Imperfect Women Finale Recap and Ending Explained

Apple TV+’s ‘Imperfect Women‘ wraps up the mystery of Nancy’s murder with a finale of revelations and confrontations. The previous episode upended Mary and Eleanor’s friendship when the former returned to Howard despite knowing that he was behind Nancy’s murder. Refusing to give up, Eleanor had Howard arrested, but then, at the end of the episode, it is revealed that Scott is believed to be the real murderer. A CCTV footage shows him at the crime scene, running away, around the same time of the murder. Does this mean that Mary and Eleanor were mistaken? The truth is more complicated than that. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Who Killed Nancy?

The CCTV footage all but confirms to the cops that Scott is the murderer. An arrest warrant is issued, and Detective Ganz makes it clear that she won’t be looking into Howard anymore, no matter how much Mary and Eleanor try to convince him otherwise. At this time, Mary is desperate to get her children back, and finding any evidence against Howard would be beneficial in her case. Still, as Det. Ganz pointed out that there is no concrete evidence that will prove Howard’s guilt in the court of law. Without that, all the theories and speculations are just that. However, Mary and Eleanor receive a confirmation of Howard’s guilt through Scott, who reaches out to them after he is arrested and put in prison.

Scott’s lawyer arranges a meeting between the three of them, and this is where he fills them in on the missing parts of Nancy’s story. It turns out that after talking with Mary at the diner, Nancy called Scott. Their meeting brought out complicated emotions, as Nancy confronted him about the abuse she suffered at his hands when she was a child. This helped bring some sense of closure for her, though it doesn’t mean that she entirely forgave him for his actions. Still, when the time came for her to break things off with Howard, she didn’t have anyone else to call. She couldn’t ask Mary, and Eleanor refused to go with her. So, she called Scott, just to have a backup. As told, Scott reached the bridge, but he was too late.

From a distance, he saw Howard carrying Nancy’s body away from the dead zone. However, instead of calling the cops, he ran away, and that’s the mistake he made. A flashback scene confirms Scott’s story as we find Nancy meeting Howard under the bridge. While she is there to break up, he starts talking about running away together. When Nancy makes it clear that she has no intentions of being with him, he gets angry and shoves her so hard that her head smashes against the wall, and she dies on the spot. Then, as Eleanor’s PI theorized, Howard pulls Nancy’s body away from the dead zone and leaves it towards the water, which is what Scott saw from a distance.

Mary Gets an Unexpected Win Over Howard

While there is no doubt that Howard killed Nancy, the fact remains. There is no evidence against him, and even though Scott was an eyewitness, his testimony cannot be used because he is a suspect himself. With Scott arrested for Nancy’s murder, Howard is allowed to walk free. Because Mary is not allowed to take her children, Howard takes them. She tries to tell him that she didn’t report him, but he refuses to believe it. He makes it clear that she will not be seeing her daughters again. As things escalate, Mary, accompanied by Marcus, meets her lawyer. It turns out that Howard has asked to expedite the case and will be moving to Ohio once he is granted full custody of the children. Marcus reveals that he knew about his father’s affairs, but that will not work in court.

Because they cannot attack Howard’s character without evidence, they must now focus on getting character witnesses for Mary. Since she and Eleanor are not on speaking terms at the time, the only person that Mary can think of is Robert, which leads to a whole other conversation. Eventually, the day of the hearing arrives. By this time, Eleanor is back, and she and Mary have already had the conversation with Scott. Despite their current differences, Eleanor shows up for her friend and talks about what a great friend and mother she is. Howard’s lawyer points out the incident where Mary forgot her daughter at the store, which kinda nullfies the whole testimony. Just when it seems that Howard has all but won the case, Mary’s lawyer presents a new witness.

This witness turns out to be Howard’s ex-wife, Jenny, who talks about how manipulative he had been. She reveals how he attacked and almost killed her when she told him she would be leaving him, and even in the rest of her statement, she has nothing good to say about him. In the end, the judge decides that neither parent is fit to have full custody of their children, who will be sent into foster care, at least temporarily. This means that Howard cannot go to Ohio anymore, which means all his plans have gone to waste. The defeat angers him to the point that later that night, he shows up at the motel where Mary has been staying. He kidnaps her and takes her to the same place where he killed Nancy.

Is Howard Dead?

Howard makes it clear that he will make it look like Mary slit her wrists, still grieving for the friend she was obsessed with. However, Mary tells him that she was supposed to meet Det. Ganz later (which is a lie) and give her proof about Howard’s death. If she is suddenly found dead, Ganz will become suspicious. She promises Howard that they can turn things around. She will call the whole thing off, and they can go back to normal. She gets her phone out and calls Eleanor, and then deliberately drops it on the ground. When Eleanor picks up the call, she hears Mary about being brought to the “dead zone” and realizes exactly where her friend is. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Howard is not going to let Mary walk away.

He starts talking about the potential she had when they were having an affair, and how she turned into a bore after they got married. He also reveals that Nancy intended to reveal the truth about their affair to Mary, which makes Mary realize that her friend had felt guilty and wanted to do the right thing. She throws dirt in Howard’s eyes and makes a run for it, but he catches her and strangles her. She would have died if it weren’t for Eleanor showing up right on time to push him away. Howard turns his attention toward Eleanor and gets her in a headlock. Mary gets up and stabs Howard with the knife he’d brought to slash her wrists and make it seem like a suicide. Once Mary’s anger is unleashed, she keeps stabbing him, killing him in the process.

Some time later, the cops arrive on the scene. Both Mary and Eleanor have survived the encounter, while Howard’s dead body is taken away. Mary is not arrested because she killed him in self-defense. The turn of events also confirms that it was Howard who killed Nancy. Det. Ganz would also be able to get evidence on him because now they can go through his phone records and his laptop, where they’ll eventually find the evidence of his affair with Nancy, especially the pictures with which he had tried to blackmail her. Since he isn’t alive to defend himself, the case is closed, and Nancy has received her justice, in a way.

Who Does Eleanor End Up With?

Since the beginning of the season, we have found Eleanor caught up in the drama surrounding Nancy and Mary, despite her family’s disapproval. Since Nancy’s death, events have transpired that have created a distance between her and the people she loved the most. After she has Howard arrested, leading to May losing her children, their friendship becomes even more fractured. Eleanor tries to apologize to Mary because having her girls separated from her wasn’t something she wanted. But Mary is too angry at her. She tells Eleanor to get her own family and stop leeching off of others. This hurts Eleanor pretty badly, and with no friend to turn to, she goes back home to her mother. The tension between Eleanor and her mother is apparent from their first encounter, but even then, it is clear that her mother loves her.

Eventually, they have a conversation in which Eleanor reveals that all her relationships have soured and that she cannot trust anyone with her heart after what happened with Robert. Her mother advises her not to shut down so easily. So what if things didn’t work out with Robert? She will find someone else, someone better, and she must be ready to accept that love when it comes. Her mother gives her own example, about how she shut down after her husband’s death, leading her to ruin her relationship with her daughter. The conversation mends things between the mother and daughter, and Eleanor leaves the house with a clearer mind. Following this, Eleanor and Mary meet Scott; they set aside their differences, she gives character testimony for Mary in court, and then eventually saves her life.

When all is said and done, Eleanor decides to put some boundaries between herself and her friends, including Mary, for her own peace of mind. She accepts that her friendships had become too codependent, and the way everything fell apart did not serve anyone well. So, she takes Mary’s advice and turns towards her own family. In the end, we see her on a boat, named Nancy, with her brother and his girlfriend. She also has a new partner by her side, which reveals that she heeded her mother’s words and has found love again. She receives a reminder on her phone about Junie’s birthday, but she is not there to attend the party. Instead, she sends a gift, revealing that she and Mary are on good terms, but it is time for Eleanor to live her own life.

Why Does Mary Look at Robert? Do They Get Together?

With Howard dead, Mary’s life clears up to a great extent. She is free from her manipulative and emotionally abusive marriage. She is free to live her life as she wants, rather than following Howard and his meager dreams. His death also clears the way for her to get back her daughters. With Howard revealed as Nancy’s murderer, Mary’s lawyer most likely made it look like he had been emotionally abusing Mary, leading her to take drugs, which eventually put her children in harm’s way. While she may have had to bend some rules, Mary eventually got her daughters back. In the final scene, we find her talking about the new lease at freedom, as she celebrates her daughter’s birthday. While Eleanor doesn’t attend the party, Robert and his daughter, Cora, are there, probably representing Nancy, who would have been there too, under normal circumstances.

In the end, Mary talks about how things are alright between them, with no more secrets and lies, at least for now. Then she looks at Robert, and it seems there is more to the story she hasn’t revealed yet. Earlier in the episode, Mary visited Robert, hoping that he could act as her character witness. He found the idea ludicrous because this was perhaps the first time they had actually gotten to talk to one another without Nancy around. He knows that Mary never liked him, and she confesses that she never saw what Nancy and Eleanor saw in him. Mary is brutally honest with Robert about his fallacies and how he is not a person in his own right but a projection of others. In the end, Robert does not show up as her character witness, but the conversation does clear the air between them.

It seems that it may even have opened the door for a friendship, where they finally get to know one another. With Eleanor deciding to put a distance between herself and Robert for good and creating some space between her and Mary’s friendship, it’s not unlikely that Mary and Robert may have spent more time together. With both of them single and emotionally vulnerable, given what happened to their spouses, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they connected with each other much more than expected. The last look suggests that Mary hasn’t told the whole story, at least not from her side. She also seems aware that a romance with Robert might create friction between her and Eleanor.

This would be rather unfortunate, since they have finally set aside their differences and started to mend their relationship. Moreover, Mary wasn’t very kind to Eleanor when the latter told her about sleeping with Robert, so when Eleanor finds out that Mary is sleeping with him now, things might get worse between them. At the same time, the situation between Mary and Robert (if it exists) is not the same as that between Eleanor and Robert. Also, Eleanor has already made her peace with Robert and moved on. While she may not be as angry with Mary, it would still hurt her, and Mary knows that. The fact that she is ready to take that chance, knowing where it could lead, shows that things are rather serious between her and Robert, which is why perhaps they are keeping it a secret. At least, for now.

Read More: Is Imperfect Women Based on a True Story?