The Better Sister Proves There Are Many Ways To Be a Mom (& They All Have Their Flaws)

In The Better Sister, Maxwell Acee Donovan’s character, Ethan, has two moms — Jessica Biel‘s put-together and perfectly polished, Chloe, and Elizabeth Banks‘ potty-mouthed recovering addict, Nicky. Both are trying their best and often missing their mark. Both have ties to him that exist outside the stereotypical definition of mother. But both are absolutely his moms and doing a great job… most of the time.

Related story Jessica Biel & Elizabeth Banks Break Down The Better Sister Ending Twist & the Clue Viewers Missed

On paper, the Prime Video series is a classic murder mystery. The picture-perfect world Chloe created for herself and her family — her teen son Ethan and seemingly loving husband Adam — comes crashing down when she finds Adam’s blood-soaked body on the floor of their Hamptons home. With no alibi, Ethan is arrested for Adam’s murder.

However, while the whodunnit at the center of the plot is a through line, the heart of the series lies in the complicated familial drama that surrounds the mystery. When the police reach out to Ethan’s legal guardian, we meet Chloe’s estranged sister, Nicky, who is also Ethan’s biological mother and Adam’s first wife. That might sound like a major spoiler but this is just the set up for the show which delves deep into the tangled web of Chloe and Nicky’s lives as sisters, wives and mothers.

For Chloe, motherhood is a source of imposter syndrome. She loves Ethan but the life she stepped into to become his mother does not feel like her own. She relies on order and is unemotional in the face of turmoil.

“There is that thing of, ‘I don’t actually belong here, and if anybody finds me out, my whole world’s going to crumble, it’s going to shatter into a million pieces,'” Biel told Glamour of her character’s pysche in an April 30 interview. This makes her overbearing. She worries about what Ethan has eaten and fusses over him but doesn’t take the time to sit with him and find out how he’s really doing.

Nicky, meanwhile, has a natural rapport with Ethan, despite being estranged from him for so many years. He laughs with her and opens up about what’s going on at home. But Nicky is reactive, she has hard time keeping composure and, after so many years away from her son, is unable to separate her need to be around him from what he really needs after his arrest.

“The harm that’s being done to my son is heartbreaking to me, but it’s also very complicated, because I’m estranged from him as well,” Banks told SheKnows ahead of the show’s release. “I’ve not been able to see him, and right now I’m the only person [who] can see him. So I think [Nicky] cherishes that.”

This means that in moments of chaos, such as his arrest, Ethan is quick to turn to Chloe for her steady, solution-oriented approach.

The show challenges any notions about what it takes to be the perfect mother. Chloe has the career, the marriage, the perfect nuclear family but she’s struggling under the weight of it all and can’t so much as get a laugh out of Ethan when they’re alone together. Nicky is a recovering addict who brings a disarry with her everywhere she goes but when she’s with Ethan, he’s lighter and infinitely more at ease.

Ultimately, Ethan needs both of them and their unconditional love for him is the key to repairing their own estrangement. As Biel told SheKnows in May, Chloe and Nicky’s journey explores “how far would you go to protect your son, protect your family, to protect your sister,” and the two are willing to go to the ends of the earth for Ethan which is all he really needs.

In the end, Ethan’s two mothers become bonded by their unwavering need to protect him and the secrets they keep between them in order to do so.

Before you go, click here to see great TV shows about the complexities of motherhood.