Moonflowers Murders did not end quietly, with one last twist centered on Madeline Cain.
Airing on PBS, the meta TV mystery, based on a novel of the same name, centered on a former publisher-turned-amateur sleuth, Susan Ryeland. She must use one of the books she once helped release to solve a modern-day murder.
This on-screen journey saw plenty of twists and turns throughout its six episodes as Ryeland sought to prove the man arrested and charged for a murder years earlier was innocent.
The Moonflower Murders Ending Twist Explained
Self-proclaimed detective Susan Ryeland continued her investigation of the Frank Parris murder in Moonflower Murders and uncovered a final twist in the story's ending.
For six episodes, Ryeland (played by Lesley Manville) used her keen intellect and the help of the literary adventures of 1950s detective Atticus Pünd to hopefully find out who killed Mr. Parris and discover what happened to Cecily, the daughter of a wealthy hotel who is now missing.
To do this, Ryeland drew from an investigation in one of Pünd's books, in which author Alan Conway seemingly hides secret clues to unsolved crimes.
In the series finale, this culminated as Ryeland figured out the murder in both her real-life case and that of the Pünd novel she was reading.
This big twist came thanks to the name Madeline Cain. In the series' central book, Cain is seen as fairly unsuspecting, serving as Pünd's primary assistant.
In the literary world within the PBS show, Pünd and Cain were charged with investigating the death of John Spencer (an aristocrat who was the key suspect in the murder of his wife, starlet Melissa James).
In Episode 5, it was revealed that James had not been killed by her husband but instead by her lover, the venerable Dr. Collins.
This was confusing to fans as it had been written that Spencer seemingly killed himself after murdering his wife. But if he did not kill James, then what prompted him to take his own life?
Well, that is where the Episode 6 twist ending comes in. It turns out that, in actuality, Madeline Cain murdered Spencer. Pünd finds that she was a devoted Melissa James superfan who killed Spencer out of revenge following his name being brought up as the number one suspect in his wife's murder.
Ryeland uses this twist to unravel the mystery of the real-life killer behind the show's modern-day mystery.
"Madeline Cain" is revealed to be an anagram of Aidan MacNeil, Cecily Parris's husband, which author Alan Conway wrote into the Pünds story.
Conway also dedicated the book to "Leo" (aka Aidan's star sign), serving as yet another clue to Mr. Parris's true killer.
It turns out that Aidan killed Mr. Parris years before the events of the series, as Mr. Parris discovered Aidan's secret of being a sex worker.
On the night of Aidan and Cecily's wedding, Mr. Parris tries to force himself upon Aidan and uses the young man's secret as blackmail.
This led Aidan to kill Frank Parris and frame an immigrant hotel employee for the crime. Then, years later, Aidan kidnaps and kills Cecily as she is trying to uncover the true story behind her Mr. Parris' murder.
Star Reacts to Moonflower Murders Ending
On the Moonflower Murders twist, Madeline Cain actress Pippa Bennett-Warner said that she had always seen her character as putting on this mask of an average person, knowing there was something deeper underneath.
She told PBS, "Madeline has a persona and underneath it is actually a murderer:"
"Well, that scream is so contrived, because she [stabbed John Spencer] and then she has to slip back into character. Our director Rebecca Gatword and I spoke about this quite a lot, that Madeline has a persona and underneath it is actually a murderer. So when I killed John Spencer, Rebecca was like, 'Remember in that split second, I need to see the murderer. And as soon as you’ve done it and you’re all downstairs, you put back on the [mask]…'"
The PBS star remarked that this finale twist offered fans "a glimpse" of who she is, but if one were to look closer, they might see "it [was] under there the whole time:"
"Which was really lovely because you see a glimpse of it in the final episode—it’s under there the whole time but I’m playing against it to sell the character and to take everybody on this journey of people not thinking that she did it. But then you see it when I kill him and then I turn around and I look evil. And then I go back into character."
Bennett-Warner also said she did not guess who either of the murderers, in present-day or in the in-universe book, calling it "such a pleasant surprise" (via Telly Visions):
"No, I didn't! It was such a pleasant surprise. I was like, 'Oh my God, Madeline! Oh my God, Aiden!' And Will [Tudor] is just gorgeous as well. But no, I didn't guess anything. That's the genius of the writing as well. It keeps you going and then surprises you at the end. It's excellent crime writing. His brain is amazing."
"I feel like she believed she was doing the absolute right thing at that moment," the Madeline Cain actress continued, saying that if one were to pull the layers back, this could be the first indication of a much darker past for her PBS character:
"The obsession and the love runs so deep for Melissa James; Madeline was almost trying to do the work of God. I feel like she believed she was doing the absolute right thing at that moment. We had this ongoing joke that Madeline actually killed her old boss at Associated Biscuit, that she's evil but covers it all with this nice demeanor. You can read it in many ways. But I think she's avenging the death of someone who I believe she's in love with."
Now that the series is over, fans may be able to go back through the episodes and spot any potential tells of Cain's guilt earlier on.
Moonflower Murders is streaming on PBS.
