Malin Åkerman Explains the 'Hunting Wives' Finale Twist That ‘Got Everyone Gasping'

Elle

a day ago

Spoilers below.
Over the course of The Hunting Wives' first season, Malin Åkerman's Margo Banks moves through East Texas society like a woman who's mastered spectacle and subterfuge. As the polished, calculating center of a clique built on indulgence, secrecy, and power, Margo understands that survival often means performing control, even as chaos simmers just beneath the surface. By the season finale, that veneer fractures, and what spills out is not just scandal, but something closer to ruin.
Åkerman, who has built a career on characters wielding charisma with precision, from the formidable wife of a hedge fund manager in Billions to the self-centered sister in 27 Dresses, knew The Hunting Wives' full story from the outset. 'I was sent all eight episodes from the very beginning,' she explains over Zoom. 'Thankfully, I had the whole arc in front of me, knew that she was the killer, and got to play with that throughout the whole season.' That foresight allowed her to layer early scenes with subtle tension, even as viewers speculated about who had killed Abby (Madison Wolfe), a local teenager found dead in the woods.In the penultimate episode, 'Shooting Star,' Jill (Katie Lowes)—once a prime suspect in Abby's murder—is fatally shot by Callie (Jaime Ray Newman) after the women discover Starr's (Chrissy Metz) dead body. The finale, called 'Sophie's Choice,' picks up in the immediate aftermath with police interviews, fractured alliances, and the slow unraveling of Margo's carefully controlled world. It opens with a flashback of Sophie (Brittany Snow) in a romantic entanglement years ago, and Margo—back in the present—celebrating her husband Jed's (Dermot Mulroney) birthday with a threesome.
Each moment reveals the show's dual nature: all gloss on top, rot underneath. At the heart of that collapse is the reveal that Margo, not Jill, killed Abby. The motive is fraught: Abby had discovered Margo was having an affair with her teenage boyfriend Brad (George Ferrier), had secretly gotten pregnant, and had an abortion. When Abby confronted Margo, Margo used Sophie's gun to silence her. Sophie (Brittany Snow), connecting the dots through a remark about tampons (a callback to episode 1), confronts Margo. 'I always refer to [Margo] as a survivor,' Åkerman says. Her instincts aren't just self-preserving; they're reflexive. 'She does whatever she needs to do to survive.'
For Åkerman, the emotional centerpiece of the finale is the confrontation between Margo and Sophie at Jed's fundraiser, where Sophie finally learns the truth. 'That was a tough night,' the actress recalls. 'We're having so much fun on set, but I don't like filming scenes like that. I don't like digging that deep and going that dark.' However, she understood its magnitude. 'It's a life-or-death moment for Margo. She's built her whole life to get to where she's at, and someone is threatening to take it all away. Her life is her baby.'
To ground the moment, Åkerman drew from personal fear. 'I had to sort of personalize it, and go, okay, someone's coming to me and saying, 'I'm going to take your child away from you.' That gutted me.' The result is a reckoning shaped by desperation and denial, a rare glimpse of Margo stripped of performance. 'It was such a big moment and a beautiful scene,' Åkerman says. 'There was so much going on there. It's a pivotal moment in this show.'
Soon after, Margo confesses the affair and abortion to Jed, who slaps her and throws her out. The shift is brutal and swift, underscoring Margo's dependence on the very structures she believed she could manipulate. 'It's hard to watch Margo fall from grace,' Åkerman says. 'She just lost that position of power that she's been in this whole season. What's going to happen now? But I feel like we could see it coming, because she's not fully free. She does have to answer to the man; that is the truth of her situation.'
Throughout the season, Margo's power rests in her ability to curate her image, her marriage, and her inner circle. But in the finale, that curation falters. Margo finally tells Callie the truth: their romantic relationship is over, not just for appearances, but because she no longer feels the same way. Yet in a final grasp for support, she briefly goes back to Callie, calling Callie her 'ride or die' and warning that Sophie plans to go to the police. Callie counters that the district attorney has already closed Abby's case, and offers that she and her husband Sheriff Jonny (Branton Box) can keep an eye on Sophie. Margo's relationships with both Callie and Sophie—once strategic, seductive—become charged with emotional risk. 'I personally think it's a mix,' Åkerman says. 'Margo is wild and has a big sexual appetite; she does what she wants. But I do think she cares for both Callie and Sophie.'
With Sophie especially, the bond grows more complex. 'They're survivors in their own right,' Åkerman says. 'I read this book that John Cleese wrote with his therapist [Robin Skynner] once that said we have screen doors, and behind them are all our traumas, everything we hope somebody fixes in us in a relationship. I think Sophie and Margo have similar traumas behind those doors.' And yet: 'Margo would let that kinship go in a heartbeat if it were challenged. She'd go, 'No, I choose me.''
That instinct crystalizes in the episode's final moments. While driving, Sophie is intercepted by Kyle (Michael Aaron Milligan) on a remote road. He insists she get out of the car to 'talk,' then seemingly reaches for a gun. She hits him with her vehicle, killing him in a split-second act of self-defense. Her phone rings at that moment—it's Detective Salazar (Karen Rodriguez)—but she declines the call. Moments later, Margo, unaware of any of this, calls Kyle. Sophie answers in silence.
'We filmed a few different versions of that [scene],' Åkerman says. 'One was where Margo says, 'Sophie, is that you?' She's starting to figure it out, and it's the beginning of a panic attack. She's starting to figure out that something terrible has happened to her brother.'
Margo doesn't learn Kyle's fate onscreen, but when she eventually does (in a potential second season), Åkerman imagines the loss will cut deep. 'As much as she'd like not to admit it, Kyle is still her blood. He's the only real family she has,' she says. 'When she's in trouble, she becomes a little girl and runs back to him.' But even that bond, she notes, is defined by hierarchy. 'She wields the power there, as well. She decides what the relationship is going to look like.'
Margo is not a hero. She's manipulative, calculating, and always vying to be one step ahead; yet she's impossible to stop watching. 'Whether it's controlling, hypocritical or whatever, there's a freedom to her that I loved,' Åkerman says. 'I'm such a people pleaser, and sometimes I just want to go, 'Fuck it, stop. Just be free. Be wild.' Margo's on another level. That really stuck with me.'
Åkerman is hopeful that The Hunting Wives will be renewed. She also hopes viewers love what Margo brought to the show, 'even though she's terrible,' and 'that the twist at the very end got everyone gasping,' she says. For Åkerman, Margo is the kind of character you love to hate, and hate to love. 'She's just too fun,' she muses. Like a juicy beach read you can't put down, the show was designed to be addictive, surprising, and a little wicked. 'It's just fun to be taken on a ride—and that's what this show is for.'