The Imposter ending explained: Who dies as the truth of Amanda’s lies are exposed?

It could have been the perfect reunion – but after four episodes, a chancer pushing her luck, and a multi-million dollar business deal hanging over the O’Riley family’s head, things took a deadly turn as The Imposter went into the finale.

We’ve known from the start that 'Amanda' (Kym Marsh) isn’t who she said she was (the clue was in the title), but no one, especially the O’Riley family, were prepared for the chaos that ensued once she arrived in their little corner of Melbourne.

After a chance encounter in England, a receptionist/con-woman called Claire seized an opportunity presented to her by Simon O’Riley – head to Australia and pretend to be his mother's long-lost daughter.

Simon and Claire’s plan is simple: divide the family, and conquer the family business for themselves, before selling it for millions. Their plan got off to a great start too, with Helen being so happy to reunite with the daughter she gave up for adoption that she never questioned her true identity.

Simon’s other siblings, Kate and Ian, weren’t so impressed though, especially as the scheme saw them cast in a bad light, making them out to be gold diggers in the eyes of their usually iron-fisted mother. They were even made out to be overmedicating their mother to kill her off quicker. Soon, the pair’s husbands, Todd and Lee, were dragged into the mess too.

With bodies piling up, secrets spilling out, and the real Amanda nowhere to be seen, things just kept getting messier.

Here’s how the show reached its gripping conclusion.

The Imposter Ending Explained

Who is the real Amanda?

Realising the 'Amanda' she knew was playing her, Kate began to do some digging of her own, reaching out to Bill – the real Amanda’s biological father.

The initial hope is that Bill could tempt 'Amanda' away from her mum for a bit, allowing Kate time to heal their now fractured relationship. Instead, she triggers a dramatic chain of events.

It turns out Bill had already been in contact with Amanda (the real one), and was aware that she was now living in Perth with a son of her own. Hurt she would be in Melbourne and not tell him, he sends her an e-mail asking to meet up – which leads the real Amanda (Dannii Minogue) to realise that someone was pretending to be her.

Who dies before the finale?

Bodies pile up quickly throughout the show’s four-episode run. First to go is local thug Ryder, who cornered Todd about his shady business dealings. Todd is later seen disposing of the body, but it was actually Claire/Amanda who killed him.

Cornering Todd after getting photos of him moving the body, Ryder’s girlfriend Eden is next to go. Initially blackmailing him to stay quiet, she even gives the twisted real estate agent GHB to soothe the blow. But, she came to regret this, with Todd arriving high as a kite at the rental home he was letting her stay in, before drowning her in the pool.

But it’s the third death that truly hits the family. Ian – the youngest sibling of the O’Riley family – is caught by Claire/Amanda going through her purse, retrieving her passport and seeing her real name. Rather than let him reveal her true identity, she kills him with GHB that she’d found after Todd disposed of it – before making it look like a sordid, autoerotic asphyxiation experiment gone wrong.

The death devastates the family, with Helen blaming Ian’s husband Lee for her son’s death, given his history as a drug-taking party boy. Claire/Amanda laps it up at the funeral, and uses it as an excuse to get even closer to her ailing 'mother'.

How does The Imposter end?

While Helen grieves the loss of her son, suspicions around 'Amanda' continue to grow. Kate knows 'Amanda' instructed Ian to get the passport for her and questions why she left Ian’s home early, but Claire/Amanda is one step ahead, already getting a forged passport with her fake name to replace her real one.

Meanwhile Kate’s husband Todd is baffled that GHB - the same drug he’s been taking - is suddenly in Ian’s bloodstream. So when Ryder and Eden’s bodies wash up on the beach, Todd takes the opportunity to pin their deaths on Lee as well, given the connection. Sneaking into Ian’s house to plant more drugs, he’s surprised to find Claire/Amanda already there, though neither admit what they’re there for.

Simon, at one point the champion of this elaborate scheme, starts questioning Claire as well, especially when she pressures him to give her an alibi for the night Ian died.

But Claire/Amanda’s stack of cards comes tumbling when Helen gets a surprise visit from Bill. Claire had already met him back in the UK while she was working at the adoption agency, having helped him when he was looking for the real Amanda. Avoiding meeting him, she comes up with an elaborate story that encourages Helen to send him away.

As more questions and tensions arise, Claire/Amanda knows she needs to think fast, so arranges a lawyer to draw up a medical power of attorney court order on Helen, citing her increasing blindness as a reason she’s no longer capable of running the hotel, and forces Helen to sign them. The order means Simon is now in charge of the hotel.

Meanwhile Bill, still confused about what’s going on, heads over to Kate’s house, and shows Todd a photo of the real Amanda. Realising Claire/Amanda is a fake, he rushes to the hotel to confront her. Unfortunately for him, he catches her behind the wheel of a car – planning to go off on a trip with Simon and Helen.

As he declares her a fraud, Claire runs Todd over in front of a horrified Simon, leaving him for dead in the car park. But due to his part in the scheme, there’s nothing Simon can say unless he exposes himself in the process.

Picking up Helen, Claire and Simon drive off to a bushland – narrowly missing the real Amanda arriving with her son, Thomas, at the hotel. Amanda’s soon introduced to Kate via Bill, and now nearly everyone knows the truth.

Simon confronts Claire about what’s been going on, and she admits killing Ryder and Ian, as well as her intent to push Helen off a cliff and make it look like an accident. As things reach a climax, Simon squanders Claire's plan, pushing her to her death instead. When the police are called, Helen denies seeing anything, citing her blindness.

What comes next?

At the hospital, it’s revealed Todd has escaped the hit-and-run alive, with Simon there to greet him as he wakes up. Simon tells him they need to get their story straight, and later claims Claire had confessed everything to Todd before running him over.

Shortly after that, Helen finally gets to meet the real Amanda, and the grandson she never knew she had. With the family now completed, the real mother and daughter embrace as they look at the sunset together.

The Imposter aired on 5.

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