Apr 22, 2026 3:30pm PT

‘Imperfect Women’ Star Elisabeth Moss on Mary’s Suspicions About Howard and Why Her Kids Matter Most: ‘Who Gives a S— About the Affair?’

Arushi Jacob

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Arushi Jacob

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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains stories from Episode 7 of “Imperfect Women,” now streaming on Apple TV.

Elisabeth Moss is no stranger to portraying a desperate mother on TV. The “Imperfect Women” star spent almost a decade playing June — the lead character of “The Handmaid’s Tale” who recently made a reappearance in the spinoff series “The Testaments” — whose key aim is to reunite with her abducted daughter.

While her acting in the dystopian drama was hardly unconvincing (Moss won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Critic’s Choice Award for her work in “The Handmaid’s Tale”), playing a mother on-screen has a whole new level of depth for the actress now. Moss had her first child in 2024, an experience that helped her connect with her role as Mary in Annie Weisman’s adaptation of Araminta Hall’s novel “Imperfect Women” for Apple TV. Optioning the rights six years ago, Moss also serves as an executive producer for the show – the first project she picked up with producing partner Lindsey McManus after launching their Love & Squalor production banner in 2020.

“I played a mom for many, many years, and I think I understood it,” Moss told Variety. But post-motherhood, she says “there’s something about the emotion that is more on the surface. I don’t have to use my imagination as much. Your head just goes to a darker place, faster, and the emotion is just closer to the surface.”

As of Episode 7, Mary is in her darkest place yet.

Married to a presently unemployed professor, Howard Simpson (Corey Stoll), Mary, often referred to as someone with great talent and wasted potential, is shown to spend most of her time taking care of her three children, occasionally writing and taking part in workshops — until her best friend Nancy (Kate Mara) is murdered.

What follows is a harrowing chain of events, as the show’s narrative volleys from the perspective of Eleanor (Kerry Washington), the third member of their trio, to the murdered Nancy and finally to Mary. Upon finding an obscure Latin translation of Howard’s in Nancy’s notebook, Mary realizes the two were having an affair before her death and confronts Howard, who vehemently denies any involvement with Nancy.

After realizing he lied to her about his ex-wife years ago and finding Nancy’s ring in Howard’s closet, Mary flees to Eleanor’s house and shares her theories, before receiving a call from Howard informing her their daughter is in the hospital, unconscious after overdosing on the Adderall Mary was shown to secretly be stashing earlier in the episode.

Mary is handed an emergency protective order by the police that demands she not have any contact with her children until the investigation is over. When Howard makes it clear he knows she took Nancy’s ring, the two have an explosive fight in the hospital, where she accuses him not only of murdering Nancy but also deliberately providing their daughter with the Adderall – after all, Mary had left the pills on the cabinet’s highest shelf, far out of the reach of a young child.

Howard provides the cops with a box of Nancy’s belongings, which an embarrassed Mary admits to stealing, with it later being revealed that Mary and Howard used to role-play as Nancy and her husband Robert (Joel Kinnaman). When Mary returns to her home to look for further evidence, Howards finds her and convinces her of an unfortunate truth: She has nothing concrete against him. And without evidence, there’s no chance she can regain custody of her children. She eventually agrees to keep quiet in exchange for the ability to be with her kids, telling Howard, “I won’t say a word. I’ll be good.”

All of this turns out to be a moot point, when an upset Eleanor calls in a favor with Robert and has Howard taken in for questioning regarding Nancy’s murder. Mary crumbles on the front porch, sobbing and telling an unbelieving Howard she had nothing to do with his arrest, while he tells the police to call the Department of Children and Family Services. Mary is forced to say goodbye to her kids as they’re taken away by the authorities, seconds before the TV news reveals a new suspect in Nancy&rsqu

'Imperfect Women' Star Elisabeth Moss on Mary's Suspicions About Howard and Why Her Kids Matter Most: 'Who Gives a S— About the Affair?'