Under a Dark Sun – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review
Episode 1 of Under a Dark Sun starts with a woman called Alba hurriedly leaving her partner. Bundling into the car with her son Leo, the pair drive off into the night. Unfortunately, Alba's idea of a fresh start is not quite so simple.
She doesn't have a job, she has no family to fall back on and her account is overdrawn too. As we later find out, she also has a criminal record and she has barely any food.
Alba may have found a lifeline in the form of a seasonal job working as a Flower Harvester. She receives an email, encouraging her to show up for the preliminary meeting, but there's a problem.
When Alba shows, the interviewer is seemingly unaware of who she is. However, he's certainly rattled when he sees the email is addressed from himself, Arnaud Lasserre. He eventually agrees to take her on, but the reasons for doing so are still unclear right now.
Valentin is tasked with showing her the ropes on the estate, but Alba is completely unprepared. Her son is still in her car and he's concerned. Alba is hoping that three weeks worth of work will be enough to save up and get out of France and jet for Barcelona.
It's hard work, and Alba is very much an outsider here. She doesn't speak Arabic like the others, and Arnaud is threatened by her presence. He confronts her and demands she meet in the field the next day.
Alba is given accommodation though in the form of a bungalow, but it's also rigged with cameras too. She's watched while she converses with Leo, practicing their Spanish and generally getting along well.
Before work, Alba heads out to meet Arnaud Lasserre but instead, she finds him lying on the ground, bleeding out. It appears he's been stabbed in the gut… but by who?
Alba packs her stuff, preparing to leave, but the police get there first. They want to take her statement down at the station and there's no getting around this.
To make matters worse, they also dig into her past and find her criminal record. Back then she was an addict and charged with violence, theft and drug abuse.
One of the employees also saw her fleeing the scene, so it doesn't look good. The detective also has surveillance footage of Alba racing away, eyewitness reports from her chat with Lasserre the previous day, and obviously her past record too.
None of this puts her in a particularly good position. To complicate matters, Lasserre's Will reveals a massive shock. It turns out Arnaud actually has 4 children, not 3. And the fourth? Yep, you guessed it – it's Alba! She's taken aback and refuses to believe this.
Unfortunately, from the outside it definitely looks like a great motive for murder. However, the Will also states that if someone is involved in a murder then they're not granted anything. This means that if the courts find Alba guilty, she won't be entitled to any of the inheritance.
Thankfully, Alba isn't alone here. She's joined by a lawyer called Manon Simoni, who shows up to to help Alba. Now, without a murder weapon, some flimsy photos and a poor witness statement from the family, who can't be trusted (we'll get to that in a minute), Alba's prospects are made a little better.
It turns out the Lasserre family are not squeaky clean. In fact they lied about what happened. The day before the murder, the entire family gathered for Maison Oris, one of the biggest perfumers. They showed up, wanting to buy the estate to get exclusive access to the roses.
While they would offer a good pay-day, the Lasserre family would be allowed to keep running the farm. However, Arnaud is too proud to let his business go and refuses to sell, much to the shock and anger of his family.
That means that one of the family actually have a motive, and Manon knows this because she's actually Arnaud's granddaughter.
Alba is eventually released from custody, and she returns to Leo. She definitely doesn't trust Manon though, but she wants to help and find out the truth. Manon is convinced they can prove she's been framed, but that obviously stems from finding evidence – and that's not going to be easy with these people.
Well, you'd think anyway. In the next scene, one of the siblings, Lucie, finds the murder weapon is found in a zipped up bag in the back of the toilet, much to her shock.
At Arnaud's funeral, his wife Beatrice uses ChatGPT to write a eulogy and doesn't look particularly bothered by his death. In fact, she opens the casket, looks at him and scoffs, walking out and calling it a joke. Whether she's actually part of this or just a red herring though, is unclear right now.
With the family out and busy, Alba manages to hack into the computers in the office, where she finds a whole folder with her name on, including a ton of different pictures. Unfortunately, she can't pry too much further because an error message flashes up, deleting everything as a safety precaution.
With the funeral ended, Alba races out but unfortunately, she's clocked upside the head outside by someone. We don't see who it is but when Alba wakes up, she finds herself in a casket with a lighter, buried alive with Arnaud.
The Episode Review
Under a Dark Sun gets things off to a tense and lively start, with a couple of well-worked twists, some interesting characters and a premise that's certainly very moreish.
This Lasserre family are obviously full of secrets and it's still unclear exactly who sent that email over to Alba. Was it actually Arnaud or one of the siblings enticing her to come over so they can frame her?
There's also the point of contention surrounding the surveillance footage too, as someone was watching her in this bungalow.
I'm guessing Arnaud wanted to see her before work to explain that he's her father and question why she's really there, then got into a spat with one of the family, who shot him to keep him quiet. Right now though, we don't know for certain.
However, this is shaping up to be a decent little murder mystery. Roll on the next episode!
Next Episode
Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
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