Credit: Netflix

It is not easy to pack a mind-bending thriller into just four episodes, but A Couple of Lies on Netflix understood the assignment.

The Swedish psychological thriller follows Helene and Carl as they swap their cliffside house in the Swedish archipelago for a sun-drenched villa in Sicily, owned by Scarlett and Adam, a couple they claim to have never met. For Scarlett and Adam, the house swap is supposed to be a much-needed break from their daily lives. As for the first pair, the Sicilian vacation is a long-awaited getaway with a baby on the way. Since their marriage is strained over Carl’s workaholic nature, this vacation feels like the perfect chance for him to make amends.

However, Carl seems too invested in work, following a humiliating event at the office a few days ago. Highly stressed and determined to prove his worth, Carl works all day, and the pressure has caused blackouts. Even on vacation, he cannot unwind because of strange noises late at night, although his wife doesn’t hear anything out of place.

With a missing tourist poster all over town, two cops even show up at their door to interrogate them about Carl’s whereabouts when the tourist went missing. Although Carl says he was out of town, Helene chimes in and reminds him that he did come to Italy and checked the villa beforehand. Interestingly, his phone location also confirms his wife’s claims, but he simply doesn’t remember visiting the villa before.

Meanwhile, back in their Swedish archipelago home, Scarlett feels uneasy about the hidden camera network inside their house, and their nosy neighbour Silvia doesn’t make things any easier. To make things worse, she hasn’t been able to contact her brother Tom, whom she had cut off for different reasons a while ago. So, when a body is found in their Sicilian home days later, several questions follow.

Who killed Tom in A Couple of Lies?

After a body is found in the Sicilian villa’s well in A Couple of Lies, Carl initially assumes it is the missing tourist. However, realising this could stir problems for his upcoming company deal, he refuses to contact the police, despite Helene’s repeated pleas. Once the deal is signed, he discovers the tourist has been found and is actually alive. But this raises a bigger question: whose body is in the well?

As suspicion rises, Helene calls the cops, and it is revealed that the body belongs to Scarlett’s brother, Tom. With Carl still not being able to retrieve memories of his previous visit to the villa, even after his wife’s claims, he becomes the primary suspect in the murder case. When the cops confirm his location at the time of the murder, he is taken into custody. But even then, Carl refuses to admit he played any part.

What’s particularly shocking to him is the discovery that Helene has been feeding everything to the cops to raise more suspicion, which convinces him that his wife is framing him for something way more hideous. He strongly believes that she has set her sights on his wealth, and with him incarcerated, nothing is standing in her way.

It turns out his calculations are bang on, but the burning question remains: who killed Tom? Although he’s released due to a legal technicality, he doesn’t know the truth about the killer. So, for those wondering, at the heart of A Couple of Lies is deceit and betrayal, and Carl is just collateral.

Helene and Adam have been involved in an affair, and the latter is the father of her unborn child. The love story dates back years, but they couldn’t be together as Adam was a struggling artist, and he hatched an elaborate plan to cash in on Scarlett’s wealth and connections. Even though he didn’t want a future with Scarlett, he ended up marrying her, and Helene went her way.

Three years later, they crossed paths again. Needless to say, the sparks reignited and blew into a full-fledged affair. The only person who saw through Adam’s lies was Tom, who caught Helene and him red-handed in the villa. So, to prevent Tom from outing their secret, Adam pushed him down the stairs.