‘Appearances can be deceiving. From the outside, people can cover up their true colors as easily as possible, but on the inside, there is a different story for every individual. “Echoes” on Netflix is a 2022 Australian suspense-thriller miniseries which will prove that people are deceptive. Sometimes people are not what they appear to be, and this is a dangerous world. Some do it to help others, whereas some are extremely malevolent. Throughout the whole series, viewers will be intrigued by the confusing patterns that the creators provide us to watch. Since it revolves around secrets, anyone can enjoy the context tangibly. Moreover, it was created by Vanessa Gazy, and her methods of creating an ambiguous storyline are quite impressive. Well, to begin with, “Echoes” consists of seven episodes, and multiple angles of curiosity, crime, and spooky elements will be visible throughout the whole series. It talks about the connection between two identical twins, Leni and Gina (Michelle Monaghan). The characters in this series are phenomenal at their work, and their way of depicting emotions is downright amazing.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The ‘Echoes’ Series?
The show begins with the introduction of our lead character, Gina, who is happily married to her husband, Charlie Davenport (Daniel Sunjata). She begins her normal morning, and while heading to her office, Gina tries to contact her sister Leni and leaves her a voice message. Moreover, Leni’s husband, Jack Beck (Matt Bomer), is not returning her calls either. Things take a different turn when Gina starts to lose her patience since it has been 36 hours already. And guess what? Just like her intuition suggested, Leni was missing. Gina becomes pretty nervous since Jack gives her a frantic call, and there is a possibility that Leni might have been abducted. With every minute, Gina is losing her sanity since she knew something was wrong, and she didn’t want them to grow apart ever. Now Gina is visiting her hometown to figure out the reasons behind Leni’s disappearance.
Gina ends up having a conversation with Sheriff Floss and Deputy Martinez. Moreover, things started to scare Gina even more as the cops couldn’t figure out anything with her search. The terrain that they’re focusing on is pretty dense, and that makes it even more difficult for them to come up with a conclusion. Well, apart from this, there’s no surety whether Leni went off on her own or someone abducted her since the stables had their bolts cut open, and the office is ravaged as well. Throughout the whole series, one thing is for sure: Leni and Gina had a difficult past, and together they had a history. To begin with, things are quite cold between Gina and Claudia as well, and she happens to be another sister. Soon, Leni’s horse, Prince, returns with blood prints on him, and this creates a huge dilemma for everyone out there.
Here, viewers will be shocked to know that all this time, Gina was Leni, and they’ve been doing this for many years. They switch places and sometimes pretend to be each other’s identities. Now, Leni’s main goal was to know what exactly happened here with Gina. At first, it looked like the sisters were in love with each other, but guess what? Gina never shared the whole truth with her. It is said that ‘Nobody Shares Everything,’ and this saying becomes quite convincing through this story. Moreover, Gina blamed everything on Leni, and according to Gina, Leni was responsible for keeping up the double life, and guess what? Gina had an affair with her past lover, Dylan James. Leni, who believed that her sister loved her dearly, has destroyed her personal and professional life.
What Went Wrong Between The Twins?
At the beginning of episode 3, viewers will get to know that Gina hated Leni. Well, she goes through a series of flashbacks wherein, in one, Leni and Gina are having a conversation, through which it is symbolized that Gina had a diary of her own, in which she had a record of her day-to-day experiences. Gina wrote about her hatred towards her twin and even wanted Leni to be dead; she also wanted to end Leni’s life. Moreover, Sheriff Floss is sure that the church fire from the twin’s past is somehow connected to Leni’s disappearance. Well, it turns out that Meg was threatened by Gina, and that’s the reason Meg broke off all connections with Leni, even though they were best friends. Things take a terrible turn when Leni gets to know that Gina is safe, and she makes a fake withdrawal of $60,000 from Gina’s account.
In the past, Gina was jealous of Leni and Jack’s bond, wherein she would often hurt herself as she chose to spend more time with Jack. It was like she was obsessed with Leni’s identity. Moreover, they even shared Jack and Dylan as well. Leni tries to confront Dylan and even informs him that Gina is playing with his mind. Furthermore, Leni’s father has arranged a huge party for the twin’s birthday, and guess who shows up! Gina. However, there is some connection between the massive church fire and the twins. Gina confronts Leni and lets her know that she wants to leave. As each episode passes, the concept becomes more and more confusing, especially with the death of Dylan James. Gina asks for help from Leni and lets her know that two men, Towers, and Payne, are after her. So to get rid of them, Leni paid them, and they were also responsible for Dylan’s death.
But Gina is the mastermind. She set this whole thing up just to get rid of Leni. In the end, Leni is arrested for all the crimes. Gina shared everything about their past and switched to Dylan, but one thing was clear: Gina hated the fact that she had to share everything with Leni. Moreover, Gina left for Los Angeles and started suffering from anxiety breakdowns, where she met Charlie, who helped her to find her true identity as her therapist. Later, they were happily married as well. Moreover, the sisters started reconnecting with each other again after Gina lost her baby. But after the birth of Mattie, Leni began suffering from postpartum depression. That’s when everything changed its course. Leni and Gina began switching places every year again. Gina started losing it after Leni began controlling and keeping an eye on everything Gina did.
‘Echoes’ Ending Explained: Who Is The Real Culprit, Leni Or Gina?
Gina becomes extremely frustrated as Leni continues to sell her miscarriage story, and she even begins to control her appointments with the therapists. Every episode is filled with interesting twists, and guess what? The fact that Charlie knew about the switch-up was downright crazy. Gina was heartbroken because Charlie preferred Leni over her. Another year went by, and now Leni went back to Los Angeles, whereas Gina stayed in Mount Echo. She turned against Leni and started making plans against her after she met with Dylan. Dylan confessed that Leni was the one who planned to break them up, and that’s the reason he ran away the night the church caught fire. All this time, Gina thought Dylan had left her alone, but in reality, Leni grew to become jealous of Gina and Dylan.
When Dylan was killed by Leni, she stabbed him in the abdomen when Gina decided to pick him up, but Leni did it beforehand. She tried to take him to the hospital, but he died. So Gina burned him along with his truck, and once again, Leni was responsible for the loss of someone that Gina cared about. She lost Dylan and their baby. To set things straight, she began coming up with plans to trap Leni. Well, Leni is pretty smart as well, since she put the entire blame for the church fire on Gina. Moreover, Sheriff Floss gets to know about their switch-ups through Leni and Gina’s DNA and fingerprints. Through the hospital footage, Floss is enlightened by the fact that Gina was pregnant with Dylan’s baby, and now she wants her to tell the truth.
All this time, Leni was responsible for the fire breakout. She became envious of Gina and Dylan, and to separate them, she did all of this. Leni and Gina got into a huge fight after their dad, Victor, passed away, wherein they began chasing each other, and amidst all this chaos, Leni confessed about her witness. She watched their father drown their mother in the bathtub. Leni cleared everything with Gina and tried to make her understand that this was planned as their mother wanted to die, but there was no other way since they were kids, and both of them couldn’t involve Leni and Gina. But Leni was not ready to listen to any of it. The actual challenge began when Sheriff Floss started thinking of those sisters as the same person.
Floss and Martinez tried to trap Leni since, on the night of the fire, a piece of her bracelet was found inside. So Martinez met up with them, and they thought she had taken the bait, but she didn’t. Instead, Leni figured out everything and threw away the evidence. The next minute, Leni escaped to Australia. Towards the end, Charlie writes a book about Leni and Gina’s twinship, and at the book launch, one of the two sisters is already present. When Charlie comes back home, he finds her there too. So, Charlie asks her to clarify whether it is Leni or Gina. But she isn’t sure anymore. The series ends abruptly, wherein the ending is pretty ambiguous. One thing is sure: Leni and Gina are both in Los Angeles. “Echoes” speaks about the scary truths of playing with our identities, and the fact that it can destroy so many lives is unbelievable. Leni and Gina will constantly get things done as per their liking, and there’s no one to stop them either.
Will There Be A ‘Echoes’ Second Season?
Well, speaking of the first season, everything is unexplained, to be honest. Viewers are waiting to learn more about the outcomes and who is actually the culprit behind all the problems. One thing is for sure, they always tried to give Gina a bad name, and since they were kids, Gina couldn’t make out a difference. She always thought Leni was doing everything to protect her. Towards the end of “Echoes,” Sheriff Floss received a pendrive that Gina had, and according to Gina, it contained the truth. So this was cleared as well. Moreover, there is a high possibility that “Echoes” might return for another season since Leni and Gina have unfinished business with each other. But for the time being, there’s no word from Vanessa Gazy and Netflix. There is a chance that the cliffhanger in the final episode was meant to be a part of the ending. Sometimes, ambiguous endings play a key role in the whole development of the story.
Final Words
“Echoes” created a massive impact with its ability to generate curiosity through the tale of two sisters, and a lot of scenarios suggested that childhood can play a very important role in shaping the whole personality of a human being. Moreover, the beginning of this show was very enticing, but it lacked the main element of a thriller. So far, “Echoes” could’ve been much better if the storyline wasn’t dragged to the point wherein it became difficult to understand the true purpose of this series. To increase the enthusiasm for this show, each episode had a different twist, and at one point, everything became too blurry to figure out. However, every character is amazing. Michelle Monaghan’s ability to play the character of twins gave her massive popularity as well. But one of the most interesting facts about “Echoes” could be confusing people with the fact that they can’t trust either of the sisters.
“Echoes” is a 2022 Drama Thriller Series streaming on Netflix with subtitles.
