Netflix’s big new thriller, Under A Dark Sun, is about a woman who finds herself in the middle of some family drama that she didn’t even know she was a part of. The convoluted thriller certainly knows how to hit you with a twist, but that also means that if you don’t have the time to pay attention to all the details, you may miss out on the who’s who when it comes to the family tree, making it all the more annoying. So to make things easier, I’m going to list all the names you need to know and try to get their relationships right so that it’s a bit easier to understand character motivations and Under A Dark Sun’s ultimate ending. The protagonist of the show might be Alba, but everyone from the Lasserre family is nearly as important to her. Before we get into it, here’s your spoiler alert, because this article will go into the details of the family rather than act as a character guide, so please be warned.
Spoiler Alert
Andreu Lasserre
The patriarch of the family, and the first person to end up murdered, because he’s the man who started it all. Andreu is the dad of Lucie and Mathieu. His wife is Beatrice, and she doesn’t care for him at all. While we’re not explicitly given any details to make Andreu look like the very embodiment of evil, he does put Josephine in a psychiatric facility and gets rid of Nadia, ruining his son’s life forever. He’s also the reason Beatrice is an addict. There’s a time when Mathieu tells Lucie that he’s been a bad father and brother, but also a bad son. I don’t think he was a bad son; it was Andreu who messed everything up for him, which does make him the big villain of the show, even if he’s dead by the end of the first episode.
Beatrice Lasserre
Andreu’s wife, Beatrice, almost feels like a comic relief character in Under A Dark Sun. She does have a big role to play when she almost gets swayed by the notary to marry him and lose all their money. She also knew about Andreu’s secrets but never told her kids, which makes her somewhat culpable as well. But additionally, she has an addiction problem, which makes her massively unreliable. If there’s a second season, though, I can imagine she might want to have a strong comeback, seeing as Nadia is the one buying the estate. She loves her kids, but she’s also quite a mess, but maybe her near-death experience is going to bring her back on track. She did see ghosts in her head, didn’t she? Oh, the trauma!
Mathieu Lasserre
Mathieu is Andreu and Beatrice’s son. He’s married to Josephine and has two kids. But Mathieu fell in love with a woman who worked on the estate and was going to leave his wife for her. However, his sister saw them together and went and told her dad everything. Instead of talking to the guy, his dad pretended the affair was his own, sent Josephine to a psychiatric facility because she realized that wasn’t true, and ruined his son’s life forever in the process. Yeah, the whole thing seems really stupid if you ask me. I’m still trying to understand why he made it seem like it was his own affair when he was desperate to protect the family name. Make it make sense.
Lucie Lasserre
Lucie is almost like the black sheep of the family. What’s interesting is that she seems to be interested in the estate (the only one who is really), but she also wants to get away from this life and has a lover in London. She chooses not to move for her brother’s sake, because she believes she ruined his life. She’s also the one who sends Beatrice off to the psychiatric hospital, but not in the way her dad sent Josephine, though I do feel like she’s got an evilish streak in her. I could be wrong.
Alba Lasserre
Now, here’s when the twists hit us. Alba is the daughter of…drum roll please Mathieu and Nadia, a worker on the estate. Mathieu was in love with Nadia, though he didn’t force himself on her or anything, so that’s a good thing. But he never knew about the kid. It was his other daughter, Manon, who learned about the truth after finding her mom and went and looked up Alba and started the whole mess by bringing her to the estate and trying to frame her for Andreu’s death.
Leo
Leo is Alba and Dimitri’s son. Dimitri is dead now, but he was an older, abusive guy who hurt Alba and put their son in danger. Also, Alba is traumatized because she pushed him out of the window, which is why she struggles to tell Leo about him. While Leo has forgiven her now, it’s possible he might end up like his father; he might want to know more about him. He does seem to get aggressive occasionally, so we’ll have to see.
Manon Lasserre
Manon is Mathieu and Josephine’s elder daughter. She knows that her dad broke her mom’s heart and blames it on Alba. She’s the bad guy of the show and decides to take matters into her own hands but fails in the end, leaving Alba the winner. So much for a supervillain, eh?
Hadrien Lasserre
The last of the lot, Hadrien, ends up dead at the hands of his (half?) nephew, Leo. He’s Manon’s younger brother, and he pretends not to care about his mum, but he does care. He’s a bit of an outcast, but actually, Leo and he could’ve gotten along, so it’s sad he’s dead. To be fair, this whole family is a bit wacky.
This is everybody in the Lasserre family. Josephine is married into the family, so I suppose she doesn’t count. Nadia isn’t married into it, but she might buy the estate, so I suppose she’s the main character from now on.
