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8 Episodes 2019 - 2019
Episode 1
45 mins
Traumatized by the loss of her partner, Helena (Hel) Brant is hiding out from life, working night-shifts at an anonymous call center in a provincial Swedish town. When her long-estranged twin sister Siri reaches out to ask if she would visit her in the Italian Alps, Hel impulsively takes this opportunity to escape her greyed-out life - hesitantly hopeful that she may even be able to rebuild some of the bridges that have been burned between her and her unreliable twin. At first sight, Himmelstal looks like a luxurious sanatorium and picturesque alpine hamlet but Helena soon realizes that it is in fact a secure facility and that her twin sister has another agenda with her visit. Siri proposes a 24-hour swap so she can visit her lover in Milan. Helena refuses Siri's plan, but wakes to discover that Siri has done it anyway.
Episode 2
45 mins
HEL wakes from sedation. Her initial reaction of denial changes as she begins the painful process of learning the precise nature of the trap she's fallen into - that this is a secure facility for studying psychopaths. She is a lamb, trapped in a lions' den. Dr. Fisher, welcomes a new member of staff, Dr. Kowalska, and shows her around the facility, establishing the rules and the nature of the place. He has hired her to be the devil's advocate amongst the staff, to keep them all honest. She is assigned to work under Dr. Silva - who is also Siri's therapist - until she finds her feet. Meanwhile, becoming increasingly panicked at the depth of her problem, Hel tries everything she can to persuade anyone who will listen of what has happened to her. Kowalska gets off to a bad start with Silva. When Hel finally succeeds in getting them to check confirm her story by looking at her fingerprints she is shocked to discover they actually 'prove' she is Siri. Her story of being Hel is put down as a 'typical Siri" move. The cavalry isn't coming...
Episode 3
45 mins
Hel has tried coming clean. She now has to find another way to survive (and ultimately escape). Her dilemma is made worse as she has inherited dangerous enemies - and lovers - from Siri and those debts and obligations that start coming home to roost. Siri owes the mysterious kingpin amongst the patients (Carol). And she was running at least two romantic relationships, with Corin and Enzo. Through Enzo she learns about the XO, a secret escape organization, and determines to try and use them to help her get out. She learns that Carol is also trying to find out who the XO are as he fears a rival powerbase in the community. Her sessions with Silva and Kowalska begin to unpack her childhood and the roots of her own wounds. Fisher seems to be encouraging a growing rivalry between the other two doctors. Trying to deal with Siri's obligations leads Hel to a life-threatening face-off with the one inmate she thought might protect her - until she discovers he is the very Carol who Siri had taken advantage of. And he will hurt her badly if she doesn't give up the XO contact that he believes she has...
Episode 4
45 mins
Hel manages to escape the face-off with Carol without betraying Enzo (revealed as Carol's henchman - but secretly working against him with the XO). Trying to persuade Kowalska (and herself) that she is not a psychopath she demands they give her the psychopath test. Silva reluctant to do so. Kowalska appeals over his head to Fisher - who reveals the true mission behind the sanctuary: he is actually trying to cure psychopathy - the 'incurable' condition. HEL sets out to walk the perimeter of the valley and confirm that it is escape-proof. Alone in the woods and sure she is being chased by Carol's minions, she finds a local boy who tells her he snuck in through a hole in the perimeter fence. Elated by the fact there's a way out, and fearful of what the pursuing psychopaths might do to the innocent boy, she makes him run back with her to the hole. He lets her run into the DEAD ZONE where she is dropped to the ground by powerful subsonic countermeasures. Tomas is not from outside. There is no hole. He's an inmate too.
Episode 5
45 mins
Hel wakes up, groggy from the subsonic shot she just received from the Dead Zone and hogtied by copper wire around her wrists. Tomas is about to hurt her but is stopped by Enzo. They both flee when they hear hosts coming, leaving Hel hogtied on the ground. In a session with SILVA where he investigates her childhood, a story she tells him from before reminds Hel about the hammer that was seen in the photo of battered Svala. She becomes convinced that Siri attacked Svala and that the police will now have to investigate this crime, and she realizes that if she can find the hammer used to attack Svala, the fingerprint and DNA evidence could be used to prove her innocence. Tomas breaks in to Hel's cabin for revenge that Hel told the authorities of what he did to her. He is about to hurt her when Carol arrives and intervenes, ultimately asking Hel for her contact with the XO. She pretends that Tomas is her contact and that he gave her the map where each of the marks correspond to a CCTV blind spot. Satisfied with her answer, Carol tells her he has got the hammer she is looking for and that he will keep until he needs something from her. Hel is now completely under his control.
Episode 6
45 mins
Hel receives a Swedish birthday cake, apparently sent from 'Hel'. She sees it as a veiled taunt form outside, a private message. shows it to Silva and begs him to investigate the cake's origin, convinced that it will prove it comes from Siri. Hel meets with Enzo who proposes that she follows his escape plan, instead of relying on Carol's goodwill. However, she is very determined to find the hammer and plans to break into Carol's chalet while he is out with Enzo at night. Enzo agrees. After dark, and using her copy of the CCTV map to move around undetected, Hel breaks into Carol's chalet. She starts searching, but soon finds out that she is not alone in the house. As she tries to escape, she accidently slams a door on the person's face who falls down to the bottom of the stairs in the basement. Hel realizes that it was Tomas, and have now maybe killed a child. Carol arranges a meeting with head of security Redpath and Hel, where he now hands over a bloody hammer and accuses Hel of murdering someone.
Episode 7
45 mins
Silva asks Fisher to reveal which inmates are actually the secret embedded researchers, as he wants to know their opinions about Siri's recent change in behaviour. To avoid compromising them, Fisher proposes to conduct those interviews by himself. Redpath tells Silva that no DNA has been found on the hammer, which he passes on to a disbelieving Hel. She's gut punched by the news. Things could not be worse. The session is interrupted Hel is informed that her sister "Helena" died in a car fire. Hel is shocked and realises how stuck she is. Things just got worse. Hel now realizes that she needs to agree on reconsidering Enzo's escape plan, whatever needed to survive. She seems aware that the jealous Corin is also stalking her watching from afar. Margot enters Hel's cabin and reveals to her who she really is: Jane Taylor, a psychiatrist embedded as an inmate. She tells Hel that she believes her story. They decide to talk to Fisher, Jane's long-time friend and colleague.
Episode 8
45 mins
Hel finally has someone who is on the side of the angels who believes in her. Margot/Jane meets Fisher in his office and tells him that she is convinced that Hel is telling the truth. Fisher pretends not to be convinced, despite all the clues she reveals to him. Jane tries to assure Fisher that they could build on their mistake. Instead, he pretends to have been attacked by her (as Margot) and tasers her. He then tells Hel, who was waiting outside, that Margot was lying. Hel asks to meet Silva, convinced that, since she knows the embedded researchers' "safe words", he will believe her. However, the words she gives him are not the ones Silva knows, which leads Hel to think he is part of Fisher's plan. Later in his office, he looks it up on the internet and discovers that Hel has been telling the truth all along. With this knowledge, he decides to contact local police with the evidence - but with Fisher and Redpath trying to cover up the mistake, Silva is put in direct danger. The next day, Hel is shocked to learn of Silva's accident. As her options are rapidly running out, and she has nothing to lose she decides to accept Enzo's 'kamikaze' plan to escape.