Premiering on Prime Video on Could 29, 2025, The Higher Sister is an eight-part miniseries revolving across the mysterious homicide of Adam Macintosh, a high-profile lawyer discovered lifeless in a pool of blood by his spouse, Chloe. When Adam and Chloe’s son, Ethan, turns into the first suspect, a number of twists and turns involving Chloe’s sister, Nicky Taylor, complicate the crime and muddy the homicide thriller. Nonetheless, The Higher Sister‘s ending is not as sturdy as its setup.
‘The Higher Sister’s Promising Premise
The story revolves across the grisly homicide of Adam Macintosh (Cory Stoll), a rich lawyer dwelling in Manhattan and the Hamptons. Adam is married to Chloe Macintosh (Jessica Biel), the editor-in-chief of the fictional publication The Actual Factor. Adam and Chloe have a teenage son named Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan).
Within the first couple of minutes of the present, Chloe comes house from an occasion and finds Adam lifeless in a pool of blood of their Hamptons house. Detective Nancy Guidry (Kim Dickens) arrives on the crime scene to analyze, and Ethan turns into the first suspect. Because the crime turns into publicized, the idyllic life the Macintoshes have made for themselves comes underneath scrutiny, threatening to reveal their good life as a lethal facade. The story lastly picks up with the arrival of Nicky Taylor (Elizabeth Banks), Chloe’s estranged sister from Ohio.
Who Are the Main Suspects of Adam’s Homicide?
In Episode 2, Ethan Macintosh is arrested for the homicide of his father, Adam, and placed on prison trial. Ethan is suspected of foul play when his alibi crumbles, and he’s revealed to be an unreliable witness as a result of he hangs out with drug sellers and as soon as introduced a firearm to high school. His DNA can also be discovered on the crime scene. As Chloe vows to maintain her son from jail, she quickly turns into a suspect when Nicky drops an enormous household bombshell.
Nicky reveals that she is Ethan’s organic mom and that she was beforehand married to Adam. Their marriage ended when Nicky practically drowned Ethan of their swimming pool whereas she was intoxicated. Adam shortly divorced her and gained full custody of Ethan. Adam married Chloe, and the 2 raised Ethan as their very own, unbiased of Nicky.
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One other suspect emerges when it’s revealed that Chloe has been having a secret affair with Jake Rodriguez (Gabriel Sloyer), her neighbor and Adam’s enterprise associate. Adam and Jake work for The Gentry Group, a shady group funded by rich socialite Invoice Braddock (Matthew Modine).
With Ethan underneath arrest, Nicky believes he must have his solely remaining organic mum or dad round to assist him. Through the trial, Nicky begins airing all of the soiled household secrets and techniques, which makes Chloe seem suspicious. When it’s revealed that Chloe hid the bloody knife discovered beside Adam’s corpse, suspicions are raised additional.
How Does the Trial Finish?
Because the highlight intensifies on Chloe and Ethan’s culpability, Nicky continues to complicate issues. She reveals underneath oath that she has been secretly speaking with Ethan on a flip telephone she gave him. This makes Ethan extra suspicious, because the prosecutors imagine he’s hiding issues. Ethan’s e mail is later linked to a Reddit thread espousing violent threats made to Adam.
In Episode 6, Chloe testifies underneath oath about being bodily abused by Adam of their house. Adam pushed Chloe towards a wall and knocked her to the ground after he acquired upset that she pressured him to work for a non-public legislation agency.
Following Chloe’s testimony, the legal professionals reveal that no homicide weapon has been discovered, and Ethan’s blood is nowhere on the scene. The prosecutors even have zero eyewitnesses linking Ethan to Adam’s dying. With inadequate proof to convict, Ethan is discovered not responsible, and the trial is over. Nonetheless, that is just the start of fixing Adam’s homicide.
Who Actually Killed Adam in ‘The Higher Sister’?
After being launched from court docket, Ethan returns house and feels the necessity to study police experiences from the day he nearly drowned underneath Nicky’s supervision. The paperwork reveal that no water was present in Ethan’s lungs, contradicting the story that he practically drowned. The report additionally exhibits that Nicky had a cocktail of alcohol and pharmaceutical medicine in her system.
A reasonably handy flashback depicts Adam mixing the medicine into Chloe’s vodka, intentionally drugging her so she would neglect Ethan sufficient for him to achieve custody of him. Sillier than the flashback is a scene through which Chloe argues with Adam’s ghostly spirit, who randomly materializes in ways in which make Chloe look extra unstable than Nicky ever was. That is deliberate within the inevitable race to current Nicky because the titular higher sister.
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Hours earlier than Adam’s dying, Ethan used the flip telephone to tell Nicky that he had seen Adam bodily abuse Chloe once more. Upon realizing that it isn’t the primary time he has seen Adam abuse Chloe, Nicky drives from Ohio to the Hamptons, sans her telephone in order to not be tracked, to confront her former husband and kid’s father.
Adam threatens to reveal Nicky’s previous troubles till a melee ensues. Adam grabs Nicky and shoves her round, prompting her to drag out a small knife from her pocket and jam it into his throat. Nicky is the one who killed Adam with a knife, doing so in an act of self-defense reasonably than premeditated homicide.
How Does ‘The Higher Sister’ Conclude?
As soon as Nicky is revealed to have murdered Adam out of self-defense, extra gentle is shed on Ethan’s involvement. Ethan grew to become a suspect as a result of he intentionally tried to guard Chloe. That is why he scattered gadgets round the lounge and left DNA behind, to make Adam’s dying seem like linked to a random break-in, and why he took the gun to high school.
Because the mud from the trial settles, The Higher Sister concludes with Nicky confessing every little thing to Chloe. The 2 sisters then pin Adam’s homicide on Invoice Braddock, chief of a sex-trafficking ring tied to The Gentry Group. As Braddock goes to jail for Adam’s homicide, Chloe and Nicky elevate Ethan collectively and go on to reside fortunately ever after. They even write a e-book collectively, resolving all their previous issues and resentments in a far-fetched ending.
Sadly, the ending feels too tidy and handy to imagine, with the revelation of Adam’s homicide nowhere close to as riveting and unpredictable because the revelation that Nicky is Adam’s ex-wife and Ethan’s mom. The Kumbaya second between sisters as they forge a therapeutic path and pen a e-book collectively feels foolish and unearned. The fuzzy flashbacks, absurd ghosts, and Braddock’s framing really feel too contrived and distracting from the central thriller.
The Higher Sister is accessible to stream on Prime Video.