Y’all. I had so much fun watching this limited series. After finishing the first episode and getting into episode 2, I knew I’d be binge-watching the whole thing. And boy, did I binge-watch it. 

So, first I want to get into the characters. The acting was phenomenal in this series. Sam Worthington did such a great job as David. You could see the pain in his eyes and I don’t know how you do this, but he emanated innocence. Just a regular degular dad who got framed for his own son’s murder. I can’t imagine how painful that must be, but Sam Worthington did a wonderful job of helping you imagine the pain. Britt Lower, who plays our other main character, Rachel, was really good at giving you that journalist personality type. I don’t know if that’s just how she is in real life, but it definitely felt like you were watching someone who had been a journalist their whole life. The other two characters that I wanted to mention are Gertrude Payne (Madeleine Stowe, who I used to watch in Revenge), and Hayden Payne (Milo Ventimiglia, who plays in This is Us). Madeleine Stowe is honestly so good at playing a villain. She just has that evil look in her eyes and I have no idea what she’s like in real life 😂. She is basically the CEO of a billion dollar company and has holdings and companies all over the world. Hayden Payne is her son and acts nothing like her. Milo Ventimiglia does AMAZING. He probably had my favorite reactions from the whole series. 

With the story, I can’t tell you how many times I was gasping and legitimately saying out loud, “No way!!” I was interacting so much while watching this show and I never do that haha. I didn’t guess the twists. I had no inkling of the big reveal at the end. It was exhilarating. I’m gonna be honest here and say that I can’t really even find things to complain about. It was that much fun to watch (as in I didn’t even have time to think about being critical). 

Spoilers ahead.

So, who took Matthew? The big reveal had me screaming at my phone as I watched it (I was baking cookies… or trying to because I couldn’t pull my eyes from the screen 😂). Hayden, who had been helping them the whole entire time, thought he was Matthew’s father. I knew the Paynes had something to do with it, but I obviously thought it was his mother, Gertrude, after finding out that Nicky Fisher had nothing to do with it. 

Basically, David’s ex-wife, Cheryl, tried to get artificially inseminated at a clinic under her sister’s name. Hayden, who was obsessed with Rachel, found out and got them to use his… erm… donation. The thing was, though, Cheryl found out the very next day that she had already been pregnant, which meant the child couldn’t have been Hayden’s. Hayden, not knowing this, kills a little boy from an orphanage in Geneva, uses his body to make it look like Matthew was dead, and framed David for everything. Matthew came home under the new name, Theo, and Gertrude helped Hayden keep everything covered up. Except, she gets a paternity test, learns that Matthew/Theo isn’t for Hayden, and doesn’t tell Hayden (because, like she said, there’s no going back from what he did). 

At the final confrontation, Hayden kills his mother when he learns about the paternity, tries to kidnap Matthew/Theo again, and ends up getting killed by FBI Agent Sarah Greer (Logan Browning). David gets his son back, Cheryl gets her son and her new daughter (and stays with Ron), and Rachel and David start a relationship. What really makes me sad, though? The person that this hurt the most in my opinion is Matthew. He started over when Hayden kidnapped him. He started over when Hayden got killed. Poor dude is literally eight years old and had to watch the only father he remembers (Hayden) get killed and also loses his grandmother (Gertrude) in the process. What a way to find out you’re not actually related….

Overall, I loved this limited series. I think this is the first Harlan Coben anything that I’ve ever watched and I’m not disappointed. It’s safe to say that I’ll definitely be checking out other series that he has. 

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