The Final Lie
Mythomaniac has been quite the controversial series. While quite slow paced, it does have some interesting ideas and has certainly kept me intrigued right up to the end. It raises some ethical questions around how far people are willing to go to get what they wish for in life. The strongest point of the show was definitely the performance of the actors though, each bringing a touching and believable depiction to their difficult roles. We begin in Germany with Sam and Niklas’ mum doing yoga. He confides in her about what he’s been going through and how his mum has always supported him with who he wants to be in life. Before leaving to head back home, Niklas says sorry to Sam about hitting him. After Sam also apologises about his lie, Niklas reveals that the whole situation has been hard as he fell in love with Samantha but had to find out that she didn’t actually exist. Back home, Elvira starts taking all of her husband’s tablets, ready to kill herself. As she lays down, Virginie and Carole say goodbye before they head out but believes that she’s asleep. On their way to school, the strange cult woman offers them a lift and gives them some more reading to do about her beliefs. After seeing Elvira waking up and spitting out the tablets, we cut Patrick and Brigitte visiting the gynecologist who reveals that Elvira doesn’t have cancer. Angry and outraged, Patrick sends her a text calling her a monster which prompts Elvira to seek help from her friend Isa. She then receives a text from her boss asking her to meet at the printing factory. There, she meets the employees who committed fraud but they angrily explain that they had no choice due to the unfair terms in their policy. Heading back to her car, Brunet awaits her and after arguing about her behaviour, she reveals what she has been lying about and her reason why, which prompts him to realize that telling the truth all his life hasn’t really helped him. Back home, the same journalist comes back as she wants to do an in-depth program about Virginie’s blog because it has been helping many children. However, Patrick quickly dismisses her and throws her out while we see both sisters being invited to eat pancakes in the cult woman’s house. After seeing that Sam is back, the sisters head back home where their father waits for them to reveal that their mother have been lying about her illness. Elvira comes back and her family confronts her. She explains that she was so unhappy and felt so unappreciated that the lie just came out, as everyone was acting so nice when they thought she was ill. Eventually, they tell her to leave as Sam delivers the final blow, saying she would have preferred it if she was dead. Driving away, Elvira has another vision of her neighbour who killed her husband, telling her that her children will understand and thank her one day while Brigitte calls Patrick offering her help. As she hangs up the phone, we see that she’s holding a pregnancy test. Still desperate to end her life, Elvira drives to the forest which is on fire and parks her car, waiting for the smoke to engulf her. However, she doesn’t go through with it and runs away into the night. Meanwhile, Virginie decides to carry on with her blog, continuing to lie about her mother’s illness while we see Carole has joined the cult. Lorenzo finally arrives in the street and knocks on Elvira’s neighbour’s door. The blonde woman points him to the house in front and after he leaves, she heads upstairs where we see Elvira hiding. We then end the episode with Elvira watching her family meet Lorenzo and smiling as she sees them looking happy. The finale ends on a rather odd cliffhanger as Lorenzo, seemingly Elvira’s first love, suddenly resurfaces while she looks on with a strange smile on her face. The show leaves many questions unanswered and while a second season is in the works, I feel that some of these questions could have been answered here, especially the reason why Lorenzo has decided to visit her after all these years. Mythomaniac has been quite the slow burn but with all the tangled web of lies within the family, the drama still offers some entertaining scenes as we see the consequences of what bending the truth can do to the people around us. In the case of Mythomaniac, this is pushed to extreme lengths with the disease Elvira pretended she had. The show did a good job at developing her character as we do end up feeling sorry for her somehow, despite her terrible lie. While it may not be the strongest series out there, Mythomaniac is not a bad show either. It has some interesting ideas at its core and enough drama to make it entertaining for anyone looking for an unusual and well acted show. Quite where season 2 goes from here is unknown but I hope some of these questions are answered sooner rather than later.
