WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Deep Water, now available on Hulu.
In Hulu’s Deep Water, Vic (Ben Affleck) had a few enemies to deal with in his troubled marriage. And at the heart of it was his sinister wife, Melinda (Ana de Armas), who kept torturing him with her infidelities, and Don, a writer who kept trying to prove Vic killed one of his wife’s flings, Charlie. But while Vic was able to navigate around them all, gaslighting people in town to keep himself in the clear, when his downfall came, his biggest enemy turned out to be himself.
It was made obvious in the finale when Vic lost it over Melinda’s ex, Tony. He realized she still loved the construction magnate and was possibly planning to elope, so he lured him out to the gorge the family often picnicked at. Vic then killed Tony and went home to bask in the victory with his daughter, Trixie.
Tony’s disappearance worked two ways because while he wouldn’t be around to get physical with Melinda, there was also a psychological effect. He dumped her once, and by “leaving” her again, she would realize Vic was the only man who would stay with her through thick and thin. And that came to pass because, thinking Vic loved her despite her flaws, Melinda reconciled, wanting a happy family again.
And everything was fine until she went into Vic’s weird snail-breeding cabin out back where she found a trophy: Tony’s wallet. When Vic sunk Tony’s body into the river, he took the wallet out so it would be difficult to identify the corpse. Unfortunately, he never destroyed it, and it left Melinda horrified. She was mortified because while she got off on thinking Vic would kill for her, she never actually thought he would carry out the act. And top of that, it confirmed Vic drowned Charlie and shot Martin, which pushed Melinda to pack a suitcase to leave.
Vic’s murders reiterated how much he played his luck because, with Charlie’s death, he got emotional when they were alone in the pool, choking and drowning the young man. It was rash because Vic could have risked exposing himself when the coroner determined the cause of death. No one was in the pool except them, after all, and all the guests knew that when they left the water. And that same foolish attitude is what allowed Melinda to find the wallet and kickstart her husband’s eventual downfall.
See how Vic messed up in Deep Water, now available on Hulu.
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