Behind Her Eyes – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Lucid Dreaming

Episode 2 of Behind Her Eyes begins with Louise and Adele out for their scheduled coffee. A week has passed since David started working, as Adele probes Louise for information.

It’s been 3 years since Louise’s divorce as Adele asks outright whether there’s a new man in her life at all. Louise chuckles nervously, telling her there isn’t as Adele notices the cut on her wrist. When Louise mentions sleepwalking, Adele immediately piques her interest as memories of Rob come flashing back for her.

Partway through their conversation, the pair are interrupted by David who rings to check up on her. Adele lies, telling him she’s alone as it seems like he’s keeping her on a tight leash. When she hangs up, Adele takes Louise’s number so they can catch up again. Louise says her goodbyes but she can hardly make it across the street before Adele messages and enthusiastically gives her her number.

On the back of her meeting, Adele heads home and starts painting. After stopping for a tea break, she tellingly drops one of the pills she’s been taking down the sink. This single action casts us back to the past again, with Adele and Rob up in the tree talking.

Marjorie arrives and tells Adele that she has a call. As she heads inside, David happens to be on the phone checking up on her, just like before. Rob listens from the wings before eventually joining in on the conversation. She wants David to meet Rob, reassuring her lover that he’s not a threat to him.

Back in the present, David tellingly rings the home phone to check up on Adele. It’s a move that she immediately calls him out for but he brushes it aside, telling Adele he’s going to be late as he has some community work in the local area.

This prompts Adele to start painting, furiously sweeping large lines of blues and greens that eventually merge into a hauntingly beautiful picture of a forest. As we cut between this painting and the forest, the camera centers on a well and a pocket watch sitting on the floor.

This watch belongs to David, a gift from Adele that he encouraged her to wear the entire time she was in this facility. Before she can dwell on this further, David heads home and sees the painting for himself. He asks her exactly why she’s done this, staring wide-eyed at this painting.

The next day, Louise receives a text from Adele, asking to meet. She even suggests getting her a day pass so they can head to the gym together. Louise ignores the text though, instead heading back to work.

The cheery and lively David we’ve seen before disappears, replaced by a grumpy, bad tempered man who’s none too happy to see Louise. He snaps at her when she tries to talk to him, prompting Louise to message Adele back and head out with her after all. How much of this is just to spite David however, remains to be seen.

Back at the clinic, a man named Anthony arrives to see David. He’s a new patient, one that’s booked in for a repeat session after David successfully manages to knock down his hostile walls.

The next day, Adele and Louise both head out to the gym but Louise is clearly struggling to keep up with her opposite number. This seems to be a metaphor for their relationship really, as Adele and Louise sit in the sauna together and discus the former’s past.

It’s cryptic, but Adele mentions how her parents were victims of a fire. Apparently they didn’t stand a chance. It’s a fragment of the past, not enough to actually know what really took place, but could tie in with Rob’s nickname in the past, calling her the “girl who paints fire.”

Now it’s Louise’s turn to be out of her comfort zone, as she heads over to Adele’s place and marvels at the luxurious sights. Adele hands over a book to help with her night terrors. Although rare, it’s not unheard of to remember nightmares. As we soon find out, Adele actually experienced these herself too, suggesting they open up the possibility of lucid dreaming to allow her to control her dreams.

Back home, Louise helps Adam pack up his things ready to leave. After hurriedly smoking a cigarette out on the balcony, she heads in and painfully smiles, hugging goodbye to her son.

With the house to herself, Louise uses Rob’s dream journal to take the first steps in controlling her visions. Along with that though, we get to see Rob’s inner-most thoughts, including how he and Adele were friends and he’d do anything for her. Suddenly, she’s snapped out of her entranced thoughts by David, who appears at the door.

This is, of course, slightly awkward given he told David she wasn’t feeling well earlier in the day. Well, Louise invites him in nonetheless and the two sit and share a glass of wine. He admits he didn’t want to head home as he’s been thinking about her a lot.

Given the difficult position Louise finds herself in, she tells him to head home… but temptation eventually gets the better of them and the two wind up making love. Afterwards though, Louise regrets their actions and promises not to take this to work with them.

David eventually trundles home as Adele senses something amiss. Her haunting look in bed is telling – a woman’s intuition perhaps? Whatever it is, the camera pans up to show those familiar woods again. What happened there that’s rattled our characters so? We shall see.

The Episode Review

Episode 2 of Behind Her Eyes deepens the mystery as more of the supernatural and eerie elements begin to bleed through into the surprisingly realistic drama.

There are some lovely parallels here too, including moments involving Adele and Louise’s apartments. These are, of course, a reflection of their own personalities and it’s great to see the show take on some visual storytelling cues like this.

Louise’s flat is very bright, vibrant and lived-in while Adele’s feels cold, unwelcome and almost like a show home. It’s a great contrast, and seeing Adele wandering around Louise’s apartment and soaking in the sights shows how far removed she is from normality.

With David and Louise succumbing to temptation and sleeping together, this series leaves the door wide open for the rest of the episodes as we’re left to wonder what’s next for our characters.