Netflix’s Polish thriller, Just One Look, adapted from best-selling author Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name, is the latest addition to the long list of narratives that deal with an amnesiac protagonist trying to leave their dark past behind, only to get their present lives upturned by it. If you regularly follow these original regional thrillers released by the streaming service every week, you are already familiar with the narrative pattern. The cover-ups, quests for vengeance, retributions, and secrets—every expected twist and turn ultimately boils down to one single truth: that the past always catches up to you. The problem is, the narrative tries to shock you with the final twist after meandering through uninspiring story threads right from the beginning and expects you to be in awe at what turns out to be the most obvious, underwhelming revelation in line with what the narrative was feeding you. Just One Look is no exception in this regard, and follows a similar pattern, being as disappointing as most such thrillers are.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Borys Want Greta’s Help?
Just One Look begins with public prosecutor Borys Gajewicz meeting with an inmate, Marek—a former hitman who is counting his final day and is wracked with guilt over his past actions; he confesses to killing Borys’ daughter Alex fifteen years ago. Like the rest of the world, Borys considered his daughter to be a victim of a hit-and-run incident, and learning it was a premeditated act sends him reeling in agony. At the last phase of his career, Borys’ inability to keep it together results in him losing his job, and he starts going through his daughter’s stuff to investigate her death.
The narrative focus shifts to Greta, an artistic jewelry designer, one of the survivors of an arson incident during a concert fifteen years ago, which claimed the lives of many. The injuries from the incident have resulted in Greta’s loss of memory; she somewhat remembers her former lover Rafal, son of an influential person named Karol Wespa, who looks after Greta even to this day—possibly in memory of his son who lost his life in the incident. At present, Greta is living a happy married life with her husband, Jacek, and their three children. On the 15th anniversary of the tragic incident, Greta finds an old photo of some band members amidst her own vacation photos, where she identifies one of the persons to be sharing a close resemblance with Jacek, and a girl is seen marked with ‘X.’ Jacek starts acting suspicious after taking a look at the photo and hurriedly leaves—only to be abducted by a ruthless hitman later on. Greta, worried sick after the sudden disappearance of Jacek, posts his picture on social media—which draws the attention of Jimmy D, a famous rockstar who performed on that fateful day in the concert all those years ago. Also, even though Greta barely remembers it, she and Jimmy shared a history together. After gaining huge popularity with his chartbuster, “Just One Look,” Jimmy mysteriously fell from grace and is now living like a nobody—and the sudden update about Jacek seemingly rattles him.
Borys approaches Greta, with a similar photo at hand, as he reveals the crossed-out girl is his daughter, Alex, who was murdered all those years ago. Borys reveals that Alex, who was a member of the band ‘LAAD,’ used to go out with someone named Szymon Adamiuk, who inexplicably disappeared long ago. From his findings, Borys has also learned that Greta’s husband, Jacek, might have shared a relationship with Alex back in the day, as she had revealed herself to be pregnant with his child. Greta learns that Councilwoman Sylwia Lesniak, a former member of the same band, was recently writing about “LAAD” until she had been found murdered. Borys wants Greta’s help in finding the culprit who put a hit on his daughter and also to assist Greta to look for her husband in the process.
As if the barrage of surprising revelations weren’t enough, Greta also learns Jacek has an elder sister, Sandra, a famous lawyer who is, surprisingly enough, defending the recently released Wiktor Lewinski, the arsonist who confessed to being responsible for the harrowing incident fifteen years ago. Everything indicates that the concert fire and Greta’s forgotten past are connected with all this—something which Greta needs to uncover by digging deeper.
Cover-Ups and Killings
Jacek was abducted by a psychopathic killer named Robert Bonczyk—a former cellmate of Marek, who was found hanged to death after confessing to Borys. After getting released from prison, Robert had killed Councilwoman Sylwia and abducted Jacek—all under the instructions of his unknown employer. Jimmy, who was aware of the person pulling the strings, confronted Greta and delivered her a flash drive, which contained a video of LAAD recorded by Alex fifteen years ago—which reveals Sandra to be actively involved with them back then. However, Jimmy met a tragic end in the same way Alex was murdered, as the mysterious schemer had him run over.
Greta meets Szymon’s mother, who remains tight-lipped about his son’s presumed disappearance—which raises Greta’s suspicions further. At the same time, she feels her family is being targeted by this unknown person, and Karol offers protection. In the midst of all this, Karol has Wiktor killed to avenge the death of his son—unknowingly covering up for the real perpetrator responsible for the mayhem that has been going on.
Robert didn’t receive the payment from his employer, which he was promised, and in his desperation, to cover up his tracks, he ends up abducting Greta. However, as Greta engages in a scuffle with him to free herself, Robert gets accidentally shot to death—resulting in another dead end to the investigation. Jacek was rescued, and the authorities noticed the name Szymon Adamiuk inscribed at the place where he was held captive. And by now, Greta had figured out what really happened fifteen years ago using the piecemeal intel she’d gathered—and learned the identity of the person responsible for all this.
Who Was the Person Responsible for the Killings?
Fifteen years ago at the Steel Mill concert, Jimmy and Jacek got into an argument over the ownership rights of the song “Just One Look,” which Jacek claimed the rockstar had plagiarized from him. The backstage argument took a violent form as Jacek attacked Jimmy with a weapon, and in the ensuing scuffle, got himself accidentally stabbed to death. This incident was witnessed by the band members, including Greta as well. However, Sandra, an opportunistic, conniving person, decided to use it to her advantage, as she promised Jimmy she’d cover up the incident in exchange for the rights to the hit song, which made her extremely rich in the following years. Sandra orchestrated the arson incident to dispose of her brother’s body amidst the raging fire and set Wiktor up as the scapegoat in exchange for taking care of his family. Sandra forced one of the band members, Szymon, to assume the identity of her deceased elder brother, Jacek, in exchange for paying the expenses of his ailing mother. She needed her brother to be alive to get a hold of the family inheritance. The fact that Greta lost her memories had made it easy for Szymon to approach her as Jacek and live a false life with her for the last fifteen years. However, Alex was in love with Szymon, and she continued to approach him even when he took a completely different identity. In fear of getting exposed, Sandra had Alex murdered, and the same happened later with Sylwia—whom Robert had murdered under her command. When imposter Jacek—Szymon came across the picture, he started fearing getting exposed, and considering him to be a possible nuisance, Sandra had him abducted by Robert. Jimmy, who got his life completely messed up after making that deal with Sandra and the arson incident, almost revealed the entire truth to Greta—but Sandra has him murdered as well. At present, Szymon confesses the truth to Greta before succumbing to his injuries.
Greta confronts Sandra about her role in all this and records their conversation—which makes it easy for the authorities to detain Sandra on the spot. Previously, Greta had confirmed Szymon’s identity by visiting his mother, in reality her mother-in-law, who kept her son’s identity a secret all these years but was aware of the family he was a part of.
Did Greta Remember Her Past?
A couple of months later, Borys approaches Greta and confesses that he had planted the photo of the band members in her vacation photos in the first place. Borys was aware of Szymon impersonating Jacek from his daughter Alex’s diary. However, he had mistakenly believed that Szymon was responsible for Alex’s murder, unaware that he was a pawn in Sandra’s devious schemes. He also reveals that Alex only pretended to be pregnant with Jacek’s (Szymon) child in a vain attempt to get him back in her life. Borys planted the picture to expose the truth about Alex’s murder, but in the process completely upturned several lives, especially that of Greta. However, before he leaves, Borys questions whether Greta really didn’t have any idea about who took the picture when the suppressed memories start flooding in her mind. It was Greta who took the picture of the band, and to think that her own reality completely shattered due to the same picture creates a sense of fatalistic resolution.
