Diksha Sundriyal
After a lot of twists and turns and dropping subtle hints that often fall in the category of “blink and you’ll miss,” Hulu’s ‘Death and Other Details’ answers all the questions for its viewers. From who murdered Danny/Keith Trubitsky to who is Victor Sams, every major question is answered in the final two episodes of the show. In answering all these questions, the show also makes sure that almost all loose ends are tied up. The ones that are not are left to dangle in front of the audience to get them to figure things out on their own. Where does the finale leave all the characters? SPOILERS AHEAD
Death and Other Details Episode 9 and 10 Recap
The arrival of Victor Sams’ men changes the air on the Varuna. They force everyone to play a game. They have rigged the ship with bombs that will go off in one hour. Within this time, everyone has to make a bid for the nine seats on the helicopter, which is the only way out of their situation. Before this, all the innocent people, like children, Rufus Cotesworth, and the crew of the Varuna, barring Teddy, are sent off the ships in lifeboats. The people who remain are complicit in the bad things in one way or another.
With Cotesworth out of the picture, it falls on Imogene to solve the case and decipher the identity of Victor Sams. She believes that Danny may have been killed because he saw something he shouldn’t have. Could it be that he saw Victor Sams himself? If so, his journal might have the answer to this years-spanning mystery. Cleverly, Imogene gets her hands on his journal. After a bit of deciphering, she realizes that the answer to Victor Sams’s identity lies in the video Father Toby’s son made that day.
The video reveals that it was Hilde Eriksen Danny saw that day, which puts a lot of things into perspective, especially the fact that she is Victor Sams. But that’s not the biggest twist. It is when Imogene digs further into the details that she realizes that Hilde Eriksen is actually her mother, Kira Scott. This opens the doors to other answers that Imogene, Rufus Cotesworth, and their friends have been looking for.
Death and Other Details Finale Ending: What Happens to Hilde Eriksen, aka Kira Scott?
The revelation of Victor Sams’ identity is the biggest plot twist that ‘Death and Other Details’ offers in its final two episodes. It makes the viewers, as well as the characters around them, reconsider everything they thought they knew so far. Imogene, especially, is shocked by this development. For eighteen years, she believed her mother was murdered, but now, it turns out that she never even died.
Once the secret is out, Hilde, aka Kira, aka Victor Sams, sees no reason to keep up pretenses and tells Imogene everything. She tells her everything that happened since her meeting with Celia Chun in the Opal Diner and how she fended off the Colliers, about how she decided to fake her own death and make the painful decision of leaving Imogene behind. But now that Imogene knows everything, she must see everything her mother has built all those years away from her. She takes her to the headquarters of her mighty organization that was behind everything that happened to the Colliers and the others on the ship.
While Imogene was happy to get her mother back, she couldn’t reconcile with the fact that Kira had people killed, including the innocent Danny, who never wanted anything but to solve Kira’s murder and help bring closure to her daughter. Imogene sees her mother for the villain she has become and how little she cares about the lives of others, even if she justifies her actions by focusing on the crimes of the people she is hurting. There were other ways she could have tried before becoming the head of a blackmailing ring that doesn’t care who gets hurt while their plans are executed.
For years, Victor Sams had haunted Imogene, and when she finally has him, she decides to let him face justice, even if it means giving up her own mother to it. While Kira thinks Imogene has joined her, Imogene collaborates with Rufus Cotesworth, Teddy, Sunil, Leila, and Jules to trap Kira and have her turned over to the authorities. Sunil decides to become the state’s witness and is put into the protection program. His confession also means that he would be going to prison, but he is ready to repent for his sins, especially if it means destroying Victor Sams, who was behind everything that happened to him and his ship. Removing emotion from the equation, Imogene does the right thing and has Victor Sams arrested by the authorities, where they must pay for their crimes.
Did Anna Kill Katherine Collier? Why?
While Victor Sams was behind almost all deaths in ‘Death and Other Details,’ there was one that they had nothing to do with. With bodies dropping left and right, everyone thought Victor Sams was behind it when Katherine Collier’s dead body was found. Imogene believed that Katherine was killed for the role she played in Kira’s disappearance and for burying the Captionem Blue case, but the story was something else. A few minutes before she died, Katherine Collier had to face the truth.
It turns out that Katherine had had an affair with the Collier family lawyer, Llewellyn Mathers. It didn’t go on for too long, except that one time, Katherine and Llewellyn never really indulged with each other again. They also decided never to talk about it because they knew how it would complicate things. Another thing that Katherine stayed mum on was the fact that Llewellyn got her pregnant with Anna. Because there was no reason for someone to suspect her, Katherine decided not to tell even Llewellyn about Anna, who was raised as Laurence Collier’s daughter.
Keeping a secret is not an easy task, and eventually, Katherine came clean about it to another man she was having an affair with, Father Toby. She told Toby the secret in confidence, but later, Celia Chun threatened him to tell the truth, or he would lose his son. She asked him for one secret that could shake the Collier family, and he gave her the truth about Anna’s parentage. Later, when Anna tried to reason with Celia to let her be the CEO of the company even though it had been sold to the Chuns, Celia reasoned it wasn’t possible because Anna wasn’t really a Collier.
This revelation, paired with several other things about her family that came to light the same night, left Anna completely unhinged. She couldn’t make peace with the fact that her parents were such terrible people. When she confronted her mother about it, all she got was an insensitive reply. This angered Anna even more, and she ended up hitting her mother. The hit was so strong and on the spot that Katherine immediately died. Anna had hit her on the head, and when Katherine fell into the water, Anna realized what she had done.
Anna would have gone to prison for killing her mother, but before anyone else could find her, Hilde Eriksen did. She offered to help Anna, but in return, Anna would have to become yet another of her minions. She would have to come through when she was asked to do something. But most importantly, she would have to keep the entire thing a secret. If she told a soul about it or ever refused to do what she was asked, the evidence against her would be sent to the cops, and she would have to spend the rest of her life in prison.
While Anna agreed to it, she couldn’t make peace with the fact that she had killed her mother. This thought haunted her, and she lost the desire to do anything at all. She didn’t care when Victor Sams played the game where the rich would have to bid as much money as they could for their survival. She would have gone down with the ship if it wasn’t for her brother. She didn’t care what was happening with her father anymore or that her own marriage with Leila had crumbled and was on the brink of divorce. All she did was drown herself in drugs and alcohol. But eventually, Victor Sams’ people came knocking and asked her to do something for them. What they asked her is not revealed, but it doesn’t matter because Anna will have to do it anyway.
Whose Dead Body Does Imogene Find?
After Victor Sams is dealt with and all the loose ends are tied, it seems like Imogene Scott can finally breathe freely and not think about any more mysteries. She and her friends are gathered at a ski resort, which is where they trapped Hilde Eriksen and gave her over to the authorities. Just when it feels like they can finally have some fun, something else happens. On the ski route, they find a lot of blood, and then a dead body with one of its legs cut out. Who does the body belong to? Does it have anything to do with Victor Sams?
By now, it’s clear that while Victor Sams may have been an alias for Hilde Eriksen, it has evolved into a humungous organization in eighteen years. So, even when Hilde is gone, her people are still continuing her work, which is why it is not impossible to believe that Victor Sams’ people might be behind this new murder. Another thing that points towards their involvement is Hilde’s presence at the resort. On the surface, it seems like she came there to spend quality time with her daughter. But then, it becomes clear that she is never off-duty, and because there is no such thing as coincidences, it is highly likely that her presence is connected to the murder.
Despite all the seemingly obvious connections with Victor Sams, there is also the possibility that the case may have nothing to do with them. It’s clearly a setup for the second season, and considering that this season’s mysteries are almost entirely solved and exhausted, there is a good chance that we might have a new mystery at hand next season, which may or may not be entirely free of Victor Sams. How the case turns out in Season 2 remains to be seen, but considering the attention to detail, it is fair to assume that the audience may already have been introduced to the victim as well as the killer. You just didn’t see it because you weren’t paying attention.
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