Poor Michel.
Three episodes ago, he was the relatively normal guy who moved to Bergen with his wife and daughter, got introduced to a bunch of wealthy lunatics who couldn’t keep their hands off one another, and somehow ended up becoming part of their ridiculous Dinner Club.
Now? He’s delivering Evert’s eulogy, considering getting involved in Simon’s shady business dealings, lying to his wife, and worrying about whatever the hell Hanneke knows.
Welcome to the club, Michel. You’re officially full of shit too.
The Perfect Lie Season 1 Episode 3 ended with Michel discovering Hanneke’s rather ominous message on Evert’s casket: The truth will come out.
And judging by his reaction, there’s something Michel desperately doesn’t want coming out.
So here we are with Season 1 Episode 4, appropriately titled “Michel,” and I’m beginning to wonder whether there’s a single person in this group who hasn’t done something worth hiding.
Michel Wants to Belong. Apparently at Any Cost.
What interests me about Michel is how much he’s changed since we met him.
Remember the guy who wasn’t particularly impressed with Karen’s new friends? The one who seemed uncomfortable with their extravagant parties, endless flirting, and casual drug use?
Well, that guy is having the time of his life racing wind-powered buggies along the beach with the boys.
He’s even comfortable enough to fake being unconscious after crashing, scaring the shit out of everybody before revealing he’s perfectly fine.
It’s a funny moment, but it also says something about how thoroughly Michel has settled into this group.
He wants to belong. And Simon knows it.
We’ve already discovered that Simon has been running an illegal steroid operation behind Evert’s back, using their gym to move drugs and money while his supposedly legitimate business partner remained in the dark.
Now Simon is looking for another partner: Michel.
The same Michel who’s been worrying about money, trying to rebuild his business, and watching his wife’s career implode.
Simon is persuasive, and Michel seems increasingly willing to overlook the obvious warning signs if it means getting a piece of the action.
Except Michel doesn’t appear to understand exactly what Simon is offering him.
At one point, Simon assures him the operation doesn’t involve drugs, weapons, or women.
Well, Simon, we already know one of those is complete bullshit.
And that’s what makes Michel’s involvement so interesting. He knows Simon is doing something questionable. He knows Evert wasn’t being told everything. Yet he keeps moving closer instead of backing away.
Maybe Michel isn’t as different from Karen as he thinks.
Both of them arrived in Bergen looking for a fresh start. Both became fascinated with people who appeared to have everything they wanted. And both are now making decisions that could destroy whatever they were trying to rebuild.
Karen’s Perfect Little Story Is Falling Apart
Meanwhile, Karen’s troubles at work are becoming impossible to ignore.
Back in Episode 1, we knew she’d been placed on leave from her job as a television news editor. She made it sound like some unfortunate professional disagreement.
By Episode 3, we learned a newspaper was preparing an article about her behavior.
Now the story is out. And holy shit, Karen.
We’re talking allegations of intimidation, belittling employees, a culture of fear, burnout, and pills. That’s a hell of a lot more serious than being a demanding boss.
But what’s particularly frustrating is that Karen had plenty of opportunities to tell Michel what was happening before the article appeared.
Instead, she kept brushing him off, acting evasive, and pretending everything would eventually blow over. Then the article comes out, and Michel starts losing business.
One of his prospective clients pulls out, apparently concerned about the controversy surrounding Karen.
Now her secrets are affecting his livelihood, too. And I don’t blame him for being furious.
Had Karen been honest, Michel might at least have been able to prepare for the fallout. Instead, he’s blindsided by information everybody else can now read in the newspaper.
The whole thing explodes during their daughter’s school event, where Sophie gets into a fight after another child makes a remark about her mother.
And rather than calming things down, Karen starts swearing at the other parents.
Brilliant timing, Karen. Just what you need when the local newspaper has accused you of intimidating people.
But the scene also exposes how these adults are dragging their children into their own messes.
Sophie is defending her mother. Evert and Babette’s son nearly attacks another child with a rock. The parents are fighting. Everybody’s personal problems are spilling out in public.
So much for the Dinner Club’s picture-perfect lives.
And Karen’s response to the entire controversy is almost as revealing as the allegations themselves.
She seems to believe that if she ignores the article long enough, the problem will disappear.
Except it isn’t disappearing. It’s spreading.
Everybody’s Lying, Including the People Who Know They’re Being Lied To
One of the things I liked about Episode 3 was how it showed us that Simon could genuinely care about Evert while still betraying him.
I wasn’t convinced Simon had anything to do with Evert’s death.
I’m still not sure.
But Episode 4 gives me a few more reasons to question him.
We learn Evert had been under considerable stress before the fire, and Simon was clearly keeping things from him. Evert also becomes unusually aggressive when Simon tries to respond to Babette’s persistent text messages.
Something was going wrong in that marriage, and everybody seems to know a different version of what happened.
And then we have Hanneke.
At Evert’s funeral gathering, Babette accuses her of having an affair with her husband. Hanneke insists there are other things everybody needs to know, but before she can get very far, the accusations start flying in every direction.
Karen, Simon, Michel, Patricia, Ivo — practically the entire Dinner Club ends up caught in the confrontation.
And Hanneke finally says what I’ve been thinking for four episodes: They’re all liars.
The funny thing is that I don’t necessarily trust Hanneke’s version of anything, either.
As I said in Episode 3, she’s developed an entire story about Evert’s marriage that doesn’t always match what we’ve actually seen.
But that doesn’t mean she knows nothing. And whatever she knows is clearly making people nervous.
Michel is particularly concerned about the message she left on Evert’s casket. He’s worried about what she’s told Simon, and he eventually tries to contact her himself.
At this point, I’m beginning to think Michel’s biggest problem isn’t simply getting involved with Simon’s business. It’s that he’s realizing how many secrets he’s surrounded by — including his own.
Karen and Simon Finally Do What We’ve Been Waiting For
Oh, and remember how I said in Episode 3 that Karen and Simon were absolutely going to f*ck?
Well. There it is.
With Michel passed out upstairs after a night of drinking, Karen and Simon finally act on the attraction that’s been building since the premiere.
In the shed, of all places. Because apparently these people have beautiful houses and beach properties but still need somewhere ridiculous to conduct their affairs.
LOLOLOL.
What’s interesting is that I wasn’t entirely sure whether something had already happened between them during their earlier encounter at the beach house.
But this certainly feels like the moment they cross that line.
And Karen, who has spent the entire episode hiding information from Michel while complaining about the consequences of her professional misconduct, now has another secret to add to the collection.
Simon isn’t exactly an innocent bystander, either.
He’s cheating on Patricia, hiding an illegal business, and possibly knows considerably more about Evert’s death than he’s admitting.
And Karen seems to know at least some of what he’s been doing.
In one particularly interesting exchange, she asks whether the fire actually benefited Simon’s business.
Excuse me?
That’s a hell of a question to ask somebody whose best friend and business partner died in that fire. And Simon seems taken aback by it.
So now I’m wondering whether Karen suspects Simon had something to do with Evert’s death, or whether she’s simply beginning to recognize just how profitable Evert’s absence might be.
Because if Simon was worried about Evert discovering the drugs, getting Evert out of the way would certainly solve one problem.
Not that I’m ready to accuse him. Yet.
And then there’s somebody watching Karen and Simon kissing from beneath the pier.
Who the hell is THAT?
My first thought was Hanneke. But the episode makes that possibility considerably less straightforward when Michel calls Karen with news that Hanneke has been found.
Found where? In what condition? And what the hell happened to her?
Or maybe the person watching was Patricia.
At this point, I wouldn’t rule out anybody.
Why Does Everything Keep Coming Back to Karen?
There’s one thing that’s been bothering me since the premiere, and Episode 4 isn’t doing anything to change it.
Why is Karen always part of the police investigation?
Yes, other people are being interviewed. We hear Michel’s account of events, and Simon has his own explanations.
But Karen keeps appearing in those interrogation scenes, even when the episode is supposedly focused on somebody else’s story.
She was our introduction to the entire mystery.
She’s the outsider who became an insider. She’s connected to Michel, Simon, Hanneke, and the rest of the Dinner Club. And she’s lying about enough things in her own life that I wouldn’t trust her account without checking it against somebody else’s.
Is she a suspect? Does she know something about the fire? Or is she simply the person whose version of events connects all the others?
I keep coming back to the title.
Maybe the perfect lie isn’t one enormous fabrication. Maybe it’s the story somebody creates by leaving out just enough of the truth.
And Karen is becoming awfully good at that.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE
Four episodes in, The Perfect Lie is still keeping me hooked, even if its constantly shifting timeline occasionally makes me want to throw something at the television.
“Michel” is particularly interesting because it takes the man who seemed least comfortable with the Dinner Club and shows how thoroughly he’s become part of it.
He’s no longer simply Karen’s husband watching everybody else’s questionable behavior. He’s making questionable decisions of his own.
Meanwhile, Karen’s professional scandal is destroying the carefully constructed version of herself she’s been presenting to everyone, and her affair with Simon is only going to make matters worse.
I also like how the show continues revealing different pieces of Evert’s life through people who may not understand the entire story themselves.
But I still wish the transitions between the past, the investigation, and the events surrounding Evert’s funeral were a little clearer. Sometimes I spend more time figuring out when something happened than considering what it means.
The underlying mystery is strong enough that I’m willing to put up with it.
For now.
Because I still don’t know who set the fire, whether Evert really intended to die, what Hanneke knows, how much Michel understands about Simon’s business, or who was watching that kiss beneath the pier.
And I haven’t forgotten about Karen.
Something tells me she’s holding a hell of a lot more together than she’s admitting.
Read All Our The Perfect Lie Season 1 Coverage
- The Perfect Lie S1E1: Karen
- The Perfect Lie S1E2: Hanneke
- The Perfect Lie S1E3: Simon
- The Perfect Lie S1E4: Michel
- The Perfect Lie S1E5: Patricia
- The Perfect Lie S1E6: Babette
- The Perfect Lie S1E7: Ivo
