“The Better Sister” (TV Series 2025) is yet another iteration of now-stale templates revolving around watching rich people go through tragedy, hell, tackle grief, and recover their footing. Throw in a sprinkling of trauma, unresolved past issues, threat of intimate partner violence, a son seeming to repeat addiction patterns, and behold a new show with the same old, tired trappings. There’s barely any fresh, seductive storytelling, so your eyes will quickly glaze over as the murder mystery deepens into a tale of two estranged sisters finding their way back to each other, reconnecting after several years, misunderstandings, and escalated anxieties over sharing a son.
The show makes a great fuss about attempting to empathise with strained ties, psychological disarray, and scan where healing can be possible. But little lands, most of it buried between predictability and repetition. It lacks characters who can be adequately viper-like and charismatic enough to warrant attention.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 1 Recap:
Chloe (Jessica Biel) is an editor at a fancy women’s magazine. It’s been going well, the job is paying better than ever. But there have also been some pretty rough curves. Being a woman on the internet also entails attracting ire from anonymous folks. She’s at the receiving end of bitter trolling. She’s slut-shamed and called vile names. Chloe tries not to take it to heart, but can’t resist reading comments. Returning home from a gala, she finds her husband Adam (Corey Stoll) dead, brutally stabbed.
Detectives Nancy and Bowen come in to conduct investigations. The couple’s teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan) doesn’t look much distraught when he’s disclosed the news by the cops. It incurs Nancy’s suspicion. However, technicalities demand that Ethan’s biological parent and legal guardian, Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), be contacted and brought into New York. Nicole’s history of addiction is why the custody of her son was taken away, but the deeper details emerge gradually over the course of the show. It turns out Ethan, too, is apprehended for messing with weed.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 2 Recap:
Nicky comes to Chloe’s place. The latter isn’t much pleased. She’d rather have Nicky out of her hair as early as possible, but Nicky is insistent. Ethan’s DNA is found on the spot, close to his dead father. This isn’t some severe anomaly, but it keeps the cops hooked on digging around if Ethan may be in mucky territory. He’d been in trouble earlier when he brought a gun to school, and his parents paid him for the situation. Neither does he have an alibi at the time of the crime, as his friend did not cover for him. As a result, Ethan is arrested. The weed, the gun, his DNA — they combine to make his case strongly suspect. Word spreads also of how deeply he hated his father.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 3 Recap:
These early episodes are plentiful window-dressing, flitting between ghosts of the past and trauma hovering over Nicky. There was an addict dad in the picture whose presence had spurred considerable strife in the family. It was Nicky who suffered the worst of it; Chloe had a more idealised notion of their father. Nicky reveals to her that their father once got so drunk he mistook her and tried to sexually abuse her. The trauma still clenches deep into her. Nicky reiterates that their mother’s persistent efforts were the reason their dad got to scrape himself out eventually of the hellhole he’d built with his alcoholism.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 4 Recap:
The episodes spin around the cesspool of addiction and mental health issues Nicky has had. Chloe denies its importance; Nicky affirms the need for therapy. She’s glad that in prison, Ethan is getting a chance at it. The third and fourth episodes move between flashbacks and the present day, Nicky’s presence in AA meetings, her spirals, and that fateful day when she drank too much and passed out in the pool, leaving young Ethan on the verge of drowning.
It was Adam who, in the nick of time, pulled them out of the pool. Even before that incident, Adam and Chloe had gotten intimate, and Nicky was lost in alcoholic spirals. Chloe finds messages on Adam’s phone to a federal agent. She schedules a meeting. It seems there are ample surprises waiting in store for Chloe. The federal agent tells her that Adam had dirt on his company, Gentry, that might have brought him trouble. She’s asked to dig up the documents.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 5 Recap:
It’s revealed that Chloe has been in an affair with Adam’s colleague Jake (Gabriel Sloyer). The boss, Bill, sends him to Chloe’s house to look for Adam’s possibly incriminating documents. It also turns out Nicky and Ethan were in touch all these years. She gave him a flip phone at her father’s funeral. Chloe discovers this.
At the trial, Chloe opens up on Adam’s violent inclinations, abusive behaviour, which could turn an argument several shades deadly. She also reveals her affair with Jake, which he opts not to talk about when he’s brought to the stand. He had no idea she’d be talking about it. Meanwhile, everyone speaks highly of Ethan when asked to testify. The lack of solid evidence against Ethan compels the jury to acquit him. Back home, Ethan confesses he shattered the glass, thinking it was Chloe who killed Adam.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 6 Recap:
Chloe riffles through police records from all those years ago. She discovers Adam had orchestrated the near-fatal incident at the pool. He spiked her drink, leading her to lose consciousness. Adam had done it so that he could push Nicky out of their lives and help Chloe ease in as his new wife. Devastated, Chloe also learns Nicky did know of this for a while. Nicky says she knew of Adam’s abusiveness and came to save her.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Episode 7 Recap:
Ethan had shared anecdotes of Adam’s abusive tendencies, his physical lashing out at Chloe with Nicky. Deeply concerned, Nicky landed at Chloe and Adam’s house. She got in an argument that turned into him going aggressive, spurring her to stab him in self-defence. She got away, leaving him bloodied and dead. Shaken, Chloe is determined to protect both Nicky and Ethan and keep them close.
The Better Sister (TV Series 2025) Ending Explained:
Who’s behind Adam’s murder?
Nicky was the one who murdered Adam. But to cover it up, Chloe orchestrates several things. Detective Nancy had drawn the connection to Nicky and Adam’s mother. On the fateful day, Nicky had no alibi. Nancy is confident she’s cracked the case when she’s taken out of the case by her superior, who informs her unfavourable stuff from her past has made it on the internet. Chloe gets Bill jailed, giving the other cop proof of illegal work being done at the company, and Adam is killed for being the whistleblower. Hence, the case is closed. The sisters have finally reconciled in the wake of the murder, their bond stronger than ever.
