Netflix's Fool Me Once ending explained – who killed Joe?

New Netflix thriller Fool Me Once has had viewers completely hooked since it debuted on the streaming platform, with several dramatic twists leaving jaws on the floor. And let's be honest – the premise alone is enough to sell you on the series.

Based on popular author Harlan Coben's novel of the same name, Fool Me Once stars Michelle Keegan as Maya, a widow who is shocked to see her murdered husband Joe (Richard Armitage) on a nanny cam shortly after his funeral. Now suspicious that Joe might still be alive, Maya goes on a journey that uncovers a shocking conspiracy.

Each episode therefore comes with stunning revelations, with the finale wrapping events up in a way no viewer will see coming. You may then still have some questions remaining – so let's dive into it all.

Major spoilers for Fool Me Once follow... You have been warned.

Is Joe alive?

Throughout the series, we are teased with the potential that Joe might actually still be alive after Maya spots him on the nanny cam following his funeral. The question is, then, did Joe fake his own death? Is Joe still alive?

The answer to that is no, as it is revealed that Joe has been very much dead this whole time – which does leave us wondering about the nanny cam footage. How did he appear there when he was six feet under?

Well, that was set up by his scheming mother Judith (Joanna Lumley), who thought that Maya was hiding something regarding Joe's death. The suspicious matriarch wanted to trip Maya up so that she would make a mistake that would reveal her lies, and so a quite frankly unhinged plan was put into action.

Judith hired two of her family's most dedicated employees – nanny Izabella and her partner Luka – to produce digitally manipulated footage, essentially a deepfake, that was then planted on the camera to trick Maya. When this is revealed, Maya, of course, isn't exactly best pleased, and so her friend Shane (Emmett J. Scanlan) drives the pair out to the countryside, abandoning them in a remote location. Whilst they are left alive then, it's a long, long way home.

Who killed Joe?

Along the way, several people have been suspected of Joe's murder – but who actually was the one responsible for shooting him dead?

In a pretty shocking turn of events, Maya confesses to the crime in the cliffhanger of the penultimate episode, leaving both her friend Shane and us astonished. Although, that does explain why she was so surprised to see Joe on the nanny cam, given that she was the one who killed him.

Explaining her actions, Maya reveals that she had her suspicions about Joe, who had reacted strangely to her sister's horrific death. As you may recall, Maya's sister Claire Walker (Natalie Anderson) was murdered in her own home during a burglary, with the police unable to identify the culprit. Suspecting Joe, Maya conducted her own investigation, discovering that the bullet that killed her sister had come from the gun that only she and Joe had access to. And since Maya didn't shoot her sister, only one person could have done so... Her husband.

With the intention of confirming her theory, Maya confronts Joe in a park at night, with her husband then attempting to shoot her dead as well. Unluckily for him, though, Maya saw this coming, so had swapped out the gun for a fake, keeping the real one for herself to use against him.

Maya then sets up the crime scene hoping to avoid suspicion, hugging Joe's dead body, covering herself in his blood, to make it look like she held him at the end of his life. She then distracts the police by placing the blame on two motorcyclists who earlier on in the park had tried to rob her – however, unfortunately for Maya, one of them saw her shoot Joe. Eventually, after some pressure, he reveals the truth to police detective Sami Kierce (Adeel Akhtar).

Why did Joe kill Claire Walker?

But why did Joe kill Maya's sister Claire Walker?

As the two worked closely together at the Burkett family's pharmaceutical business, early on in the series a theory is proposed that they were having an affair. However, that wasn't the case. Instead, Claire had begun leaking secrets to whistleblower Corey (Laurie Kynaston), informing him that the Burketts had been falsifying test results so that they could continue selling their dangerous drugs on the market. These drugs were severely harming patients, including our very own police detective Kierce, who throughout the show had been experiencing blackouts and hallucinations.

Claire had helped Corey in exchange for him not releasing the audio from her sister Maya's infamous military mission – as you may remember, whilst serving in the army Maya went against orders, shooting a vehicle which resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians. Wanting to protect her sister, Claire convinced Corey to only release the video footage, knowing that if the audio was published things would be much worse for Maya.

Discovering this and wanting to prevent the information from being released, Joe decided to take matters into his own hands, staging a break-in and killing Claire. But she wasn't his only victim, as we learn that Joe essentially was a serial killer – yes, really.

As Maya uncovers Joe's past, we learn that he and his brother Andrew had caused one of their school friends (Theo Mora) to drink himself to death during a hazing ritual in 1996. Later on, Joe then pushed his own brother off a boat to his death when a guilt-ridden Andrew decided that he wanted to tell the truth about what happened to Theo. We also learn that Joe was the one who killed Tommy Dark, the yacht captain on the boat that day, who knew the truth about what happened to Andrew.

What happens to the Burkett family?

All of this is revealed in a big showdown during a gripping finale, as Maya heads to the Burkett family home to confront Judith and her remaining children Caroline (Hattie Morahan) and Neil (James Northcote).

During the heated confrontation, everyone reveals their secrets, with Judith then suggesting to Maya that they make a deal – keep quiet and blame dead Joe for the pharmaceutical business wrongdoings. As Maya utters the word 'no' to Lumley's matriarch, Neil reaches for the gun that Keegan's widow had laid on a side table earlier, turning the weapon on her. With her last breath, Maya says, 'It's over,' as she points to a hidden camera that she had set up to capture everything.

Working alongside Kierce (who now wants revenge on the family, as they had made him ill) and Corey, Maya had live-streamed this encounter to the world. Now everyone knows the truth about the Burketts, with the surviving members all being put behind bars.

What happens to Shane, Eddie, Lily, and Detective Sami Kierce?

In the show's final moments, we flash forward to 18 years later, where a now healthy Kierce (who rightfully threw the Burkett family's medication in the bin) is visiting a hospital.

There he reunites with Claire's husband Eddie (Marcus Garvey), Shane, and Maya's now-adult daughter Lily, who has just given birth to a baby girl. It's revealed that Maya knew she would die at the Burkett family's hands, so had arranged that Eddie would take custody of her daughter.

And what does Lily name her new baby? Of course, it's Maya, in tribute to her late mother.

All episodes of Fool Me Once are streaming now on Netflix. For more viewing inspiration, check out our picks of the other best Netflix shows to add to your watch list.