Warning: contains spoilers for season one of Pieces Of Her.

From our very first moments, our parents provide the blueprint for our understanding of the world around us. We look to them for clarity on who we should be, what we should do, how we should act. But more often than not, we forget that providing answers to these questions isn’t their only role – we forget that they are real people who are in search of answers to the very same questions.

Netflix’s new eight-part thriller Pieces Of Her, based on the novel of the same name by Karin Slaughter, hinges on the idea that our parents are, in many ways, enigmas. The show centres around Laura (Toni Collette), a speech therapist, and her 30-year-old daughter Andy (Bella Heathcote), a bored, job-hopping millennial with a passion for drawing. The pair live together in the small town of Belle Isle – their lives seem to be as simple and quaint as the town’s name would suggest.

When they find themselves at the centre of a shooting, the ensuing publicity brings secrets from Laura’s past hurtling back to haunt her and Andy sets out on a mission to unravel the secrets of her mother’s past. And there are a lot of secrets. In a nutshell, Laura is, as it turns out, really a woman called Jane Queller. After growing up in a wealthy family, she fell in love with Nick Harp, leader of a far-left group called the Army for the Changing World. She joined the group, helped them plot the assassination of her own father, before turning herself in and joining a witness protection programme.

Pieces Of Her is a show that relies on a seemingly endless stream of twists and turns. Nothing is certain. No one can be trusted. The tone of the show is one of unwavering Hitchcockian suspense – think dark alleyways, hooded figures lurking in the shadows, mysterious suitcases filled with stacks of cash, getaway cars, faked identities, and so on.

It’s spooky, edge-of-your-seat stuff that, on the surface, doesn’t appear to go much deeper than your average thriller. And while the show is, on the whole, more of a bingeable romp than a thought-provoking drama, it does contain a deeper message about the nature of parent-child relationships.

In fact, one surprisingly quiet scene in episode seven holds the essence of what the show is really all about – and it’s a scene many viewers might have easily missed. 

In a flashback, we see ‘Laura’ going through chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. Andy, at this point in her 20s, has taken on the role of doting nurse.

Andy overhears her mother telling a fellow patient in frustration: “You’re dying! I’m dying! That’s why we’re here, stuck in these goddamn poison chairs.” Andy confronts her. “So you’re just waiting to die?” Andy can’t understand why her mother has apparently given up hope of recovery. “Contrary to what you may think, my life didn’t begin the moment you were born,” Laura responds in frustration. “Not everything about me is about you.”

“I know that,” Andy says. But a hint of confusion darts across her eyes. Andy can’t seem to grasp the fact that her mother’s life has its own parameters – that it might revolve around something other than herself. 

In this pivotal moment between Laura and Andy, we are reminded that Andy’s journey of discovery about her mother’s past is, in many ways, something we all go through. Our parents have all had their own lives before us – and their lives haven’t always revolved around us.

Of course, in Andy’s case, we see this idea in its most extreme form – not only did her mother have her own life before her daughter’s birth, she had a completely different identity. But even this extreme version contains a universal truth: the fact of our parents’ past lives is something we must all contend with at some point in our early adulthood. It is a sobering realisation and, as Pieces Of Her demonstrates, it can also feel like an earth-shattering betrayal.

Later, Laura confesses to the unconscious woman she berated earlier: “This is not my life,” she says. “I can’t die in someone else’s skin.”

Most people, it’s safe to say, do not begin their parental lives with new identities and a ready-made stream of well-crafted lies about their past. However, being a parent does mean slipping into a new skin and hiding certain parts of yourself. In the process of growing up, every child will uncover these hidden pieces. Even if those missing puzzle pieces aren’t quite as mind-blowing or exciting as the ones that Laura has stashed away, Pieces Of Her reminds us that getting to know our own parents is a process that never really ends – and it’s a discovery that can be more shocking than any thriller. So, in a series with more thrills and shocks than we can count, it’s no wonder that Andy’s subtle, shifting relationship with her mother remains the most powerful part of the show.

Pieces Of Her is streaming on Netflix now.

Images: Netflix