The Hulu series Death and Other Details is a mystery thriller revolving around a famous detective, Rufus Cotesworth, and a young woman, Imogene Scott, investigating some murders taking place on a cruise ship. Imogene, who lost her mother at a very young age, lived with a wealthy business family named the Colliers. The series introduced to us the Collier family, portraying each of these members’ complicated psyches and natures that sometimes made them the murder suspects, especially when they were the main reason why these unfortunate events took place in the first place. Let’s decipher the characters from the Collier family to learn more about their journey throughout the series.
Anna Collier
The Collier family prodigy, Anna Collier (portrayed by Lauren Patten), had bigger dreams in life. She wanted to become the CEO of their family business, the Collier Mill, but their business faced a lot of issues due to their use of a harmful chemical named Captionem Blue. Anna and her family were well aware of how dangerous the chemical was, so when their factory workers in Jiangsu suffered health crises due to the effect of the chemical, Anna tried to fix it. However, Anna wasn’t yet the head of the company, so nothing was in her hands to fix. Therefore, the situation remained neglected, and the rich Colliers continued to get richer. Anna was married to a woman named Leila, whom she loved, but on their cruise ship vacation, she ended up cheating on her wife with Eleanor Chun, daughter of the Chun family. As Leila learned about it all, she decided to divorce Anna, who was devastated to know that the love of her life wanted to leave her. However, this wasn’t the only tragedy in Anna’s life, as she learned that she could never become the CEO of the company, as she wasn’t even a legitimate daughter of the Colliers. Anna’s father was Llewellyn Mathers, their family attorney, who had had a brief affair with Katherine. As Katherine had always kept this information secret, Anna couldn’t forgive her mother. She confronted her mother, demanding to know the truth, and unable to control her anger, she beat her to death, throwing her into the pool. Katherine’s death devastated Anna, but she didn’t want to get caught, so Kira, the Interpol agent who was the real Viktor Sams, came to her aid. Kira maintained her silence in order to save Anna, so that she could later use her in her own business. Anna Collier’s journey didn’t seem to end in the season, and we expect her return in the upcoming installment of Death and Other Details.
Tripp Collier
Portrayed by Jack Cutmore-Scott, Tripp Collier is the black sheep of the Collier family and a spoiled brat. Tripp had never been as sharp as Anna, so his family never even tried to give him the responsibility to handle the family business. On the cruise ship, Tripp became attracted to Governor Alexandra Hochenberg, with whom he shared some intimate moments, but soon Alexandra faced troubles when she was blackmailed by Viktor Sams. Alexandra was also poisoned by Viktor Sam’s follower, Winnie Goh. During this time, when Alexandra tried to communicate with Hilde without knowing that she was the real Viktor Sams, she began to cough up blood and ended up dying. Even though Tripp and Alexandra’s relationship was never serious, her death devastated him, and he couldn’t process the pain, so he turned to alcoholism with his heartbroken sister Anna, who was also on the verge of breaking down after Leila decided to leave her.
Imogene Scott
Portrayed by Violett Beane, Imogene Scott is not a part of the Collier family, but she spent a big part of her life in this household, considering Anna and Tripp her close friends, or almost like her own sister and brother. Imogene’s childhood was traumatic because she had witnessed her mother’s death in front of her eyes. At the time of her mother’s death, a young Imogene met with Rufus Cotesworth, who came to the Colliers’ house to investigate the murder. Imogene had always wanted to become a detective like him, and she finally got the chance to decipher a murder mystery when she boarded the cruise ship along with her adoptive family. However, by the end of the series, Imogene had not only identified the murderer but also found out that her mother was the actual culprit behind these murders. Imogene initially wanted to forgive her mother, but she couldn’t bring herself to let her continue her criminal activities. So, teaming up with Cotesworth, Imogene did everything she could to bring Kira to justice, but even though her mother was in prison, it didn’t seem to be the end of her notorious activities. We may expect Kira to return for another season of Death and Other Details, where Imogene will try to catch her once again.
Katherine Collier
Katherine Collier (played by Jayne Atkinson) is the wife of the Collier family patriarch, business tycoon Lawrence Collier, but most of the decisions regarding business and other family affairs were taken by her. Katherine was a pure evil woman who had always taken advantage of people and destroyed many lives without any hesitation. She had a child with Llewellyn Mathers, but she never even told the man about it so that she could give Anna a bright and secure future. She was never bothered about the havoc their family business had caused in the lives of their factory workers, and neither did she try to fix the situation. Therefore, in the end, she couldn’t even face her daughter, Anna, who confronted her with the truth regarding Kira’s murder. Even though Katherine didn’t directly kill Kira, she was aware that an assassin hired by Lawrence had tried to attack her but gotten killed in the process. Katherine had no idea how exactly Kira died, since their assassin had failed to do the job, but Anna believed her mother had a hand in this murder. A furious Anna attacked Katherine, who lost her life in the eighth episode of the series.
Lawrence Collier
Portrayed by David Marshall Grant, Lawrence Collier is the owner of the Collier Mill, which used to be a sewing factory, where Celia Chun used to work alongside her husband. After Lawrence took over the factory and began to use Captionem Blue, Celia’s husband died of chemical poisoning. Lawrence was indeed an evil man who had even tried to stop Kira Scott when she decided to go against him and his company, but the assassin he had hired to murder her failed to complete his task and got killed by Kira. However, when Kira faked her death by exploding her car, Lawrence was the one who hired Rufus to look into the case, but he asked the detective to stop the investigation in the middle when Rufus was close to learning the truth. Kira, who later got associated with Andreas’ blackmailing gang, began to take her revenge on Lawrence, who got his hands on a special protein shake from a website. Lawrence had no way of knowing that this protein shake was just a trap planned by Kira. The protein supplement contained Captionem Blue, which caused gradual memory loss in Lawrence. By the time Lawrence boarded the cruise ship along with his family, he was already dealing with dementia, which got worse with the protein shake consumption. By the end of the series, he was also fooled by Katherine’s close friend, Father Toby, who cunningly took all the money they had in their bank account by tricking him into signing a check. After Katherine’s death and the bankruptcy, Lawrence was left with nothing but their giant mansion, where he lived with Tripp and Anna. While Tripp finally became a responsible son to take care of his father, Anna became a drug addict to cope with her mother’s death and her separation from Leila. The Collier family, who once had everything under their control, was left with nothing by the end of Death and Other Details, proving the point that material happiness is a very fleeting thing no matter how wealthy anyone is.
