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Behind Her Eyes ending: The Netflix series’ bizarre twist explained

Viewers were left scratching their heads after what started out as the story of an illicit affair became something else entirely

Roisin O'Connor
Wednesday 24 February 2021 17:07 GMT
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Behind Her Eyes trailer
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Fans are reeling after watching the final episode of Netflix’s new hit series, Behind Her Eyes.

The show, which is based on the 2017 book of the same name, has a major twist at the end that has divided viewers.

Major spoilers ahead – you’ve been warned!

The story follows single mother Louise as she embarks on an affair with her boss, psychologist David, after meeting him at a bar.

At the same time, she strikes up a friendship with David’s wife, Adele, who has struggled with mental illness. Adele teaches Louise, who suffers from night terrors, how to “astral project” – send her consciousness to somewhere else (in this case a nicer dream).

The series includes a number of flashbacks that show Adele in a mental institution with her friend Rob, who is gay.

Rob and Adele

The twist, which has driven hundreds of viewers to social media scratching their heads, is that Adele is not actually Adele. Adele is Rob, who managed to switch bodies with Adele using astral projection and then take over her life – including her husband, David. He murdered the real Adele, who was trapped in his old body, then posed as her and pretended Rob had died from a heroin overdose and – panicked – she had thrown his body down the well.

Rob, still disguised as Adele, now sees Louise threatening to take away everything he considers his, and so takes a heroin overdose and sets the house on fire in an apparent suicide attempt.

Louise is tricked into astral projecting, but the second she has left her body, Rob is able to move in, leaving Louise to die in the fire as Adele.

Rob-as-Louise then marries David, inheriting Adele’s fortune in the process, and they drive off discussing honeymoon ideas, with Louise’s poor son Adam in the back seat.

Confused? Bewildered? Annoyed? We don’t really blame you.

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