Deadly Illusions: Grace Scenes That Were Really Margaret
Deadly Illusions' twist ending shocked Netflix audiences. We look at the scenes with Grace that plant the seeds for the movie's explosive finale.
Warning! Spoilers for Deadly Illusions below.
Things aren't as they seem in Deadly Illusions - especially when it comes to the character of Grace. After Tom (Dermot Mulroney) and Mary (Kristin Davis) are both seduced by their nanny Grace (Greer Grammer), they discover their interactions have not only been with their nanny, as Grace lives with dissociative identity disorder. Here's a breakdown of which scenes in the movie featured Grace and which were actually an alternate personality named Margaret.
The Netflix original movie follows Mary as she dives back into her once-successful writing career in order to help ease her family's financial woes. In order to ease back into her full-time career, she needs to hire a nanny for her twins. She thinks she found the perfect nanny in Grace. Mary begins to find herself attached to Grace, and the lines between fantasy and reality quickly begin to blur.
Mary's world begins to spin out of control and comes crashing down once her best friend Elaine (Shanola Hampton) is found murdered. She puts together the pieces and realizes Grace was responsible. But it's then that she learns multiple personalities live within Grace. She and her other personality, Margaret, are polar opposites, with very different motivations from one another.
This scene includes a clear indicator that it is Margaret, not Grace, with Tom. When they sit down at a restaurant together, Mulroney's Tom immediately comments that she seems different. In this scene, "Grace" carries herself completely differently than she had previously done in the movie. She's confident and openly flirting with Tom. Grace flirts with Mary in the movie, but those moments are either private or take place completely in Mary's mind. Margaret doesn't have those reservations. This is clearly shown when Tom drives them home and she hangs her head out the window, completely care-free. Margaret constantly tries to sabotage Grace. So as Grace is clearly falling for Mary, Margaret decides to go after Tom. Margaret doesn't appear to have deep feelings for Tom — she just wants to cause chaos in Grace's life.
Mary and Grace's flirtations come to a head in the middle of the movie. The pair goes on a bike ride together to an idyllic lake and share some wine. Mary reads Grace a poem and they share a passionate kiss. But when they decide to leave, Mary notices her bike's tire is slashed. Initially, Mary dismisses it as a cruel and random prank. But later in the movie, Mary starts to piece everything about Grace together. It's only then that she realizes it was Margaret who slashed her tires. That likely means that Margaret was masquerading as Grace during the entirety of their time at the lake.
After "Grace" and Mary share their first kiss, the pair cook dinner together for the rest of the family. Grace begins to compliment Mary incessantly, with sexual tension dripping from every word coming out of her mouth. She spoon-feeds Mary a bite of chili, and then proceeds to perform a sexual act on her in the middle of the kitchen. Given the tender moment they just shared, the audience is supposed to believe that this is Grace. As the two had just cemented their feelings for one another, it would make sense that Grace would try to take things further. But every action in this scene is far too aggressive for the demure Grace — she would never openly engage in Mary in extramarital activities out in the open where Tom and the kids could walk in on them. This was all Margaret. She needed to take advantage of Mary so she could drug her — which comes into play later in the movie. Mary didn't realize she felt off until Tom and the kids walked in. Tom immediately put Mary to bed, which was part of Margaret's plan.
Immediately after waking up, Mary finds Grace and Tom having sex in the kitchen. Grace is a completely different person than the woman Mary has fallen for. She is assertive and demanding. She speaks to Tom in ways that Grace would never — she even physically speaks differently. This is the clearest way for the audience to see the difference between Grace and Margaret in Deadly Illusions. Grace and Margaret have vastly different personalities. Also, as Mary later learns, dissociative identity disorder runs in Grace's family. Her aunt's voice changes drastically when she switches between personalities. Similarly, Margaret's voice is just slightly deeper than Grace's voice.
At Deadly Illusions' climax, Mary begins to realize something is going on with Grace. She tries to call Elaine to discuss it, but she doesn't pick up. Mary goes to Elaine's office to try to talk in person, only to find out that her best friend has been brutally murdered. But much to her surprise, Mary becomes the primary suspect in Elaine's death. Police officers question Mary and provide ample evidence as to how Mary may be involved in the murder. While this isn't revealed until the end of Deadly Illusions, Margaret heavily drugs Mary so she cannot account for her actions. That leaves Margaret free to kill Elaine and Mary without a solid alibi. The police acquire a CCTV video of a woman disguised with a scarf and sunglasses leaving the scene — the audience later learns this is Margaret dressed in Mary's clothing.
In the final fifteen minutes of Deadly Illusions, Margaret is the dominant personality. Grace is able to break through a few times, but Margaret is essentially running the show. She returns to the Morrisons' family home and nearly kills Tom with a kitchen knife. Mary finds Tom in time, and Margaret formally introduces herself to the couple. Grace tries to save them, but Margaret manages to keep control and tries to kill Mary as well. Margaret and Mary have a brutal showdown in the movie's final moments, and Mary barely escapes with her life. The Netflix original movie then proceeds to jump forward a year in time. Mary visits Grace at the psychiatric hospital she is currently living in. The movie's final scene sees a woman in a scarf and sunglasses leaving the hospital — it's the very same outfit that Elaine's killer left the scene in. This heavily implies that Margaret is still the dominant personality. She managed to overpower Mary and escape the hospital. Mary wanted so badly to believe Grace could heal, that she let her optimism get the best of her. That likely cost Mary her life at the end of Deadly Illusions.