Amanda Warner

**Amanda Warner** (Mekia Cox) is the hidden main antagonist of the second and final season of *Secrets and Lies*.

## Introduction/Backstory

Amanda is introduced as a successful attorney who is the only daughter of Yvonne and John Warner, the sister of Eric and Patrick Warner, and also the wife of Dr. Greg Young. Furthermore, her backstory revealed that other than being a victim of Yvonne's abuse, she also met Kate Martin when they were law school students and made her acquainted with Eric. During the season's fourth *Cornell: Confidential* webisode, "Amanda's Husband," Greg informed Detective Andrea Cornell that he was not present at the Sherwood Equity Group's 12-story headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the night Kate died because he had filed for divorce from Amanda.

Furthermore, the season's progression featured Amanda giving advice to Eric, supporting him, and defending him after he became the prime suspect; in addition, when Patrick was arrested for bank fraud, she voiced her concern that her oldest brother turned him in "with no regard for what [could] happen" to him. Her desperation to become pregnant was also established, as she took fertility drugs in one episode. At the end of episode 2.09, "The Brother" (airdate December 4, 2016), which also served as the series finale's first half, Andrea noted that one of the party's attendees turned in clothes they had never worn to the police. Voicing her knowledge that the person was Kate's killer, she stated that all she needed to learn next was why they did it.

## Reveal/Arrest

Episode 2.10 and the series finale's second half, "The Truth" (which aired on the same day as the previous episode), had Amanda being present alongside Eric as Patrick drunkenly thought about jumping off the very same roof from which Kate fell. After the situation was resolved with Eric managing to stop his suicide attempt, Andrea was then shown not only giving ADA Ken Turk the DNA results he requested from blood found in the soil of a broken planter, but also asking for him to have the sample to undergo other tests so as to establish a motive. Later on, Eric was arrested for the "attempted murder" of his mother, with Amanda reminding Ken that she usually got a "heads-up" whenever any client of hers was taken into custody.

Faced with Ken's claim that she "lost that courtesy to [her] family's criminal acts," Amanda coldly greeted Andrea before defending her oldest brother, saying that "there [was] no pattern" connecting what happened to Yvonne to what happened to Kate. She also cited the fact that their mother was abusing her before "[he] stopped her." Andrea then asked Eric about who he didn't see at the party other than his wife; while Neil Oliver and Melanie Warner (Patrick's flirtatious housewife) had alibis that checked out, his younger sister did not, and she alleged that she was "mingling" elsewhere. However, Andrea initiated Amanda's reveal by disclosing there was proof that she *had* in fact been present on the roof with Kate.

This quickly led to Amanda refuting the claims made by Andrea, with the latter deducing that the former was "set...off" by the news of Kate's pregnancy since she had "been trying to have a baby for a long time." With Eric mentioning that "Greg left [her] because [she] wouldn't stop trying," the villainess insisted that nothing could be proven since "lots of women have fertility issues," with Ken conceding her point, but also stating that "they don't kill people." As it turned out, the evidence against her was a green jacket with beads that she turned in even though she never wore it and her blood found in the aforementioned planter, which got there in the immediate aftermath of a fight she had with Kate. Cornered and stunned, Amanda tried to say Eric didn't need to be in the interrogation room, only for him to insist that she tell the truth.

A flashback showed that while John's retirement party was taking place, Amanda went up onto the roof for a cigarette break, with Kate asking her to not smoke since "everything [made] her [feel] sick." She attempted to get her to say what was going on, and she replied by requesting that they discuss it tomorrow since she "[didn't] want to ruin [her husband's] moment." Subsequently, Kate indirectly unveiled her pregnancy by stating that Eric was "gonna be a father," which quickly got her sister-in-law's attention. With Amanda asking for confirmation of the news, Kate stated "it just happened," sending the former into an anguished rage that rapidly escalated. She aggressively rejected the latter's attempt to console her, stating it was "all so wrong."

Voicing her disbelief Kate was going to have a baby, Amanda pushed her away, causing her to demand to know "what [was] wrong" with her. Angrily repeating her own words back to her, Amanda vented about her failed efforts to become pregnant as she attacked her, with Kate striking her in her mouth and her nose. Their brief fight came to a tragic end when Amanda accidentally killed her oldest brother's wife by shoving her over the edge of the roof, sending her plunging to her death below.

Shocked about what she had just done, Amanda spit out blood that was gathering in her mouth into the planter's soil, grabbed Kate's wallet, and headed downstairs to her victim's office. Slamming the door to said office and letting her shock begin to wear off, she began preparing to resume covering her tracks. Nevertheless, Amanda shed tears after seeing a framed picture of Kate and Eric together, which was followed by her fully turning heel. Putting on her black jacket and telling herself that everything was okay, she ominously looked outside said door and then left.

With her confession finished, Amanda wept while she proclaimed that she never intended for Kate to die; Eric interrupted her as she attempted to say that she loved her sister-in-law "so much" and also apologize for what she had done. Ken then gave her a warrant for her medications, which Andrea took out of her purse while he asked her what they were for. Amanda despondently mentioned that she was told she was going into menopause, meaning that she could not "have any children." Even so, Andrea divulged she had been pregnant the whole time (because of a sexual tryst she had with Neil), as her blood was found to have high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin. She reacted to the revelation with surprise, with Andrea putting Amanda's pills back into her purse before Eric was escorted out of the room by Ken.

Amanda was arrested offscreen for killing Kate, and while she in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center awaiting her trial, she asked Eric to visit her. It was uncovered that she planned to "quietly go off to prison" (in Eric's words) by pleading guilty to the charges against her, after which she tearfully begged for him to take care of her child. One of the series' final scenes had her serenely smiling while she got a pregnancy ultrasound. Moreover, in the finale's *Cornell: Confidential* webisode, "32 Months Later...," Amanda's child was revealed to be a girl who became Eric's adopted daughter, with Patrick helping him raise her.