What happens at the end of One of Us Is Lying? The book and the show reach two very different verdicts
Karen M. McManus's One of Us Is Lying sold millions of copies on a single question: which of the four students in detention killed Simon Kelleher? When Peacock adapted it in 2021, viewers who'd read the book assumed they knew the answer going in. They didn't.
The book and the show reach two very different verdicts on Simon's death — and hand out two very different fates to the person responsible.
The two verdicts at a glance
- The book (2017) — nobody murdered Simon. He took his own life and staged it as a murder to destroy the classmates he resented, recruiting Addy's boyfriend Jake to hide the EpiPens and frame the four. Jake ends the book alive — and under arrest.
- The show, series 1 (2021) — Simon never meant to die. He planned a fake allergic-reaction prank to scare the others, expecting to be saved. Jake secretly hid the EpiPens, turning the prank into a murder and framing "Murder Club" to punish Addy for cheating on him.
- The show, series 2 (2022) — the cover-up becomes the story, and the show ends on a cliffhanger the book never had.
How the show's verdict plays out
In the series 1 finale, "One of Us Is Dead", Jake chases Addy through the woods with a loaded gun and is willing to turn it on the whole group. He's the one who ends up shot dead — killed with the gun Addy fires — and Murder Club buries the truth rather than call the police.
Series 2 is built entirely on that secret: an anonymous tormentor called Simon Says blackmails the group all season, is finally unmasked as Nate's tutor Fiona, and gets framed for Jake's killing after a showdown on a yacht.
Then comes the final scene: a flash-forward to graduation day, a pool of blood at Bayview, and Bronwyn's "Stay" necklace lying in the middle of it. Showrunner Erica Saleh told Entertainment Tonight in 2022 exactly what that image was for:
"The goal is for people to be worried about Bronwyn."
So how does the show end?
It doesn't. Peacock cancelled One of Us Is Lying in January 2023 after two series, leaving the graduation-day cliffhanger permanently unresolved. Whose blood was on that floor, whether Bronwyn survived, what secret Fiona knew about Jake — none of it will ever be answered on screen.
The book, by contrast, closes its case completely. Simon's plan is exposed, Jake faces justice, and the Bayview Four walk away cleared. McManus even continued the story in two sequels, One of Us Is Next (2020) and One of Us Is Back (2023).
Two verdicts, then. In the book, the killer is the victim. In the show, the victim's accomplice becomes the killer — and then a victim himself.
If you want an ending that actually sticks, it's on the page.