Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘His & Hers,’ a husband and wife are pitted against each other as they try to uncover the truth behind the murder of a woman with whom they both have a strong connection. While the murder of a Dahlonega woman named Rachel takes center stage, the six-episode season also delves into the relationship between Detective Jack Harper and WSK reporter Anna Andrews. It is revealed that they have been estranged for more than a year, but it isn’t until much later that we discover that this distance between them is due to a heartbreaking tragedy they both experienced differently. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Sudden Death of Jack and Anna’s Daughter Sets Them on Separate Paths
Despite being from Dahlonega, Jack and Anna didn’t really cross paths until they were both in Atlanta. He was a police officer, and she was a news reporter on the rise. They got married, found a place to call their own, and to make things even better, they had a daughter named Charlotte. Everything was going great between them, and they couldn’t have been happier. With their jobs and the baby, Jack and Anna didn’t get much time with each other, so one day, they made a plan to go out and have some alone time. They left the baby with Anna’s mother, Alice, though before they left, Anna noticed that Charlotte couldn’t stop crying. She thought that this meant the baby was not feeling well, and they should drop their plan.
Jack, however, told her that Charlotte was just being fussy and that she would be alright. He told Anna that Charlotte would be fine with Alice, and so Anna gave in and they left. Hours later, when they returned, they found paramedics inside the house and were devastated to discover that Charlotte had died in her sleep. Her death is explained as crib death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). This happens to babies less than a year old, and there is no specific reason to explain why it happens. The fact that babies who pass away because of it are usually healthy makes it even more unexpected and tragic. While researchers have tried to study the syndrome, understand how it works, and how to stop it, they haven’t succeeded so far.
The suddenness of their daughter’s death breaks Jack and Anna apart, especially as she starts to blame herself for leaving Charlotte, even when she thought something was wrong. What makes it even worse is that Jack keeps telling her that it will be alright, and while she doesn’t blame him for anything, she cannot stand listening to his consolations. She feels so deeply untethered from the people and the world around her that she doesn’t think she can be around anyone anymore. This is why she leaves, suddenly and without any explanations, leaving Jack and Alice to figure out why she left and when she will be back, if at all.
Charlotte’s Death Becomes the Inciting Incident of the Murders in Dahlonega
Losing Charlotte breaks Anna, but she is not the only one who is severely impacted by this tragedy. For Alice, her daughter, Anna, meant everything in the world. When Anna was happy, Alice was happy. So, when Charlotte dies, and Anna disappears, Alice is left alone and heartbroken. She loses her granddaughter and daughter in the same stroke, with no way of knowing if she will ever get Anna back. While Jack tries to find his wife, he fails, and as weeks pass and there is no sign of her, Alice falls back on Anna’s memories to find some comfort. She discovers the tapes Anna used to make when she was a teenager, and they remind her of the energy and passion that burned inside her back then.
She watches all the tapes, and eventually lands on the one that Anna wouldn’t have wanted anyone to find. The tape presents the events of Anna’s 16th birthday, when she went partying in the woods with Helen, Zoe, and Catherine. It turns out that Rachel used to take money from boys and would bring unsuspecting girls to the woods to let the boys have their way with them. She brought Catherine there with the same intention. When her friend was attacked, Anna intervened. This allowed Catherine to escape, but Anna was caught in the trap, and the boys targeted her.
The whole thing was caught on tape, and years later, Alice watches the whole thing play out on her screen. She realises the pain and trauma that her daughter has been harboring for all these years because of those girls. So, she decides to use the girls to bring Anna back. She kills Rachel, and sure enough, her murder makes Anna jump on the opportunity to revive her career by covering the murder in her hometown. This not only brings her back to Alice, but starts a chain of events that unravel exactly as Alice had intended them to, giving her daughter the life she had worked so hard for and almost lost so easily.
Read More: His & Hers: How did Andrea Die? Did Catherine Kill Her?
