Death and Other Details is a murder mystery series that streams on Hulu. Set aboard a luxury cruise liner, the series features an ensemble cast of characters that all have a role to play in an unfolding mystery.
When a man is found murdered in his cabin, it appears as if Imogene Scott (Violett Beane) is the culprit since she was the last person to leave his room. However, it turns out that she is the only one on board who could not have done it. It is up to Imogene and renowned detective Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkin) to find the murderer before Interpol does.
Hulu cancelled the series after one season.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Invoked by Imogene in Episode 8 when she confirms that yes, Lawrence killed her mother. But, thanks to his dementia, "he's going to jail and he won't even realize it."
- And Starring: Mandy Patinkin gets the honor.
- And the Adventure Continues: Season 1 ends with Anna pushed to become the new Viktor Sams while Imogene and her friends find a dismembered body at a ski resort.
- Asshole Victim: Murder victim Keith Trubitsky establishes himself right from the beginning as an entitled and obnoxious man who flaunts his apparent wealth whenever he gets the chance. Subverted when it turns out he was really Cotesworth's assistant Danny who was working undercover.
- Badass on Paper: Rufus Cotesworth is not without investigative talent. When shown investigating a case, he displays observational and deductive skills that one would expect from a detective. However, his reputation as the world's greatest detective is vastly overblown, and his most famous case was solved through pure luck.
- Bait-and-Switch: The Collier family attorney is shown Bound and Gagged in a closet and is noted to be missing for a long while after that, implying that he might have been abducted. He's fine, actually. He was tied up in there by Teddy in her role as a dominatrix. He could have freed himself at any time, but he was waiting for her to come back.
- Central Theme: The faulty nature of human memory:
- Rufus chides Imogene for accidentally influencing a witness's memory of the night of the murder, pointing out that a clumsy interrogator can render entire testimony meaningless.
- Imogene had forgotten details of the time she was at a diner with Kira shortly before the latter's death. Once her memory is jogged, she realizes that she'd witnessed a critical meeting between Kira and Governor Hochenberg.
- Even Imogene's memory of Kira's death isn't a completely accurate recollection of what happened. Imogene convinced herself that she saw Kira in the car when she really didn't.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Toby's son Derek seems rather superfluous for most of the series until Episode 9, when his TikTok account provides footage that reveals the true identity of Viktor Sams.
- Chekhov's Skill: Danny's memory for faces. Once it's revealed that he was Cotesworth's assistant, this skill is brought up multiple times, and it's what ends up getting him killed, as he recognized Kira Scott while she was in hiding.
- The Chessmaster: The mysterious Viktor Sams can manipulate people and events from afar with seemingly little effort on his part.
- Cruel Mercy: In the finale, Imogene and Rufus confront Kira on how, in all her decades planning her revenge on the Colliers, she wouldn't kill Lawrence, her main target. That's because Kira came up with a much better plan to slowly poison Lawrence, making it look like he was suffering from dementia to the point he literally gives his company away and a shell of his former self.
- Deceptive Legacy: In Episode 8, Anna finds out she's not Lawrence's daughter but the result of her mother's affair with Llewellyn.
- Detective Mole: Viktor Sams was actually Kira Scott, in the guise of Interpol agent Eriksen, meaning that she spent most of the season "investigating" her own crimes.
- Disappeared Dad: Imogene's father is not part of her life, suggesting she may be illegitimate.
- Dominatrix: Teddy, the ship's maitre d', is revealed to be one.
- Driven to Suicide: The Colliers' lawyer, Llewellyn Mathers, jumps overboard due to feeling guilty over the death of Imogene's mom. Subverted when it turns out he was poisoned.
- Driving Question:
- Who murdered Keith Trubitsky and why? Answer
- Who is Viktor Sams and why did he kill Imogene's mother? Answer
- Early-Bird Cameo: Kira Scott/Hilde Eriksen can be seen in the background of an early scene in the first episode, which is revisited much later when Imogene tries to remember who Danny Turner was speaking with.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Rufus turns out to be this. It's revealed that the big case he solved that no one could have a missing necklace that he figured out by a minor detail? It turns out he won it from the real thief in a poker game. From there, Rufus basically bluffed his way through every case, solving them by sheer luck rather than skill. The death of Imogene's mom finally stumped him and why he pulled back from other cases.
- Faking the Dead: Imogene's mom Kira Scott fakes her death in order to take revenge on the Collier family.
- Fanservice: The first two episodes feature glimpses of a naked Anna and Imogene in a yellow bathing suit with a plunging neckline.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: At first, the Collier siblings seem like a straightforward example, with Tripp the coked-out idiot and Anna the responsible CEO-to-be. However, the two switch roles later in the season, with Tripp starting to smarten up and Anna descending into hedonism following her Trauma Conga Line (described below).
- Foreshadowing:
- Lawrence's odd persona, which others think shows his mastermind abilities and impulsive acts, is really his early onset dementia. As Anna says "he gave away our company and didn't even realize it."
- Much of Cotesworth letting others "figure it out on their own" is explained by the reveal he's really not that great a detective.
- The smugness that Celine shows around the Colliers is explained by her knowledge of secrets such as Anna's true heritage and how she has the upper hand.
- In a meta sense, it turns out there's a reason that Kira and Agent Eriksen are played by the same actress. They're actually the same person.
- He Knows Too Much: Why Keith was murdered: He realized something was off about "Eriksen" when she was disguised as a worker on the ship and seemed to somehow recognize her as Kira. Eriksen thus knew that if she later "arrived" on the ship, Keith/Danny would know her by sight so he had to be killed.
- Hiding in Plain Sight: Not only is Hilde Eriksen actually Viktor Sams, she is also Imogene's supposedly dead mother Kira Scott. No one recognizes her because she changed her hair and eye color and has had surgery that altered her face.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Kira poisons Lawrence Collier with the same substance that poisoned many of the workers at his factories.
- Humiliation Conga: Also crosses with Trauma Conga Line as Anna starts the series as a rich Collier, married to a gorgeous woman and about to become CEO of the company. By the end of Episode 8, her wife has discovered Anna cheating on her and wants a divorce; her mentally addled father has literally given the company away; she discovers she's not even a Collier as her mother had an affair and her real dad is the twisted lawyer who just killed himself; she learns her "father" did indeed kill her best friend's mother so said friend now hates her; and to top it all off, she finds her mother's body floating in the pool.
- I Did What I Had to Do: How Kira justifies letting Imogene see her "death" and then go on her own, thinking she'd be safe and "it was the only way you'd move on." Imogene sums up the problem with "does it look like I've moved on?"
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Keith Trubitsky is killed with a harpoon and he is discovered impaled on it against the wall of his cabin.
- Informed Ability: Rufus Cotesworth is supposedly the best detective there is but he could not solve the murder of Imogene's mom and it is not stated how many cases he has been able to solve. It's revealed partway through that he isn't the world's greatest detective and while he's certainly not unintelligent, his reputation is largely built on dumb luck and lies by omission.
- It's Personal:
- It's been noted the Colliers and Celia have been business rivals for years. In a big showdown, it turns out Celia worked at a Collier plant 50 years earlier, only for her husband and several family members and friends to die because of the toxins there. Changing her name, Celia built herself into a billionaire, all with the ultimate goal of taking the Colliers down.
- Invoked by Imogene realizing "Eriksen" was behind everything.
- Jerkass Façade: Keith Trubitsky up until his death in the first episode is an incredibly obnoxious Rich Jerk who bullies the help. Turns out it’s an act as his real name is Danny, he’s Rufus caring assistant and he cares not only about Rufus’s well being but also the promise he made to Imogene about solving her mothers murder.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: "Jules" is a career criminal with a long wrap sheet but also looks after Ukrainian refugees and helps them escape.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: After all his bragging on the ins and outs of solving mysteries and eye for detail, Rufus is forced to reveal he's a crap investigator who only solved crimes by sheer luck, and the solutions literally fall into his lap.
- Locked Room Mystery: It is established that no one entered Keith Trubitsky's cabin between the time Imogene left and when housekeeping arrived the following morning, making his murder seem impossible. However, Imogene and Cotesworth theorize that someone was hiding in a bar cart that was in the room. It turns out they were right when Winnie Goh confesses to the murder.
- Missing Mom: Imogene's mother was killed by a car bomb. Or so it would appear.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Imogene wears one after sleeping with Sunil, the ship's owner.
- Never Found the Body: All that was left of Kira Scott after the car bomb was some teeth, which apparently was enough to convince people she was dead.
- Once More, with Clarity: A constant as scenes will be reshown to reveal what really happened.
- Out-Gambitted: A few times but especially the finale as Kira realizes that Imogene saved the servers from the ship with all the evidence of her crimes, their six months of "bonding" has all been a setup and then not only do Imogene's allies enter the chalet dining room but every person there reveals themselves to be real Interpol agents to arrest Kira.
- The Reveal: Every episode has some shocking twists with the finale going all out.
- Erikson isn't really an Interpol agent, she's Viktor Sams. Oh, and she's also Imogene's mother, Kira, having faked her death as part of a long game against the Colliers.
- Lawrence's "dementia" was actually him being poisoned by Kira.
- Anna accidentally killed her mother.
- Riches to Rags: While not purely broke, by the finale, the once insanely wealthy Colliers have lost almost all of their vast fortune, a single house that may not last long and Lawrence barely aware of what's happening. Surprisingly, Tripp, who loved the rich lifestyle, seems to be adapting to this better than Anna is.
- Secret Test of Character: In Episode 9, Viktor announces a bomb will sink the boat and kill everyone except whoever wins an "auction" to get the seats off. Celia refuses to play and as it turns out, Viktor had no intention of killing anyone, just teach a lesson on who was willing to screw over others to survive.
- Shout-Out: Rufus Cotesworth is said to be the world's greatest detective and yet he was unable to solve the murder of Imogen's mother, the victim of a car bomb. Similarly, the eponymous Adrian Monk of Monk also had a reputation as the world's best detective but could not solve his wife Trudy's murder after she was killed by a car bomb. At first. Cotesworth also straightens crooked paintings and says he is claustrophobic, traits he shares with Monk.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Sophia Reid-Gantzert plays a younger Imogene in flashbacks that depict her mom's murder and its aftermath.
- Time Skip: The first episode opens with Cotesworth meeting Imogene when he is brought in to solve her mother's murder before jumping ahead 18 years to the present day. A second time-skip occurs in the finale with the final scenes taking place six months after the rest of the series.
- Wham Line:
- Episode 6: "I'm not the world's greatest detective."
- Episode 8: "But you're not a Collier."
- Episode 9: " Mom?"
- Wham Shot:
- The first episode ends with a flashback in which Imogene realizes that she has seen Keith Trubitsky before and that he was actually Cotesworth's assistant.
- In episode 9, Imogene finally comes face-to-face with Viktor Sams, who turns out to be Agent Eriksen. This, along with the subsequent reveal that Eriksen is really Imogene's mother, goes on to drive the remainder of the plot and recontextualize much of what has already been seen.
