Behind Her Eyes
Episode 6 of Behind Her Eyes begins with Louise deliberating over what Adele has told her. Given this all started in Brighton, Louise heads down to the South Coast in a bid to learn more about the past. In fact, she finds Marianne working in a coffee shop and after sobbing, Marianne agrees to help her. It’s here Marianne spills the truth about her involvement with David. Apparently it started out innocently enough with talking; wisps of David’s oozing charm was too much. One day, Adele showed up at her door and told Marianne that David belongs to her. That evening things went from bad to worse when Marianne showed up home to find her knife drawer open and her apartment trashed. Scrawled on the wall, in what seems like blood, is the word “slut.” Adele appears at the front door with a knife in hand, confirming that she was the one to do this. Adele threatened her, handing over the knife and scaring Marianne. She phoned David but it’s clear he wasn’t shocked, despite being as scared as she was. Flashbacks unveil more of this troubled time at the estate. David, Rob and Adele shared time together, with Rob struggling to hide his jealousy in the wake of Rob and Adele cozying up together. In fact, he plays third wheel as he watches them kissing and getting intimate at the dinner table. When Adele eventually retires to bed, David and Rob discuss their love interest, where Rob admits that he’s jealous of the pair. That evening, Rob uses his astral projections to watch both David and Adele make love in their room. Back in the present, Louise phones through to the clinic and adopts Marianne’s identity. A frazzled David shows up in the middle of a busy London street to find Louise, not Marianne, there. Louise calls Adele insane and admits that she knows something is amiss with her. And jut like that, David admits that Rob is dead. Apparently he died from an overdose. Adele panicked and threw him down the well along with Rob’s watch, which fell in along with him. David remained worried but Adele convinced him to live with the guilt. In fact, Adele moved on like it was nothing and threatened to go to the police and blame it on him if he didn’t cooperate. David decides to head up to Scotland and break this cycle once and for all. He reassures Louise that everything is going to be okay and hops on a train. While he does, Louise drops off Adam at Ian’s place and heads home, determined to confront Adele’s astral projection. As Louise screams to the heavens, Adele suddenly rings. She calls Adele out for the affair and explains how this astral projection works. Louise refuses to buy into this though, as Adele claims she did all this to try and draw her away from David and hate him. Louise breaks the news that David has gone to the police over the well incident. The only way to break this cycle is to tell the truth…which Adele refuses to do and instead curses down the phone. After thinking back over the past, Adele writes a note incriminating herself and decides to throw all her pills away. She decides against holding David prisoner, choosing the cowardly way out rather than being alone. As Louise receives the messages through about Adele, she realizes what this means and races up to the house, just as Adele lights rags placed in the electrics. Louise hurries over to help but her phone fails to connect. Instead, Louise decides to astral project her way inside, using that familiar doorway from before and making it upstairs to the bedroom. There, she finds Adele asleep on the bed and her projection lying in wait in the air. It races outside and somehow switches places with Louise’s consciousness. They’ve both body swapped somehow as Adele shoots up Louise’s arm with more smack. Louise whispers Adam’s name before Adele drags her out the house and waits for the police to show up. Adele, inside Louise’s body of course, heads back home. She memorizes all the key details of Louise’s life and heads out to pick up Adam from Ian’s place. Her son immediately senses something is up but goes with her nonetheless. Adele meets David, believing that everything is over and kisses him. As we skip back in time again we see Rob and Adele practicing changing bodies. In fact, it turns out Rob was actually Adele this entire time and took her body for himself. He killed Adele, in his body, before throwing down the well. Rob, who’s not actually Adele, and is now inside Louise’s body, eventually gets married to David but Adam senses something up with his Mum.
The Episode Review
Well, where do you start with that? I think Adele’s manic cursing down the phone pretty accurately sums up the way this final episode has gone. In a way, Behind Her Eyes is quite reminiscent of Game Of Thrones Season 8. Much like the fantasy epic, this series started brightly with some tightly written segments and nice ideas before eventually falling into ridiculous sloppiness. This whole astral projection malarkey has been drawn out to such a degree that it actually undermines a lot of the good work done early on. It’s another good example of how a plot twist or idea can completely destroy the narrative focus on compelling character arcs, and for many people, this will betray the 5 hours we’ve spent with these characters in this dark, twisted and unsatisfying ending. Adele was never Adele this whole time, and was actually Rob who wanted to keep David with him. He murdered Adele and then did the same thing to Louise, in order to jump bodies. Only, this renders Louise’s entire character arc useless/ Lousie starts out as a bright, likable protagonist before having her entire arc butchered. We never really saw much of her past, including the pill bottle and apparent dead relative, nor do we really understand why she can astral project. And what’s with that creepy house? Is the show implying that everyone who experiences night terrors can astral project? Is there a formula to it? How did Rob uncover this trick? And what is Rob’s end-goal here? Is he going to live forever by switching bodies with as many people as possible? Does David not realize Adele isn’t really Adele any more? None of it really makes much sense, despite there being foreshadowed warnings early on that things were amiss. Credit where credit’s due, the show does do a good job of foreshadowing this but beyond that, the twist ending isn’t a very good one. What started as a really promising miniseries has somehow managed to worm its way into one of the worst TV shows of 2021. For many people, I’d imagine this ending will be up there with Game Of Thrones and Dexter as one of the worst ever. Of course, there will be some that enjoy the twist but for this reviewer, the lack of explanation, sudden change in tone and really unsatisfying finish leave a sour taste in the mouth that’s difficult to shake. What did you think of the finale? Did you enjoy the twist? Or are you in the “hate it” camp? Do let us know in the comments below!
