Warning: Spoilers for Sharp Objects through the penultimate episode, "Falling."

HBO’s slow, seductive, sweaty summer series Sharp Objects has been a journey into the dark underbelly of a small midwestern town, and a viewing experience that has been exceptionally emotional and immersive. We have followed Amy Adams’ Camille Preaker through one major criminal investigation, and along the way have unraveled another one. But where does that leave our central case to catch the serial killer of Wind Gap?

Below, Adam Chitwood and I have compiled a list of suspects, from the least likely to the big “red alert there be a murderer here” guess about the killer of Ann Nash and Natalie Keene. And no, neither one of us have read the Gillian Flynn’s book or seen the finale yet, so this is built on pure speculation — and the clues we’ve been given so far. -- Allison Keene

Frank Curry

Status: Unlikely

Frank Curry (Miguel Sandoval) is a saint, not only as an editor who is really lax about deadlines and word counts, and generously lets his writer go on a personal sojourn to write about small-town murders, but also because he genuinely seems to care about Camille and what she is going through. He’s available at all hours go the day and night for her to talk shop or excise her personal demons, but he has his own demons he’s also trying to keep at bay. I mean, can anyone really be that good?

In all seriousness, if Frank is somehow behind all of this as a twisted form of therapy for Camille, I’ll be impressed more than anything. — Allison Keene

Camille Preaker

Status: Unlikely

Look, we have to investigate all angles of this — there have been multiple murders! Even though there is absolutely no evidence linking Camille (Amy Adams) to the murders, she does drink a lot, hallucinate, and have some memory issues so, she has to at least be considered. Like with Frank, it would be a heck of a thing to have Camille be at fault here, as both protagonist and potential murderer, although it’s not unheard of. However, that feels like it’s undermining the whole thrust of Sharp Objects, which is about Camille coming to terms with the darkness of her past and Wind Gap, and attempting to rectify it. — Allison Keene

Richard Willis

Status: Unlikely

Earlier this season Detective Richard Willis (Chris Messina) seemed a bit more likely, mostly because we just didn’t know the guy. It would also be the perfect crime—commit a double murder, then ride into town as the know-it-all Big City cop who solves the case. But as Camille has gotten closer to Richard, it’s become clear he doesn’t really have anything to hide (especially in that bedroom scene, zing!). Richard also went out of his way to investigate the death of Madison and is seemingly the only person in Wind Gap willing to question some of the town’s more strange goings-on. He’s a good egg. – Adam Chitwood

Ashley Wheeler

Status: Unlikely

Maybe if this were more Bring It On than Gone Girl Ashley Wheeler (Madison Davenport) could have been a serious suspect, but it doesn’t quite fit the story being told here. Ashley certainly has her oddities, like playing housewife to the grieving John and wearing her cheerleading outfit at inappropriate times, but most of this behavior can simply be chalked up to teenage politics. Ashley is desperate for popularity and to be loved, and she’s playing the part she thinks will make her stand out in Camille’s story. As for the ear injury, chalk that one up to a fight with Natalie over John—though murder seems a bit much. – Adam Chitwood

Jackie O’Neill

Status: Possible

Jackie (Elizabeth Perkins) was introduced as the town gossip, but we now understand there’s much more going on beneath the surface. Once BFFs with Adora, Jackie now keeps her distance and is on a rigorous diet of alcohol and pills. As it turns out, when Adora’s daughter Madison died, Jackie did some digging to try to find out exactly what killed her. Based on Camille’s confrontation, it appears Jackie knew that Adora was purposefully making her children sick, and by extension is aware that Adora likely murdered Madison. And yet, she stopped short of actually doing something about it.

Jackie doesn’t really have a motive here, or at least a good one. But it’s possible, as with Madison, that Jackie knows more than she’s letting on about these two murders. The question then becomes, who is she protecting? – Adam Chitwood

John Keene

Status: Possible

While John Keene (Taylor John Smith) is one of Wind Gap’s two main suspects, there are a few reasons to believe he’s just not the right guy. The close-knit town immediately seized on John’s sensitivity and outsider status, positing that he killed his sister’s best friend and then his sister. At the end of Episode 7 he’s been arrested for the crime because they found Natalie’s blood in his room, but he never really fit. In the few genuinely intimate moments we’ve seen with John, he doesn’t seem like someone who could do that kind of harm. He’s damaged goods himself, much like Camille, and the emotional distress over Natalie’s death seems to have more to do with losing his only ally in a foreign town than guilt.

As for the blood, John revealed to Camille that Natalie was a fighter and liked to bite, so that’s an easy answer there. And while one could maybe take his “confession” at face value, again it just doesn’t add up. – Adam Chitwood

Bill Vickery

Status: Possibly Involved

Something is up with Bill Vickery (Matt Craven) and Adora. He adores her (see what I did there?), and she basks in his attention. They are often seen conspiring together, and after the events of the penultimate episode, “Falling,” we know that Adora is responsible for the death of Camille’s younger sister via Munchausen by Proxy. Does Bill know? Did he help her cover it up? Bill may not have actually killed these girls, but he might be culpable in other ways … and at the very least, he’s guilty of some pretty poor policing. — Allison Keene

Bob Nash

Status: Possible

The other major suspect in the murder, Bob Nash (Will Chase), is a bit more believable than John Keene, but still doesn’t quite fit. We know Bob is a drunk, and there have been hints that he can get violent with his wife and children. But he also just seems too obvious. The wife-beating drunk? Really? That would be one hell of an unsatisfying ending to this engaging ordeal, and when it comes to Wind Gap’s sins, what’s buried deep under the surface is often far more troubling than what’s staring you in the face. Bob, for better or worse, wears his downfalls on his sleeve. – Adam Chitwood

Alan Crellin

Status: Highly Possible

From Alan Crellin’s (Henry Czerny) introduction, we’ve known something’s off about this guy. He’s always in his own little world, listening to his records, keeping his distance from his very dramatic wife. But as we’ve been let into Alan’s world bit by bit, what we’ve seen has been troubling. There’s the fact that he and Adora don’t sleep in the same room and interact with one another more like monarchs or dignitaries than a happily married couple. Then there was that hand-biting business, which recontextualized Alan’s little music spells as something that potentially keeps more violent tendencies at bay.

We know that Adora was close to both of the murdered girls, which means Alan definitely had contact with them. As for motive, perhaps jealousy over their relationship with Adora and Amma? Or, after the penultimate episode’s shocking Adora revelation, maybe he felt he was “saving” them from her sickness? Or maybe he’s simply tangentially related to the murders. Whatever the case, something’s up. – Adam Chitwood

Adora Crellin

Status: Highly Possible

The first strike against Adora (Patricia Clarkson) is that she is now a known killer. She killed her daughter via Munchausen by Proxy, and she’s trying to do the same to Amma (and nearly did so with Camille as well). But the methods of murder differ so much with Natalie and Ann versus her daughter, could it be the work of the same killer? There has been talk of a “woman in white,” which is very clearly Adora. And yet, what would the motivation be? Was she also trying to “save” them? Could you really see Adora, as wispy and high-strung as Clarkson plays her, capable of ripping a child’s teeth from her head? No, she prefers poison. At least, so it seems. — Allison Keene

Amma Crellin

Status: Most Likely

If there is one person in this entire show that I could see ripping teeth from a jaw bone, it’s Amma Crellin (Eliza Scanlen). She’s also someone who can compartmentalize her life easily — she’s a mean girl who terrorizes the town yet also plays the perfect doll-like child for her mother, even as she knows her mother is poisoning her. And she's clearly unstable, so those two juxtaposed personalities may have had a violent collision with her former friends Natalie and Ann, especially as they started receiving more attention from Adora. If there is one thing Amma needs at all times, it’s attention. Her erratic behavior and sadistic tendencies seem to suggest she could have perpetrated the crimes, which his intensely horrific, and yet also fitting. But if she did do it, did she get help? From Adora, or someone else? — Allison Keene