The Better Sister on Prime Video is an eight-part twisty-turny thriller that promises to keep us on the edge of our seats until the final moments.
The series is based on the novel by bestselling author Alafair Burke and stars Hollywood favourites Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks as 'rival' siblings who have their mysterious past brought to light after a shocking murder. But, as the investigation unfolds, will the siblings manage to reconnect or be torn further apart?
Here is everything that happened in episode 1...
The series opens with Chloe leaving a fancy party in a big house and driving home in the dark. When she gets to her house, Chloe lets herself in and kicks off her shoes before making her way to the fridge in the dark for a snack. However, she notices a vase has been knocked over, before stepping in something wet on the floor with her bare feet, and panics when she realizes it is blood.
In the dim light, she sees her husband, Adam, on the floor, covered in blood. She hugs him and calls his name, but when he doesn't wake up, she calls an ambulance and the operator asks if she is alone in the house. When she says she doesn't know, they ask her to go outside and wait for the ambulance to arrive, which she does.
The episode then flashes back to 36 hours earlier when we see Chloe's son, Ethan, arrive at The Real Thing offices, where Chloe is an editor. She is in the middle of a big meeting in the boardroom when he turns up to collect his suit from the tailor. They head to a big event, where Chloe is photographed on the red carpet and makes a speech just as Adam turns up. Later at home, Chloe apologizes to her husband for all the formal events they have to attend because of her job and promises they will have a quiet weekend just the three of them.
The following morning, Chloe wakes to find Adam has gone to work but left her some painkillers for her hangover. As she gets a coffee, she reads the press coverage about the night before, and while some is complimentary, other pieces aren't so nice. She is shocked to see that her home address has been leaked online and looks around her big, empty house, conscious that people now know where she lives.
As Chloe leaves her house, she meets the doorman, Arty, who gives her a boxed present that has been dropped off for her. She asks who it is from, but he doesn't know. She checks that Arty is okay to drive Ethan to his friend's that afternoon in the Hamptons, and he says it's fine and that the teen is good company.
Down in the carpark in the basement of the building Chloe gets into her car and opens her gift with a penknife she keeps in the glovebox, but she is horrified to see inside there are photoshopped images of her and a threatening note from the sender telling her to stop talking, otherwise they will stop her themselves. While she digests what has happened, Adam calls her from his journey to work and asks how she is. She tells him about the parcel, and he is stunned, blaming the at-home magazine shoot that they did for people knowing where they live now.
Adam wants Chloe to call the police, but she says no, and they can talk about it that night. She asks if he can make the party at Catherine's that evening, and he says he will come if he finishes work in time, but it is more likely that he will see her at home.
At the party, Chloe's friends are worried about the fact that she is being trolled and now being targeted at home. She brushes it off, but is upset when Adam says he won't make the party. When she gets into the car that night to come home, she looks at her messages from her husband, and it shows she has sent him lots of texts, but he hasn't replied to any of them.
Meanwhile, Ethan is hanging out with a friend and smoking pot on the beach. His friend asks if he is coming out for the night, but Ethan says that his dad would kill him if he knew he was hanging out with a drug dealer, and the friend makes a nasty comment about Adam as Ethan walks away.
On the drive back to the house, Chloe feels like she is being followed and pulls over, and while the other car slows as it overtakes her, it doesn't stop and just drives off.
When she gets home, we see the same scene play out of Chloe getting out of her car before she finds Adam's body at the start of the episode. But this time she picks up her phone and keys from the car, and also the penknife she used to open her parcel earlier that day.
She goes to the front door, and we see her let herself into the house again, just like before, but then instead of seeing what happens inside the house, we find ourselves watching the house from outside in the garden, before a few moments later Chloe runs out of the backdoor, covered in blood, just like before, but this time she is holding the penknife and it is covered in blood. She trips over on the drive and falls face down on the gravel, just as the police pull up.
The episode then cuts to the police station, and Chloe is explaining to Detective Nancy Guidry and Detective Matt Bowen what happened. She says the reason she has cuts on her hands and knees is because she fell over on the drive and the police ask her if she is sure she doesn't want a lawyer present, but she is adamant that she is fine.
Nancy asks about the timeline of the evening and that her texting doesn't match with the time it took for her to get home and call the ambulance, but Chloe says that she never texts and drives and so when she pulled over after she thought she was being followed, she messaged Adam again becasue she was worried she'd not heard from him. But while she is talking and telling the police that she went onto social media for a bit, we see that what she was really doing was messaging 'are you there?' on a burner phone to an unknown number.
The police ask about who might have been at Adam's business meeting with him that evening and Chloe says his colleague Jake might have been. Matt and Nancy ask how long Chloe and Adam have been married and she says 10 years, but they have known each other since they were kids. As she is talking, Chloe realizes that whoever killed Adam probably meant to kill her, but the police say it is too early to know.
Matt asks Chloe for some elimination fingerprint samples and the clothes she is wearing before letting her go. They take her to Ethan's friend Kevin's house, where the police break the news to him about Adam's murder. He doesn't say a lot but asks where his mom is, and they tell him she is waiting downstairs for him.
As the police bring Chloe and Ethan home, they realize the detectives working at the house haven't finished removing Adam's body yet, and ask if Chloe and Ethan want to wait in the car, but Chloe says they will wait by the pool. However, before she goes with Ethan, she grabs her coat from her own car, and checks that the burner phone is still in the pocket.
Nancy comments to Matt that Ethan doesn't seem that surprised that his dad is dead, and Matt questions whether Ethan might be in shock. By the pool, Ethan has little to say to his mom and tells her he is going to have a nap on the sunlounger while the police finish up. She goes for a walk on the beach by their house and throws the SIM from her burner phone into the sand, before putting the rest of the phone in the bin.
Nancy and Matt search the house after forensics have been, and as Nancy takes photos, Matt points out that they have already been done, but she tells him that she might see something different from everyone else. She tells him that from what she can see, this isn't a robbery gone wrong and it looks like it's been staged.
Catherine arrives and tells Chloe that she came as soon as she heard the news. Catherine asks after Ethan and Chloe just shakes her head. Catherine says she knows this is the last thing that Chloe wants to think about, but they have to prepare a press statement before speculation sets in. As Catherine gets back in her car, she makes a call and tells the person on the other end of the line that Chloe is in a bad place, but that it is good riddance to Adam.
Nancy and Matt tell Chloe to get Ethan, as they are ready for them inside the house now. While she is gone, Matt tells Nancy that Chloe isn't Ethan's legal guardian and that it is his biological mom, who is also Adam's ex.
The episode then shifts to Cleveland, and we see a woman grabbing medication from a bathroom cabinet and then going to her car to take some tablets. She is surprised to get a call from the East Hampton Police.
Back in East Hampton, the police are taking swabs from Ethan, telling him it is protocol to eliminate his DNA from the investigation. Nancy runs through Chloe's version of events from the night before when she found Adam's body and they work out that the intruder came in through the office window. Matt asks if they have any passports or birth certificates in the office that could be used in identity theft, but Chloe says this is their second home and that everything like that is in the city.
Nancy asks to see the rest of the house and as Ethan takes her to his room, Matt asks for the package that was sent to Chloe, and she tells him it is in the car and goes to get it. While Matt has his back turned, Chloe sees the bloody penknife under her car where she threw it the night before after falling over on the drive, and she quickly grabs it and throws it into the glovebox.
In Ethan's room, Nancy grills him about where he was the night before and what he did with Kevin. She asks him if anything is missing from his room, and he says a couple of things, including some Gucci trainers and some headphones - but as he is opening his closet, she sees he has fresh scratches on his arms.
Matt tells Chloe that they have contacted Nicole McIntosh and she is cross, saying she hasn't had anything to do with Ethan in years and is an addict. Matt points out that Ethan is a minor and now that Adam is dead, Nicky is his legal guardian. She says they have a restraining order on Nicky, but Matt points out it was Adam's and has expired.
As they drive back to the city, Chloe tells Ethan that Nicky is on her way to New York. Neither of them is happy about the fact that she is turning up, and Ethan asks if he will have to go and live with her now, and Chloe tells him that she will never let that happen.
As Ethan asks when Nicky was last in New York, the episode flashes back to when he was little and having a party in the park. Nicky turns up drunk and tries to give Ethan a teddy for his birthday, but Adam asks her to leave as she is scaring the kids. But when Nicky clocks the body language between Chloe and Adam, she realises they are a couple and it is revealed that Chloe and Nicky are sisters. Nicky starts shouting to everyone at the party that Chloe and Adam are an item, and they try and shoo her away - but as she leaves, she steps on something sharp and cuts her foot. Chloe runs after her and offers a band-aid, but she yells at her that Ethan is her son, and that she should get her own family, not steal hers.
In the present day, Ethan and Chloe arrive home to their New York penthouse and while Chloe takes a shower, Ethan goes out for food. Nicky arrives and Chloe is far from happy to see her sister. They share an awkward hug, and this must be the first time they have seen each other in years, because when Nicky walks into the penthouse, she comments on how huge it is.
Chloe asks her sister where she is staying and she asks to stay at the penthouse. Chloe says she can stay - but only for one night. As Chloe makes up the bed in the guestroom, she catches Nicky going through her bathroom cabinet, taking pills that she finds inside. She then finds Adam's deodorant and uses it while she thinks no one is looking. The sisters argue and Chloe tells Nicky she thinks her staying there will be disorientating for Ethan, but Nicky says if she leaves, she will be taking her son with her.
At Kevin's house, Nancy and Matt question him about what he and Ethan got up to the night before. They know he is lying, so they threaten to tell his mom about his drug dealing unless he tells the truth. He reluctantly opens up and tells them that he left Ethan by the beach for a while that evening while he went to sell some drugs.
They now know there was a part of the evening where Ethan is unaccounted for... and their suspicions that Ethan is hiding something seem to be confirmed when Matt gets a call from the station telling him that Ethan's DNA was found under Adam's fingernails.
Did Ethan kill his own father?
All episodes of The Better Sister are available to stream worldwide on Prime Video now.
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