stay close netflix plot holes confusion

8 Plot Holes In Netflix’s ‘Stay Close’ That Are Truly Baffling

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Stay Close is the latest Netflix thriller that is equal parts compelling and confusing.

The UK crime series based on the Harlan Coben novel of the same title revolves around a character introduced as Megan but whose real name is Cassie. She left behind her old life as a dancer at nightclub Vipers in an attempt to hide a dark secret.

Fast-forward 17 years, Megan now has a picture-perfect family but the suburban life she’s carved out for herself is upended when a blast from her past turns up and threatens to ruin everything. Meanwhile, the town’s detective Broome is investigating a string of missing men who were last seen at Vipers, with the first disappearing (you guessed it) 17 years ago. This begs the question: does Megan have something to do with the missing men?

Megan must confront the ghosts of her past, and tbh, it doesn’t help matters that when Megan started a new life she decided to move just a few minutes down the road from her old one. This baffling storyline, along with many more unresolved plots, has viewers scratching their heads and making glorious memes as a response. We’ve rounded up some of the most frustrating unanswered questions we still have from watching the eight-part crime series.

Here are 8 of the biggest plot holes in Netflix’s Stay Close:

1. Why did Megan seemingly move only a few minutes away?

The series introduces Megan as a character who uprooted her entire life in an attempt to escape her past. Yet as the episodes unfold, fans have noticed something bizarre: the characters in Megan’s old and current life seem to live in nearby towns, like literally minutes away from each other. Megan’s daughter Kayleigh even parties at Vipers after following her mum there one night, suggesting it’s not too far away from her home.

For what it’s worth, Coben has set the record straight, confirming on Twitter that Megan’s home is over an hour drive from Vipers. However, this doesn’t explain how speedily all the characters move around in the series. Sounds fake, but OK!

Either way, it’s still pretty baffling. If you were escaping a former life, wouldn’t you move to a totally different region or a different country entirely? Like, not just in a neighbouring township? Use your head, Megan!

2. What happened to the two men Megan fought at Harry’s house?

When Megan first visits her old friend Harry, she is accosted by two men at his house who try to rob her. In turn, she beats the crap out of them both — giving viewers a glimpse of what Cassie used to be like in her younger years. You’d think that these two men might want revenge but we never see or hear from them again. Meanwhile, Megan comes and goes from Harry’s house several more times and never encounters any issues.

3. Why did Harry not tell Broome or Megan he had been attacked?

Harry is confronted by hired hitmen and dancing couple Ken and Barbie at his home, but while he manages to get away, he doesn’t think to mention what just happened to Broome or Megan. This is especially odd, as details of what they looked like could have helped with the unfolding case.

The only explanation could be that Harry might have been high at the time of his attack, as he was a frequent opioid user, and he thought he was hallucinating and that’s why he neglected to tell the others. This makes sense, as Ken and Barbie were performing some kind of murder cabaret in the scene.

Harry not telling Broome and Megan about the hitmen is one thing, but him returning to his home knowing the assassins have his address seems all kinds of illogical. It should be no surprise that they came back and ended up killing him, as he made it easy for them to locate him.

4. What was up with Megan’s partner’s mum?

Throughout the season, Megan’s mother-in-law knew that her real name was Cassie and claimed that she had seen several different shady characters visit her nursing home. While she showed signs of dementia in earlier episodes — suggesting her accounts were untrustworthy — one of these sightings turned out to be true as when Megan visited her, she ended up in a knife fight with Barbie. But this still doesn’t explain how she knew Megan’s real name, if she actually did get other visits, or whether it was all in her mind.

5. How come Rudy just stops chasing Megan?

At the season’s climax, we learn that Stewart Green is not the one hunting down Megan, it’s Rudy: a man who Stewart owed money. Somehow Rudy finds Megan while she’s staying at a safe house (??) and demands to know what happened to his money. When Megan fled her former life, she stole money out of Stewart’s suitcase, but some of the cash actually belonged to Rudy. Megan tells Rudy all this and then he’s… super chill with it??

If it was Rudy and not Stewart who had been stalking Megan for the entire series, then surely her explanation wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him. Especially as he would have noticed that in Megan’s new life she is super-wealthy, so therefore she could now pay him what was owed.

6. How did no one find Goldberg for ages?

Halfway into the series, we find out Broome’s superior Goldberg is working with Ken and Barbie. Towards the end of the series, he locks Megan and Kayleigh in an office under the police station, calls Barbie to come collect them, but has a change of heart and ends up attempting to lock Barbie away as well. In a later scene, Barbie kills Goldberg and leaves his body downstairs.

Then… no one finds him or even looks for him for what seems like at least a day or two. Sure, his body is downstairs in the basement but he’s literally the station’s boss. When he took Megan and Kayleigh downstairs and never returned, wouldn’t someone in the busy office have noticed? After Broome and his partner Erin realise that someone is leaking information, surely the first person they contact would be their superior.

7. How did Megan and Kayleigh get out of office?

In one of the show’s biggest plot holes, there’s a time-jump between Megan and Kayleigh being locked in the downstairs office and then sitting back in the above-ground station with Broome. What the hell happened? They were locked in, so did someone come find them? And even more baffling, why didn’t they mention Goldberg had trapped them inside? This would have led police to his body and the realisation he was the one feeding information to Barbie and Ken.

8. Why didn’t Carlton Flynn yell out when his car was going into the water?

The series ends on a spine-tingling revelation that Vipers manager Lorraine was the killer but she did not kill the person who kickstarted the whole investigation: Carlton Flynn. Kayleigh had pushed him into his car boot after he tried to drug her, then her dad Dave had pushed the car into the river to cover his daughter’s tracks. Carlton assumedly died by drowning.

I don’t know about you but if I was locked inside a car boot, I’d be listening intently to hear if anyone was coming close to the car and could therefore rescue me. Yet we didn’t hear any sound coming from the car when Dave pulled up, or when he proceeded to push the car (by himself??) into the river. As the water started to flood in, surely Carlton would start screaming loud enough for Dave to hear, right?

I loved this show but I am confused!!!

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You can stream Stay Close on Netflix.