In the tense opening of the Peacock mystery thriller All Her Fault, the audience is immediately thrust into a parent’s worst nightmare. When the protagonist, Marissa—played by Sarah Snook—arrives to collect her son, Milo, from a playdate, she discovers the child is missing and the situation is a calculated setup for an abduction. The series, created by Megan Gallagher, relies on a carefully calibrated sense of dread that relies heavily on the editing choices made by Sam Williams.
Williams, an editor known for his work on Big Little Lies and his BAFTA-winning contributions to Slow Horses, collaborated closely with director Minkie Spiro to establish the emotional rhythm of the series. The challenge was to depict the agonizing, slow-motion realization of a parent who initially attempts to rationalize a disappearance before the horrific truth takes hold.
“Our first cut was very intense,” Williams said. “It went to 10 and stayed there. It really didn’t offer any variation of feeling and story to it, so that’s when we went back and refined it. It was more leaning into some of the takes where she was like, ‘No, maybe he is OK,’ so we could have that panic, the natural parent’s panic where they try to calm down. Like, ‘No, I’m just being unreasonable here.’ And then [the fear] would resurface.”
Sarah Snook and Michael Peña in “All Her Fault.” (Sarah Enticknap/Peacock)
The decision to pace the episode as a “snowball” rather than an “avalanche” was deliberate. By allowing moments of doubt, Williams and Spiro created a more grounded, palpable sense of panic. This editorial approach was bolstered by the performance of Sarah Snook, whose range allowed the production team significant flexibility in post-production.
“Editing, for me, is a lot about what the actors bring to the performance,” Williams noted. “Sarah Snook is going to do this, and really, my world is trying to not get in the way.”
Building Tension Through Visual Framing
To ensure the audience felt the same sense of confinement as Marissa, Williams utilized tight, claustrophobic framing. As the narrative progresses, the shots grow increasingly close on Snook’s face, emphasizing her isolation as she navigates the mystery. This visual strategy serves a dual purpose: it anchors the emotional stakes of the first episode and sets the atmospheric tone for the remaining seven episodes of the limited series.
Williams emphasized that the pressure to successfully establish characters within the premiere is immense. “Anyone who’s edited an Episode 1 knows that the pressure’s on to make sure everyone’s established straightaway,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it gets easier in Episodes 2, 3 or 4, but 2, 3 and 4 are going to suffer if you haven’t set the characters up well.”
Narrative Complexity and Timeline Shifts
While Williams edited the first episode, he also took the lead on the third episode, which marks a significant shift in the series’ structure. By the third hour, All Her Fault introduces a non-linear timeline, intercutting the present-day crisis with flashbacks to the Chicago Marathon, which occurred two weeks prior to the abduction. These memories are filtered through the perspectives of Milo’s babysitter, Ana (played by Kartiah Vergara), and Marissa during police interviews.
The interplay between these timelines is designed to slowly reveal information, peeling back layers of the plot like an onion. Williams explained the necessity of managing information flow: “That’s always interesting, when you’ve got elements they don’t know about. Episode 1, you’re trying to set up people in one light, and then you’re just peeling back that onion the whole time.”
The remaining six episodes of the series were handled by editors Paul Knight, Dan Roberts, and Melanie Viner-Cuneo. Together, the editorial team maintains a narrative pace that balances the immediate, visceral fear of a missing child with the broader, more complex mystery surrounding the events of the marathon.
As the series continues to unfold, viewers are left to parse the conflicting accounts and hidden details introduced in the flashbacks. The meticulous pacing, from the initial, frantic search to the layered revelations of the later episodes, remains the core of the show’s thriller appeal. For audiences following the mystery, the series invites a close examination of every character’s perspective as the truth behind the abduction is slowly unmasked.