The following contains spoilers for Lou, now streaming on Netflix.
In Netflix's Lou, Allison Janney's titular character came off as a grumpy woman living in a rural American island town. She was primarily concerned with her dog, Jax, hunting and collecting rent from Hannah (Jurnee Smollett). Lou just wanted to be left alone, which is why Hannah didn't want her kid, Vee, around her, sensing that kind of toxicity wasn't healthy.
However, their paths connected anyway when Hannah's husband, Phil (Logan Marshall-Green), returned, kidnapping Vee to kickstart the psychological action-thriller. He was believed dead, but the former soldier faked it all to set this up and stay off the government's radar. It also led to a sinister twist, but sadly, one scene in the first act ruined it and left the big reveal feeling underwhelming.
What Was the Twist in Lou?
Lou decided to help Hannah recover her daughter, which caught Hannah off-guard. A storm ravaged the town, so power and communications were down, forcing them to hunt old-school style. Luckily, Lou had a secret of her own: she was a former CIA agent who moved to the town, wanting to stay off-grid herself. She eventually tracked Phil down to a cave, but he set a trap for her, anticipating she would come.
Holding her at gunpoint, Phil revealed Lou was his mother. As it turns out, during the Reagan Administration, Lou went undercover during the Iran coup. She got pregnant by a person of interest there and kept Phil to keep her cover. Sadly, Phil got kidnapped, but Lou couldn't track him. So, she sent fellow operatives, which gave him trauma after he got rescued. He felt abandoned as Lou grew distant from him, remembering how he wasn't the child she wanted. In fact, he represented the sins of her job and all she sacrificed in the name of global security.
How Was the Twist in Lou Spoiled?
Early on, when Phil took Vee, he left a message on the back of a photo with them from years back. It said, "Hi mom, my turn," trying to give viewers the impression he was speaking to Hannah. That made no sense, though, because it couldn't have been Vee leaving a message, as she couldn't remember her dad. In fact, she asked about him often, so this wasn't a game to her. Also, Phil had no reason to call Hannah "mom" or speak on Vee's behalf.
It was clearly a message for Lou, knowing that she arranged to have Hannah and Vee come to the island. She watched over them after selling Phil's violent ways out in Central America. Lou also blackmailed her former bosses so they'd hunt Phil, claiming she'd leak the CIA's incriminating info, which resulted in Phil faking his death.
But this would have been cleverly hidden had the first act not had that message. The way Lou reacted and immediately grabbed her arsenal sold it all out, especially because she had just written a goodbye note to a mysterious family, which was obviously Hannah and Vee. Instead, the message should have been left later on in the trail or altered without addressing a mother. That way, the element of surprise would have been present when Phil ambushed Lou and warned her that taking out the entire family was revenge for how she split his family up.
See how Phil's dark past is spoiled early in Lou, now streaming on Netflix.