Trigger warning: This article mentions gun violence and other sensitive topics.
Based on the novel of the same name by Karin Slaughter, The Good Daughter limited series adaptation has officially arrived on Peacock from Slaughter herself. The series stars Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy as estranged sisters Sam and Charlie, who come back together 20 years after an attack on their family when another violent attack occurs in their Georgia hometown.
The Good Daughter episode 1 begins with a flashback of Young Sam (Audrey Grace Marshall) and Young Charlie (Drew Cheek) practicing a relay run with Gamma (Olivia Williams), but Sam and Charlie end up arguing. While getting ready for dinner, Sam answers a phone call from her father Rusty (Brendan Gleeson). He's sending a sheriff to the house to protect them after his latest case.
Sam expresses her anger that as a lawyer, he let a bad man go free. Charlie overhears her mother giving Sam compliment but pretends she didn't. Gamma and Sam go upstairs, but Charlie calls up for help. Sam joins them as men hold them at gunpoint in the kitchen. As Gamma defends Charlie, she grabs his gun, causing him to shoot and kill her.
Twenty years later, Charlie (Meghann Fahy) wakes up and searches for her ringing phone, which isn't actually her phone. She swapped phones with a hook-up the night before. She goes to the high school to swap phones, and the sight of an old teacher gives her memories of her teen years. She tells Huck (Jake McDorman) that she's married but separated as a way to cut things off.
Charlie witnesses a school shooting that results in two deaths
When she tells Huck her name is Charlie Quinn, she reacts unkindly to his own reaction. She and her father are the only defense attorneys in town, which makes them a lot of enemies, but she also assumes that he's sided with the rest of the townspeople who don't believe the Culpepper brothers killed her mother. In the middle of their argument, gunshots erupt outside.
Huck grabs Charlie and they duck behind his desk. When someone calls out for help, Charlie runs into the hallway and Huck runs after her. Charlie sees Mr. Pinkman dead, a girl with a gun, and Mrs. Pinkman (Paula Malcomson) tending to another young student who has been shot. Charlie knows that the girl hasn't made it. Police arrive and hold guns at the student as Huck pleads with them.
As Huck grabs the gun from the shooter, Kelly Wilson (Shayna Benardo), the cop shoots Huck in the arm. The police rush over to the girl and arrest her with violence. Charlie begins recording on her phone, demanding that they read Kelly her rights without incident. A cop hits Charlie's phone to the ground and then hits her on the head with his gun. She's handcuffed at the police station.
Charlie's husband Ben Bernard (Michael Dorman), also a lawyer, arrives at the station and gets Charlie's handcuffs removed. When Sheriff Keith Coin (Jayson Warner Smith) and DA Kenneth Coin (Jason Davis) come into the room, she defends herself against their accusations. Agent Delia Wolford (Angela Davis) replaces the Coins, and she's investigating the deputy who shot Huck.
Charlie doesn't appreciate Wolford using the phrase "accidental discharge" and explains that Huck was not a threat in the moment that he was shot. After also explaining that Huck removed the bullets from the gun, she and Ben leave the room. She sneaks back into the observation room to watch Rusty interrogate Kelly, and Ben follows her. Charlie reflects on how much she looks up to her dad.
When they leave the station, Ben gives her back her phone and informs her that Huck is a former Marine. She apologizes for sleeping with him, and Ben suggests that she stay at Lenore's (Harper Steele) house. Lenore picks up Charlie, who expresses regret for cheating on Ben even though they have been living separately for six months. Charlie also thinks about Sam.
Rusty's attack reveals what happened to Sam
On the road, Lenore and Charlie pass a memorial for the Culpeppers before arriving at the Wilsons' house to warn her parents. Kelly's mom Ava (Jessica Miesel) initially doesn't want anything to do with Charlie because of the Culpeppers, but she soon realizes Charlie is an ally. Ava doesn't believe Kelly would have done this and that she was a sweet girl.
Charlie warns her against talking to cops or reporters. She intercepts Ava's phone when Huck calls her and confronts him about deleting the video of the police assaulting her. Huck reveals that Kelly has a learning disability and doesn't fit the description of a school shooter. He also wants Charlie to agree that he left the gun at the scene, when he actually stashed the murder weapon.
When the police show up, Charlie gives Ava her phone back and rushes away. Back at the office, Charlie catches up with her dad, and they seem to disagree about the direction to take Kelly's case. She also reveals details she learned from Huck about the school's blindspot and the murder weapon's location. She drops her dad at his house, which has been vandalized.
Charlie has memories from her childhood, including her parents arguing about money the Culpeppers owe him. Despite their struggles, their family still came together with love. Still driving home, Rusty calls and informs Charlie that he was attacked. He sits outside his house with a bloody abdomen. As she turns around, we see Charlie and Sam's reactions to their mother being killed.
While held at gunpoint, Sam begs for their lives, using her knowledge that the Culpeppers did this against them. Saying his name leads Sam to getting a rough hand to the eye. As the police show up at the Quinn house, the Culpeppers lead Sam and Charlie into the woods. Sam instructs Charlie to run, and she does, leaving Sam to get shot and dumped into water. But she didn't die. Sam (Rose Byrne) swims in her massive pool and when she gets out, she listens to a voicemail from her dad telling her to come home.
Watch The Good Daughter only Peacock.
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