Image of a TV with Netflix on. This is to talk about Netflix's Fool Me Once

Teguan Harris

*CW: This article contains major spoilers.

Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once (2024) was released on New Year’s Day on Netflix. Weeks later, people are still talking about it, shocked over its plot twists and turns.

The limited series stars Michelle Keegan (Coronation Street and Our Girl) as protagonist Maya Stern. Richard Armitage, who has previously worked with Coben, plays Joe Burkett, Maya’s husband. Other cast members include Adeel Akhtar as DS Sami Kierce and Emmett J. Scanlan (Hollyoaks) as Shane Tessier. Dino Fetscher plays DS Marty McGreggor, Kierce’s partner, and Joanna Lumley plays Judith Burkett, Joe’s mother.

The series follows the story of Maya, who recently lost her husband in a shooting robbery. However, all is not what it seems. Whilst the nanny is caring for their daughter, Maya spots her husband on a nanny camera, alive.

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Who is Harlan Coben?

Harlan Coben is a crime author and screenwriter who has worked with Netflix to breathe life into four of his novels. Fool Me Once was adapted from the crime author’s 2016 novel. Teaming up with screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst, the two, once again, deliver an outstanding thriller series.

The series follows the success of  Safe (2018), The Stranger (2020), and Stay Close (2021), all of which were adapted from Coben’s late-2010 thriller novels.

“Why, and how, did Coben and Brocklehurst fool us”

In 2018, Coben signed a  five-year mega-deal with Netflix for the adaption of fourteen of his books. Netflix extended this deal last August for another four years to add his signature 11-book Myron Bolitar series to the Netflix roster. With 35 mystery novels to his name, many of which have become bestsellers, it comes as no surpise that Coben has achieved such success.

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How did Fool Me Once fool us?

Fool Me Once surrounds multiple connected storylines: Maya Stern’s dead husband and the suspicions surrounding the Burkett family,  the murder of Maya’s sister Claire Walker, and DS Kierce’s mysterious illness.

Within each storyline every character is, at some point, made to seem suspicious. However, it is not until the end of the penultimate episode that all the pieces fit together, leaving the viewers shocked and in awe.

But why, and how, did Coben and Brocklehurst fool us?

The Burketts

The show opens with a group of boys drunkardly parading around in masks. It is later revealed that the boys were Joe Burkett, Andrew Burkett, Theo Mora, and Christopher Swain. Theo then dies from alcohol poisoning. Joe tells Maya that his brother, Andrew, committed suicide on a yacht out of guilt and grief in 1996.

In the first episode, Maya confronts the nanny, after seeing Joe on camera. Then, she gets pepper sprayed. Does this mean that Joe is still alive?

The drama continues when Tommy Dark’s name is thrown into the mix – a former Marine with connections to the Burkett family. Suspiciously, the family have been paying Tommy off for 26 years because he was the yacht captain the day Andrew died. Maya and hacker Corey the Whistle track him down to find the truth, but the truth is far darker than imagined. They find his deceased body in a freezer; his throat, slashed.

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Claire Walker

The first episode reveals that Claire Walker was murdered in a robbery. But the Walkers have no items that are worth stealing.

As the show progresses, Claire’s children, Abby (Danya Griver) and Daniel (Daniel Burt), investigate their mother’s death. After digging into her past, they find that they have a secret older brother. Was Claire having an affair? Did her previous lover kill her?

The investigation into Claire’s past leads Abby and Daniel to their half-brother – an assistant coach on their football team. His reconnection with Claire led her to the school that Joe previously attended, where she uncovered some dark truths.

“The Burketts were always the villains”

It’s revealed that Claire worked with Joe and the Burketts at their pharmaceutical company. She also worked with Corey the Whistle, who was responsible for Maya being discharged from the army for murdering civilians.

Claire and Corey found that the Burkett company was endangering lives by manipulating drug trials, leaving one question: Was her murder a cover-up?

DS Kierce

DS Sami Kierce leads the investigation into Joe’s death with Marty McGreggor, but Kierce seems to have some problems. He crashes his car in the first episode, shocking viewers.

As the show progresses, he shows signs of health issues that concern his sponsor and Marty. Not even the doctors could disclose his condition. What is wrong with Kierce? And what did that have to do with Joe Burkett’s murder mystery? are questions posed to viewers.

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Shane Scanlan

Shane Scanlan is Maya’s closest confidant in the series, given their work history in the military. But viewers were very suspicious and were quick to label him as untrustworthy. He displayed shady behaviour, such as placing a tracker in Maya’s car and sneaking into her house in the middle of the night. It is no wonder that viewers side-eyed him throughout the series. However, the show never explained his behaviour.

Coben and Brocklehurst cleverly used this as a plot device to throw us off. And they succeeded.

Fooled until the end

The final few episodes reveal that the Burkett’s pharmaceutical company was the cause of Kierce’s declining health, and his hallucination of his late wife, Nicole, whom viewers thought was his sponsor.

It becomes apparent that the Burketts are the villains, but the main villain was Joe, who was behind every sinister plot throughout the show.

The detectives suspect Maya of Tommy Dark’s murder when his blood is found in her car. However, the reality is Joe murdered him to keep him quiet, using Maya’s car to move the body.

Maya pays a visit to Joe’s old friend, Christopher, who reveals the truth: in 1996, Joe killed Theo, and later he pushed Andrew off the yacht.

The detectives discover that Claire and Joe were killed with the same gun, leading viewers to believe that their deaths are connected. But, they couldn’t be further from the truth: Joe killed Claire to protect his family’s illegal activities.

“Fool Me Once was never about justice for Joe; it was about justice for Claire.”

It was Maya who killed Joe, avenging her sister, Claire, with the same gun eventually used to end her life.

Coben and Brocklehurst portray Maya as a grieving wife and Joe as a victim. However, Joe is the show’s main villain, and Maya is the vengeful “hero” who took him down.

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Fool Me Once: Commentary

The bad guys were never the “robbers” on the motorcycles; the Burketts were always the villains.

Joe was connected to everything and everyone. His death is a stimulus for uncovering truths about who he and the Burketts were. Joe was never the victim.

The end of the series brings a showdown between Maya and the Burketts, where she uncovers all their dark truths. Though she is fatally shot by Neil Burkett, she live-streams the confrontation. Her death serves as the final nail in the coffin, exposing the Burketts.

And so, Fool Me Once was never about justice for Joe; it was about justice for Claire.

Coben and Brocklehurst have done it again. They successfully kept viewers hooked, guessing and engrossed in suspense throughout the series.

I have no doubt his extended deal with Netflix will generate more anticipation than ever before.

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Featured image courtesy of Karolina Grabowska on Pexels. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Writer and journalist. University graduate in English Literature. Book reader, word lover and Notion enthusiast.

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