Netflix’s new show No Good Deed, starring Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano is one of those shows where what really happened is nothing like what you think happened. The show, which revolves around three families competing to buy the same Los Angeles house—as well as the couple trying to sell the house, Paul and Lydia Morgan, is a black comedy from Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman.
The series also stars Dead to Me star Linda Cardellini as Margo Starling and Luke Wilson as her husband JD Campbell. Meanwhile, Teyonah Parris is Carla while O-T Fagbenle plays her husband Dennis. Finally, Abbi Jacobson plays Leslie Fisher with Poppy Liu plays Sarah. The cast is rounded up by Denis Leary, who plays Mikey, Wyatt Aubrey who plays Paul and Lydia’s teenage son Jacob and Chloe East, who plays Emily, their oldest daughter.
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Any self-respecting black comedy will have its share of twists and turns, but in No Good Deed, there’s no bigger one than the reason why Paul and Lydia are empty nesters in the first place—not just the fact that Emily is away at college, but the fact that the son Jacob is actually dead. The truth of what happened to him is revealed in fits and starts and only comes together at the end of the first season.
But what happened to Jacob in No Good Deed and how did he die? We’ve got the answer right here for you.
What happened to Jacob in No Good Deed and how did he die?
There seem to be two different answers to how Jacob died, and the first one you learn isn’t the truth—or at least, not the whole truth. Paul and Lydia have been living under the impression that their son Jacob was accidentally killed by their daughter Emily as he was trying to sneak back into the house dressed as a burglar. They’ve blamed themselves for his death ever since it happened, particularly considering Lydia was the one who brought the gun into the house in the first place.
However, as the show progresses, the two start to question their conclusion as it seems more than one person actually fired into the house that night. At first, the main suspect seems to be JD Campbell, particularly after the discovery that Jacob was having sex with his wife, Margo. But it turns out that was also a red herring. The last episode of the show reveals that JD wasn’t responsible, instead it was Margo all along.
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After Margo caught Jacob stealing from her—or, as he put it, taking back what he gave to her, she threatened to tell on him for stealing. Except then he threatened to tell JD about their affair. Desperate, Margo chased JD through the streets and into his house at the exact same time his sister was walking through another door, seeing him getting the gun and shooting. They both shot at the same time, with Emily thinking she’d been the one to kill the intruder. Margo, seeing that happen, just walked away, content with the knowledge that she wouldn’t be blamed.
Except, in the end, it all comes out. And though at first, it looks like Margo will pay with her life as JD seems to burn their house down with her inside, later we see her—with some serious burns, at a bar casually having a drink, that is until Nate arrives to arrest her. So, Margo did not actually get away with murder. That’s a happy ending. But is it really the ending?
