So, were Evert and Hanneke actually hooking up? The Perfect Lie book reveals the truth

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Perfect Lie*

A majority of the mysteries at the centre of The Perfect Lie are answered by the end, but there’s one thing that remains kind of unclear: what actually happened between Evert and Hanneke?

The new Netflix series follows a friendship group consisting of four couples: Karen (Loes Haverkort) and Michel (Teun Luijkx), Ivo (Remko Vrijdag) and Hanneke (Rifka Lodeizen), and Patricia (Charlie-Chan Dagelet) and Simon (Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen).

Then there’s Babette (Noortje Herlaar) and Evert (Edwin Jonker), who suffer a tragedy that tears their friendship group apart. Their house catches on fire, and while Babette and their two sons survive, Evert is killed. 

What transpires is a web of lies, deceit and betrayal, with the group initially believing Evert attempted to kill the whole family after Babette was going to leave him. But The Perfect Lie finale reveals that the opposite was true: Evert planned to leave Babette, and so she drugged the family and set the house on fire. 

Due to one of the sons not drinking his drugged milk, he got up and the emergency services were called. Sadly, they didn’t arrive in time to save Evert. 

Prior to this, everyone believes Babette is a grieving widow who has been wronged – except Hanneke, who’s suspicious of Babette from the off. And the bad blood goes both ways, with Babette accusing Hanneke and Evert of having an affair. 

Is it true about Hanneke and Evert?

Ultimately, no, Hanneke and Evert are just good friends in The Perfect Lie. The situation is very different in Saskia Noort’s 2004 novel The Dinner Club, which the show is based on (but more on this shortly). 

Earlier on in the Netflix series, Babette shows the women a video of Evert having an angry outburst, convincing them that he has a drinking problem. Patricia subsequently stages what is essentially an intervention and he checks into a recovery clinic. 

Of course, Patricia’s ulterior motive is that she needs Evert out of the way, as he’s dangerously close to discovering Simon’s illegal steroid operation and the dodgy finances behind their gym business – but that’s another story for another day. 

While at the clinic, Evert and Hanneke’s friendship grows closer and she proves to be a huge support, so much so that he names her his emergency contact. During this time, she finds out Babette is the true manipulator in the relationship. 

Hanneke does try to kiss Evert earlier on in the show, but the situation is complex. Her husband Ivo is secretly gay, and he hasn’t had sex with Hanneke in a long time. 

When she vents to the girls about their dry spell, Babette sort of jokingly offers up Evert’s sexual services to her. That night, during a game of spin the bottle, Hanneke and Evert kiss. 

Then, when Evert drops her son off, he finds Hanneke alone at the pool. She’s going through a tough time with Ivo, and she asks if he thinks she’s attractive, to which he replies, “Yeah.” 

Hanneke reads the signals wrong and leans in for a kiss, but Evert turns down her advances. “It’s okay,” he says. “Get some rest.”

Later in the series, Karen comforts Babette, who says she thinks Evert and Hanneke are together. Karen then confronts Hanneke, who insists there’s nothing going on. “I kissed him once, sure,” she says. “But he was just being nice. He never wanted me, okay?”

So despite their close relationship and Babette’s insistence, Hanneke and Evert weren’t hooking up. In fact, the only person who ever claims they were is Babette herself – and by the finale, we know just how unreliable her version of events really is.

But in the book, it’s a different story. 

Hanneke and Evert really were having an affair in The Dinner Club

Unlike in The Perfect Lie, there’s very little ambiguity about Evert and Hanneke’s relationship in The Dinner Club: they really were having an affair.

Hanneke is one of the few people who continues regularly visiting Evert while he’s receiving psychiatric treatment, and Evert later says her support helped him a lot. 

Their relationship eventually becomes romantic, with Babette telling Karen the affair had been going on for at least six months. She says Evert admitted it when she confronted him, after Angela spotted him and Hanneke together.

But this time it’s not just Babette’s word we have to go on. Karen later discovers an email that proves Evert and Hanneke really were having an affair, something the police are already aware of by this point.

And things get even messier, as Hanneke also knows about Evert’s business problems with Simon and threatens to go to the police with what she knows. All of this comes out when, like in the show, she’s pushed from the balcony – only in the novel, she dies from the fall. 

There’s another difference when it comes to this incident. The Perfect Lie’s twist ending – which puts into question who actually pushed Hanneke – isn’t from the book. Instead, Karen discovers Babette was responsible for Hanneke’s death, as well as the fire that killed Evert. 

So, the Netflix adaptation has taken Hanneke’s story in a different direction, and that’s a good thing. With her seemingly beginning to wake up in the final moments of the finale, here’s hoping we get to find out more if Netflix gives season 2 the greenlight. 

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Featured image credit: Netflix