The Murder She Couldn't Explain
Cora Tannetti stabbed a man on a beach. She doesn't know why.
That's the premise of The Sinner Season 1, and it's the most honest portrayal of trauma-induced violence I've seen on television.
Cora isn't a killer. She's a mother, a wife, a woman trying to live a normal life in spite of a past she barely remembers. When she's sitting on the beach with her family and suddenly, inexplicably, stabs a stranger named Frankie Belmont multiple times, she can't explain her actions. Not because she's lying—because she genuinely doesn't understand.
Detective Ambrose sees something in Cora that others miss. Not a killer, but a victim. He investigates not to prove her guilt—that's obvious—but to understand the why. And what he finds is devastating.
Years ago, Cora's sister Phoebe died at a drug den party. Cora was drugged and assaulted. Her mind suppressed everything—created a false narrative where Phoebe died peacefully at home. When Frankie played a song on the beach—the song that was playing during her assault—Cora's buried memories exploded.
She didn't see Frankie. She saw the men who hurt her. She stabbed them over and over, trying to stop something that happened years ago.
The Sinner asks: Can you be a murderer and a victim at the same time? Cora Tannetti is the answer.