“Have you ever forgotten something? Something big?”

So asks Julia Roberts’ Heidi Bergman in the trailer for Amazon Prime’s Homecoming, a mind-bending psychological thriller from director Sam Esmail (Mr Robot). And, as it turns out, Heidi absolutely has… although it seems unlikely that her forgetfulness is an innocent memory lapse.

In the trailer, we learn that Roberts’ character is a caseworker at the Homecoming Transitional Support Centre, a Geist Group facility helping soldiers transition back to civilian life. Walter Cruz (Stephan James) is one of these soldiers, eager to begin the next phase of his life – and more than a little confused by the empty aquarium sat in Heidi’s office.

“What happened to the fish?” he asks her.

“I got rid of them,” she says, a strange expression on her face. “I figured it was for the best – I just couldn’t get into it.”

Four years later, we jump to Heidi living an entirely new life. Her sharp suit is gone, her severe fringe has been grown out, she’s living with her mother (Sissy Spacek) and she’s working as a small-town waitress. There’s no denying that she looks… well, relaxed. Maybe even happy.

That is, of course, until a Department of Defense auditor (Shea Whigham) comes to her with questions about why she left the Homecoming facility. Because, as quickly becomes apparent from the look on Heidi’s face, she doesn’t remember anything about the Geist Group – or her work there. And that’s when she begins to realise that there’s a whole other story behind the story she’s been telling herself.

Check it out:

It remains unclear exactly what shadowy forces are at play here. The trays of vivid red pills and stark white laboratories suggest that the Homecoming facility was not, in fact, set up to rehabilitate soldiers. Indeed, it seems as if Heidi herself may have stumbled upon the truth, leading to her sinister boss to – in a desperate bid to cover his tracks – order her memory wiped.

Then again… well, the empty fish tank and Heidi’s confusion over it suggests that her forgetfulness was already an issue, even when she was working with the Geist Group. Could all of these nerve-jangling memories simply be the result of an overactive imagination, desperately trying to fill in the blanks ravaged by amnesia?

We guess we will just have to wait and see. However, don’t expect all of those big questions to be answered in one go: the series has already been picked up for a second season, after all.

Homecoming premieres on Amazon Prime on 2 November. 

Image: Amazon Prime