The Undoing… of the Folds of My Brain
If you live in this world and have access to the Internet, you’ve probably heard of HBO’s latest success story — The Undoing. A TV show starring big names like Nicole Kidman, Donald Sutherland, and Hugh Grant. Also Lily Rabe. If you haven’t seen her in American Horror Story’s arguably best season, Coven, what on Earth are you even doing, man?
Anyway, back to The Undoing. Revolving around a murder, the show takes us on a six-episode ride through the lives of a professional psychologist, Dr. Grace Fraser, played by the absolute legend Nicole Kidman, and her husband, Dr. Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant), a pediatric oncologist, after a horrifyingly gruesome murder takes place in their neighborhood.
In the true fashion of a university student working part-time with absolutely no free time on their hands, I binge-watched the six-part series last night. Fair warning: there may be spoilers ahead, so if you are thinking of watching what is possibly the most mind-boggling thriller-mystery series to ever be produced, stop right here. Pause. Go watch it. Then come back. I probably won’t be able to do this show the justice it deserves, but I will most certainly try.
The Undoing is what is classified as a ‘psychological thriller’. Maybe because I am someone who sees plot twists coming from a mile ahead, I just haven’t ever been stunned by any other psych-thriller I’ve ever seen. At least not like this. For a few minutes after finishing the last episode, I just… sat there. Thinking about it. It felt like my brain had exploded.
It wasn’t that the story and the setting were completely new or something otherworldly — it was just the build up. Let me start from the beginning. Nicole Kidman’s character starts out as this cool, kindly character who loves her family. Just an overall good person. The scenes where she’s seen counselling her clients were very well put-together. She’s seen as polite and professional, but also sensitive. There’s a bit of a two-dimensional vibe to her character, but I think that’s what adds to the mystery.
It is very easy to decide what kind of character Grace Fraser will be. Just your typical Big-Little-Lies-esque white woman, a mainstream protagonist. A caring mother, a loving wife, if a little closed off. The last part is important, because it is implied more than once by her husband and her father, that Grace is a little ‘isolated’, if not outright lonely. In fact, in the very first episode there is an important scene, where Grace and Jonathan discuss moving away from Manhattan (where they currently reside). Grace admits to not having many close friends in that scene.
Grace and Jonathan are parents to a bright, twelve-year-old boy named Henry, played by the incredibly talented Noah Jupe. The show starts off with a young, nameless boy finding what seems to be a brutally murdered dead body, and we are immediately taken back two days in the past. Grace is very active in her son’s school life and meets a new mother at the planning of an auction fundraiser thing. I don’t know a single school in real life that actually does these things but let’s let that slide. The school and the fundraiser-auction is shown to be one for well, rich white people. Tuxedos. Dresses. Champagne. We learn that Henry’s grandfather Franklin, an extremely rich person with a whole lot of money (and a chopper, for some reason) pays for his school.
So anyway, the new mother, Elena Alves, just has something off about her. This is highlighted and insisted upon by Sylvia, Grace’s only friend in the show, played by Lily Rabe. One thing to notice about this series is that the characters practically tell us what to believe. Coincidentally, the title of the book this show is based on, is called ‘You Should Have Known’.
Fast-forward, Elena is found by her son in her studio with her head bashed in. It is very gruesome, and this scene is repeatedly shown. A huge hammer being knocked into her head. Her head bounces from the impact. It is… gory. The intent is to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, and oh, it certainly achieves that. Throughout the show there are a few flashbacks, which seem to be Grace’s imagination. Her perception of what happened. Her visions of Jonathan. Sometimes with his patients, sometimes with others.
The next morning, Jonathan goes missing and we learn that he was having an affair with the murdered woman. His footprints and DNA are found on the scene, and the man becomes the prime suspect in the case. Grace and Henry head to their beach house, where Jonathan shows up, insisting he didn’t murder Elena. Grace, using quick wit, calls the police. He is arrested.
All evidence points towards Jonathan as the key suspect, and yet the detectives on the case, mainly Detective Mendoza, keep on interrogating Grace. Fed up, Grace finally loses her cool and asks why she is being treated like a suspect. Up until now, to us, the viewers, Grace had been the innocent protagonist shoved into a series of highly unfortunate events. Her point-of-view had been consistent. Three episodes in, we feel like we know her.
Lo and behold — it turns out we don’t. A block away from the scene of the crime, Elena’s studio, Grace has been captured by a security camera walking alone. Quite suspiciously too, might I add. Grace insists she walks to ground herself, clear her head. Still, it doesn’t really add up. All of Manhattan, and she decides to take a walk one block away from the murder? Is this what Grace’s undoing is?
The combination of an unreliable protagonist, who we now realize we didn’t know all this time, and Jonathan’s resilient insistence that he didn’t commit the murder, is enough to send the viewers spiraling. The show’s greatest mystery is a result of how we continue to believe what it continues to tell us, while completely ignoring the facts. There is only evidence against Jonathan. Elena’s husband has an alibi. Ultimately, Grace decides that her husband is innocent. She tries to fight for him in court. She says she believes in him. Perhaps what becomes Jonathan’s ‘undoing’ is this one small act where he finally owns up to being responsible for his sister’s death, many decades ago. An incident he had never confessed to Grace, and that had left him estranged from his family. If he has been responsible for a death once, could it be possible he’s capable of it again?
Throughout the show, Jonathan Fraser is a character that remains strong and firm in the face of adversity. He maintains his dignity, his humor and his light-hearted, casual personality. He’s charming and suave. He maintains his stance throughout the series. He insists he loves his family, and that he loved Elena and her son. He is, in fact, hell-bent on proving his innocence. This is why it is all the more surprising when we learn that Henry found the murder weapon at the beach house. Jonathan’s reaction to this is still on brand. He insists the real killer must’ve hid it there. He believes that the weapon can exonerate him as it must have the prints of the killer.
When he finds out that Henry ran it through a dishwasher, Jonathan is furious. He talks to Grace alone and suggests that their son may be the murderer, which Grace does not take kindly. She tells him to leave. Tensions arise between the family, but Grace still doesn’t think her husband is capable of the murder. And neither do we, the viewers. He’s too persistent. It’s been five episodes. If Jonathan was the murderer, why is the story going on? The build-up of mystery and thrill and curiosity, minute by minute, is exemplary.
Grace has a conversation with Jonathan’s mother where she tells her that the family tried to be there for Jonathan after his sister was killed under his care, but he never showed his grief. In her words, he simply ‘did not know how to suffer’. This seems to be like a breaking point for Grace, after which she is just… not the same. She goes to take the stand, where albeit starting out supportive of Jonathan, she ultimately screws him over by talking about the details of her conversation with his mother. Although the lawyer Jonathan had had been hired by Grace’s father on her insistence and is the best that money can buy, the case seems all but lost. Grace had finally taken a side.
The next morning, Jonathan takes Henry for a ride and tries to escape, and in the flashbacks we see him having an argument with Elena that night in the studio. He grabs the hammer and smashes her head in. And then he walks out.
These flashbacks that had always seemed like Grace’s visions or imagination — turns out they’re what really happened. I’m sure other viewers might have caught on to that sooner, but to me it was like a blow to the head. I did not see this coming. Jonathan’s constant insistence that he had not killed the woman is what kept pushing the plot forward. Although the evidence, and the flashbacks, pointed towards him being the killer, we just… didn’t expect him to be. It was as if the show was always leading us here, but it still came as a HUGE surprise. We truly should have known.
A few critics say that the ending of the show was anti-climactic. I disagree. If the viewers were expecting a plot-twist, we got one! It was just that we were expecting someone else to be the killer. We were expecting a different kind of plot-twist. Perhaps it could have been Henry. Or Franklin. Instead, we got what the show had been saying all along — it’s Jonathan. And we still didn’t see it coming.