night time shots of Manhattan, the illuminated buildings shot in such contrast it almost looked black and white. and then Kidman walking in Central Park, red hair flowing, body wrapped in wool, like Red Riding Hood being stalked by the wolf.
“I would be remiss in not pointing out the night time shots of Manhattan, the illuminated buildings shot in such contrast it almost looked black and white. and then Kidman walking in Central Park, red hair flowing, body wrapped in wool, like Red Riding Hood being stalked by the wolf.”
Surveillance footage always creates a cool, eerie distance. Makes the viewer feel both like God and utterly powerless.
After this episode I’m thinking Hugh Grant was miscast in this series. You need an actor that convince you he is both good and evil. Hugh can only really do innocent, good puppy and smarmy jerk. But he doesn’t come across as evil.Imagine Alan Rickman in this role. Or Ralph Fiennes. The way they can/could switch between charming and cold, unfeeling is really what’s needed.
I don’t have any trouble buying Grant as the charming bad guy, He seems to have embraced that type. I’m just tired of seeing him play parts that are so similar. As others suggested, Grace will probably end up closer to the murder in order to subvert this ‘type’ expectation.
Grace is clearly the one who did it, I’m not even sure how much the show wants to hide it. The strange opening credits scene of her as a little girl, the visions, Kidman having a reaction of closing her eyes when cops present her with evidence, her being an unreliable narrator, etc. She likely has dissociative identity disorder and did it in a flight of jealous rage, and Hugh Grant knows about it but is trying to cover for her. She’s demonstrated an unwillingness to accept trauma in her life, and her other personality is the part of her that absorbs it, like her fathers infidelities. Donald Sutherland might also know she did it but I’m not sure. My prediction for how the show ends is they pin it on the husband to go along with the overarching theme of the poor suffering at the hands of the rich, who always get away with everything.
I think this is so obvious that they should have just done the show like a Columbo episode where they show her committing the murder in the first act and focus the rest on how the detectives figure it out…
I hope it’s not Grace, but I expect it to be too. David E Kelley is a great writer but I think he is also a master of the predictable surprise.
I feel it’s way too obvious to be Grace? But idk, maybe she’s done something like this before and got off, hence the opening sequence. But I also feel it’s gotta be Jonathan just to show how often white dudes get off for hurting women.
I cancelled HBO before the third episode, so I’m very surprised at this theory; although I do find it believable. I didn’t really think I would miss the series and I don’t. I can’t imagine drawing this out into a second season.
they’ve been referring to it as a “limited series”, and it only has 6 episodes, so i think this a one and done.
I’m glad to see they finally made clear why they paid Donald Sutherland to be in this. He nailed his scenes and of course presented himself as a possible murderer to add to the suspect list. I had forgotten that even at 85 his sinister smile is one of the best ever.
All true but dude needs to tame those eyebrows; they’re really distracting
YES, I assume that’s the kind of insouciant touch that rich old guys do to substitute for wearing a mullet. “oh you don’t like my eyebrows that could be mistaken for haystacks? Well I’ll grow them bushier just like an old school cocksucker would to spite you.” LOL
I honestly think there’s something to this…I know a few DGAF seniors in my career field who go totally guns-out with the eyebrows.
that will NOT be me…I am fanatical about keeping my eyebrows AND ear hair trimmed thanks primarily to seeing my father-in-law (who does NOT trim either of his)
And in the second episode he goes to Elena’s apartment and stands outside watching her husband hold the baby.Why would he know where her apartment was?
I stopped giving details like that any credence in HBO productions. They increasingly pull shit out of the dryer, say it’s not wrinkled, and put it on and go to work.
am I the only one who still thinks there is some significance that in some scenes Grace is shown wearing a fabulous red coat, and in others an equally fabulous green coat? Like one suggests one mental state, and the other suggests something much different?
I just kept thinking ‘how many ankle length coats can one person own? Good lord”
I know! I own a lot of coats, but the majority of them are in a back closet waiting to be taken to Goodwill.
The show keeps dancing around the possibility, and I am firmly on the side of Grace and Elena also had an affair.yep same here…I mean they kissed, and Elena strolled around Grace pretty casually in the nude…given this happened in the first show I assumed it would be incorporated into the plot right away. Yes Grace reacted in a very surprised way to the kiss, and I assume this was all done to make it seem like Elena was a “free spirit” artist, but I’d be shocked if this didn’t play a big part in the resolution.
While it’s fantastic any time we get to see Donald Sutherland chew the scenery, hear that rich voice and his fun pronunciations, this show is still just an awful potboiler. So it’s Lily Rabe who did the killing, yes? She’s the “other” puppy-eyed (350 in dog years?) Hugh Grant alluded to with his lawyer? Why else are there endless red herring scenes of Rabe and Kidman chatting about their friendship if she’s not the murderer? Dragging this anemic drama out six weeks was at least two weeks too long. I mean, after each episode I feel as if I need to take a “relaxing walk.”
Due to casting of Noah Jupe and foreshadowing, I am sticking with my call that the son killed her because he thought Elena was breaking up his family. They’ve spent only enough time to establish him as more than a mere accessory character and foreshadowed a few things like apparently having knowledge of breaking in to their phones so he could feasibly discover what his parents were up to. They established that he has some familiarity with Elena’s son. His dad actually fathered a half-sister to him. He had an extreme interest in the presence of cops early on. he was shown benignly watching a gory description of Elena’s head being caved in on his phone.
He did it. It remains to be seen how they hurriedly lay the foundation with only two episodes left, but he did it.
Kidman’s accent on this show is wild. I’m still enjoying it but it’s like an added layer to the show, which incidentally features a lot of non-US actors. Which is not a slight because I LOVE that Sofie Gråbøl is on this show. But it’s funny to imagine Grant, Jupe, Sutherland and Kidman coming together as scions of New York City though I guess Grant didn’t have to try. Maybe the producers thought it would make everyone sound rich to speak so concertedly? Methinks I am exposing myself as a hillbilly now.I think the show is doing OK with its premise given there are several theories about who did it below. After giving us such a heavy dose of Hugh Grant being a piece of garbage I still think it was him. I loved Connie Chung asking him whether he killed her relentlessly. I want her to interview Donald Trump.
yes, I think this is a pretty good whodunnit since so many people have such varying theories. I agree, I think it was still Jonathan, but Grace obviously has either a history of her own that her dad needs to protect, or has blocked out a lot of memories surrounding events prior to the murder.
This whole show is about Hugh Grant’s teeth and I’m tired of pretending it’s not.
Well, when you bludgeon someone to death at close range with a sculpting hammer (?), you’re going to get some splatter on your nice, full-length coat. So, what coat did she (Grace) wear on that recorded walk, and has she worn that since? Also, she and Jonathan are the only ones on surveillance recordings near the scene of the crime. No Sylvia. Will we find out that Sylvia knows how to hypnotize Grace into murdering Elena?Lastly, yeah, how is it remotely safe for a lone woman to walk in NYC? So many times even over timeframe of this series?
Sound off: Who’s your likely murderer? My projected finish:1)The son (best motive, worst real-world ability to commit the crime, but it’s HBO. They’ll make up some way or another. Fits the casting.)2)Sylvia (weak motive, Really, risk life murdering out of jealousy for him? Might as well have murdered his wife instead beforehand. She’s a power mom with a kid, but easier ability to commit the crime. Fits the trope.)3)Donald Sutherland (no motive really, unless he feared his daughter was going to be blackmailed for a lesbian affair, and committing murder seems extreme when he can just pay people off for days. It would have been a convenient way to get rid of his cheating son-in-law, so it’s lesbian affair or bust. Not likely in either case IMO, Fits the casting though. )
I don’t think for a second it is any of the remaining three of husband, wife, and widower. Way too typical.
Jonathon did it —- but he couldn’t help it!!! He’s got DID!!Or if someone else did it, he’s protecting them, but mark my words!! He’s got DID! LOL!!Probably it was triggered by Katie the Kitten’s death.You can tell when he’s flipping identities — his fluttering face switches into grimaces and his eyes tend to ’dart about’ and once that happens, his tone changes. Tends to put a hand up to his head, too.“‘We” never talk about that.’ Yeah. He never talked about Katie after she dies. None of his alters did. That’s the purpose of the DIDs. To not acknowledge the existence/death of Katie.“It’s ME, Grace. It’s ME. It’s ME.” As opposed to the other ‘hims’ that do all that bad stuff. When he hugs her as they walk outside.
And when his mother was talking to Grace, she interrupted her to correct her grammar when it come to the word ‘none’. None ‘is’ as opposed to none ‘are’.Now why they put that part in, I’m not quite sure. Does his mother know? Or was that just a clue for us?When Jonathon apologizes to Henry about about being with Elena across the street from the school, right in front of Henry, he prefaces it by saying ‘Your mother told me I blah, blah, blah….’ In other words, he had no memory of it. He just knows it must be true since Henry told Grace and Grace told him.There were a few things that Grace accused him of doing and he just stands there and takes it, although I strongly suspect that it’s news to him. I think he’s well aware that he does things that he doesn’t remember doing and that bit with Elena across the street from the school and then just waving to Henri when he notices him, as though it’s nothing at all is one of those things. And when they show him flipping identities on TV, they keep cutting to Grace, looking more and more astounded. With her training, she ought to start recognizing the signs so I wonder if little by little, she is!!
I’m pretty sure Sylvia is the ‘sad fuck’. Did you see the way she ‘melted’ a bit when she was seated in the courtroom and he was being brought in to be arraigned and he saw that she was there? He did a little double-take himself. They seem to make a point of sticking her daughter in here and there too, so who the hell knows?! Maybe he’s her father, too!!And right from the start it seemed like Sylvia and Franklin have some kind of shared secret. I wonder if Jonathon IS the father of Sylvia’s daughter and Franklin’s been bankrolling them all these years. Then again, Maybe Franklin is the father.And why are Sylvia and the prosecutor exchanging ‘winks’ and stuff?