--- title: Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of The Better Sister description: The surprising ending of 'The Better Sister,' starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks. canonical: https://time.com/7287674/the-better-sister-ending-explained/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-05-29T17:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-06-02T14:31:52.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of The Better Sister og:description: The surprising ending of 'The Better Sister,' starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks. og:url: https://time.com/7287674/the-better-sister-ending-explained/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9eee196c87e3a831/6998c6d8e2d64b7b6dc5f5f1/jessica-biel-elizabeth-banks-better-sister.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Better Sister - First Look og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of The Better Sister twitter:description: The surprising ending of 'The Better Sister,' starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9eee196c87e3a831/6998c6d8e2d64b7b6dc5f5f1/jessica-biel-elizabeth-banks-better-sister.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of _The Better Sister_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jun 2, 2025 2:31 PM UTCPublished: May 29, 2025 5:00 PM UTC  Elizabeth Banks (left) and Jessica Biel (right) play two grieving mothers in 'The Better Sister.' Elizabeth Banks (left) and Jessica Biel (right) play two grieving mothers in 'The Better Sister.'Jojo Whilden/Prime—Amazon Content Services LLC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jun 2, 2025 2:31 PM UTCPublished: May 29, 2025 5:00 PM UTC **_Warning: Spoilers ahead for_** **The Better Sister** Just as New York City’s elite gears up for [summer in the Hamptons](https://time.com/6979288/most-anticipated-tv-shows-summer-2024/), Amazon Prime is out with a thriller about a high-powered attorney found murdered in his Hamptons home. _The Better Sister_, released May 29, is the TV adaptation of Alafair Burke’s novel of the same name, following magazine executive Chloe Taylor ([Jessica Biel](https://time.com/6976524/jessica-biel-period-shame/)) as she searches for the person who killed her husband, Adam (Corey Stoll). When the prime suspect turns out to be Chloe and Adam’s son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), it quickly becomes clear that behind the glitz and glamour lies a dark and complicated family dynamic. Adding to the tension is Chloe’s estranged sister Nicky ([Elizabeth Banks](https://time.com/6255751/cocaine-bear-elizabeth-banks-interview/)), who comes back into her life to help navigate the criminal proceedings when Ethan is put on trial for Adam’s murder. In their relationship, Chloe has always considered herself the “better sister.” She’s the one who has a stable career and perfect-seeming family, while Nicky, who struggles with addiction, is seen as someone who can’t get her life under control. But by the end, viewers may have a different impression about what really makes a better sister. The show is a classic whodunit. Here’s what to know about the family drama in this thriller and its surprising ending. ## **What is the central question of** **_The Better Sister_** **?** The show’s central question is simple: Who stabbed Adam Macintosh to death? Chloe and Adam are living in the lap of luxury. They have a penthouse apartment in Manhattan with a wrap-around terrace overlooking Central Park, and a second home in the Hamptons. By day, Chloe is running a women’s magazine, and Adam works at a tony law firm. By night, they are hitting up the gala circuit. One night when they’re out at their Hamptons home, Chloe walks into their living room to find her husband lying in a pool of his own blood. By the second episode, Chloe and Adam’s son Ethan is arrested for his father’s murder after Ethan’s DNA is found under Adam’s fingernails. And that’s not the only early twist. Police contact Chloe’s estranged sister Nicky (Elizabeth Banks) because she is actually Ethan’s biological mother. Though police believe Ethan needs to be with Nicky in this moment, Chloe views her sister as an addict who is only aggravating the situation. We learn that Nicky is actually Adam’s ex-wife, and they had Ethan together. Chloe has always been told that Adam got custody over Ethan after finding Nicky passed out drunk, face down in a swimming pool with baby Ethan nearly drowning beside her. ## **A family on trial**  Magazine exec Chloe Taylor (played by Jessica Biel) is questioned by detectives Nancy Guidry (Kim Dickens) and Matt Bowen (Bobby Naderi). Jojo Whilden/Prime—© Amazon Content Services LLC Chloe and Adam's dirty laundry is aired during Ethan’s trial. Ethan admits to his lawyer Michelle Sanders (Gloria Reuben) that Nicky gave him a flip phone after his grandfather’s funeral and that he was in regular communication with Nicky behind Chloe and Adam’s backs. The prosecutor argues that if Ethan hid the phone from Chloe and Adam, then he must be lying about other things. Then the prosecutor reveals that Ethan’s email address is linked to a Reddit account that posted threatening messages about his father, including one that called for Adam’s death. That’s because, Ethan explains at the end of episode 5, “there were times I wanted him gone.” In episode 6, Chloe takes the witness stand and opens up about a fight with Adam in which he pushed her against their bedroom wall, and she fell to the ground. She said he blamed her for pressuring him to go work for a law firm when he found working in the public sector more fulfilling. Episode 6 ends with Sanders pointing out to the jury that no murder weapon has been uncovered, none of Ethan’s blood has been found at the scene, and no witnesses have said that Ethan was at the scene of the crime. Ultimately, the jury finds Ethan not guilty. But the show does not end with the verdict. Bombshells keep being revealed after the trial is over. When Ethan gets home, he finds police records he requested about the night he was taken away from his mother. He had always been told that he almost drowned, but the police report said there were no signs that he inhaled water. It says that Nicky did have Xanax, Ambien, and alcohol in her system, and a flashback shows Adam crushing up pills, mixing them with vodka and lemonade, and serving it to his wife. Nicky reveals that she already knew that she had been drugged after working with a local lawyer. But it’s news to Chloe, who is then haunted by Adam’s ghost arguing that he was trying to get full custody of Ethan, and that given Nicky’s substance abuse issues, she was probably going to kill Ethan anyway. And yet, it turns out that the person that Chloe thought was ruining her life is the one who saves her life. ## **How does** **_The Better Sister_** **end?** Twelve hours before Adam’s death, Ethan told Nicky via the flip phone that he saw Adam push Chloe when he was trying to take a selfie on their rooftop overlooking Central Park to send to Nicky. And he said it wasn’t the first time Adam hurt her. Viewers now understand why, when Chloe found the flip phone in episode 3 and told Nicky to charge it, Nicky quickly deleted the phone’s contents. Nicky immediately decided to drive to the Hamptons from Ohio. She waited in her car outside of the Chloe and Adam's home until Adam arrived in a taxi. She got out of the car and followed him in to confront him. When Adam threatened to call the police, Nicky threatened to tell the police what he did to Chloe and told him that Ethan knows too. Adam grabbed Nicky’s arm and pushed her and that’s when Nicky plunged a pocket knife into Adam’s neck. We learn Ethan was really trying to protect Chloe the whole time. That’s why his DNA was found in the crime scene—he believed Chloe had killed Adam and threw things around the living room to make it seem like an intruder had broken into the house to try and help her. And viewers can understand why Ethan told his lawyer in episode 3 that he brought a gun to school because he was afraid to leave it in the apartment. He was afraid his dad would use it against his mom, or his mom would use it against his dad. He admits in the final episode that he feels guilty for not calling an ambulance when he saw Adam was still breathing at the crime scene, instead choosing to hurry out of the house. The show ends with nobody knowing that Nicky killed Adam, except Chloe. Detective Nancy Guidry (Kim Dickens) does figure out that Nicky did it after interviewing Adam's mother and discovering that Nicky had told her mother-in-law that Adam had been stabbed—a detail that only the murderer would know at that point. However, Guidry’s boss had pulled her off the case because he considered Adam’s mother an unreliable source and a news article had just come out about Guidry’s history of mistakes in her detective work. The episode ends with Chloe and Nicky sitting on the beach. They even talk about writing a book about what they’ve been through. As Chloe tells Nicky, “I don’t have any story without you, not worth telling anyway.” The sisters that were estranged are now closer than ever before. **Correction, May 31** _The original version of this story misstated the character that Nicky told about Adam's death before the authorities informed Nicky of his death. It was her mother-in-law, not her mother._ **Correction, June 2** _The original version of this story misstated the character Adam's surname. It_ **_is_** _Macintosh, not Taylor. The original version of this story also misstated how Detective Guidry figured out that Nicky was the murderer. It was because she told Adam's mother-in-law that Adam had been stabbed, not because she_ _Nicky told her about his death before the authorities could do so._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7287674/the-better-sister-ending-explained/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7287674/the-better-sister-ending-explained/"},"headline":"Breaking Down the Twisty Ending of The Better Sister","datePublished":"2025-05-29T17:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2025-06-02T14:31:52.000Z","description":"The surprising ending of 'The Better Sister,' starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks.","url":"https://time.com/7287674/the-better-sister-ending-explained/","keywords":["Television","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9eee196c87e3a831/6998c6d8e2d64b7b6dc5f5f1/jessica-biel-elizabeth-banks-better-sister.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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