The Perfect Couple is a high-class mystery series on Netflix that follows Amelia Sacks, a bride marrying into one of Nantucket's wealthiest families. But when a dead body appears on the beach just before the big day, secrets are revealed and everyone is a suspect.
Here is everything that happened in The Perfect Couple episode 1...
The series opens at Benji and Amelia's rehearsal dinner, the night before their lavish wedding, and it instantly becomes clear this is a family that has money. A lot of money.
The beachside house in Nantucket is picture-perfect and as everyone sips champagne and dines on oysters at the celebration, there are smiles all around. As some of the guests make a video for the happy couple, we meet their nearest and dearest who have arrived for the wedding of the year... as well as Benji's proud parents, Greer and Tag, who have funded the whole event. But, as the happy scene comes to a close, we flash forward to that night when we hear a scream and something, or someone, being plunged into the water.
The next day a police officer is woken from a boring night shift with a call to tell him a body has been found on the beach. He calls his chief, Dan Carter, at home who is surprised to hear they 'have a floater' - commenting that this is the last thing they need on the 4th of July.
Dan goes in to see his daughter, Chloe, who is still sleeping in her room, and tells her that her catering job at the wedding won't be happening now that they have found a dead body. She seems surprised, but when her dad tells her he is heading to work, she hides a bloody shirt and messages someone on her phone.
Down at the beach, Dan is interviewing the wedding planner about what happened as the rest of the police team swarms the area looking for forensics and taking away a body in a body bag. Over at the police station, members of the Winbury family, the wedding planner, and even their housemaid and the bride-to-be, Amelia Sacks, are being questioned by the police, and it seems everyone is a suspect.
The episode then flashes back to the morning of the rehearsal dinner, where Amelia wakes up to find a note from her husband-to-be on her pillow and a ladybug on top of it. She tries to save the ladybug by going downstairs in her underwear to put it in the garden, but her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Greer, isn't pleased to see her wandering around without a robe on.
As the family gathers in the kitchen that morning, they all make digs at one another about various things, and it soon becomes clear that Amelia isn't like the family she is about to marry into. She doesn't come from money as they all do, and she has different values... like allowing herself to eat carbs the day before her wedding -
much to Greer's horror!
We get flashed into the future where various people are being interviewed by the police and we learn that Greer is stuck up, while Tag, the head of the house, is more laid back and everyone fancies him.
Back to the morning before the wedding and Greer greets Carol, the woman from the jewelers who has arrived to drop off the wedding rings. Greer is pleased and she welcomes her like they are friends, clearly, this is a family who have the money for their own personal jewelers. But when Carol questions why Greer isn't wearing the diamond bracelet that Tag bought for her recently, Greer is confused but covers and lies that she loves it.
Knowing that her husband hasn't given her a diamond bracelet, Greer goes hunting in his office drawer and finds the receipt from the jewelers for an $18.000 bracelet... and the reality hits that he must have bought it for someone else.
Benji comes in and grills his mom about the fact she wasn't very nice to Amelia that morning, but he has caught her at a bad time, having just discovered her husband of almost 30 years has been lying to her, and she tells her son some home truths about his future wife.
Greer is a best-selling author and her publisher calls while she is down on the beach thinking about what to do about the diamond bracelet. The publisher reminds her about the photoshoot they have got with her and Tag coming up, pushing their 'perfect couple' status to try and sell more of Greer's books. But she's obviously called at the wrong time, given what Greer has just discovered and she tells her she needs to go, before ending the call quickly. Immediately afterward, someone called Broderick Graham calls Greer's phone, but she cancels the call without answering it.
Meanwhile, Tag has driven Amelia to the port to collect her parents from their boat. Amelia explains that her mom is self-conscious about her wig, and we learn that she has cancer. Tag promises not to mention the wig and when Bruce and Karen arrive, they are clearly not as wealthy as the Winbury family, and when Karen gives Greer her fruit basket as a thank you for having them stay, even the housekeeper is so unimpressed with it that she throws it in the bin.
As everyone is welcoming Bruce and Karen to the house, Merritt arrives, Amelia's best friend and maid of honor. At the same time, Shooter arrives, Benji's best man who knows the Winbury family so well he is almost one of them. Not everyone likes Merritt as she is so confident, and as she chats with Amelia, who admits to having cold feet about the wedding, Abby, the wife of Benji's older brother Thomas, is eyeing them suspiciously.
Benji is a painter, and as he adds the finishing touches to a painting for Amelia, she is watching Merritt and Shooter having a great time messing about in the pool. Benji gives Amelia the painting and she likes it, but as they are about to sleep together, she changes her mind and tells him that he's perfect and she doesn't deserve him. He is left confused by her change of heart, while she gets dressed.
Over at the police station in the present day, Dan is surprised to learn that an oyster knife was found at the scene of the crime. But as the police talk about shucking oysters, we head back to the night before at the wedding rehearsal dinner where Merritt makes a lovely speech about her friendship with Amelia, and Benji tells a sweet story about how he and Amelia first met.
Thomas, Benji's older brother, doesn't seem very happy in his marriage, despite the fact his wife, Abby is pregnant, and he jealously talks about Amerlia and laughs at how close she is with her best friend Merritt, telling Benji that they are probably having a secret romance. Benji tells his big brother to go for a swim to cool off and sober up, and he tells everyone that maybe he will.
However, the next morning, which is the morning of the wedding, we see Tag in his office, Greer in her bathroom doing her makeup, and Amelia up very early trying on her wedding dress, ready for her big day. However, something in the water outside her window makes Amelia do a double take and she goes down to the beach to see what it is. Still wearing her wedding dress, she realizes it is a body floating face down in the water, and it is her best friend, Merritt.
All episodes of The perfect Couple are available to stream worldwide on Netflix now.
