Nine Perfect Strangers was always about living in the space between reality and fantasy. Reuniting creator David E. Kelley, Nicole Kidman, and author Liane Moriarty after the success of Big Little Lies, Hulu’s limited series posits that the only way to rebuild one’s life is to escape it, even for a little while. The finale reveals whether this experiment works—leaving viewers to wonder if the guests’ ends justified Masha’s unorthodox means.
Before the spiritual healing can commence, there’s a cliffhanger to (sort-of) resolve. At the end of the penultimate episode, Carmel (Regina Hall) was unmasked as the person who shot Masha, causing her near-death experience and ensuing rebirth as a wellness guru. Of course, this makes sense, considering Carmel’s ex-husband was sleeping with Masha at the time. “You fucked my husband and then you dismissed me,” a ravenous Carmel tells Masha. “I don’t remember pulling the trigger, but I remember that.” As one could guess by now, Carmel was also behind those foreboding texts flooding Masha’s phone throughout the series.
While Masha’s stalking terror and bullet wound are inventions for the TV series (in the book on which the series is based, she nearly died of cardiac arrest instead), the revelation that Carmel is responsible for both is anti-climactic. This hints at a larger problem with Nine Perfect Strangers: throughout the show, the questions turn out to be a lot more interesting than the answers they yield. Why is everyone behaving with differing-levels of mania? Psychedelic drugs, which the guests end up being pretty cool about. Who is sending Masha the death threats? An obvious suspect from two episodes ago who never acts on her rage and drops her animosity towards Masha within seconds.
Then again, the show merely masqueraded as a true crime mystery à la Kidman’s The Undoing or BLL. Nine Perfect Strangers is really more focused on the personal growth lingering behind its cliffhangers. When Lars (Luke Evans) rightfully accuses Marsha of using the Marconi family, reeling from their son’s suicide, as “death pilots” to reconnect with her own lost daughter, Masha spouts off a speech about how both she and them are “stuck.” The ethics of Masha’s tripping with Napoleon (Michael Shannon), Heather (Asher Keddie), and Zoe (Grace Van Patten) in hopes that they both see their deceased children are cast aside for a treacly dream sequence. (“Maybe it’s time’s up on mourning my suicide” is an actual line uttered by Zach, the Marconi’s dead son.)
Back at the compound, the guests grow suspicious of their tranquil surroundings when they realize their cars are missing and hear Carmel screaming from inside a padded room. When the group confronts Masha, she tricks them into entering the locked space. While in the overheating prison, each character comes to terms with their innermost demons in tidy, subsequent fashion. Ben (Melvin Gregg) vows to work again, despite his lottery winnings. His influencer wife, Jessica (Samara Weaving), shall simply “stop caring what other people think.” And Frances (Melissa McCarthy) is merely “grateful” for having met Tony (Bobby Cannavale) after being previously wooed by a con man. Meanwhile, Masha’s psychedelics allow her a moment with her deceased daughter just as police cars make their way to the retreat.
Once all of the strangers finish their Kumbaya moment, they’re set free from the space, which has actually been designed to simulate a near-death experience. Cops raid Masha’s retreat and take her in for questioning. “Did you find what you were looking for?” Frances asks. “Never up, never in,” Masha whispers in her ear, quoting a line Frances’s father gave her about taking chances in life.
If you, like me, found yourself waiting for the inevitable point in a cult story when the followers stop sipping the Kool-Aid and revolt against their leader, you won’t find it here. Instead, the strangers immediately skip ahead to the “Five Years Later” versions of themselves, defending Masha’s methods to authorities and letting her off the hook because she too experienced tragedy.
Each of the characters’ central problems are remedied by episode’s end. The Marconis find a semblance of normalcy after their debilitating loss. Yao and Delilah (the underutilized Manny Jacinto and Tiffany Boone) join the Peace Corps after enduring Masha’s turbulent work environment. Carmel guides a support group for women. Lars has a baby, and publishes a seemingly effusive New Yorker story on Masha titled “Psychedelics to the Rescue.” Ben and Jessica take over Tranquillum House, welcoming a new cohort. And Frances and Tony enjoy domestic bliss. Given the rapid speed with which these loose ends were tied (and the heavy role drugs from a damaged self-help guru played), it’s hard to imagine they won’t unravel at some point—but showing that would go beyond the scope of a limited series.
Then there’s Masha, speeding down the coast in Ben’s stolen yellow Lamborghini as her phantom daughter sits in the passenger seat. On the dashboard rests a copy of Nine Perfect Strangers, written by McCarthy’s Frances. Mother and daughter throw their hands in the air, wind whipping at their smiling faces. But as the camera pans away, Masha’s daughter is gone, a reminder of the reality she must sell herself to get through the day. The vehicle careens towards the unknown, at risk of crashing at any moment.
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