Editor’s Note: The following post contains spoilers for Apple’s “ Lady in the Lake .” Like some of the best murder mysteries, Alma Har’el’s “ Lady in the Lake ” is not so much a whodunnit as a howdunnit — with a few good twists along the way. The Apple TV + drama based on Laura Lippman’s 2019 novel aired its seventh and final episode on August 23, revealing the final pieces in the puzzle of Maddie Morganstern ( Natalie Portman ), Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram), and Tessie Durst (Bianca Belle).
Throughout the seven-episode series — which started with Tessie’s disappearance and then death — Cleo’s narration has hinted at the connection between herself and Maddie, and the eventual consequences of what binds them. After weeks of alluding to a sinister and even fatal ending, the finale gives both women the kind of freedom they didn’t have in their old lives. What really happened to Cleo? Episode 4 ended with Reggie dumping a body into the fountain at the same time that police found Stephen running into the lake.
The body is later confirmed to be Cleo, but was notably unidentifiable from water damage, so the ID likely came from clothing or documents. Episode 7 opens with Cleo and Dora years before, when they were two bright young women who wanted to perform and ended up caught in Shell’s racket to make those dreams come true. But in the present — at least shortly before Cleo went missing, Dora is dead, and Cleo and Reggie hatch a plan to solve both th.