The Wives is a thriller series set on the beautiful island of Malta and focused on the Morgan family during a family vacation as Annabelle Morgan, who is the wife of Charlie Morgan (one of the four Morgan brothers), suddenly disappears during a party. Though no body is found, everyone assumes that she’s dead. This tragedy deeply affects the entire family, especially the three Morgan wives: Beth, Sylvie, and Natasha. Beth, in particular, struggles the most since she and Annabelle were really close. Fast forward a year, and we see things get even more complicated as Charlie has come to Malta for the summer with his new partner, Jade, which shocks everyone naturally; to think how he could move on so quickly. But the biggest mystery still is what really happened to Annabelle. Charlie and Jade’s behavior seems suspicious, and also Charlie and Annabelle’s daughter Sky begins to receive strange messages from a social media account called OceanMagic22 which claims to know where Annabelle is, which naturally raises questions. Could she still be alive? Let’s learn from this explainer of The Wives series directed by Helen Black.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Beth doubt Jade?
As we mentioned earlier, Beth was especially close to Annabelle, which made it really difficult for her to move on after Annabelle’s disappearance. Deep down, she always wondered if Annabelle might still be alive. She even considered basing the book she was trying to write on the incident to use it as a way to express her feelings and talk through the unresolved grief. When Beth, Sylvie, Natasha, and their husbands Frankie (Beth’s husband), Sean (Natasha’s husband), and Tom (who was no longer with Sylvie) went on vacation in Malta again together, they couldn’t help but miss Annabelle and remember the fun times they had shared. But things took an awkward turn when Charlie arrived with his new girlfriend, Jade, who looked shockingly similar to Annabelle. With her curly red hair and wearing the exact same red dress Annabelle had worn the night she disappeared. This unsettled Beth so much and that is why in a moment of shock and frustration, she impulsively pushed Jade into the pool.
Although Beth apologized later, there was something about Jade that kept bothering her. That is why she decided to sneak into Charlie and Jade’s apartment to look for clues, only then she found Annabelle’s birth certificate hidden in a cupboard, which sparked even more concern. She shared this discovery with Sylvie and Natasha, and the three wives began secretly following Charlie. They found out that he had had Annabelle’s death certificate made so he could sell their apartment and take control of her money and had even handed over a secret envelope to a British Consulate worker named Vinay Taneja. Obviously the wives were desperate for answers, so they went to confront Vinay, but that led nowhere and they were nearly kidnapped. But when they got away from that situation finally, the Morgan wives decided to talk to Jade directly. At first, they welcomed her warmly, but then quickly turned hostile as they all demanded the truth. It was then that Jade confessed that she had been having an affair with Charlie from long ago, and even on the night Annabelle disappeared Charlie was with her, and he was really upset and panicked with this whole situation, which clears up one major detail, that the story about all four Morgan brothers being together at the tennis club that night was a lie. Because if Charlie was with Jade, it made it less likely that he or Jade had anything to do with Annabelle’s disappearance.
What happened during the meeting with OceanMagic22?
Sky had never been a fan of Jade as she always felt like Jade had replaced her mother, especially after her father, Charlie, had removed all of Annabelle’s pictures from their home and got engaged to Jade so soon. Naturally, Sky felt abandoned and alone. So when she suddenly received a message from an unknown social media account named OceanMagic22 which claimed to know about her mother’s whereabouts, she couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope because she missed her mother. At first, Sky was skeptical, but when another message came on Sylvie’s birthday from that account, she decided to take a chance and meet this mysterious person. Without telling anyone, Sky secretly took Natasha’s car and drove off to meet OceanMagic22. When everyone realized she was gone, all started to panic, especially Frankie, whose reaction was somewhat odd, like it wasn’t just concern, it almost seemed like he couldn’t breathe. The truth finally came out: Sky wasn’t really Charlie and Annabelle’s daughter as Charlie couldn’t have children. It was actually Frankie who had slept with Annabelle and cheated on Beth and that’s how Sky was born. This was shocking for everyone, especially for Beth who felt like her whole world had been turned upside down and nothing was like before anymore. But on the other hand, they tracked Natasha’s car, only to find it had been in an accident, and Sky had gone missing.
Natasha and Sylvie were terrified, especially because police came to resolve the situation and Natasha had hidden 10 grand worth of casino chips in the car. She had taken them from Luca, a local mobster Sylvie had dated for a while, because Natasha and Sean were having financial trouble as Sean was not involved in the brother’s business. Now if those chips weren’t found, Natasha knew they’d be in serious trouble. In the meanwhile, as they were looking for Sky, they saw her walking down the street. The wives were relieved and rushed to her, only to see a van speeding away. Sky explained that the van belonged to the person behind the OceanMagic22 account, who was supposed to tell her about Annabelle. Hearing this, the wives, including Jade, decided it was time they confronted this person themselves, so they set up a meeting as they were desperate to finally learn the truth about Annabelle. But when they approached the van, they were shocked to find Luca waiting for them with a gun. He demanded his casino chips back, and threatened them because his brother’s life was at risk. The wives quickly realized they’d been played, as the OceanMagic22 account was just a trap, and their hope of finding out about what really happened to Annabelle was gone.
What happened to Annabelle?
As we had all been suspecting for so long, Annabelle wasn’t dead, she was very much alive. She suddenly appeared and shot Luca from behind to save her sisters-in-law. It felt like everyone had just seen a ghost; as they couldn’t believe their eyes. The truth finally came out that Luca had been hired to kill Annabelle due to serious issues in their business Charlie. Actually, Charlie had set up a fake account in the name of a supplier to steal money from their business and blamed it all on Annabelle by accusing her of having a gambling addiction. His plan was to get his hands on her money, and the only way he could have it was to have her killed. That’s why Annabelle had to fake her death to escape this terrible situation and that is why, after paying Luca off, she went into hiding. But when Luca tried to threaten to ruin her and Sky’s lives, she had no choice but to come out of hiding to protect her daughter. Everyone was in shock after hearing this. Although Beth was furious at Annabelle for sleeping with her husband Frankie, she knew what was the right thing to do. So, She took Annabelle to the police station to stop the investigation into her disappearance and to prove she was still alive and needed protection from her ex-husband who’d tried to kill her. When the Morgan brothers found out, they rushed to tell Charlie and, in a panic, Charlie tried to flee with Sky and Jade, but before he could, the police arrived and arrested him. Despite his constant pleas that he had nothing to do with Annabelle’s “murder” or disappearance, all evidence pointed to him, and he was taken into custody in the end.
In The Wives’ ending, the family did reunite, but I wouldn’t call it a happy ending, because in the beginning, the Morgan brothers and their wives seemed so close-knit, but throughout the series, we saw how many secrets they were hiding from each other. It left me pretty doubtful about how Beth and Frankie’s relationship will move forward. Because, Frankie not only cheated on her but kept the huge secret about Sky being his daughter for all these years. And the biggest shock was it wasn’t Charlie who told Luca to kill Annabelle, but it was Frankie, as he wanted to cover up the fact that Sky was his daughter, so he plotted to have Annabelle killed. Now, with Charlie in jail, the case was set to go to trial, which would take time. In the meantime, Charlie handed over his part of the business to Frankie, which made it look like Frankie had everything under control now. But on the other hand, Luca didn’t die from Annabelle’s shot, he fled the scene and is still alive, and now there’s a real chance he might come back to finish what he started; that he might try to kill Annabelle again after taking information from Frankie. And this might take another toll on the Morgan family again. We’ll have to wait and see if another part of the series comes out to find the answers.
