You Killed Me First

At the event, Margot confronts Liv about talking to Frankie. Liv, recognizing that Margot will not respond well to the truth, refrains from providing the full details of her difficult conversation with Frankie, in which Frankie was in tears over Margot’s behavior. Instead, Liv praises Margot and Nicu for raising a “really perceptive, self-aware kid” (96). Liv also reveals that the person Frankie is talking to is the child of a celebrity whom Liv has befriended. This information pacifies Margot.

Margot is annoyed when she finds her garden has been infiltrated by Liv’s cat yet again. When Margot goes to fetch something from the garage, the cat slips in, and Margot leaves it locked in the garage to teach it a lesson. She looks for a bottle of red wine, frustrated by how many things seem to be going missing in her house lately.

Liv heads to her studio early in the morning, reminiscing about how she and Brandon first made the money to open it. After the twins were born and money was tight, Brandon himself suggested that they make more videos on OnlyFans, this time featuring him as well. Their earnings shot up again, but it still wasn’t enough, and Liv decided to do whatever she had to in order to make their dream of a wellness studio a reality.

Three days later, Margot realizes that she forgot to let Liv’s cat out of the garage. When she goes down to check on to, however, she only finds its collar and tag. Margot assumes that the cat must have eaten some poisoned bait left for the mice, and that Nicu probably found the body and disposed of it.

April: Seven Months Before Bonfire Night

Margot is stuck inside her house because Anna has come over to use her Wi-Fi to do her tax returns, there being some issue with her own. Liv arrives with a parcel of clothes for Margot, who is horrified to realize that the clothes she just won in an eBay auction belonged to Liv. Margot lies and claims that she bought the clothes for a charity rather than for herself.

Liv mentions that Margot’s old band is reuniting for a European tour, and Anna and Liv ask Margot whether she will be joining them. A tense Margot claims that the other band members approached her a while ago, but she turned them down.

Having forgotten her keys at Margot’s, Anna heads back there and overhears a conversation between Margot and her agent, Geri. In this conversation, Margot claims that no one from the band every contacted her, even as Geri insists that they did, but Margot turned them down. Margot begs to be included somehow, but Geri tells her that the band is certain there is no room for her anymore; they believe that Margot’s exclusion will ensure a less “toxic” environment. Margot threatens to expose the band’s past secrets in retaliation.

One morning, Liv messages on the three neighbors’ group text, announcing that her cat has returned with its collar and tag intact, but it is missing an old scar. (Margot, who felt guilty that Liv’s children were so devastated over their supposedly dead cat that she adopted an identical cat and set it free in Liv’s garden; however, she had not noticed the original cat’s scar. To Margot’s consternation, Liv follows up with a message saying that their original cat, sans collar and tag, has also just wandered into the house.

After a long time of staying silenced in her killer’s mind, the voice of Jenny finally convinces the person to kill again so that she can escape their mind. At the inquest into Jenny’s death, her killer learns that Jenny was 10 weeks pregnant when she died; this prickled the killer’s conscience, allowing the perceived voice of Jenny to gain strength in their mind.

Before Jenny’s death, her killer asked if Warren was the one who pulled the trigger. Jenny’s voice reminisces about the first time she encountered the killer years earlier, when her killer was then only a helpless child hiding under the bed and cowering as their parents were shot dead in the next room. 

Jenny’s killer, now driving behind Warren’s car, smashes into him and causes him to crash. While he is still conscious in the car, Jenny’s killer sets his car on fire, and the voice of Jenny feels herself left behind as Warren’s voice takes her place in the killer’s mind.

May: Six Months Before Bonfire Night

After speaking to Sylvia Chamberlain (the celebrity whose child is also nonbinary), Margot relayed the conversation to Anna and was struck with an idea for Frankie. 

Now, she throws an extravagant 13th birthday party for Frankie, complete with media and reporters. Nicu and Frankie are both especially touched and happy at Margot’s gesture; however, the event sours when Margot announces that the party is also a surprise “gender reveal” party. To Frankie’s dismay, she reveals Frankie’s nonbinary identity to everyone in attendance, including the media.

After a tearful Frankie rushes out, Liv takes aside a genuinely befuddled Margot to explain why such a party was a bad idea. She advises Margot to explain to Frankie that her intentions were well-meant—even though Liv herself does not believe this to be true.

Frankie’s birthday fiasco drives Margot and Nicu even further apart than before. She reflects on their relationship, recalling that they first met when they were partners on a dance show. At the time, Nicu had a girlfriend named Ioana, with whom he had two very young children, but even so, Margot and Nicu found their chemistry to be irresistible, and they began a secret affair.

However, news of Margot and Nicu’s affair leaked just one week before their dance competition final, and the scandal sparked a media frenzy. Ioana went to the press, falsely claiming that Margot had betrayed her friendship and ruined upcoming wedding plans to Nicu. As damage control, Margot and Nicu got married, and later that same day, Ioana’s body was found impaled on the railings 15 floors below her apartment. The police found her young children locked in the bedroom, and a suicide note typed out on her laptop blamed Nick and Margot.

June: Five Months Before Bonfire Night

Liv paces nervously as she prepares for the opening of her wellness studio. She startles when she thinks she spots someone familiar among her guests, but she quickly calms down, telling herself that her conscience is playing tricks on her.

Margot arrives at the inauguration of Liv’s wellness studio in a foul mood, having spent the last three days shooting for a reality show on Nicu’s insistence that she take up a job. At the party, Margot flirts with Liv’s husband Brandon, sensing a spark between them.

Brandon leaves with the exhausted twins, and Liv stays behind at the studio. She is horrified to discover that she is not alone. Harrison, the man whom she imagined seeing among the guests earlier, is in fact present. Harrison warns Liv never to contact him ever again and threatens to kill Liv’s family if she disobeys.

Warren’s voice narrates this chapter, explaining that after his death, his killer’s desire for revenge has receded somewhat. The next name on the killer’s list has been there for a long time and does not seem as urgent. However, matters shift one night when his killer has a conversation with Ioana. The killer’s rage grows in response to the nasty things that Ioana is saying. In a vulnerable moment, Warren’s voice takes control of his killer, who pushes Ioana so hard that she topples over the balcony to her death. Warren’s voice leaves his killer’s mind as Ioana takes his place.

July: Four Months Before Bonfire Night

To Margot’s shock, audiences love her performance in the reality show, and she agrees to become a series regular when the show offers her £20,000 per episode. When one of Margot’s cast mates, Tonya, learns that Margot knows Liv, Margot discovers the truth about how Liv made her money.

Anna comes over to collect Margot before they both head over to Liv’s house for coffee. Anna spots some of the hate mail that Margot has been receiving and grows visibly disturbed; she voices her sympathy for Margot, who finds herself unexpectedly touched.

At Liv’s house, Liv confides in the women, stating that someone has complained that the extension she and Brandon are building behind their house is 10 centimeters over the allowed limit. As a result, they have to tear it down and start again. Live has also received numerous one-star reviews on her studio, which has brought down the fledgling business’s overall ranking. Margot, who is secretly responsible for both catastrophes, feigns surprise and offers Liv her support.

Liv mentions having seen Margot outside a Turkish restaurant in town the previous night. Margot denies this and leaves to use the bathroom, and when she returns, she looks flustered. 

When Liv steps away to take a phone call, Margot confides in Anna that she spotted a padded envelope in the bathroom garbage can and recognized it as being similar to the envelope style used by whoever is sending her hate mail.

When Anna defends Liv, dismissing the possibility that she could be a stalker or serial killer, Margot grows frustrated enough to tell Anna what she has learned about Liv’s past. However, Anna remains skeptical.

As Margot waits for an unnamed companion to arrive at the Turkish restaurant, she remembers Nicu’s ex-girlfriend, Ioana. No one knows that Margot visited Ioana on the night she died. Margot had gone over to ask Ioana to let the children attend her and Nico’s wedding the next day; however, Ioana refused, vindictively hurling abuse at Ioana.

Now, Margot is pulled out of her reverie as her companion arrives; she sets an alarm so that she can get home in time without anyone realizing where she has been, or with whom.

A detective arrives at Anna’s and addresses her as “Ms. Khan,” a name that she has not used in years. He explains that they first met when he was responding to an accusation that Anna had made. While no proof could be found to back up Anna’s accusation, the detective never stopped looking. He now asserts that out of the four people arrested “at the time” (185), three are now dead. He also produces a photograph, claiming that he was surprised to see it. Before the detective can say anything else, Drew appears out of nowhere and swings a hammer at the back of the detective’s head, killing him instantly.

Ioana’s voice states that she will not encourage her killer to kill anyone else, even though Ioana and the killer had shared a common enemy. Ioana’s voice expresses her desire to remain within her killer’s mind and refuses to be silenced. Ioana’s voice often dictates terms to her killer. She insists that her killer keep listening to her, stating, “Because there will be consequences if you aren’t, Anna” (188).