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The Hunting Wives season 1, which premiered on Netflix on July 21, 2025, unravels a suspenseful tale of secrets, seduction and betrayal in a wealthy Texas town. Sophie O'Neil (Brittany Snow) goes from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Maple Brook, Texas, for her husband's business. There, she is caught up in the world of the Hunting Wives, a group led by Margo Banks (Malin Akerman).
As Sophie gets more involved with the group, which includes Callie (Jaime Ray Newman), the sheriff's wife; Jill (Katie Lowes), the reverend's wife; and Margo's unstable friends, her life becomes a risky mix of late-night parties, target shooting, and affairs.
In The Hunting Wives season 1, Starr's (Chrissy Metz) adolescent daughter, Abby Jackson (Madison Wolfe), is found dead. What starts off as a rumor and a scandal quickly turns into a full-blown murder inquiry. As the investigation unfolds, it is revealed that Margo Banks is responsible for Abby Jackson’s death.
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Disclaimer: This article includes major spoilers. Read at your own risk.
The death of Abby Jackson in The Hunting Wives season 1 explored
In The Hunting Wives season 1, Margo Banks is someone Maple Brook society admires—beautiful, wealthy, influential, and married to a man running for governor. But beneath her polished image is a woman hiding dark secrets.
Margo gets pregnant with Brad's baby. Meanwhile, her husband and a conservative gubernatorial candidate, Jed, runs a strict anti-abortion platform. To avoid ruining Jed’s campaign, Margo arranges an abortion with help from a discreet doctor—Sophie’s biological father—who alters records to protect her.
16-year-old Abby Jackson learns about the truth and plans to expose it. For Margo, that is a threat, as Jed’s conservative campaign wouldn’t survive a scandal involving infidelity and abortion. If Abby speaks out, everything Margo had built would fall apart.
What happens in the woods?
The Hunting Wives hold a party near the woods. Sophie O’Neil passes out after mixing pills and alcohol. She brings a gun to the woods—one that Margo later uses to shoot Abby. Margo follows Abby into the trees, desperate to shut her up. High and emotional, Margo shoots Abby in the chest.
Although she describes it as "an accident," her subsequent calculated actions reveal a different story. She calls her brother Kyle to help clean up the scene. He moves Sophie’s unconscious body and gets rid of the gun. When Kyle sells it, that weapon resurfaces in a robbery, tying it back to Sophie and dragging her into the murder investigation.
Later on the Netflix show, the evidence planted by Margo leads investigators to Jill, whose instability and previous outbursts make her an easy target. In the end, Jill gets arrested, not for Abby’s murder, but for a separate crime, while Sophie remains under quiet suspicion until the truth surfaces.
Sophie finds out the truth
Sophie, who has relocated to Maple Brook in search of excitement and escape, soon finds herself in a precarious situation. She falls for Margo's charm and the Hunting Wives' lavish lifestyle.
She begins piecing things together after overhearing a tense conversation between Brad and Pastor Pete. Suspicious, she investigates medical records and later confronts Brad directly, who confirms the affair and the abortion. Sophie’s discovery is proven when she realizes the doctor who covered for Margo also falsified documents.
Sophie is stunned to learn that the doctor is actually her biological father. He had kept this information hidden for years and lied to investigators to protect Margo—out of loyalty to Jed’s political campaign and fear of community backlash.
When Margo eventually tells the truth, she doesn't feel bad about it. She informs Sophie that she never planned to frame her, but everything she did made it look like Sophie was to blame.
What happens to Margo in The Hunting Wives season 1?
In the end, Margo’s perfect world collapses. Jed abandons her, destroying her reputation and taking away her social power. Sophie, traumatized and isolated, kills Kyle in a separate confrontation that pushes her into a psychological tailspin.
Overwhelmed by grief, Abby’s mother begins confronting people connected to the Hunting Wives. A paranoid Jill attacks her during an argument, killing her in a moment of rage. This incident allows Margo to shift further suspicion away from herself and onto Jill.
Jed continues his political career unbothered, even starting an affair with his campaign manager. Callie, another wife in the group, sees the chaos as her shot at reality TV fame. As for Sophie, she contemplates turning in Margo’s confession to Sheriff Salazar. But she hesitates, unsure if justice is even possible in a town like Maple Brook.
As The Hunting Wives season 1 concludes, it is revealed that Margo Banks killed Abby Jackson, not out of hatred, but fear. While justice remains unclear, the show sheds light on the dark power of secrets and how far people will go to hide them.
