Credit: Netflix

Not a Stranger on Netflix plays with viewers’ minds, forcing them to question the unreliable central character, Funda, whose life seems to deteriorate instead of improve with the arrival of her new nanny, Nazlı.

The Turkish psychological thriller follows Funda, a new mother trying to revive her painting career after a long break from the artistic world following the birth of her child. To reclaim her professional reputation, Funda seeks someone she can trust with her daughter, Mavi. Enter Nazlı, the seemingly perfect nanny who has it all under control.

Although Nazlı is great with Mavi, her arrival strangely coincides with Funda’s deteriorating mental state. Not only does Funda start questioning things around her, but the growing confusion makes viewers rely a little less on the protagonist.

But the question burning on everyone’s mind is: was Funda really losing her mind? Was she actually being paranoid, or is something really going on with her that the audience initially fails to notice?

Was Funda really losing her mind in Not a Stranger?

While Funda turns to a formal treatment by the end of Not a Stranger, Netflix’s newest psychological thriller, she’s actually a victim of a deep-seated conspiracy orchestrated by Nazlı. It turns out the nanny is not exactly a stranger. İlker had a one-night encounter with her, and he insists that it was nothing serious. But Nazlı doesn’t see things that way.

If anything, she sees Funda living the life that could have been hers. However, that’s not the only history that explains her motives. She has a history of her own, having been dismissed as a nurse from a hospital due to a case involving a child in her care, and she was once pregnant but suffered a miscarriage. Although the Netflix series doesn’t establish enough to suggest the father could have been İlker, her involvement in Funda’s household serves an ulterior agenda.

Whether it’s entitlement or delusion, Nazlı wholeheartedly believes Funda has stolen the life she deserves. So, the nanny act is actually a fully planned conspiracy to slowly eliminate Funda from the picture. And as we see, Nazlı succeeds to quite an extent. While viewers feel Funda is growing increasingly unreliable, it was actually the nanny who had been poisoning her chamomile and mint tea, causing forgetfulness, hallucinations, and gaps in her memory.

When the confrontation between Kemal and Nazlı takes centre stage, the audience can finally connect the dots. Funda wasn’t suspicious of everyone around her from the start, nor does she have a history of acting out. It was because someone was purposefully making her sick that she spiralled out of control, and her quick recovery at the facility is proof.

But does that mean the revelation pulls the curtain on the ruse? Well, that’s a spoiler we choose not to reveal because Not a Stranger just landed on Netflix. And you cannot miss it now.