The Postcard Killings Explained- Who Were Sylvia And Mac, Who Were The Killers And Why Did They Do It?

Summary

• The Postcard Killings is a cat-and-mouse thriller based on the novel by James Patterson and Liza Marklund.
• Detective Kanon stalks a pair of baby-faced killers across Europe to get justice for his daughter and her new husband.
• Childhood trauma twisted two children into sadistic killers whose only motivation was getting revenge on their father.

The latest cat-and-mouse thriller to hit Netflix is The Postcard Killings. With a stellar cast and an unexpected twist mid-film, it is tailor-made for a quick binge. Based on the novel by James Patterson and Liza Marklund, the story proves that even the most beautiful things can be warped and corrupted. Fast-paced and unsettling, it relies on the viewer’s preconceived notion of innocence to trick us. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of The Postcard Killings: who the killers are and why they did it.

The film opens with the unnerving imagery of a young couple being posed and drained of blood. Next, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Detective Kanon is called into the morgue to identify the body of his daughter and her new husband. His grief causes him to spiral into a drunken bender, but the arrival of his wife, Famke Janssen, pulls him out, and he begins investigating the murders. His investigation leads him on a European trek chasing a pair of twisted killers who find pleasure in perverting beauty.

Kanon becomes aware that the killers always choose a couple and pose them like a classical piece of art. A journalist is sent a postcard with that artwork just before each pair of victims is found. He is assisted by an American journalist working in Stockholm, Sweden, named Dessie Lombard(Cush Jumbo), who receives the killers’ latest postcard.

Throughout the film, Kanon has been hunting his daughter’s killer. We thought for the first half of The Postcard Killings that the sweet young American couple was the next pair of victims. All that changes when Pieter, a suspicious man who befriended them on the train, unexpectedly shows up at their latest destination. Initially, we think they are doomed, but instead, Pieter and his wife Nienke are found posed. We now suspect Sylvia(Naomi Battrick) and Mac(Ruairi O’Connor) are the real killers.

Why did Sylvia collect receipts?

Kanon and the authorities question Sylvia and Mac, but because of Sylvia’s meticulous receipt keeping, they have an alibi. We finally understood what Sylvia was doing when we saw her pick up a receipt from the ground and put it in her scrapbook. It was an odd thing to do that didn’t make much sense when we initially saw her do it. Now, we understand that she had been picking up any receipt that could provide her and Mac an alibi when they were killing someone.

The ending of The Postcard Killings explained

Kanon’s wife, Valerie (Janssen), researches Mac and Sylvia and discovers they are actually Simon and Marina Haysmith. They are the children of Simon Haysmith Sr.(American Horror Story‘s Denis O’Hare), a notorious embezzler akin to Bernie Madoff. When Valerie tracks down his old house, she meets a neighbor who details how tragic Marina and Simon’s childhood was.

Haysmith, Sr. had abused the two of them their entire childhood. He and his wife, the pair’s mother, searched for children to adopt that met particular genetic markers. These two children met his criteria, and then he groomed them viciously. He wanted children to be his version of perfect, and when they couldn’t be what he wanted, he would psychologically or physically abuse them. One of his main loves was classical art, which he drummed into from an early age.

Mac/Simon and Sylvia/Marina fell in love, probably bonding over their shared trauma. Haysmith, Sr. couldn’t allow the incestuous relationship. Simon testified against his father to ensure that they could have the life they always wanted. They never knew they were not biologically related, and because they had been so traumatized by their upbringing and had been denied their relationship, they snapped.

In an attempt to lure Mac and Sylvia out, Dessie publishes an article that explains she understands exactly what the pair is doing and why they are doing it. It has the desired effect, and they plan to make Dessie their final victim. They kidnap her in Helsinki, and Kanon arrives just in time. He shoots Mac, who dies in Sylvia’s arms. Unfortunately, neither Sylvia nor Mac’s bodies are found. In the final moments of The Postcard Killings, Sylvia calls her father in prison, solidifying that she is alive and likely coming after her father.

Why did Mac and Sylvia go on a killing spree?

The pair killed people and posed them as works of art to destroy their father. They knew that art was the thing their father valued most. It was perhaps the only thing he actually cared about. As a result, they were destroying the memory of it and the symbolism behind it. Sylvia considered her father Saturn from the famous painting by Fransico Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son. She thinks their father devoured their innocence and denied their love for each other.

The Postcard Killings is currently streaming on Netflix.