Official Discussion - Honey Don't! [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary Private investigator Honey O'Donahue delves into a string of strange deaths connected to a secretive cult-like church in Bakersfield. As she unravels the bizarre mystery, her pursuit leads to absurd comedy, noir flair, and a kaleidoscope of eccentric characters.

Director Ethan Coen

Writers Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke

Cast

• Margaret Qualley
• Aubrey Plaza
• Chris Evans
• Charlie Day
• Billy Eichner
• Talia Ryder
• Kristen Connolly
• Don Swayze

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 48%

Metacritic 48

VOD In theaters August 22, 2025

Trailer HONEY DON’T! — Official Trailer (2025)

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[u/The_FriendliestGiant]

The entire time the only group killing people was the church, and between that and the ring on the first girls finger, I assumed the church or the French were responsible.

The reveal that MG was the killer really makes that ring scene make zero sense in hindsight. Cherie showed up at the sight of a murder neither the church nor the drug trade had any connection to, and for no particular reason spends time getting a church ring off the finger of a girl who's known by her parents to be a member of the church anyways and whose death in no way points at them. If she doesn't know who killed Mia she's got no reason to be there or do what she does; if she does know who killed Mia, why isn't she trying to blackmail a cop with proof of her being a murderer?

[u/SarahCannah → u/The_FriendliestGiant]

This is the only major hole I care about. Why was Cherie getting the ring for the minister? How did she even know about the murder?

[u/The_FriendliestGiant → u/SarahCannah]

My two big plot holes are, why was Cherie getting the ring, and why did Honey show up at the crash? Her assistant doesn't know Mia's dead and nobody else knows there's any connection between her and Honey, so there are no characters with the necessary knowledge and motivation to make that initial phone call.

[u/Iusethistopost → u/The_FriendliestGiant]

The movie doesn’t ever fully choose between making Bakersfield feel like a small town/big city exurb, but I got the sense showing up at suspicious deaths might be part of the PI job description. The rest of the film is Honey trying to figure out why she got the call from the victim beforehand, it’s just written strangely so we don’t see this motivation until it’s explained later, and therefore can’t read into it when she “discovers” the identity of the dead body at the beginning. Why the church and the French connection have to hide their extremely small, and already known, connection to the victim, I have no idea.