Under a Dark Sun episode 1 recap: Alba is accused of murder

Under a Dark Sun is a new French murder mystery on Netflix starring Ava Baya as a young mother accused of murder. Here’s everything that happened in the first episode...

We see Alba fleeing with her son. A light goes on at the house they're fleeing, and Alba tells her son Leo to get in the car. The car won't start, and a man comes out.

The pair wake up in the car in a car park. Alba looks at her bank balance on her phone, and she has little money. She gets a notice about a flower harvesting job interview at the Lasserre Estate on her phone.

And we get the opening credits. They drive through stunning scenery and finally arrive at the estate.

She meets a man, Arnaud Lasserre, for the interview, but he says he never asked her to come. She shows him her phone, showing that she was asked there for an interview, and pleads that she needs the work.

Arnaud takes her to someone called Valentin and asking him to show Alba the ropes. Arnaud greets another man, his son, called Mathieu.

Secret squirrel cam!

Alba is stunned to find she's starting right away. She makes her excuses so she can tell her son the news. She says she will work for three weeks, and then they can head to Barcelona. Her son's worried that the man she's running from might find them, but she assures him they won't.

Alba starts work picking the flowers. She takes a call from the man, who has a go at her for taking her son out of school. He says it's up to a judge to decide about Leo. She hurls expletives at him and hangs up. Arnaud seems to hear the call and asks if there’s a problem. She says no.

Arnaud asks her how long she's going to keep the act up about why she's there, and then says she should meet him in the field the next day before the others arrive. He tells her to keep quiet.

Alba and her son chat about learning Spanish. Turns out they're being filmed by someone with a camera hidden in a picture of a squirrel!

Alba finds Arnaud dying

The next morning, Alba goes to meet Arnaud as arranged. But she finds him in a bloody mess. He says her name, putting a bloodied hand to her face, but then dies. She flees the scene. But she's seen.

Arnaud's body is found. Alba tells Leo to grab his stuff as they’re going.

The cops arrive at the estate. Meanwhile, Alba frantically removes blood from her face. The police arrive at the caravan. Alba is told it's routine questioning and is taken to the police station.

The police forensics team processes the crime scene. Alba sits nervously in the police station while Leo hides in the caravan. He finds a sketchbook and inside a photo.

The police tell Arnaud's family that Alba has a criminal record for violence, theft, and drug abuse.

Arnaud’s daughter Lucie recalls Arnaud talking to Alba. Arnaud's wife tells Lucie to try to remember how Arnaud was with Alba and speculates that perhaps he was trying to seduce her. The cop asks her if Arnaud often tried to seduce his employees and she replies that Arnaud knew he was a charismatic man. The cop asks her if anything happened yesterday she can remember, and she pretends she can’t remember before we flashback to yesterday.

We see the family all together signing a document except Arnaud!

We go back to the present, and his wife lies that nothing eventful happened.

Alba gets herself in worse trouble by lying that she hadn't found Arnaud. The cop says she was caught speeding near the scene. She denies she’s driving, and she denies murdering Arnaud.

Lucie asks her mother, Béatrice (Isabelle Adjani), why she didn't bring up the signing, and she says she didn't want to involve Oris.

The door goes and it's Jacques, the family solicitor. He reveals that Arnaud recently changed his will. Arnaud declared he was leaving his possessions to his four heirs — his wife Beatrice, son Mathieu, daughter Lucie, and my other daughter Alba! The cop breaks the news to Alba that she's Arnaud’s daughter. She looks stunned.

Mathieu and Lucie are also stunned. Looks like Béatrice did know.

The police search the caravan, but Leo hides outside.

Jacques tells the family that under French law, if Alba is found guilty of murdering Arnaud, she will be disinherited.

Alba's interview is interrupted by Ms Manon Simoni, who turns out to be Alba's lawyer. Alba explains that Arnaud asked her to meet him in the fields early in the morning, but she found him dying. She says she panicked and ran because she knew, with her past, the police would blame her.

The cop comes back and says he thinks Alba went to Grasse to beg Arnaud for financial help, but he refused, so she killed him. Alba's lawyer tells the cop he should investigate why the family lied about nothing happening the day before Arnaud’s murder. She says it was a big day when they were looking at the future of the estate. The estate was going to be sold to a big company that’d allow the family to carry on running the farm. But Arnaud refused to sign. We see Arnaud telling his family that someone is trying to play him.

The cop asks how Manon knows all this, and she says because she was there, she’s Arnaud’s granddaughter!

We flash back and see Béatrice with Arnaud. She says she's drinking the wine she was going to celebrate the sale with, as after all, you could die tomorrow! Is that a threat? he replies. I deserve Oris’ money as much as you do, she says. They argue. They accuse each other of hiding something.

We go back to the present and Béatrice, thinking of the night she argued with Arnaud, is interupted by Lucie, who says she can't stop thinking of dad. Meanwhile, Mathieu is out getting drunk.

Alba returns to the caravan and hugs Leo and says sorry. Manon is there too. Alba doesn't trust her and wonders why she's helping them. Manon warns her that her family will crush her if she's not careful. Alba says she was framed.

Béatrice dresses in pink for the funeral!

It's the day of the funeral. Lucie has a call from Oliver, her boyfriend. She hides in the bathroom and oddly, she doesn’t tell him about the funeral. While fiddling with the top of the toilet, she finds a gun stashed inside!

While the family is at the funeral, Alba breaks into the house on a mission to work out who's framing her.

Alba finds a laptop and copies the hard drive.

Béatrice turns up at the funeral wearing vivid pink! Béatrice then gives a bizarre speech.

Alba finds a folder marked "Alba". She discovers covertly taken pictures of her with Leo.

Béatrice then shocks everyone by lifting the lid on the coffin and saying, "What a joke" to her dead husband! And walks out!

Alba becomes distressed as the computer starts deleting files. She gets a text saying the funeral has ended and rushes out of the house, only for someone to whack her with a spade!

We then see someone creepily say, "Honestly, darling. You actually believe you can get out of this?"

Alba wakes up and she's with her dead dad in his coffin!