One of the best murder mysteries of the year is returning to television — but with a surprising twist. And no, I'm not talking about the one that revealed the real reason Jessica Biel's Cora stabbed that poor guy on the beach.
According to TVLine, USA Network has officially renewed The Sinner for season 2, but will follow a completely different mystery than that of what really happened to Cora and her troubled, terminally ill sister. The series will explore the next chapter in the career of Bill Pullman's Detective Ambrose — the only person in season 1 capable of unraveling Cora's repressed memories and solving the disturbing case.
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Now that Ambrose has solved Cora's case — and helped keep the mother out of prison for life — he has moved on to the next puzzling crime. TVLine reports that Ambrose will investigate the murder of an 11-year-old boy, which has ties to Ambrose's own hometown. While attempting to crack the case, Ambrose will meet a "mysterious woman who proves to be a complicated, enigmatic piece to this haunting puzzle."
As for Cora, who could easily fit the same description given her role in season 1, it sounds like Biel may not be returning to the series as an actress after all. While USA Network declined to tell TVLine if Biel would be returning to the series outside of her role as executive producer, it sounds like The Sinner will work as a crime anthology series, using Cora's story as a way to set up the kinds of mysteries it wants to tell.
The interesting part about this twist is that The Sinner is actually based on a book by Petra Hammesfahr — a book that ends where season 1 of the television show does. Still, it's hardly the only time in recent history that a television show has expanded upon its source material: The Handmaid's Tale will continue despite catching up with the ending of Margaret Atwood's original novel. 13 Reasons Why will release a season 2 despite Jay Asher's novel ending with the conclusion of Hannah's (Katherine Langford) 13 tapes. Big Little Lies will continue to follow the Monterey moms despite Liane Moriarty's novel ending with the death that happened during the show's season 1 finale.
While not everyone loves the idea of continuing a show that already had a perfect ending built in, I'm very excited for more episodes of The Sinner. Cora's story may be over, but there's a great deal of darkness in his world for Ambrose to explore.