Diksha Sundriyal
In Apple TV+’s ‘Imperfect Women,’ Nancy’s murder leads her friends, Eleanor and Mary, on the quest to get to the bottom of the truth about what really happened to her. While Mary suspects Nancy’s husband, Robert, Eleanor has a soft spot for him. At the end of the second episode, she sleeps with him, and later, she ends up discovering a letter that shows that Robert knew about Nancy’s affair with a man named David, though earlier, he had claimed not to. The letter mentions Robert getting mad at Nancy, which makes Eleanor wonder if she grossly underestimated the violent nature of the man she has been in love with since she was eighteen. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Letter Makes Eleanor Question Robert’s Truths and Lies
When Eleanor confronts Robert about the letter, he confesses that he found out about the affair a few days before her death. They’d returned home after watching the production of Ariadne. Nancy went to the bathroom, and though Robert was not in the habit of spying on her, someone kept texting her. Robert’s curiosity led him to open the texts, and he saw Nancy’s naked pictures. He lost his cool and got angry with her, but he did not hurt her. He claims he lied about it because he knew it would make him suspicious to the cops. When he asks what Eleanor plans to do about the letter, she says she doesn’t know. As she drives back home, she has a vision of the night of Nancy’s murder and the interaction between them.
Later, Eleanor shows the journal, in which she had found the letter, to Mary, who sees it as a way to get to know their friend better, while also hoping that it will tell them who David is. At work, Eleanor prepares for the award ceremony where she and her foundation will be honored for her work. She is also approached by Marcus, Mary’s son, who works for her, to sort things out with his case work, and she tells him to forget about what happened “that night.” An interviewer arrives to take Eleanor’s interview for the award, but he also asks her about Nancy, which throws her off a bit. Around the same time, Jordan confronts her about ignoring him, and she breaks things off with her.
At the ceremony, Eleanor gives a speech which turns from talking about the cause that she and her foundation work for, to a self-reflection, wondering about whether she is a bad person and a monster. Later, while her mind is still on the fact that she slept with her dead husband’s son, Mary tells her that she found the sketch of someone that Nancy wrote she was scared of. Mary believes that this person is Scott, Nancy’s stepfather, who was the only person she talked about being scared of. Their conversation is interrupted by Donovan, who is late. He teases Eleanor about the speech, but when she starts talking about how she feels like a fraud, he assures her that she is better than most people.
Eleanor and Robert’s Secret Comes to Light
While returning home, Eleanor gets a voice message from Robert, where he apologises again and talks about how she is the only one he feels like talking to. His words melt her heart, and she finds herself at his door. They have sex, and later, fool around in the pool, which is when Cora shows up. She was supposed to be in school, but she and her friend decided to skip it and come home to help her heal. But seeing her father and Eleanor in the pool together, she has no doubt about what’s going on between them. When she confronts them about it, Robert flat-out lies, and the ease with which he does it surprises Eleanor.
Later, Eleanor wonders if they should stop seeing each other, but Robert thinks otherwise. He also assures her that Cora will not be asking any more questions, but questions are not encouraged in their family. It’s in their DNA to do as they are asked, but Eleanor points out that Cora is part-Nancy. Still, the fact that Robert wants to be with her makes her happy, and the next morning, she drives back with a huge smile on her face. However, when she gets to the office, she notices everyone looking weirdly at her. It turns out that Robert was entirely wrong about his daughter. Cora posts a video on TikTok, talking about how her mother’s best friend slept with her father. While she doesn’t directly name Eleanor, no one has a doubt that it is her.
On her way to Mary’s house, she gets a call from Donovan, who chides her about sleeping with Robert, even though he had warned her against it. He points out that now Robert and his family will focus on damage control, and she will be their fall guy. On reaching Mary’s house, she discovers that her friend hasn’t heard the news yet because she has been busy with her kids and housework. So, Eleanor comes clean about the whole thing, including the letter. Mary gets angry and tells her to leave, after telling her that the letter is a clear indication of Robert’s guilt and should be handed over to the cops. It also turns out that her husband, Howard, is gone for a job interview in Ohio, and if he gets it, she might have to move there permanently.
Eleanor’s Love for Robert Comes to an End
Eleanor still believes that the situation can be salvaged if they make a joint statement, but when she reaches Robert’s home, it turns out his lawyers are already working on how to get him out of this bind. While Cora refuses to delete the video, Robert has been advised to keep his distance from Eleanor, and it seems he is going to listen to them and even asks for the letter back. When Eleanor asks what about their relationship, he calls it a mistake, leaving her brokenhearted. Eleanor also gets to know from Detective Ganz that Jordan revealed that while Eleanor had been with him that night, she didn’t arrive until after the window in which Nancy was killed.
With her and Robert’s affair coming to light, Eleanor seems to have a good cause for killing her friend. Feeling stranded by everyone around her, Eleanor retreats to her house, but Donovan shows up to comfort her. Later, she shows him the letter and explains that Robert used to take her fishing every year on the anniversary of her father’s death for 10 years. This was one of the things that she loved about him, and while she has loved him for a long time, the recent turn of events has sapped her of those feelings. Donovan asks her if she really believes Robert is innocent, and she confesses how easy it was for him to lie to Cora. He asks her to tell him exactly what she did the night of the murder.
She reveals that that night, before meeting Jordan, she got a text from Marcus. He’d gotten in trouble with a bookie, and she bailed him out of it. While this confirms that she has an alibi for the murder, she asks her lawyers to keep Marcus’ name confidential. He is already on probation, and the details she just shared could prove difficult for him and break Mary’s heart. The lawyers state that they will hire a private investigator to look into the case, and she has nothing to worry about. Donovan assures her she will be fine and tells her to return home.
That night, Eleanor spends hours crying in her bed, remembering the detail she didn’t tell anyone. When she was leaving the restaurant, Nancy came back and asked her to come with her to break things off with David. Eleanor had been angry with her about cheating on Robert, so she told her to do it by herself. Despite Nancy’s pleas, Eleanor didn’t listen to her and left her friend alone. Had she not done that, Nancy would’ve still been alive. She is forced out of her bed by a persistent knocking at her door. It’s Mary, and she says she’s found out who David is.
Read More: Is Imperfect Women Based on a True Story?
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