Fool Me Once gave fans many questions, emotionally-driven twists, and an impactful ending.
Netflix's latest British crime thriller boasts a stellar cast that includes the likes of Richard Armitage and Michelle Keegan. It revolves around a woman named Maya who tries to unpack the mystery behind the death (and sudden revival) of her husband.
Fool Me Once is the main topic of conversation among viewers after witnessing its crazy ending full of unexpected revelations that put even the likes of The Sixth Sense and Shutter Island to shame.
What Happened in Fool Me Once's Ending?
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for Fool Me Once.
Who Killed Claire Walker in Fool Me Once?
Claire Walker (Natalie Anderson) is Maya's (Michelle Keegan) sister who is hellbent on exposing the secrets and misdeeds of the Burkett family to the public.
Before her death, Claire had been investigating the Burkett family's firm, Lambur Pharma, due to them being involved in a medical scam. She eventually finds out the truth about falsifying drug trial results for a medicine that kills individuals who are taking it due to its unintended side effects.
As expected, the Burketts were still getting away with their crimes due to their influence, wealth, and power. Trying to be a hero didn't end well for Claire since it led to her demise.
Maya's husband, Joe, was revealed to be responsible for Claire's death since he had no choice but to silence her to stop her from leaking all his family's misdeeds.
As sadistic and clever as he is, Joe staged a break-in inside Claire's house to keep his innocence, but Maya eventually uncovered the truth.
Joe's act of killing Claire was the final domino that led to him being exposed to how terrible a man he truly was.
Who Killed Joe Burkett in Fool Me Once?
Fool Me Once made viewers believe that Joe Burkett's killer is everybody else, and the show even went further by implying that the murderer is the same as Claire's.
Some audiences believed that the suspect could be Phil (the football coach of Claire's daughter) due to his possible obsession with his former military colleague Maya or Claire's husband Eddie for potentially avenging the death of his wife.
However, none of them ended up as the prime suspect since the killer was Maya herself.
In the series, Maya was not a saint to begin with. She was guilty of killing innocent lives when she disobeyed orders during one of her missions from her time with the military.
Still, killing Joe was seemingly the right move in the eyes of the viewers, especially after the dirty secrets that Fool Me Once exposed.
Aside from killing Claire, Joe was also responsible for the deaths of several people, such as his schoolmate and football star Theo, Tommy Dark (the one whom the Burkett family paid to keep his mouth shut for Theo's death), and even his brother, Andrew.
This was on top of the fact that Joe was all in with the dirty deeds of his family's business. Some would say that he deserved his death.
Maya's investigation of her sister's death led her to believe that Joe was the killer. She used her skills and connection to uncover the fact that the gun that was used to kill her sister (the Glock 17) was theirs, confirming that Joe was the one responsible.
Before confronting Joe, Maya prepared a contingency in case her plan went south, leaving an unloaded gun for him to get and use.
Maya then confronted Joe, with her suspicions being confirmed once the latter tried to shoot her. After failing to kill her, Maya exacted her revenge by putting three bullets in Joe's chest.
Maya's act of killing Joe proved that her love for her sister is far greater than for her husband, which made sense knowing how evil he was from the get-go.
Maya’s Death Explained
It was not a happy ending at all for Maya, though, but many would agree that exposing a rich family like the Burkett's was a suicide mission to begin with.
Judith Burkett (Joe's mother) played mind games with Maya after ordering her employees to digitally manipulate the nanny cam footage to make it seem that Joe was still alive.
Little did Judith know, this was the beginning of her and her family's downfall.
When Maya confronted Joe before killing him, she told him that he would make his life hell, and this plan carried over into his family as well.
From her connections to her investigative skills, Maya used everything she could to expose the Burkett family's evil side.
After Detective Sami Kierce (Adeel Akhtar) found out the truth that Maya was Joe's killer, he tracked her back to her home. However, Maya made a deal with Kierce after she told him that she would unveil the inner wrongdoings of Burkett Global.
Maya's final plan involved sneaking into the Burkett family mansion to confront them about the truth (all of it) and even leaving a gun for one of them to use.
However, Maya was one step ahead of all of them since she was in cahoots with Corey as he live-streamed their confrontation through the nanny cam digital photo frame that she planted inside the room while waiting for them.
Maya managed to let Judith spit out the truth before being eventually killed by Neil (Joe's younger brother).
Before dying, Maya's line of saying, "It's over," indicated that being killed was her plan all along. This was further proven by her act of leaving a note for her daughter, Lily, implying that she was at peace with her death.
The fact that Neil also shot Maya thrice was reminiscent of the number of bullets that she used to kill Joe.
How Does Fool Me Once End?
Maya didn't let death be in vain since her final act was to point her finger toward the nanny cam that she planted inside the room, prompting Judith and Neil to find out that what transpired was live-streamed to Kierce, Corey, and the whole world.
Neil's act of killing Maya became viral, and it seemed appropriate for a family hiding their dark secrets in the shadows to be exposed to the light.
Maya's plan ultimately worked, but it came at the cost of her life. As Corey explained, Maya knew what she was doing from the start, telling Kierce, "She knew that there was only one way for this to end."
Make no mistake, killing Joe and the innocent civilians was vengeful and it put Maya on the wrong side of the law. However, it was a battle between two evils, with Maya being the lesser one.
If the Burkett family hadn't been exposed, they would still have continued their evil deeds, putting the lives of innocent people at stake.
Maya became an anti-hero, with her death as her penance for everything she did wrong.
Judith, Neil, and Caroline Burkett were taken into custody, cementing their downfall.
18 years later, Maya's daughter, Lily, gave birth to her first child, Maya, with the ending showing that Eddie was the one who took her in as one of her own and Kierce and Shane were there with her as well.
Sami’s Ghost Twist Explained
One of Fool Me Once's side plots involved Sami Kierce and his hallucinations.
During Kierce's final conversation with Maya, he told her that he was taking pills manufactured by Lambur Pharma of Burkett Global, the same ones that Claire found out were being used in the falsified drug tests.
Throughout his investigation, Kierce was seen talking to a fellow police officer named Nicole. It was eventually revealed that Nicole was Kierce's ex-fiancé who was killed while on duty.
This piece of storyline showed the drastic side effects of Burkett Global's drugs if it was mass-produced and released to the world. It's quite unfortunate that Kierce was used as an example of how bad those pills are considering he was shown as a good and honest detective from the start.
Thankfully, he lived to see Lily as a mother, with the ending also confirming that he has a son.
Fool Me Once is now streaming on Netflix.
