Woah, Catherine’s ending in His & Hers is way more tragic in the book than the Netflix show

The Netflix show His & Hers is pretty harrowing. Barely any main characters live to see the epilogue. Catherine’s (aka Lexy’s) story is already very sad in the the His & Hers TV show, but it was even more tragic in the original book. The ending is really different.

Catherine is assaulted in the woods, not Anna

Catherine’s backstory is even more tragic in the His & Hers book than in the Netflix show.

The whole plot of His & Hers links back to Anna’s 16th birthday. In the book, Catherine is raped in the woods. Anna doesn’t stop this. In the show, Anna saves Catherine from being attacked, and then is raped. Catherine doesn’t rescue her.

Teenaged Catherine in His & Hers
(Image via Netflix)

She seems to be a lot more vengeful

In the books, Anna is originally the maternity cover for Catherine. When Catherine is back at work, she decides Anna should investigate the murders.

Anna continues to think Catherine is responsible for all the murders

The Netflix show has one final twist – Anna’s mother Alice killed everyone, not Catherine. Anna conveniently reads all of this in a letter. She and Alice share a knowing look, so we know Alice knows Anna knows. You lost yet?

The ending of the book is so much messier than this. Alice definitely is the killer, but her motivations make even less sense. Alice thinks Anna moved away because she felt guilty that Catherine was raped. Alice blames Helen, Rachel and Zoe for Catherine being attacked, and by extension for Anna leaving, so she kills them. Alice knowingly frames Catherine for the murders.

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Grown-up Catherine
(Image via Netflix)

The showrunner William Oldroyd explained to Variety why he changed this part of Catherine’s story. He said: “​We needed Alice to have a motive for killing these women. It felt stronger that she saw Catherine running away from the scene. The motive for Catherine, if she was to be the killer, was that she was lured there by Anna. She escaped. In running away, an act of cowardice on one hand, I understand why she would run away. She was scared to death. That act of cowardice is enough for Alice to decide to pin all these murders on Catherine.​”

This change to the plot might make more sense for a TV show, but it also leaves Catherine with a much sadder ending. Alice’s revenge quest feels way, way less heroic. Catherine is a victim of the girls who bullied her, and the men who raped her, and Alice’s non-sensical scheming.

In the novel, Anna never discovers that Alice is the killer. She struggles with alcoholism much more in the book. Towards the end, she starts spiralling about whether she could have killed people then become too drunk to remember it.

This makes Catherine’s ending way sadder, because now not even Anna knows Catherine was innocent of killing those women. The murders

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