Created by Megan Gallagher, the Peacock series “All Her Fault” packs in volatile, throbbing expectations to keep its narrative firmly geared. But the show suffers from blunt writing that frequently sucks energy and gusto from the embedded mystery. As it straddles a commentary on womanhood and a slow-burning, it doesn’t quite organically fuse into a gripping, fervid mix of repressed emotions and unfulfilled undercurrents. The show tries to summon a measured intensity, but its reframing and reappraisals can barely dredge up intrigue and due depth.
All Her Fault (TV Mini Series 2025) Recap:
Marissa arrives to pick up her son, Milo, but he’s not there at the specified address. Jenny, the woman responsible for Milo’s pickup, isn’t responding. Marissa had met Jenny at school. Once the police investigation starts, Marissa confesses to getting a message from Jenny that their children could have a playdate after school. She hadn’t saved the numbers of the school mothers. As a mother, Jenny, too, is overwhelmed, and it’s something running throughout the show. Milo was picked up by Carrie Finch, Jenny’s nanny. Marissa and Jenny had bonded over not getting any help from their partners. Ana, the nanny Marissa hired, claims not to know Carrie. Marissa’s husband, Peter, snaps at him for being so impetuous with not checking the text.
Did Ana know Carrie?
The police soon discover that Carrie has been wielding a fake identity. But there has also been no ransom call, further driving everyone curious and bothered. Marissa is also abundantly trolled online for projecting herself as a certain elevated social class. As Marissa panics over Milo’s well-being, Jenny reassures that Carrie will not hurt him. Certain doubts also prop up as to Peter’s innocence. Marissa wonders if her husband is having an affair. He assures her he’s not cheating on her.
Slowly, lies crack open. Ana did know Carrie. Milo is indeed with Carrie, and she might be having a partner in the kidnapping. Ana tells the police she saw Carrie arguing with a man. Jenny has to battle and ward off insinuations around her. Peter gets a ransom call asking for a hefty sum, but he doesn’t inform Marissa. Jenny’s husband keeps belittling her. Esther believes Kyle, the man in the picture and whom she had fostered, isn’t behind the kidnapping. She professes not having a clue as to how Kyle got caught up with Carrie. She had been happy about him making progress, but he was also jailed for a while.
Why did Carrie kidnap Milo?
The police landed at the place Carrie and Kyle had rented out. There’s a discovery of a body in the lake. There are other ramifications, such as Peter’s siblings, Brian and Lia, relying on him for financial aid. But Peter gains some sort of boosted pride from being able to provide for them. It is his way of having their allegiance firmly locked. For years, Brian has gaslighted his siblings.
Later, we discover that Carrie’s real name is Josephine Murphy. She befriends Ana simply to sneak into Marissa’s family. A few years back, Josephine had met with an accident. She lost her newborn, and her dreams of building something with her partner, Kyle, fell apart. She grows convinced that Milo is her son. Kyle doesn’t instantly see reason in her beliefs, but she convinces him successfully. Once Carrie has it all chalked out, she gets in touch with Marissa, posing as Jenny via text. Initially, Milo doesn’t mind being with Carrie, but soon pines for his mother persistently.
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All Her Fault (TV Mini Series 2025) Ending Explained:
Is Milo Rescued?
Carrie lands at Marissa’s place with a gun. She tells her story. She tries to emphasise that Peter had swapped the babies during the accident, taking her baby and claiming it as his. Before she could tell it all, Peter shot her. He does concede to Marissa that he did swap the babies, insisting he did it for Marissa and not accepting his hand in the accident. Jenny urges Marissa to do whatever needs to be done to secure herself and her child. She realises the only option is to kill him. She intently gives him food spiked with what he’s allergic to. He dies before anything can be done. The family does gauge that Marissa had some hand in the death, but sides with Marissa.
Detective Alcaras, who is determined to crack the case, figures out that Milo is indeed Josephine’s child once he chats with a psychiatrist, and he discovers that both have synesthesia. He realises Peter is responsible for the swap, since Marissa was unconscious when she was brought into the hospital on the day of the accident. He deduces what went down the day Carrie had tried to share with Marissa the truth. Moreover, he understands Marissa’s perspective, why she killed Peter, so that Milo can be saved. He doesn’t arrest her but has a conversation with her. At last, Marissa is liberated from the toxicity of her husband, and in Jenny she finds a generous friendship.
All Her Fault (TV Mini Series 2025) Review:
Much of the firepower and bristle in the show comes from its phenomenally committed cast. They anchor the troughs and vicious unpredictability of the terrain, ironing out the jaggedness in the narrative. The writing isn’t consistent or sharp enough to keep us invested in the procedural. The mystery instead falls squarely on the actors to convince and manipulate us as to who is actually a bigger criminal here. Often, contrivances ram too heavily against sustained interest in the events transpiring.
The suspense doesn’t generate in troves. It’s too much in line with the predisposition of setting up deceptions and reveals. The writing doesn’t favour rich development of characters, their conflicts, and strife. Yes, there’s bitterness in spades, the frustration and disaffection of women left to bear too much without help from anyone. Men, family, and community constantly avoid responsibility, foisting women through gaslighting and a whole lot of emotional exploitation.
Sarah Snook is superbly sharp, clawing her way through escalating stakes. She has a lot to play with, slipping from one shade to the other in a fine, conflicting, variegated balance. We cannot quite get a hold of what Snook is up to, while she holds up several cards at once. There are many problems plaguing the show. Characters threaten to resemble cardboard sketches of villainy. More complex shading seems to have escaped the consideration of the makers. The show strains to be too studied and lumbering in pace, mistaking that for throbbing intensity. Snook gives it her all to Marissa, but the mood is too dour to make us stay the entire course.
“All Her Fault” is too drawn-out to earn emotional depth. The languor that sets in early never really dissipates, despite occasional attempts to ratchet up complications and shocked realisations. Even the simplest of discoveries takes too long to arrive, spilling forth only after unnecessary convolutions dressed up for prestige television. It’s one thing for a narrative to ponderously elongate its anxieties, let it simmer, quite another to make the viewer endure a criminally stretched, airless show that just won’t storm ahead despite all signs to the contrary.
The questions it strains to ask are too bogged down by the heavy-handed arguments around womanhood and the weight it must bear. In just being, women and mothers have to get past conditioning and impositions. The actors do well to maintain a stride even as the show lugubriously drags ahead. All Her Fault strains for knotty dilemmas trapping its characters, but its contrivances diminish the reach and potency.
