That wild ‘Scarpetta’ finish, explained

After eight jumps, episodes involving cases, Scarpetta it ends with a bang. Yes, a lot of bludgeon.

The Prime Video series based on the books by Patricia Cornwell – the first book by Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Postmortem (1990), and An autopsy (2021) – ends its first season with others answers, but then leaves big question marks and red herrings in the air.

Let’s dive into what happened, what Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman/Rosy McEwen) found out, and what burning questions we have for Season 2 (which Amazon has confirmed is coming). Obviously, spoilers ahead.

Who is killed in the middle Scarpetta?

Scarpetta it really would have given us more information about the murder victims.

In 2026, two women were killed: Gwen Hainey, a biomedical engineer at Thor Labs, who was selling US biotech secrets to Russia, and runner Cammie Ramada, whose death was interpreted as “accidental” despite the fact that there was nothing.

In 1998, there are five women killed: The murder of ER surgeon Lori Petersen begins the series, after the murders of Cecile Tyler, Brenda Steppe, and Patty Lewis. Then, journalist Abby Turnbull’s (Sosie Bacon) sister, Hannah, was also killed.

Who is the killer in between Scarpetta?

Jake Cannavale as Pete Marino, Rosy McEwen as Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

There are two assassins inside Scarpettaone of the past and one of the present.

1998 Killer: Roy McCorkle

Through a glossy government soap and emergency call records, ’90s Scarpetta discovers the identity of the killer she, homicide detective Pete Marino (Jake Cannavale), and FBI profiler Benton Wesley (Hunter Parrish) have been investigating. The killer is Roy McCorkle (Martin De Boer), a local 911 dispatcher who had chosen his victims based on their words.

The killer of 2026: August Ryan

Meanwhile, the killer is revealed to be a copycat. Officer August Ryan, the armored cop Scarpetta has worked with since the ’90s, is the killer of Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada.

Scarpetta first meets Officer Ryan at the scene of Lori Peterson’s murder in Berkley Heights in 1998. “I’ve never been the first on the scene before, for a brutal murder,” he told her, visibly moved by the violence. This murder sparked Ryan’s penchant for violence but his traumatic past also played a part (more on that below). Later, at McCorkle’s death, Ryan calls him a “murderous bastard,” and mocks “what he did to those women,” despite those actions he would repeat 28 years later.

In 2026, Ryan is the first person Scarpetta speaks to at the crime scene where Gwen Hainey is found in episode 1. Ryan leads Scarpetta to the victim, pretending to have just met the scene he created. Ryan then meets Scarpetta and Marino at the condo where Gwen Hainey was attacked – until he sneaks out that he “found” the murder weapon and reports that Matt Peterson’s fingerprints are all over the place (Lori Peterson’s husband, the main suspect in the 1998 murder), which drives Scarpetta and Marino away. In episode 4, Ryan does it again, leading medical examiner Dr. Debbie Kaminsky (Ashley Shelton) in Cammie Ramada’s body, the crime scene she created.

The motive? “I did it to please the right gal,” Ryan said in the finale, referring to Scarpetta herself.

What is the business of 3D printed organs?

In ScarpettaThor Labs is a technology company that 3D prints human organs. And even if the story moves slowly with the dead astronauts, the most important thing is that the company connects the victims of the murder in 2026.

Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada both have skin tags, pieces of biosynthetic skin made by Thor Labs. Remember, Hainey was a biomedical engineer there, working on the Thor Orbiter Project (3D printing human organs in space). In the finale, Scarpetta gets a call from Officer Blaise Fruge (Tiya Sircar) saying there is a third person in Thor’s skin testing team, but Fruge is cut off before naming them.

“That’s how he met them,” Fruge said. “They were in the same group.”

That person? August Ryan, who was a child, burned his arm on a railroad track the night he witnessed his uncle sexually abusing him. Presumably, Ryan was after skinning. About the cents? Ryan’s uncle interrupted him with a penny during his crime, another kid who was trying to get him out of the hot lane when he was set on fire; pens are left at the murder sites of Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada, and Scarpetta finds a penny on her dining room table.

Where is the problem with Maggie and Reddy?

Maggie Cutbush (Stephanie Faracy/Georgia King) breaks down a present-day story that’s basically rock and roll and an anti-feminist pain in the ass, but there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

In the ’90s, Maggie was appointed as Scarpetta’s assistant when his computer was hacked to obtain information about the Peterson case. Scarpetta falsely accused Maggie and fired her. However, the criminal is Dr. Elvin Reddy (Alex Klein) who is Scarpetta’s paid rival, who tampered with evidence to discredit Kay.

Now, Dr. Reddy is a piece of work. He wanted Scarpetta’s job as Virginia’s chief medical examiner back in the 1990s, so he always had a chip on his shoulder. Reddy hires Maggie as his assistant, and the show suggests abuse of power and sexual abuse. In episode 4, Scarpetta looks into Cammie Ramada’s death, which was ruled “undetermined” by medical examiner Kaminsky. But Scarpetta discovers that Reddy (the chief medical examiner at the time) had been present at the identification of the body with a group of FBI agents (the crime scene crosses state and district lines) and actually bullied Kaminsky into controlling Cammie Ramada’s accidental death.

Meanwhile, Maggie is also being used as a “direct line” between Scarpetta’s office and Reddy, who is now the health commissioner (and Scarpetta’s boss). Importantly, Reddy and Maggie know Scarpetta’s secret: He killed McCorkle in self-defense in the ’90s — and Marino framed him. Scarpetta performed an autopsy, then lied about the results, but remarkably, Reddy went cold and revealed that he knew there was more to the killer’s death than Marino’s bullets.

At the end, Maggie flips through the script telling Scarpetta that she has evidence to bring down their scheming boss. “Choose crime,” he said. “I’ll get you everything you need to nail it. I’ll leave you alone, I’ll leave you alone.”

What happened to Benton Wesley?

Simon Baker as Benton Wesley.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

Scarpetta’s cardboard husband, Benton Wesley, has dark secrets. We know he left his wife and kids for Kay, and is having an affair with FBI cybercrime partner Sierra Patron (Anna Diop). We also know that he had a traumatic childhood that included neurodivergence and learning disabilities before his career as a serial killer profiler.

In the finale, Scarpetta tracks Wesley in his illegal interrogation truck home using Find My Friends, and warns him to stop investigating Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada “before it’s too late” without elaborating. He also sent criminal Jinx Slater (Luke Jones) to prison for murdering his girlfriend Gwen Hainey, who presumably wanted to keep the FBI’s Thor Orbiter investigation a secret.

However, during the scene, Wesley gets…shocking, saying that he has “strange habits” and that “there are creatures that I enjoy watching suffer,” which seems like he is about to admit that his “true personality” is really dark. We all saw him watch this fly die in pain, and we will never forget his childhood horror in the basement. But he just asks for a divorce. What a fake-out.

Is Matt Peterson really innocent?

Matt Peterson (Graham Phillips/Anson Mount), Lori Peterson’s husband, appears to be ScarpettaA red herring. He’s the guy Marino (Bobby Cannavale) accused and beat up, who runs the misery farm (where Lucy ends up – girl, wyd). But is he really as innocent as he seems? Of course, just him it happened meeting Gwen Hainey in a bar trying to bring his wife back to life with 3D printed organs. But in episode 1, when young Marino talks to young Peterson, the suspect mentions one of the first things he noticed when he met Lori in college was her “contralto” voice. He says: “He stopped me in my tracks. “His original tone was perfect.” Marino replies, asking, “You see something like that, huh?” How did McCorkle choose his victims? Their words. Is he still a red herring?

Who “killed” Janet?

Ariana DeBose as Lucy Farinelli-Watson.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

Both Kay and Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis) claim they didn’t “kill” Janet, the AI ​​version of Lucy’s (Ariana DeBose) wife she’s been talking to every day since her real death, but she’s pretty sure one of them did. So, was it one of them? Or, say, Blaise Fruge, who wanted a little revenge on his lover for walking out when they argued about Blaise losing his job because of Lucy’s “joy ride” to The Orchard? Or maybe Janet found the backdoor code to get out…

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Who’s at the door?

In the last days of Scarpettawe see that Kay has baseball-battered Ryan to death. Then, someone comes to the door, sees everything, and Scarpetta’s reaction is utter shock: “Oh no.”

Who would it be? Is Lucy coming home from her time of grief? Is Marino coming back to declare his feelings? Is it Fruge, after his partner Ryan? Or someone we haven’t met yet?

Scarpetta now streaming on Prime Video.