What you have to remember, what the show keeps trying to remind you with oh so fraught Capulet and Montague over there, is that these two kids thought they were running away together before all this nonsense began. That doomed teenage romance is determinedly the heart of the show, despite all the extra odd shit going on around them.
So June MacDaniel (Sorcha Groundsell) is on a very short leash from her gruff father John (Sam Hazeldine). He escorts her to school, controls her phone, and oh by the way, is moving June and her brother Ryan (Arthur Hughes) to the middle of nowhere, someplace called Fair Isle.
Today is the last day and in theory they’re all going, but it also happens to be a very big day for June, a very special and potentially very bad day for her, because she’s now wearing someone else’s face and ohmygod body and trying to convince her beloved boyfriend Harry (Percelle Ascot) its still her. Those mirrors are a eye-opener, and its painful to watch him beg her from the other side of the glass. But this is really for-reals, and Harry promised he would always protect her no matter what, so the chosen two cling to each-other and desperately wonder what to do next.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Norway at a place called Sanctum, there is some definite strange doings happening. The good doctor, Halvorson (Guy Pearce), does these awful experiments on these women, all of whom seem to be here more or less voluntarily. So they keep insisting. The eldest, Runa (Ingunn Beate Oyun), always teeters on the edge of sanity, exploding in Norwegian only to be chastised for it and desperate for the good doctors love; June’s mother, Elena (Laura Birn), also here of her own free will but a mere ghost of herself, pale and stuttering and sad, always untouched; and the newcomer, Sigrid or Siggy (Lise Risom Olsen) as she prefers, tending the garden and blissfully committing to her lessons while dreaming, someday, of leaving Sanctum forever. The good doctor wants June to come to Sanctum very much, for her mothers sake of course he insists a bit too strongly, so much he’s actually willing to come get her himself, once she’s finally located.
Our lovers have met a myriad of underworld characters along the way, but Kam in particular is the one that sticks with everyone the most. And why not? Oh, Kam (Abigail Hardingham) hates what she is, the good doctor calls it a shifter, same as June and her mother. Kam’s mom happened to be a shifter too, once upon a time. Harry’s mom Christine (Nadine Marshall) of course happens to be a cop, and everyone from June’s dad and brother, to extraneous cops and all sorts of weird videos, have been involved in the hunt for June at this point.
In the end Juliet, or rather June, makes a decision that sets in motion a whole bunch of bad things, that eventually lead to potentially good things or at least new beginnings. But we all know, with rebirth usually comes a good deal of preceding destruction.
There is of course the possibility of a season two, but I’d debate that by then, June and Romeo, or rather poor Harry, will be quite a bit more experienced and far less innocent.
Catch the oddest Netflix show to come out since The OA, and compare the interesting similarities to The Innocents, on Netflix now!