Weekend binge: Behind Her Eyes

Am I really going to start another series and post sporadically about it? You bet I am.

Jokes aside, this series will focus on shows, movies, or anything that I “binged” over the weekend.

Spoilers ahead.

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Behind Her Eyes is like Gone Girl on crack.

Louise, a lonely single mother who meets David, a handsome, married man, at a bar. She ends up having an affair with David and befriending his estranged wife, Adele.

The plot bounces back and forth between the present and the past, building suspense between David and Adele. Their marriage is… interesting as the writers try to make you unsure who the antagonist is. Is it David who seems extremely controlling towards his wife? Or is it Adele who has an unexplainable creepy vibe?

In David and Adele’s past, we get introduced to Rob, Adele’s friend, who she met at a rehab facility. At first, his role was thought to be a homewrecker or the boy secretly in love with Adele.

However, it’s later revealed that he developed an obsession with David, enough to take over Adele’s body using astral projection and live as her for ten years.

This mind-boggling revelation comes at the end, where Louise and Rob switch bodies, leading to Louise’s death and Rob taking over Louise’s identity.

Let me backtrack a little bit and give some context.

During her days in the rehab facility, Adele taught Rob how to use astral projection. How does she know how to do this? I don’t know. Adele, who was already seeing David, told Rob to keep it a secret from him because… Why not?

One day, Rob and Adele agreed to switch bodies, but Adele didn’t know Rob was still doing drugs. When they do the switch-a-roo, Rob kills Adele with heroin and pushes his body down a well, leading everyone to think that Rob overdosed. At this point, Adele’s soul is dead.

There are a lot of mixed reviews to this plot twist. Is it genius? Or is it stupid? I liked this plot twist, but I can see why there would be problems. Rob’s personality changed when he took over Adele’s body.

While some of his actions and mannerisms were the same, he suddenly became a control freak. When David visited Adele, he and Rob have a friendly dynamic. If you squint, you could say they had chemistry.

So… why did Rob suddenly do a 180 when he’s in Adele’s body? It was a little strange.

Now, let’s jump back to Louise’s character, which is the most problematic one of them all.

While I initially liked her, she lost all common sense by the end of the show. She knows she shouldn’t get involved with Adele and David’s marriage. Her best friend tells her that she’ll end up getting hurt, and she still continues to do it. She justifies it by saying, “why can’t I fuck up once in a while?” Well, we all know where that got her.

Adele/Rob told Louise that she believed David killed Rob at one point. Because Louise felt so guilty for sleeping with David, she blindly believed Adele. Now, I guess this wouldn’t be a problem. But Louise sent snail mail to the police saying that she believed David killed Rob without any evidence. 

After Louise finds out that Adele/Rob knew of the affair all along, she crawls back to David and tells him to essentially expose Adele. But David, without anything to go on, tells Louise that he will go to Scotland and explain everything to the police. What?

Clearly, this guy is just a pretty face.

Louise pushes away her best friend after she tells Louise (again) to stop getting involved with them. Instead, David should deal with his own problems, which… why hasn’t he by now? So… I’m not sure if he kept staying in the marriage out of “love” for Adele or he was afraid that she might do something if he left.

At this point, Louise received three warnings to stay out of David and Adele’s marriage. Two from her best friend and one from David. She got a FOURTH warning when she met Marianne, David’s friend, who was threatened by Adele/Rob in the past.

But Louise can’t seem to leave David alone.

When she gets a call from Adele, Louise, being the nice person she is, rushes to her house to see it on fire.

She can’t get in somehow, so she astral projects into the house. At this point, I saw the twist coming. Why do you think turning into a small ball of light will solve anything?

The ending felt like one big coincidence. Adele/Rob injected heroin before leaving her body. When Louise’s soul enters the room, Rob immediately finds Louise’s body. He takes it over, thus forcing Louise into Adele’s body.

How did Rob even know that Louise would use astral projection? If she didn’t, Rob/Adele would’ve died right then and there.

Now, this whole thing about astral projection is strange in itself. Rob gave Louise his journal in hopes that she would learn astral projection. But, how will he know that she has this ability? Does this mean everyone has this ability? Or is it only specific people? It seems like anyone can do it right now, but it’s never clarified.

Anyway, I just have to say that Behind Her Eyes was… interesting. It entertained me, at least. But this took the “evil” husband and “good” wife to the next level… not sure in a good or bad way.