Mea Culpa ending explained

Mea Culpa is a new erotic thriller that’s currently riding high in the Netflix charts. Written and directed by Tyler Perry, it’s filled with twists and turns, with the movie’s surprising ending explained below.

Mea Culpa is a new Tyler Perry joint that stars Kelly Rowland as a defense attorney, and Trevante Rhodes as the murder suspect she is representing – and with whom she embarks on an affair.

The movie hit Netflix on February 23, 2024, and immediately received a wave of negative reviews, with Mea Culpa currently holding a Rotten Tomatoes score of 17%.

That hasn’t stopped it from rising to the top of the streamer’s chart, however, with Mea Culpa taking the top spot over the weekend. So here’s how the story plays out, meaning SPOILERS AHEAD…

Mea Culpa ending explained

Mea Culpa stars Kelly Rowland as lawyer Mea, who is struggling to connect with her husband; a marital crisis that isn’t helped by his horrible and overbearing mother. Who also happens to be suffering from cancer.

Early in proceedings, Mea accepts artist Zayir as a client, who is charged with murdering missing girlfriend Heidi. Zayir met Heidi in Mexico six months previous and they started dating. Then one day came home to find her missing, and blood everywhere.

That blood type matches Heidi, while fragments of her skull are found in one of his paintings. A $3 million insurance policy has also seemingly been taken out on her life. While there’s a video message in which she worries that Zayir is going to kill her.

So it isn’t looking good for Zayir. But Mea takes him on, in part because it means that she’ll be battling her Assistant District Attorney brother-in-law Ray in court. Which sounds like a conflict of interest. But not as much as the fact that Mea starts sleeping with Zayir. This ultimately means she has to recuse herself.

Who killed Heidi?

While holidaying in the Dominican Republic after Zayir has accepted a plea bargain, Mea runs into Heidi. Meaning she isn’t dead, and Zayir is innocent.

Mea heads to her brother-in-law’s house to figure out what’s going on alongside Ray. Though while there, she stumbles on a bunch of Zayir’s paintings, which immediately arouses suspicion. The she learns that her mother-in-law doesn’t have cancer – rather it was something Ray cooked up for sympathy in advance of running for office.

Turns out Ray’s wife slept with Zayir, so the family decided to set the painter up. Following this revelation, both mother-in-law and brother-in-law try to kill Mea, but she fights back with a frying pan, and nearly escapes until Ray pulls a gun.

Mom stabs Ray’s wife and there’s lots more running and chasing and fighting until Mea manages to flag her husband Kal down in his car. And turns out… Kal is in on it too! Mea turns their car into an oncoming truck, with an air-bab both ending her plight and saving her life.

Ray is arrested for his crimes, while Zayir goes free, and texts Mea asking to see her. Mea reads the message, throws her phone in the trash, and disappears down the street as ‘Walk on By’ plays on the soundtrack and the credits roll.