Warning! This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for 56 Days.56 Days is a tense erotic thriller that slowly unravels the truth behind a gruesome murder, with the final episode exposing everything that took place in those two months. Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia display explosive chemistry in their roles throughout 56 Days, but of course, as the show reveals, they appear to both be hiding major secrets throughout the series.
Ciara Wyse (Cameron) is revealed to be Megan Martin, who came from the same small town as Oliver. Oliver Kennedy (Jogia), is revealed to be Oliver St. Ledger, a wealthy young man who killed a boy years earlier and evaded prosecution after his crime was pinned on Shane Martin, Megan’s brother.
While Megan initially tracked down Oliver in response to her brother committing suicide in prison and planned to make him pay for his actions, she eventually developed genuine feelings for him after seeing how remorseful and regretful he was about his earlier mistake and his failure to speak up and take the blame when his friend was found guilty of his crime.
Oliver was also being manipulated by his therapist and former career advisor from school, Dan Troxler. Oliver wanted to confess to his crimes and absolve Shane of his part in it, but Dan positioned himself to get considerable payments of tens of thousands of dollars for their sessions and convinced Oliver to remain isolated and untrusting.
When Dan is fired by Oliver, he threatens to release evidence he has amassed over the years, in an effort to blackmail him, unless he is willing to pay millions for his silence. Ciara, upon hearing all of this, takes a statue from the apartment and fatally strikes Dan’s head. Together, Ciara and Oliver gather resources to dispose of the body, and they leave him in the bathtub.
Lee Reardon and Karl Connolly led an investigation into the dead body in the bathtub, and they did manage to get answers about all parties involved in the death. However, Lee’s connection to a local drug dealer resulted in the pair being targeted and almost killed during the investigation.
In order to resolve their situation, Karl takes a necklace from Linus Finch, the drug dealer that Lee hooked up with, and leaves it with the evidence collected for the murder. Then, Lee requests that she and her partner be removed from the case because of the personal conflict with Linus being attached.
From there, the new detective assigned to the case looks over the evidence and jumps to the conclusion that Finch is responsible, which means no one is looking for Oliver and Ciara, and Lee and Karl are no longer being threatened by shady thugs. Evidently, no one really comes out as a good guy, but all the central characters move on with their lives.
Oliver and Ciara made plans after the incident with Dan Troxler to flee the country and start a new life. However, Oliver was worried that Ciara wouldn’t be able to return to her life and family, and after suffering guilt and shame over Paul’s murder for decades, he wanted to clear his conscience.
He has his friend and boss, Elliot, drop him off at the Boston Police Station. However, once he steps inside, he reconsiders and decides to meet with Ciara and start a new chapter together. It seems as though Oliver has finally been able to let go of the past, which is further confirmed by his standing in the water in the final scene of the show.
Ciara is able to meet with her family briefly before she makes her great escape with Oliver. In this encounter, her sister is upset because she feels that she has already lost her sister, Megan, but she wants Ciara to find joy and happiness in her new life.
Some time later, Ciara sends a letter to her mother, with a check for $2 million enclosed. Previously, the family struggled with finances, but Ciara and Oliver’s gift is likely to set them up for life.
The majority of 56 Days deals with the events of a two-month time span. The final scene then leaps forward at least a year, if not more, and reveals Oliver and Ciara enjoying a quiet private beach on what appears to be a remote island. Oliver is seen standing in the water, an indication that he has fully moved on from his haunting past, and Ciara picks up their baby, named after her late brother and Oliver’s former best friend, Shane.
While 56 Days is based on the popular novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Howard, the show features a drastically different ending. In the novel, Oliver is revealed to be a cruel and manipulative killer who intentionally led Paul to his death when he was a child, accompanied by his friend Shane.
Both boys are then sent to prison, with Shane being sentenced to 20 years, and Oliver being labeled as an accomplice, meaning he had a much lighter sentence of just five years. When Ciara learns the truth, she orchestrates Oliver’s death, making it look like a self-inflicted accident due to excessive drug use.
Ciara still gets away free at the end of the story, while neither Lee nor Karl learns who the real killer was, and suspects the reporter instead, though they don’t have enough evidence to do anything about it.
56 Days is a limited series, which means it is highly unlikely to be continued beyond the initial eight-episode release. In addition, the story is based on a novel, and the show has adequately covered the events of that story, meaning there isn’t more that needs to be explored.
February 18, 2026
Prime Video
Alethea Jones
Lisa Zwerling, Karyn Usher, Catherine Ryan Howard
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