His & Hers Episode 1 recap: A woman is murdered and everyone looks guilty

His & Hers hit Netflix worldwide on January 8, 2026. It kicked off a six-part limited series based on Alice Feeney’s bestselling novel.

In Episode 1, deep in the woods outside Dahlonega, Georgia, someone finds a woman’s body, stabbed, left in her own car. Everything revolves around Anna, a former TV news anchor who heads back to her hometown, hoping to breathe life into her stalled career by reporting on the murder. She is not the only one tangled up in it, though. Jack Harper, the local detective on the case, turns out to be Anna’s estranged husband.

His & Hers Episode 1 puts you into a web of mystery, old wounds, and motives that aren’t so easy to pin down. Anna’s digging for answers, maybe a little too hard, and she starts bumping up against her own past. Jack has his hands full too, trying to keep his head straight as the case and Anna’s return stir up trouble.

His & Hers Episode 1 recap

Episode 1 of His & Hers begins deep in the rainy national forest in Georgia. A dead woman is on the hood of her vehicle, with a bloody body, and facing the storm. It is a gruesome picture, and the series does not hesitate to warn that this homicide will be anything but easy.

The narrative then cuts to Atlanta, where a television journalist named Anna is frantically rushing back to her apartment. She takes wine directly out of a bottle and violently empties her house with her face swollen from an infected tooth. Anna is convinced that there are two sides to every story, that someone is always lying, a theme that permeates the whole story.

In a small town in Georgia, Dahlonega, where violent crime is uncommon, Detective Jack Harper wakes up at his home. He resides with his sister Zoe and her young daughter, Meg, whom he dotes on like a father. At home, Jack is loving and considerate, but this attitude is different when he arrives at work. Together with his partner, Detective Priya Patel, Jack goes to the forest following the discovery of a body by an anonymous caller.

Jack assumes control at the crime scene in His & Hers Episode 1. The victim is repeatedly stabbed and is wearing a wedding ring, which makes Jack believe that she was having an affair. He insists on informing the husband personally and wants to be the first to inspect the victim’s phone. He also closes the press down and stresses that facts are more important than hunches, even though he leads by example. The fingernails of the woman have been savagely trimmed, and the phrase “Two-Faced” has been inscribed on them.

In Atlanta, Anna is back in her newsroom after one year. When she was away, the presenting position was occupied by Lexy Jones, a younger, white, blonde presenter. Anna is not convinced by the argument put forward by her boss, Jim, who says it was not a personal decision. She insists on regaining her career, and she proposes on the Dahlonega murder, to become a field reporter. Jim is reluctant but ends up agreeing to allow her to cover one story. Anna, in a stinging request, asks Lexy’s husband, Richard Jones, to be her cameraman.

In His & Hers Episode 1, when Anna shows up at the crime scene, she maintains her distance as other reporters push Jack to divulge information. When Jack is about to drive away, Anna asks him calmly whether he knew the victim. The question physically rattles him. Priya observes his response, but Jack dismisses it, saying that Anna is another reporter who is trying to find something to write about.

Anna and Richard later have dinner together, and their casual conversation soon becomes flirtatious. Anna indirectly explores the insecurities that Richard harbors over marrying an individual in the limelight, and soon, they find themselves sleeping together in Anna’s hotel. Jack has tracked him there without Richard knowing. He listens to them through the door of the hotel, bangs on it in rage, and then withdraws. Anna finds him on his way out and then tells Richard the truth: Jack is her husband.

Jack requests Priya to conduct a background check on Richard as Anna drives away, implying jealousy rather than suspicion.

Anna goes back to her childhood home in His & Hers Episode 1, where she emotionally reconnects with her mother, Alice. Jack soon shows up as well, and it turns out that he has been close to Alice during Anna’s year-long disappearance. Alice is exhibiting some worrying symptoms of memory loss and confusion, such as wandering about town at night unclothed, yet she does not want to see a doctor. Anna is shocked and upset by the revelation.

Jack eventually tells the truth regarding the victim: it is a woman named Rachel Hopkins, a former acquaintance of Anna. He pleads with Anna not to tell anyone about this, and she complies. Their conversation soon becomes vile. Jack discloses that he has lost his detective job back in Atlanta, in a desperate effort to locate Anna when she disappeared, and has had to come back to Dahlonega. Anna mocks his plight, Jack strikes back with a mention of Richard, and Anna runs off, leaving the argument incomplete.

Jack goes to the morgue in His & Hers Episode 1, where the medical examiner gives bad news. Rachel was stabbed 40 times with a small knife and died from loss of blood. Her red-painted fingernails had been destroyed, probably following death. She had no defensive wounds, which shows that she trusted her murderer. The presence of semen in her body indicates that she had intercourse a short time before her death, and the examiner feels that the same man might be a murderer. Jack and Priya are requested to provide DNA samples to eliminate contamination.

At the same time, Anna goes through her old things and discovers a camcorder and a tape box. One of the videos displays her Sweet 16 birthday party, with Anna, Rachel, and Zoe, among other girls. In the video, Rachel is applying red nail polish to another girl. The teens subsequently explore the old ruins in the forest. Anna also discovers a handmade friendship bracelet.

At the morgue, the medical examiner makes a gruesome discovery: the same friendship bracelet has been forced out of Rachel’s mouth.

Jack and Priya make efforts to alert the husband of Rachel, Clyde Hopkins, but nobody shows up or even opens the door at his big, wealthy residence, although someone seems to be peeking inside. Later in His & Hers Episode 1, Jack comes home and discovers that he has missed the soccer practice with Meg. To make this even worse, the evening news is on, and there is Anna on the television, with the news that Rachel Hopkins has been killed. Jack is furious. Anna looks satisfied.

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His & Hers Episode 1 concludes with a terrifying flashback to the night of the murder. It depicts Jack engaging in s*x with Rachel in his truck, parked in the woods by her car. Anna is looking at them, though, at a distance, and she is quietly witnessing the incident that might have determined Rachel’s fate.

His & Hers Episode 1 ends with a cloud of suspicion surrounding all. Jack, Anna, and Rachel’s husband can be all the possible suspects, and the series proves one thing: in Dahlonega, all people have something to hide.

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