Did Zyair Kill His Girlfriend?

Tyler Perry’s steamy new legal thriller Mea Culpa will keep you on your toes until the very end. Have questions about Mea Culpa’s shocking ending? Find out whether Zyair killed his girlfriend and what happened to Mea in the final moments.

From Netflix and Tyler Perry studios, Mea Culpa stars Kelly Rowland as criminal defense attorney Mea Harper, who takes on the murder case of seductive artist Zyair Malloy (Trevante Rhodes). While Mea tries to determine whether her client is innocent or guilty, it eventually comes out that everyone is guilty of something. Sean Sagar, Nick Sagar, Shannon Thornton, and RonReaco Lee also star.

Perry’s idea for the film was inspired by “the older thrillers” of the ’80s and ’90s. “It was fun to explore the best and worst of humanity through the genre of an exotic thriller,” the filmmaker told Tudum.

At the beginning of the film, Mea finds herself in a situation that’s not ideal. She’s in couple’s therapy with her husband Kal (Sean Sagar), who remains unemployed, and her mother-in-law, Azalia (Kerry O’Malley), strongly dislikes her. Things take a turn when Mea is presented with the opportunity to represent Zyair Malloy (Rhodes), a big-time artist accused of killing his girlfriend. However, the case’s prosecutor is her brother-in-law Ray (Sagar), who spices up their family dinner.

While obvious clues connect Zyair’s paintings to crime, Mea slowly becomes more entangled with her client, especially when her private investigator reveals that her husband was caught going into a hotel room with another woman. In an interview with Coming Soon, Rowland and Rhodes spoke about their characters’ undeniable on-screen chemistry.

“Mea’s existing environment doesn’t really lean in her favor. She is doing her job, but she can’t help but feel something. There’s an energy that Zyair possesses that she’s lacking, you know?” Rowland, who is also a producer on the project, explained. “I think that she’s so open to that, even by accident … I think that it kind of took her by surprise too. It was very, very dope to be able to walk a mile in her footsteps and understand that psyche of hers for sure.”

Mea Culpa’s Ending Explained

When Rhodes first read the ending of Mea Culpa, he told Tudum he had one thought: “Tyler Perry, you dog, you.”

Perry’s intention with Mea Culpa was that it’s supposed to be watched multiple times. With each viewing, “You’ll see that I drop little Easter eggs all along the way so that if you watch it back, you’d say, ‘Oh, that’s why,’” the director said. Warning: Spoilers ahead for the ending of Mea Culpa.

Did Zyair kill his girlfriend in Mea Culpa?

No, Zyair didn’t kill his girlfriend in Mea Culpa. Mea discovers Zyair is innocent when she takes a trip to the Dominican Republic after dropping him as a client. While at the resort, she accidentally comes across Zyair’s supposedly dead girlfriend working at the hotel.

“The characters, the way they show up in my head, they show up as real people telling me stories, and I start to write and write and write and write and write,” Perry told Tudum. “And I’m looking at what they’re saying and listening to their motivations. And it all leads me to wherever the twist is supposed to happen.”

Mea goes to the police, but they don’t do anything to help her. Instead, she calls her brother-in-law, Ray, who agrees to send an investigator to the hotel. He also asks Mea to return to Chicago — where things are about to really go down.

What happens at the end of Mea Culpa?

When Mea arrives at the house, she discovers a portrait of Ray’s wife and her bestfriend, Charlise, hidden in a closet. It’s clear that Zyair painted the portrait — and from personal experience — Mea knows that means Charlise slept with him, too.

Ray turns out to be the mastermind behind it all: Her brother-in-law set Zyair up for murder as revenge for the artist sleeping with his wife. He also orchestrated the plot so that he could run for mayor and build up his campaign as “fighting crime.” When Mea confronts them, her cruel mother-in-law reveals she doesn’t have cancer after all; she made that up so Ray could get sympathy from voters.

A bloody flight ensues after Ray and Azalia tell Charlise to stab Mea. Instead, Charlise tries to stab Ray, and Azalia kills Charlise. Mea manages to escape in a vehicle (which Azalia was on top of before her body was thrown into a tree). Mea runs down the road and finally encounters Kal driving in her direction. Mea tries to tell him what happened and how his family was responsible for everything. (Mea asked the family earlier Kal knew about their plan, to which Azalia said, “It would break his heart.”)

But Mea should already know not to trust her husband. He calls his brother and drives straight back to the house when she tells him what happened. (Eventually, he’s struck and presumably killed by a truck when Mea steers his side of the vehicle into the other lane).

“If you look at the mother and brothers, they’re very vindictive people.” They’re not people who move on from things. (Kal) held on to whatever that was and wanted so badly to hold on to it to destroy him,” Perry told TODAY. “There was also a part that was cut out of the movie,” he continued. “There was a bet on whether Mea would fall for him or not between the brothers.”

Do Mea and Zyair end up together in Mea Culpa?

At the end of the film, Zyair is released from jail. Mea watches discreetly from a distance as Zyair talks to reporters. When his car drives away, she receives a text from him telling her thank you. He also asks to meet up with her. She stares down at her phone and then tosses it in the trash.

“I think Mea decides she’s done with people for a while,” Perry told Tudum. “She goes in a certain direction, and I think that Zyair moves on but he misses her.”

Rhodes agreed that Mea’s ending in Mea Culpa was fitting for her character. “I think with it being (Kelly Rowland’s) film, I think that’s what’s best for her,” Rhodes told TODAY. “She’s being smart from a story standpoint and a grown woman’s standpoint. It’s probably the best ending.”

When asked if he would have wanted Zyair and Mea to be together, Rhodes admitted, “I don’t know.” He continued, “Kelly is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside,” he says. “So, it was a beautiful experience.”

Mea Culpa is streaming on Netflix.