Review with Spoilers for Nothing Ever Happens Here

Nothing Ever Happens Here has multiple mysteries:

• Who was responsible for locking Shelby in the freezer?
• What happened to Mack’s husband Leo?
• Who is now threatening Shelby and her family over a year later?
• Was Otis murdered and if so, by whom?
• Was Bernie murdered and if so, by whom?

Added (thanks Tricia) Who stole Shelby’s phone and hid it in Riley’s couch? And why?

The Ending of Nothing Ever Happens Here:

• After her children are targeted, she is attacked by an intruder, and Herb finds her phone in Officer Riley’s house, Shelby has had enough.
• Mack is allowed access to Leo’s work locker and finds financial papers suggesting the borrowed against their house, which is about to be foreclosed on.
• Bernie goes missing. 
• Billy offers to give Mack the money to save her house.
• Bernie’s pendant is found, and then his car with his body inside.
• Shelby accosts Riley in a bar, saying he is incompetent.
• The police discover Leo’s body.
• Then the police also tell Shelby that an anonymous tipster claims that she’s the one who started the fire at the Oleander in order to claim the insurance money.
• Florence suddenly figures out who’s behind everything and takes the bus by herself to someone’s house where she finds a creepy stalker shrine dedicated to Shelby.
• Shelby gets grabbed by an intruder. She finds herself tied up in a strange place. She’s able to untie herself and uses a fire extinguisher to break a window in the basement where she’s being held.

Who is behind all these crimes in Rivers Crossing?

• Evan is the culprit. Florence realized he used the same alias playing video games and to sign into hospital log right before Otis was killed.
• Otis and Evan were business partners.
• Evan claims that he kidnapped Leo to scare him into giving him his share of the money. But Leo had a heart attack in Evan’s trunk.
• Then Evan killed Bernie because Bernie caught him watching video footage of Shelby getting undressed.
• The police find Florence but Shelby is still tied up at Evan’s house.
• Evan blames Florence for everything, saying she showed up making accusations and attacked him.
• Shelby manages to free herself and calls the Oleander gang to pick her up.
• They decide that the police won’t believe them, and they have to take matters into their own hands.
• They decide to give Shelby an airtight alibi, and then eliminate Evan with oleander, a poisonous plant.
• Herb and Florence put oleander in Evan’s scotch. They watch him die a terrible death and then dispose of the scotch and the glasses.
• Mack moves away but Shelby stays in Rivers Crossing
• Florence is haunted by what they have done, but she and Herb comfort each other.

Your Questions About Nothing Ever Happens Here

In comments, Tricia asked how Shelby’s phone gets in Riley’s couch:

• In chapter 6, Shelby is home alone with her kids when all the lights go out. She tries to find her phone, but it’s missing. She hasn’t seen it since she was at Oleander’s, where she works.

• In chapter 14 the gang all goes over to Riley’s to interview him for the podcast and that’s when Herb finds the phone: in a couch in Riley’s basement.

• In chapter 28, after Shelby wakes up after having been kidnapped by Evan, she thinks, “I realize, suddenly, all of this has been him … Him stealing my phone, putting the cameras in Clay’s truck … All the attacks. This can’t be happening.”

Evan was at the gathering at Riley’s so that could be when he put the phone there.

But why did he take it in the first place? I’m guessing because he was obsessed with Shelby back from high school and now bitter after the accident that disfigured his face. Taking the phone and then turning off her power and leaving her helpless was part of messing with her.

Why do you think he put it in Riley’s couch? Was it to frame Riley or just because he needed to ditch it?

What did you think of Nothing Ever Happens Here? Please put all your thoughts and questions in the comments. Spoilers are fine!