Scarpetta is Amazon Prime Video’s latest crime thriller based on the books by Patricia Cornwell. Starring Nicole Kidman in the lead role as Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the show doesn’t hold back from giving us twist after twist. Just when we think that the killer has been finally found, we are proven wrong. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger and also has multiple storylines running throughout the show.
Lucy is Kay’s niece who lives with her while her mother (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is off doing everything but taking responsibility for her. Hence, Lucy is closer to and more fond of her Aunt Kay. We are first introduced to a younger version of Lucy. The first time we see her as an adult is when she is standing at her dead wife’s grave. The series never really shows how Janet, Lucy’s wife, passed away.
Grappling with the unspeakable loss of her wife, Lucy confines herself to her cottage with an AI version of Janet. She becomes increasingly disconnected from the outside world, and that troubles her mother. But towards the end of the show, AI Janet is mysteriously removed from Lucy’s system. A heartbroken Lucy goes berserk when she realizes that she has lost Janet once again.
But what really happened to Janet and her AI version?
Scarpetta: What really happened to Janet and who removed the AI?
Janet died before the main events of the story even begin in Scarpetta. Her death is revealed to have been caused by a sudden brain aneurysm. Lucy and Janet had been married for a couple of years, and the loss completely shattered Lucy’s world. That’s why Lucy clings so desperately to the AI version of Janet that they built using technical expertise and Janet’s digital data. For Lucy, the AI feels like the closest thing she has left of her wife.
In the books by Patricia Cornwell, Janet’s death is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Lucy also loses their son Desi during that period. The show changes this by giving Janet a sudden brain aneurysm instead and focusing more on Lucy’s relationship with the AI.
Janet’s world turns dark again when the AI version suddenly shuts down. Someone turned it off, and Lucy believes it was done intentionally. She asks her mother if she did it, and then confronts her Aunt Kay. But nobody admits to doing it.
In Scarpetta, the system behaves and speaks like Janet, and remembers everything they shared together. Lucy finds comfort and emotional cushioning in that AI version.She turns against everyone and leaves when she finds out that AI Janet is gone forever. She goes off to The Orchard to be part of ex-suspect Matthew Petersen’s grief camp.
Scarpetta never confirms who really removed AI Janet. However, prior to this turn of events, the show reveals that Kay and Dorothy have an emotional moment when they finally agree on one thing. They both believe that Lucy needs to get back to the real world and that AI Janet is only standing in the way of her having a happy future.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, before agreeing with her sister, goes to Lucy’s cabin looking for her. But she is greeted by AI Janet instead. That’s when Dr. Kay spills the harsh truth and the AI seems to agree with her. Kay even tells her that she needs her to do something for her. But the show never reveals what it is that Kay asks AI Janet to do. Perhaps it was to remove herself from the system?
This theory, however, contradicts the fact that there was a failsafe, and Janet would not have been able to remove herself from the system. It must have been deliberately done by someone else, unless the AI somehow bypassed the failsafe and removed itself.
The finale of Scarpetta keeps the truth hidden intentionally. It leaves viewers with the same feeling Lucy has. Something important happened behind the scenes that we might get to know in the next season.
Scarpetta Season 1 is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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Edited by Parishmita Baruah