The 'Fool Me Once' plot holes that have Harlan Coben fans scratching their heads

While trying to piece together why Joe (Richard Armitage) showed up on her nanny cam, Maya asks for several favors from her best friend Shane Tessier (Emmett J. Scanlan).

The two friends served in the military together, and while Maya left the armed forces, Shane joined the Military Police. So he's useful to have around when Maya needs to look into someone or have a bullet forensically checked.

But one intriguing plot point sees Shane sneaking around outside Maya's house, even putting a tracker on her car. It's a moment that has confused fans, especially considering how involved he is with Maya's life. Many on Reddit theorized that Shane was secretly in love with Maya, or even wanted to kill her.

But by the end of the series, it turns out that he is just trying to be a helpful friend and seemingly has no nefarious intentions whatsoever. So why did he track her?

Well, creator Harlan Coben took to X (previously called Twitter) to explain Shane's dodgy behavior. Coben explained that Shane tracked Maya's car because he's concerned about what she's involved in, considering everything she's told him about seeing Joe at home, and her PTSD.

Another questionable thing comes from Detective Sami Kierce (Adeel Akhtar). He constantly takes pills because he struggles with spontaneous blackouts and paralysis while investigating Maya, Joe, and the Burkett family.

When he eventually gets tested, he's told that he has an incurable, degenerative neurological disease.

It's a heartbreaking subplot since Sami is also gearing up to marry his pregnant fiancé, Molly (Clara Indrani). But as the detective starts to work with Maya and whistleblower Corey (Laurie Kynaston), they discover that Joe's family business has been selling unsafe medication which can cause (you guessed it) blackouts and paralysis.

The moment Sami pieces it all together sees him staring at a bottle of pills with the company name printed on the label: "Burkett Pharmaceuticals."

But considering the detective has been taking these pills for the entire series, how did he not spot the name of the dead husband he's been investigating on the bottle before this?

Considering he's been on the case since Joe's murder (which took place four months before the show picks up) it's surprising that he hasn't connected the dots sooner.

And then there's the fact that as soon as Sami stops taking the Burketts' medication, he's seemingly fine… So why was he even on the pills in the first place? Questions, questions, and more questions.

While we're talking about Sami, why did he let Maya confront her mother-in-law alone in the final episode? By that point, he knew all about Judith Burkett (Joanna Lumley) and the shady things the company was doing, so it seemed incredibly naive to let Maya go in alone.

Maybe he assumed that the family wouldn't try to kill the mother of their granddaughter, but to not even have any police backup on standby is an odd decision.

It's disappointing because Sami is one of the show's most endearing characters, but his choices toward the end of the series make no sense.

The writers were probably just trying to accommodate Maya's choice to bring the gun with her because she wanted an out from her struggle with PTSD. If Sami had gone with her to the sprawling mansion, she might have survived the ordeal, which she did not want.

But regardless, from a logical sense — a police officer would not have let that happen.