6 min readMay 7, 2026 08:18 AM IST
A few weeks ago, when The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, released in theatres, it divided the internet. There were arguments about how Rachel was the real villain, how Charlie had been a bully in his teens, and how Emma’s actions, which were heading towards a dangerous path, were just thoughts. Nevertheless, it started a debate on the internet – What would you forgive your partner for? As these debates usually go, there was obviously no conclusion, but one thing was clear; every relationship has a dealbreaker. Dr Caroline Muirhead, the subject of Netflix’s new documentary series, Should I Marry a Murderer?, found that dealbreaker days after getting engaged to Sandy McKellar when he confessed that three years ago, he and his brother Robert had killed a man named Tony Parsons, buried his body, and never told a soul about it. But now, he was confessing his dark secret to Caroline because he wanted help in disposing of Tony’s remains. All of this was just a couple of months after he and Caroline met on a dating app.
The 3-part Netflix series is largely told by Caroline, a forensic pathologist in Scotland, who works in a morgue and performs autopsies. After her eight-year relationship falls apart, Caroline is broken and vulnerable, and swipes on Sandy, believing him to be her knight in shining armour. “What’s the worst that could happen?” she wonders as she drives 90-minutes into the Scottish Highlands for their first date. In a The Drama-like situation, she asks him to tell her anything important that she should know before they are married. As he builds up to confess, she imagines an illegitimate child or perhaps some debt, so when he hits her with the story of a murder, she is numb.
Caroline Muirhead with Sandy McKellar, the subjects of Netflix’s Should I Marry a Murderer.
Caroline is a well-educated, independent woman, but this is obviously more than she can handle. Her parents get involved, the cops get involved, but Caroline is left alone to take care of herself, and this is when you watch how a vulnerable woman, who seems to be well-adjusted, will fall apart if she’s not given the right support. Caroline is asked to spy on her fiance, record their conversations, find the exact location of the dead body by tricking Sandy, while the cops let her fiance roam around freely after some basic questioning. Even after discovering the body of Tony Parsons, the cyclist who was murdered by Sandy and his twin brother Robert, the cops can’t find enough reason to arrest the men, and expect Caroline to cut off all contact. She knows that backing off now would raise suspicion and could risk her life, so she continues to be with Sandy. The cops promise that her identity as the mole would not be leaked, but even that promise doesn’t last long.
As you watch Caroline recap those years of her life, it is obvious that when she met Sandy, she was desperate for love. The hurt of her last breakup had broken her to a degree that she was ready to take whatever she got in the name of love, even if it came with a high dose of drugs and alcohol. Months after she reports him, and he actually gets arrested, Caroline gets back with Sandy, and this is when the show shifts its perspective on her. “I would have cut off all contact with him,” a cop says, not understanding Caroline’s dilemma.
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As months pass by and the pandemic begins, Caroline is barred from doing her job, isolated from her friends, and is now living a lonely existence as she starts questioning if Sandy, in fact, is the real villain. At this point, Caroline is questioning her self-worth, indulging in self-pity, and has no support system, so she goes back for the scraps of love that once made her feel wanted. She moves in with Sandy, but every now and then, remembers that he is a killer. She records him when he says “it was either me or him”, but continues to indulge in drug and alcohol benders. She is alarmed when Sandy shows no regret for killing an innocent man, but continues to live in a bubble with him. The present-day Caroline and the viewers can see that by this time, Caroline is in desperate need of help from a mental health specialist, which she is denied by the police. Even after she separates from him, her drug benders continue as her parents watch her falling apart for months on end.
Caroline obviously believes that she has done her best to serve humanity by reporting on a murderer. But she loses sight of that morality soon after her initial actions as for all legal purposes, she is no longer a credible witness. The cops have no one else to put on a stand as she is the only one who has collected the evidence, recorded the confessions but everything is forgotten when she co-habitates with a murderer. The documentary gets increasingly critical of her, and you wonder if she is also a victim here, or, if her compromising actions made it worse for Tony Parsons’ family to fight for justice. After a deal is made by the lawyers, Sandy and Robert are asked to serve a short time behind bars. Caroline isn’t even put on the stand as the prosecutors can no longer rely on her. She goes from being a heroic woman to someone who was obstructing justice. One can blame her, or blame the system, but you walk away thinking that Tony Parsons never got the justice that he deserved.
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