Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Fatal Attraction Paramount+ reintroduced us to a classic movie of the same name with its new series, Fatal Attraction. The reimagining stars Lizzy Caplan, Joshua Jackson, and Amanda Peet, as the three portray the characters that were first introduced when the movie was released in 1987, then starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer. The show kept the premise mostly intact (with a major deviation) as it documented the secret affair between Jackson’s Dan Gallagher, a well-respected married lawyer, and Caplan’s Alex Forrest. The psychological thriller sees these two entangled in a messy web of lies that is only enhanced when Alex begins to see Dan as her boyfriend despite him calling things off. Refusing to take a hint, Alex forces herself into his life at the expense of her own life. What unfolds from that point forward, just as in the film, is a mystery of whether Dan was the one who killed her or not. Despite being in prison in the present day since the pilot, he preaches his innocence.
Fatal Attraction naturally incorporates many twists and turns that keep viewers engaged. The finale pulls out all the stops, some completely different from how the film told the story. As a result, the television series is able to add new life to a story already told and perhaps surprisingly, is able to demand a second season with its two most shocking reveals in Episode 8.
Who Killed Alex Forrest in 'Fatal Attraction'?
When we see Dan get out of prison early in the season, it’s pretty clear that he believes he was wrongfully blamed. He attempts to build a case after being released but reaches dead ends and isn’t given a chance for a retrial to clear his name. When we finish this first season, Dan is still not privy to who killed Alex, but we are finally shown the murder scene and who was behind her death. Dan is innocent after all, which is something we can only assume will be revealed to him if Season 2 gets the green light, but the one who is responsible for Alex’s murder seemed to come out of left field – though done intentionally.
As the finale continues on, it starts to seem as though Dan’s wife, Beth, may have been the one who murdered Alex. She believed Alex was behind her mother’s death and knew she had briefly kidnapped their daughter before returning her, so the motive was there all along even if the audience never suspected her. We see her meeting with Alex, and it doesn’t go well. The show intentionally set her up to be "the one" for a few fleeting moments before giving us the real killer: Beth's best friend and partner, Arthur Tomlinson (Brian Goodman).
The motive for Arthur being behind this may not have been in our faces before leading into this reveal, but the show did give us enough beforehand that we could have at least suspected him. Arthur was dealing with a dying wife at home as her battle with cancer was nearing its end and wearing him down. He saw Beth in a new light as the two began to confide in one another. He was aware of Dan’s infidelity and what Alex had been doing to Beth and her family. Alex also was responsible for burning down a house he was building with Beth. With his wife’s cancer battle rearing its ugly head, when Beth shared the hopelessness in trying to get Alex to stop, it only made sense that he saw this as an opportunity to take out his own frustrations while also doing a favor for someone he had a new connection with.
Arthur entered Alex's apartment and attempted to strangle her before she eventually regained consciousness, leading him to hit her over the head and end her life. (This explains the pool of blood that was originally shown early in the season.) It’s safe to assume that only Arthur knows he’s the one behind it, and that neither Peet's Beth, her daughter Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), or obviously Dan, are aware of his doing. This will make for a complicated Season 2 storyline as we can only assume the truth comes out in some way.
What Does Ellen's Decision Mean in the Finale?
Speaking of Dan and Beth’s daughter, Ellen, what the heck was that parting scene of hers? When it comes to Jirrels' present-day version of the character, she is always given a few scenes each episode, though it's always a little unclear what exactly her purpose was. We see Dan attempting to rebuild a relationship with her after his release, but outside of that, there wasn’t much being offered by this character… until the finale.
This season showed Ellen interacting with her psychology professor, Richard Macksey (David Meunier) on a consistent basis after class. They engaged in some serious conversations and more lighthearted ones involving her work in the class, but nothing ever felt out of place until the finale. A few episodes back, we saw Ellen see Stella (Isabella Briggs), another student and friend of hers, heading back to what we could assume to be Richard’s home after hours. Was she feeling jealous? Was she concerned for her friend? The former wins out as we come to realize that Ellen is a lot like Alex in her twisted ways.
Ellen is seen sitting on a couch, editing and rearranging clips of her professor so that it forms a new string of sentences that culminate in him saying, “We could be together forever.” The creepy-meter is buzzing momentarily before it erupts as the camera expands out to reveal that the couch is actually in Macksey’s house, which she had broken into through a hidden key, before confronting a startled Macksey as he walks in on this surprise. Ellen then says to him, “I feel like you’re mad at me. Are you mad at me?” This is almost a mirrored image of an interaction between Dan and Alex, which sets up Ellen for an absolutely wild and unexpected character arc for Season 2. How did Ellen become someone who’d be a stalker? Was her brief interaction with Alex when she kidnapped her that impactful on her life? Season 2 is now fully set up with two major storylines needing to be fleshed out and uncovered.
When we head out of Fatal Attraction Season 1, we’re left with Dan still in limbo about getting his innocence proven, though he’s out of prison. We know that Arthur was the one who killed Alex, but no one else knows this, and Ellen has some demons of her own. Paramount Plus did an excellent job of taking a known story and adding two big twists to it that allow for multiple seasons.