The Swedish Netflix original, Barracuda Queens, is an inconsistent series that reminds us very much of Bling Ring. A group of wealthy young women find themselves in a soup when they end up in massive trouble because they partied too hard on vacation. A whopping $175,000 worth of debt isn’t something even their parents would agree to pay off, so what do they do in such a situation? The only option they have is to steal. The series is based on true events that happened in a place called Djursholm. The 6-part series fails to engage because it’s quite inconsistent, and the first 4 episodes are quite tedious to watch and almost unnecessarily convoluted. At the end of the day, all we need to know is why these girls ended up becoming regular thieves and what drove them to commit crimes so often. Since season 2 is just around the corner, let’s rewind a little bit and remember all the important stuff that went down in season 1.
Spoiler Alert
Why Do The Girls Steal?
The events of this show take place in 1995, when the girls committed this crime and also got caught. As I mentioned earlier, after a wild vacation, the girls end up accruing a huge debt because one of them damages property, and the other gets a whopping bill of 100,000 krona for drinks. The girls are all already pretty wealthy, except for one of them, named Mia, who is happy to just hang. She’s also got divorced parents. But anyway, Klara is the most tense because she’s a law student and supposed to be an ideal daughter, but because she’s stressed about the money, she can’t even figure out what to do about her tests. Eventually, the gang meets up at a nighttime party. Mia’s there only because her dad invited her, and he’s got news for her. His new wife is pregnant, meaning a new sibling for her. On the other hand, Klara ends up stealing Louisa’s mother’s watch and then actually selling it at a pawn shop for 15,000. This is barely anything, but it’s the beginning of an idea for the girls. At the party, they come across a girl named Amina, new face who also sena bit. The girls decide to break in so that they can pay their debt off, but what they don’t realize is that Amina is at home. Amina ends up seeing them while they’re stealing, so they run away. But the girl doesn’t report them, not to the police nor to her family. Instead, she asks to join them because she quite enjoys the thrill herself, it seems. She suggests that they steal art because it sells at the highest price.
On the other hand, Lollo hooks up with a friend of her brother’s, and she actually likes him. But the guy just wants to use her because she has a reputation as a girl who sleeps around. This makes her terribly upset, so it suddenly becomes a revenge plot. The girls gather together and steal from this dude’s house when he’s traveling. Amina and Lollo get together, and Amina helps her sell off an expensive painting, and it fetches them 200,000. Amina keeps 10% and gives the rest to Lollo. The problem is, Amina’s maid overhears the whole conversation and starts to blackmail Amina for money. This is how the stealing truly begins, because now the girls know both the thrill of doing it and how to get away with it. Also, Klara cheats on her exam, gets caught, and is suspended.
What Are The Parents Up To?
If you were wondering why the kids are the way they are, there’s no need to have a second look. The girls’ parents are all at least a little bit strange. Karla and Frida are sisters, and their mom is in love with Lollo’s dad; well, it’s mutual. Lollo’s mom is all about reputation; she doesn’t really care about anything else. And Mia’s mom is sleeping with Mia’s much younger tennis coach. Mia also works at a rich household where the man gropes her and they give her too much work. But the craziest thing is that the parents occasionally host swinger parties where they can switch partners for the night (yikes). So, to take revenge for the groping, Mia suggests they rob the house where she works. But the husband comes home with another woman, fortunately too drunk to make out what’s happening. The girls escape with ease.
A little later, unfortunately, Frida gets left behind at a gallery with a man named Andre, who is a creep. Karla was not at the gathering, or she’d have taken her sister home, but Andre takes advantage of her being alone and takes her into a special room. This is apparently his regular tactic. He forces himself on her, and she’s unable to stop him. Frida blames herself for the longest time for what happened to her, but she confesses to the girls later, and they go and leave their mark on his special collection. The girls leave an inappropriate drawing every time they rob a house; it’s their signature. In the middle of all this, Mia and Lollo get into a car accident because Lollo is drunk driving, but Mia ends up with a broken arm, meaning she can’t work. So Mia needs money, but the other girls don’t think it’s a good idea to sell any of the stolen goods.
Because there’s a massive fight, Amina acts as the mediator, bringing everyone back together. Mia still ends up selling some jewellery because she needs money, and buys a bunch of new clothes. Her mom catches her and asks her where she got the money. She tells her that Lollo’s mom bribed her to keep her mouth shut about the accident. Everybody comes clean about what’s happened in one sitting and then parties once again in the calm before the storm. During this party, Amina and Lollo kiss, but it seems like it’s just for fun, because they’ve become best of friends by this time.
Where Do The Girls Hide The Stuff?
The girls steal a Rolls-Royce and a bunch of stuff from a household where they nearly get caught (again). There’s nowhere they can hide a massive car, so they borrow the barn of Lollo’s mom’s cousin, Carl-Johan. But Carl-Johan opens the barn one day, when the robberies are all over the news, because the girls have been consistently robbing houses from September to October. What he sees leaves him shocked, and he tells Lollo it needs to be cleared out, but Lollo and Amina lock him up and tell him that he needs to keep his mouth shut, or he’ll be the one who goes to prison. Carl-Johan chooses to use whatever he likes from the stolen goods during a family gathering. Lollo notices, of course, and brings it up with him, but they end up getting in a massive fight, and she gets shot in the side. This leaves her super scared, and she drives off with the Rolls-Royce convertible (yikes).
By this time, each of the girls has slipped up somehow or other. Amina gives her maid a pair of earrings and tells her to sell them, also telling her she’s not going to give her any more money. Klara admits to her boyfriend and his family that she’s behind the robberies and that she cheated on her exam and got suspended. They dismiss her, but she worries. Frida’s kept souvenirs of every robbery in a box at home. And Mia’s sold the necklace. The girls think they’re in trouble when the maid sells the earrings, so they tell her to lie about where she found them. Of course, she becomes a scapegoat. Amina also sleeps with Lollo’s brother. I’m not sure why, but when Lollo finds out, she’s absolutely heartbroken. Another reason for her reaction at Carl-Johan’s gathering.
What Happens To The Stuff?
The girls all get caught finally because of the Lollo situation, and she gets caught speeding. She claims the car belongs to her mother’s cousin, but it’s been reported stolen. Carl-Johan pretends he’s bought the car but doesn’t have papers handy. Amina breaks up with Calle, and the maid is fired from Amina’s, but this isn’t enough. When the girls are taken in for questioning, someone drops by the sisters’ house to take away the stuff that they had in a box. This looks like another robbery. And it’s convenient enough, because Karla and Frida’s dad sees the guy and calls the police. This gives the girls their freedom, even though they weren’t able to get their stories straight. If the man’s caught with stuff from all the houses, he’ll obviously be held responsible. I don’t know if this man was there to steal or if the girls asked him to take the stuff, or if it was Margareta’s doing.
At the end of Barracuda Queens season 1, Margareta tells Lollo that she needs to clean up her practice, and she should take the girls along. When they get there reluctantly, they’re shocked to see all their stolen goods that were meant to be in the barn. Margareta saved the girls by hiding all the stolen stuff in the nick of time. She and Carl-Johan cleaned up everything, and she even gave the latter some money to buy his silence. It’s only a matter of time before the girls get caught because they’re reckless, and they’re only doing this because they’re otherwise unhappy. I think this whole situation has made them even more confident, which will lead to trouble for sure. I wonder what will happen between Amina and Lollo too.
