[Pride 2021] Queer Desire 'Behind Her Eyes'

Queer desire in horror is still a rare thing to see and sometimes writers and creators are challenged with making queer villains without crossing into a problematic trope. Many times are interpretation of these villains is neither black or white, and we can acknowledge what is problematic while also looking for what worked. I felt this strongly with the critically mixed Behind Her Eyes on Netflix.

Based on the book of the same name by Sarah Pinborough, the Netflix limited series was created by Steve Lightfoot, who also wrote most of the episodes along with Angela LaManna, and Erik Richter Strand directed the episodes. The show follows a single mother named Louise, who begins to have an affair with her boss David, a psychologist, and she begins a friendship with his wife Adele. Seemingly the show is set up as a thriller between these three, with hints that David and Adele, together, are entrapping Louise in some sort of con.  

This is where I must give a spoiler alert as the only we to truly understand this show is to discuss the plot twists of the final episodes. 

While the setup seems to be the standard thriller love triangle, Adele is portrayed as mentally unstable being controlled by her husband (controlling her phone/money), and Louise a victim to David’s behavior as well who is caught in the middle. As the show progresses we get to know the past of Adele, specifically her time in a hospital for treatment and her meeting a gay man named Rob. In the hospital they bound and get close, she tells him all about her family wealth but also all about her love, David. Rob is a complicated, seemingly troubled man but also kind to Adele and working through drug addiction. Throughout the show we know something happened to him with Adele and she is in possession of his journal, which she oddly gives to Louise. The narrative follows Louise reading his journal and the viewers see the flashbacks of his time with Adele and the first major twist, Adele can astral project her soul. 

Astral projection brought the show to a new genre, it was at first something almost magical, as it connected Rob and Adele. Adele teaches Rob to astral project, and we eventually see Adele use it as well, to spy on David and Louise having an affair. Eventually in the flashbacks Rob meets David and Rob is clearly infatuated with him right away. Rob also uses his astral projection to watch Adele and David have sex and he focuses on David specifically. However, tragedy soon strikes and while staying with Adele, Rob dies of an overdose. In a panic, David helps Adele dispose of his body and accidentally leaves watch with the body, and they carry that secret, which initially explains why he is so controlling over her, he fears she will use the body against him. 

Louise discovers astral projection through the journal and eventually Adele teaches her how to do it as well. I don’t want to go to deeply into the details, but the story eventually arrives to a climax where David’s guilt is getting the better of him to the point he wants to tell the police about Rob, and he seems to desire to start a life with Louise. Adele becomes aware and stages a suicide by a drug overdose and a fire. Adele also makes Louise aware that this is happening. Louise attempts to save Adele using astral projection, but it’s revealed to be a trap and Adele uses her abilities to jump bodies into Louise forcing Louise to go into Adele’s body, effectively killing Louise. David now sees himself as a free from Adele and he and Louise start a new life, David is seemingly unaware. 

While that would seem like the most surprising conclusion another flashback reveals how Rob really died. Rob initiated the overdose before astral projecting with Adele and while out of his body took over Adele’s, meaning that the whole time Rob was in Adele’s body and at the end is in Louise’s body. 

It is a shocking twist and many reviews claimed as though it didn’t make sense, however when I did a second watch there are several clues throughout the series that hint this is what happened. For example, Adele says she couldn’t cook, and Rob was a considered a chef and in the current timeline we see Adele cook elaborate meals for David. Rob becomes the villain of this show and it’s a very problematic trope that the only gay character is a predatory villain. And yet I found this twist so fascinating as a piece of body swapping horror. I so wish the show had featured more queer folks to balance out Rob, as there is nothing wrong with a queer villain, but positive representation needs to be shown as well. 

I also argue that Rob is not the only villain, David is as well. David is an interesting character that at first is portrayed as this adulterous husband who controls his wife. At times the show makes you wonder if he and Adele are working together against Louise. I left the show feeling David knew Rob was in Adele the entire time. In one scene they have sex and David has problems being intimate and can only make it happen when he turns Adele around. Some folks might explain that this problem stemmed from what they did to Rob’s body, but that does not make sense in the context.

What if he had this issue because he knew about Rob and he was still figuring out what this means for his sexuality. I read the ending as he had the affair with Louise with the intent of not only escaping his life with Adele but continuing his life with Rob, just through a new body. The show is nowhere near perfect, but it is methodical, and David could not have ignored how Adele changed, for example her cooking skills. At the very end Louise’s child picks up on her personality change with David present and points out a major personality shift (Louise had a fear of boats and at the end with Rob in control did not). How could David ignore major personality shifts? 

David as the villain does not help the problematic nature of queer representation in the show, but it changes the narrative around Rob. I see David as the manipulator, a man who has a desire, but manipulates people’s abilities to give himself the illusion of being straight. And like with Adele and Louise, David saw Rob as an opportunity to get what he wants. And I felt this because at the end of the show even if David was not the villain I felt bad for Rob. Nothing excuses his actions, but his life was seemingly awful before he met Adele. He was in a mental health clinic for his addiction, hinted at a terrible home life, and was a gay man in a world that would not accept him.

Then he met Adele and truly I felt their friendship was real and brought him happiness. And then he met David and he saw everything he wanted in a relationship and in a life. Some folks have read his character as just wanting Adele’s money but that is too superficial; he wanted the life with David. However, Rob only knew about David on what he was told by Adele, he knew that fantasy of David. David was a manipulator to Adele, and even Louise, it is not hard to believe he was always like this and that he knew about Rob the whole time.  This would not excuse Rob but changes his motivations entirely. Rather than seeing him only as a villain, he was also a victim in the games of David. 

Behind Her Eyes of course could have done representation better, but what it does offer is a darker side of desire and a queer desire at that. Anyone can be a villain and there is something to appreciate in a show that created a complex villain that was squarely motivated for a queer desire, whether you focus on Rob or David. 

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