Brazen ending explained: Who killed Grace’s sister?

Grace Miller spent the entire movie searching for her sister’s killer. Did she figure it out? Here’s a breakdown of the Brazen ending fully explained.

Alyssa Milano starred as mystery author Grace Miller in the latest Netflix thriller. Based on the book Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts, the movie follows the murder investigation of Grace’s sister.

On the outside, Kathleen looks like an everyday high school teacher. However, she has a secret life, and her secrets are all about to come out. It’s the secrets that have been linked to her motive behind her murder.

What was Kathleen’s secrets on Brazen?

Grace turned up to support her sister when Kathleen made it clear she was going for custody. It’s clear that there is a drug addiction backstory, but Kathleen is clean and she’s got a new job as a high school teacher.

She also has another side hustle on Brazen. Kathleen doesn’t share the secrets with Grace right away, but we find out that she works for a webcam company as an online dominatrix. Her alter ego is called Desiree, and she’s very popular.

Grace gets home from a date with the neighbor detective next door to find Kathleen murdered. It kicks off a murder investigation, which involves a second victim and then the attempted murder of a third. All of the women worked with the webcam company, and the murderer always says the name Desiree.

Who killed Kathleen on Brazen?

Grace wanted to be involved in the murder investigation. At first, nobody wanted her. After all, she’s an author and not a detective. She managed to prove that she would be an asset to the team.

Even before that, she had her suspicions and talked to people at the school. It was there that one teen in particular gave off some weird vibes for anyone who loves to watch thrillers. There was one teen who was extremely interested in the investigation.

There were a few suspects. Grace thought Kathleen’s ex-husband was involved, but then the focus moved to the school. One student, Rand, became a suspect after flowers with a threatening note were found at Kathleen’s funeral. The flowers were bought with Rand’s father’s credit card.

However, Rand wasn’t guilty. He was out having a relationship with a guy. The alibi there, the team had to move focus onto someone else. That someone else was Jerald.

This only came up because Jerald had attacked Rand. Rand knew that Jerald knew all about Kathleen’s secret job. Jerald had been so angry that this motherly figure was actually a dominatrix. He was also angry that other men were watching her. If he couldn’t have her, nobody could, and so he killed her. He then killed others, obsessed with his feelings for Kathleen/Desiree.

How did the police catch the killer?

Grace was crucial in catching Jerald. To help catch the killer, Grace pretended to be Desiree to lure the killer in. It looked like it failed, but by that point, Rand had shared the truth about being beaten up by Jerald and the police had enough to arrest him. The police turned up at his house, but Jerald was already gone.

Ed saw images of Grace as Desiree on Jerald’s computer. He headed straight to Grace’s house, where Grace was dressed up and already waiting for Jerald. She’d even set up a live stream to get a confession from him. She just knew that he would turn up.

It worked. However, Grace’s life was in danger. Fortunately, Ed turned up in time to shoot and kill Jerald.

With the killer out of the way, Grace and Ed were given the chance to see where their relationship would take them. That’s where we left the two, with hope of moving forward.

What did you think of the Brazen ending? Did you guess the killer? Share your thoughts in the comments below.