How far will Agatha go to have a perfect life?
We thought we’d look at something differently since we’re self-isolating like everyone else. Our topic is the new Australian Thriller mini-series, The Secrets She Keeps starring Jessica De Gouw, Ryan Corr, and Downton Abbey star Laura Carmichael. If you were downtrodden, how far would you go to have a perfect life?
The Original Source
The series is based on the Michael Robotham novel, The Secrets She Keeps. It tells the story of Agatha, a woman who is obsessed with the so-called perfect life of Meghan Shaughnessy, a married mother-of-two who has a third child on the way. However, both share dangerous secrets that could ruin lives.
Meghan does not know Agatha, but her obsessor knows all about her. So how and why does the supermarket worker steal Meghan’s baby?
Meghan’s Story Begins With A Threatening Blog Comment
We first meet mum-of-two Meghan (De Gouw) as she narrates the story of how her soon-to-be third child came to be. She says that while she and her husband, Jack, hadn’t planned on having another baby, it was not unwanted.
She watches from the kitchen as her husband plays with their two young children, Lucy and Locky, in the backyard as she writes a new post for her parenting blog. After her hubby leaves, she looks back to her laptop to discover that someone has commented with a GIF that says “Die Bitch!”
Agatha’s Story Begins At The Supermarket
The second protagonist, Agatha (Carmichael), is like Meghan, heavily pregnant and works at the local supermarket. She looks out the window to see her target and her young son walking across the road.
Her daze is broken by her boss, who tells her off for leaving a box of tampons on top of the freezer. She tells him she has an appointment with her doctor and that she’s busting to use the toilet.
The Park
While Meghan doesn’t know it yet, Agatha is right in front of her as she shows a friend the gif posted to her blog. She adds that blocking the user doesn’t help as all they do is create another account to continue adding offensive messages and gifs.
Her friend tells her that she’s doing the right thing in ignoring the trolls. They both look up to see where their kids have gotten to. Meghan’s heart is instantly in her throat when she finds her daughter but not her son. Her little boy then appears at her side with a bag of bread for the ducks.
Meghan asks where he got it, and he tells her from a lady.
Jack Arrives Home, And The Stalker
After a conversation with her sister Grace, Meghan waits for her husband to arrive home. When he does, Jack tells her he’s not going to be getting a pay rise. Instead, he explains that he needs to pitch another show to keep their heads above water. Then, after sharing a moment, he goes up to bed. His wife jokes, saying how many other women are carrying his baby?
Little does Meghan know, Agatha has hidden amongst the trees and shrubs of the garden and is watching her.
Supermarket Stalker
The next day, Agatha is at work mopping the floor when she spies Meghan down one of the aisles. She keeps to herself but continues to watch her.
Meghan walks down the aisle and almost runs into Agatha. But instead, they get talking about their babies. Both reveal they’re having boys and are both due in June.
However, after Meghan leaves, Agatha runs to the storage area revelling in the information she has just received. Just by the reaction, it appears that the stalker is carrying a stillborn baby as she placed a baby doll in the crib she had at home a few scenes earlier.
Simon and Nicky
Shaughnessy family friend Simon (Corr) arrives, and Meghan isn’t impressed. Simon is set to be the godfather to the new baby. It’s implied that he’s also godfather to the older kids too.
Over on Agatha’s side of the story, she meets with a man named Nicky. He tries and fails to convince her to tell her mother she’s pregnant.
Agatha says she didn’t want to tell anyone. Especially after last time as she gave birth to a stillborn daughter. She reveals to Nicky that she’s using donor sperm, but we have a feeling there’s more to the story.
She then goes to a makeshift grave where she places a small flower wrath for the baby girl she lost.
Reg’s Birthday
Meghan, Jack, Grace, and the kids arrive at her mother’s house for her stepfather Reg’s birthday. They are greeted by Meghan and Grace’s stepbrother, who congratulates Meghan on 90k followers.
In a tense conversation between Meghan and her mother, who criticises her for not marrying for money the way she did with Reg. Grace orders their mother to get her sister to have a baby shower.
When their mother sides with Meghan, Grace mentions that Jack didn’t want another child and that the marriage is failing.
After apologising for her comment, Grace manages to get Meghan to talk to her. Her sister says that Jack was never on board with another child, and it’s more than they can handle and is hoping that once the baby is born, they’ll be back on track. This leaves Grace perplexed as Jack was the one who knocked Meghan up.
Agatha Lied
It turns out that Agatha may have lied to Nicky when she told him that she used donor sperm. She talks to her boyfriend, who asks if the baby is his. While she says it is, we smell a rat. So which of these truths is false? From what she tells Hayden, they “were going at it like rabbits” when he was with her seven months previously. She is eight months pregnant and was meant to be on the pill. She also asked him to use a condom as she missed a few days. It turns out he didn’t like using them.
Hayden mentions that he and Agatha broke up because she snooped through his phone. Unable to handle it, he tells his ex that she should have gotten rid of the baby as he doesn’t want it.
Not Wanting Another Child
After the kids have gone to bed, Meghan and Jack talk about him not wanting another baby after he overheard her talking to Grace. They argue about her not going back to work after Locky turns two. The conversation turns to them moving to their current residence and Meghan not being happy about it. It turns out they have a lot of money issues.
Meghan then asks if he wants something bad to happen to her and their baby. She adds that he once wished he’d never married her. He says that the pressure was getting to him and that he never meant it. This goes to show that Agatha’s thoughts of them having a perfect life were anything but accurate.
Agatha Pays Hayden’s Family A Visit
Still reeling from her conversation with Hayden, Aggie tells his mother she has her son’s baby. Her apparent desperation only makes her desire for a perfect life more meaningful and tragic.
Hayden’s deaf brother signs to their mother, asking if Aggie is even Hayden’s girlfriend. Mrs Cole then signs in response, questioning why she would lie. Finally, Agatha tells her and her husband that Hayden said she should have had an abortion which upsets them as it’s not their way.
Agatha tells another porky and says that her mother is her rock. This is different to when we saw her decline her calls earlier. Mrs Cole says that Hayden still needs to grow up but will be there for her. His dad asks if there’s anything she [Agatha] needs, in which his other son signs he wants a new TV. She then plays on his sympathies by saying she needs to pay her rent as she’s been sick and missed shifts at work.
The brother signs that Agatha is Hayden’s problem, not theirs, but his words are ignored. The mother then says she’ll sort Hayden out. After leaving the house, Aggie smiles to herself at the scam she just pulled.
Stalker Mode
Agatha watches Meghan’s parenting videos on her blog while she puts away the money Hayden’s parents gave her for the ‘rent’. She then gets a video call from her ex, who tells her that he spoke to his parents and that he was sorry for what he said and respects her decision to keep the child.
She then says she didn’t ask him for anything, especially when he said he wouldn’t marry her. Finally, they make sexual comments toward each other to arouse the other. Again, we get the sense that Hayden is just a pawn in Agatha’s game.
The Threats Towards Meghan Continue
Meghan is at the supermarket when she gets a notification from her phone. Another disgusting trolling gif is now calling her a ‘dirty slut’. Back home, she can’t find her husband and suddenly hears the dog barking. We, as the audience, know she’s being watched.
Jack suddenly appears, scaring her and almost making her waters break. He presents her with flowers and the bird bath he and the kids were trying to build. He tells her that he pitched his new idea to the boss and loved it before telling her he came home so they could have sex as she wanted.
A New Home?
Agatha arrives late at a house inspection where the real estate agent, Rhea Bowden (Jenni Baird), shows her around. She feeds the real estate agent some fib about Hayden being her fiancée and that they have friends down the road who also have kids. She even adds that he wants three to reference the number Meghan has.
The real estate agent says she knows Jack and Meghan as she sold them their house the year before. If Aggie thought living near Meghan would lead to her perfect life, she has another thing coming. Also, the house has a similar layout to Jack and Meghan’s house, and the agent gives Aggie the idea to convert the study into a nursery the way her targets did.
Aggie is now on the verge of her perfect life. All she needs now is the man and the baby. From the balcony, she can see Meghan in the backyard with Locky. Yeah, and that’s not creepy enough.
Psycho Attacks Supermarket
Agatha gets another earful from her boss when a psycho, assumedly on drugs, attacks the shop and orders all the money in the till. He orders everyone on the floor, including Agatha, who resists because she’s pregnant.
While the man gets all the money and escapes, Agatha laughs at how stupid her boss is.
The police are called to the scene, and the owner says he did everything he could to protect the staff. A female detective asks Agatha if she’s okay, and they need to get her to the hospital to see if everything’s okay. Aggie attempts to get out of it and succeeds. The detective says she should at least take the day off the next day to be safe.
Babysitting And Tragedy, Or Is It?
The police car stops outside Aggie’s flat, where she is greeted by her neighbour and her little boy, who asks what happened. After being told about the robbery, the neighbour hugs Agatha to ensure she’s okay.
Agatha babysat the little boy as promised, and they watch cartoons. She seems content as if this were her perfect life for a moment. Then, the little boy sees blood on the back of Agatha’s pants and tells her. She looks over and sees blood on the seat where she was sitting.
Her perfect life has suddenly fallen apart. She has lost her baby as she did the previous one. Or has she? It’s revealed she has been faking the pregnancy the whole time and has just had her period.
