The Perfect Mother Ending Explained – Did Anya really kill Damien?

An Imperfect Crime

The Perfect Mother sets up a simple scenario with varying versions of events from a single night. The gist of it is that a guy called Damien is murdered but by who? And why?

What does Anya tell the police and her mother about that night?

The main suspect here falls to a young woman called Anya. Out with her friend Julie that night, Anya tells us early on that she started kissing him but then a shadowy guy showed up pout of nowhere and knocked him down.

Damien told Anya to lock herself in the bathroom but she left her phone in the living room. She believed the man was Damien’s drug dealer was still there when she head out. She checked on Damien, found him dead, snatched up her phone and hurried out the house, covered in blood. But why throw away her phone and bloody clothes if that’s the case?

What does Anya tell Vincent in episode 2?

Well, Anya next tells Vincent in confidence that when she got to Damien’s apartment they did coke together and ended up kissing and getting physical. Things took a turn for the worst.

Damien started abusing her, pinning her down. They wrestled, he grabbed her round the throat, and he eventually raped her. She locked herself in the bathroom and passed out. When she woke up, she heard noises outside, which is presumed to be his dealer.

This version of events lines up to her initial story, with a slight deviation. Outside the bathroom, Anya touched Damien to see if he was breathing. She picked up the knife to defend herself incase anyone was around.

Eventually she dropped it and ran, leaving a bloody handprint on the wall. This doesn’t look good, although a neighbour’s statement claims that she heard a scuffle upstairs and someone shout “no” which could be Anya.

What evidence backs up Anya’s story?

The police also find GHB in Anya’s blood, which reinforces the rape story. It also turns out this wasn’t the first time either, as Lukas (her brother) explains to Matthias over in Berlin that Anya was actually abused in the past by her previous boyfriend, Leo, and he agreed to keep it a secret.

The timeline and little details seems to hint that Anya was not in the bathroom at all. Although she’s let go in episode 3, Mani (the police investigator) remains suspicious over the whole version of events. And it’s not helped when Helene finds a vial of GHB under the sink in Anya’s bathroom. So what’s the truth?

Well, the end of episode 3 confirms that the shadowy guy found on CCTV that night was a guy called Kamal, and he’s actually working in collusion with Anya. A Private Investigator, hired by Claire (Damien’s mother) snaps photos of them meeting in private and kissing.

Word gets out and an arrest warrant is issued for Anya, who slips out and goes on the run.

How does the finale begin?

Episode 4 of The Perfect Mother begins where we left off, with Helene stopping her daughter before she leaves for Berlin.

Speaking of which, Matthias is concerned about his family falling apart, and of course that’s not helped by Helene sleeping with Vincent last episode. Lukas confronts Matthias about what happened to Anya and calls his parenting into question.

Was Kamal involved in killing Damien?

Back in Paris, we learn another version of events for what transpired that night. Kamal was at Damien’s that night. The whole thing was an accident and completely her fault.

Damien did try to rape Anya but she had her phone on her in the bathroom. There, Anya phoned Kamal, asking for help. He slipped in along the rooftop, trying to work out if Anya is okay. She was drugged and could barely stand up at this point.

Damien saw Kamal, threatened to phone the police but Anya picked up the knife after Damien initially grabbed it, and stabbed the guy. However, when Damien grabbed Kamal by the throat, he took the knife and plunged it into his stomach. Kamal was trying to protect her.

Kamal is from Libya and actually in the country illegally. Anya fell in love with him from the shelter but she went home with Damien because she believed Kamal was cheating on her and wanted revenge. When Helene asks Anya about the GHB under the sink, she feigns ignorance and claims she has no idea what it is.

Helene implores Anya to go to the police and tell them the truth. Of course, this could mean the very real prospect of Kamal being deported. Now, Kamal is actually married and his wife lives with their son in the night shelter. Kamal took the money and gave it to his wife to help with their mounting bills. It turns out Anya had no knowledge of their marriage, and when she finds out she’s completely shocked.

Does Anya incriminate Kamal?

Anya eventually rings Kamal, who apologizes for lying about being married. She incriminates him and the authorities head out to track him down and bring him in. Instead, Kamal jumps off a balcony and kills himself. Damien’s watch is among the possessions and he’s found guilty from the authorities.

Now, the police never mentioned that they had other DNA on the knife, and Mani admits to Helene at the station – once word of Kamal’s death reaches them – that they’re going to compare Kamal’s DNA with what they’ve taken from the knife to see if it matches.

If it does, then Anya will be free to go given she wasn’t directly involved in the killing blow.

Meanwhile, Claire finds out about Damien raping Anya, and she’s shocked and refuses to believe this. However, this does close out her subplot in the story.

Matthias arrives at the police station in Paris, informing Helene that Leo attacked Anya and raped her a year earlier. Anya left to go to Paris to try and heal herself, which is why she worked at the shelter to try and help others going through issues of their own.

What does Julie confess? What’s really going on?

Outside, Julie shows up and has an alternate version of events from that night and informs Vincent as much. Here, we see the final, final version of events as they actually are.

Anya started this whole ordeal involving Kamal. She was manipulative and even worse, had the whole thing planned out from the start.

Two months back she blackmailed a professor and had intentions to do the exact same thing to Damien, knowing how loaded he was. Damien did rape a girl in the past but it wasn’t Anya. He paid her off to keep quiet about it and as soon as Anya heard about it, she was like a shark that smelled blood. Anya decided to target him and make Damien her next victim.

Julie’s confession confirms that she was in on it with the professor blackmail and was actually the bait in all this. Their strategy involved taking GHB voluntarily.

Julie got cold feet and didn’t want to go ahead with the plan involving Damien, explaining their fight at the club, and why Anya was alone with him.

So as we see the version of events one more time, everything lines up with Anya taking GHB herself, and then blackmailing Damien.

He beat her, as Anya shouted “no” (which is what the neighbour heard) Damien lost control, raped her, and then she stabbed him repeatedly with the knife. She phoned Kamal afterwards and when he took the knife off her, he saw the dead body of Damien and dropped it in fight, shocked.

Kamal scrambled back over the rooftop, Anya head out the front door and that leads us up to the end of the show.

How does The Perfect Mother end?

The assault in Berlin appears to be the catalyst for Anya acting in this manner. Helene implores Vincent to protect Anya no matter the cost, which he does. Eventually, she’s free to go.

As the episode closes out, Helene watches as Vincent walks off in one direction and both Anya and Matthias walk off in the other.

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The Episode Review

After four of five different versions of events across the four episodes, The Perfect Mother bows out with a pretty mediocre finale.

In the end, it turns out Anya was guilty and did kill Damien, including setting up an elaborate blackmail scheme. Of course, there’s no excusing Damien for what he did, but there’s also not really much justice against Anya, who gets away with murder (quite literally) after setting up Kamal.

It turns out Kamal was actually innocent in all of this, which reframes a lot of the drama across the run-time.

The Perfect Mother has meandered its way through different plot points too, especially the subplot involving Matthias, Helene and Vincent, setting up the obligatory love triangle that feels ill-fitting in a series like this.

Likewise, the whole subplot involving Lukas has been pretty poor while the private investigator storyline has just dragged on and ultimately led nowhere, given the outcome.

There have been glimmers of intrigue with this one, especially seeing the different version of events play out across the different episodes. This one has certainly kept you guessing until the end but the way this whole knife debacle has been handled leaves a lot to be desired.

It would have been nice to know that there were multiple bits of DNA on the knife back in episode 1, rather than prolonging that out to this final chapter.

The Perfect Mother bows out with an imperfect final episode, one that concludes with a passable ending to what’s otherwise been a pretty average crime drama overall.

 

Read More: The Perfect Mother Season 1 Review

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Thanks for reading our Ending Explained article! What did you think of The Perfect Mother Season 1’s ending? Do you think justice was served? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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