TV Recap: Elisa Blix's Life Crumbles From Every Angle After Her Daughter's Kidnapping in Episode 1 of "The Stolen Girl"

Freeform kicked off its brand new drama series The Stolen Girl last night. Based on the hit novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, let’s take a spoiler-filled look at the opening episode.

Welcoming audiences in with tense music, a scenic shot of a car driving through the woods, and a cut to a little girl locked inside a trunk, Freeform immediately shows audiences why the show is titled The Stolen Girl. The little girl looks up as the bag she is trapped in is unzipped, light pours on her face. Terrified, she quietly asks “who are you?" cutting to the title card.

Quickly after, we are introduced to our main character Elisa Blix. Standing on top of a balcony in a tropical hotel, she makes her way down to the beach where she scrolls through pictures of her husband, Fred and two children, Lucia and Georgie on her phone. Noticeably absent from the pictures, Elisa sits alone, a smile rests on her face. Now, strutting down the hotel hallway, we get our first look at Elisa’s career as a flight attendant for private jets. While her life looks glamorous initially, once landing back in Cheshire, Elisa quickly has to re-enter Mum mode as she races to her daughter’s school for pick up.

Arriving in a panic, Elisa is confronted by her daughter Lucia’s teacher for being late again. Clearly overwhelmed by her work-life balance, Elisa is far from the relaxed woman we saw on the beach. Lucia is seen playing with a new friend, Josie. Her mother Rebecca, charismatic and put-together, approaches Elisa thanking her for how welcoming Lucia has been to Josie after she transferred schools late in the term. While the pair seem to really hit it off, something doesn’t feel quite right about Rebecca. She’s too generous, nearly begging Elisa to allow Lucia to come over for a playdate. With her son Georgie screaming from the car and a nearby truck honking at her for blocking the road, Elisa’s apprehension vanishes into defeat, still visibly overwhelmed.

A few hours later, Elisa receives a call from Rebecca’s number, on the other end is Lucia begging to have her first sleepover with Josie. Still unsure of this new friendship, Rebecca takes the phone from Lucia and continues to reassure Elisa that she’s more than welcome to stay over. Elisa takes a trip over to Rebecca and Josie’s house to drop off Lucia’s sleepover essentials, finding herself in a gorgeous, modern home. Rebecca, who still maintains a very put-together facade. They speak about their lives, careers, and husbands. Rebecca brings up Fred’s job as a lawyer, claiming Lucia shared that information with her. Elisa seems a tad taken aback by the comment, but lets it roll off her back. However, Rebecca’s easy-going nature begins to crack as Elisa takes a picture of Lucia and Josie playing together. Claiming she doesn’t like “people taking pictures of her daughter without her permission," Elisa deletes the photo, apologizing for making Rebecca uncomfortable. As she leaves, she yells down to Lucia playing in the basement that she loves her, jokingly saying it back to herself when Lucia doesn’t respond.

Cutting to the next morning, Elisa is up in the air again, as Fred sits at home on the couch. She calls him, asking for an update on Lucia. Uninterested and unconcerned, he shares that Rebecca called and was taking the girls swimming and would drop Lucia off at noon. Elisa, still visibly stressed from work, accepts the update before continuing to serve her rich patrons.

As hours have passed with no update, Elisa’s concerns begin to grow, attempting to call both Rebecca and Fred for an update, but her calls won’t go through. Finally getting ahold of Fred, he’s seen lounging on the couch. Elisa asks desperately for an update on Lucia. When Fred shares that she still wasn’t home, Elisa is worked up, both by the fact that Rebecca hadn’t followed through on the timeframe and that her husband was unaware that her daughter was two and half hours late. He also reveals that Rebecca called him on a private number.

When she lands, Fred picks her up from the airport. After several failed attempts to get in contact with Rebecca, the pair head to Rebecca’s house hoping to find Lucia. When they arrive, a glimpse of hope is felt by Fred and Elisa when someone approaches the door. A housekeeper answers, confused by their quick questions. It slowly becomes clear that this woman has no idea who Rebecca is when she reveals the house is a vacation rental. Panic begins to set in as the pair have to face the fact that Lucia is missing and they have to call police. A montage of clips show Elisa as she breaks down at the police station, feeling hopeless, lost, and scared for her daughter. Ending with a scene on the roof, Fred holds Elisa as she sobs into his arms.

Cutting to a new day, we get our first look at Selma, a plucky, determined, and young reporter getting ready for the day. She enters a conference room, where Elisa is set to plead to the public for the return of her daughter. Selma senses something is off about the case. As Elisa’s speech comes to a close, the press immediately ignore their instructions to not ask questions, bombarding Elisa as she attempts to leave the room. Selma included, she approaches Elisa, asking her “Why you?" Stunned by the question, Elisa is quickly ushered out of the room.

Elisa and Fred are sent home with an investigator who is now staying in their home. While the pair attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy, Elisa struggles with the continued weight of Lucia’s disappearance. Fred comforts her, but notices Selma has shown up at their house. The investigator quickly sends her on her way, returning to her car with texts about story deadlines.

Two investigators return to the vacation rental Rebecca paraded as her home. Trying every pathway to track her, they reveal that the credit card used for the rental was stolen in a data breach. They bounce back ideas as to why Lucia would’ve been a target. Could it be Fred’s work as a lawyer and his case on organized crime? Could it just be that Lucia was just at the wrong place at the wrong time? Both are stunned at the reality a little middle-class girl would be kidnapped at a playdate in Cheshire. They find Lucia’s toy mouse in the house, and fingerprints. However, it’s a short term rental so there is no guarantee any of them will match.

Selma is at it again, tracking down Lucia and Josie’s school teacher. She questions her off the record, where she shares that Josie transferred late term after an emergency request due to bullying. The teacher quickly separates from the conversation, wanting to avoid speaking with the press.

The investigators, once again, meet up with Fred and Elisa. They present them with Lucia’s toy mouse, which she has never spent a night without. They reveal they believe that they are exploring the possibility that Rebecca was hired for the job and that Josie wasn’t really her child. They question them for possible motives, Fred’s case is directly tied to gang activity, so they believe it could be a possibility. The investigators also share that they will be looking into their home lives. When pushed further for any possible motive, Fred reveals privately to Elisa that he had an affair, another blow for Elisa as her relatively perfect life continues to crumble around her.

The investigators look into the messages between Fred and the woman, named Sarah Banks. Elisa sits there as Fred’s infidelity is laid out in detail. While painful, the deep dive revealed that Sarah Banks had threatened Fred after he pulled away from the affair. She ended their interactions by telling him to “enjoy his family while he can." They try to get him to identify Rebecca from the school’s CCTV footage, however, she positioned herself to be mostly hidden from view. He’s unable to identify her, to Elisa’s frustration.

We now cut back to Selma, who is at work, discussing her missed deadline with her boss and her suspicion of organized crime in Lucia’s disappearance. Defending herself to her boss, he finally relents thinking she may have something.

Fred’s Mum arrives at the house with Georgie, who had been staying with her after the initial fallout of Lucia’s disappearance. Desperate to hold it together for her son, Elisa wipes her tears as she turns to hug him. After a short interaction, Georgie asks if someone hurt Lucia. Feeling he is far too young to know what’s going on, Elisa berates Fred’s Mum who quickly defends herself claiming she has had to step in for Elisa while she travels the world. Fred’s Mum eventually leaves, leaving both Fred and Elisa frustrated. Elisa takes a moment to herself to cry and pull herself together before tucking Georgie in for bed. He asks her if Lucia will be home soon, and she comforts him.

Fred and Elisa have some alone time for the first time since the interrogation about the affair and Sarah’s messages. The interaction heads even further south as the pair begin blaming each other for Lucia’s disappearance.

The closing montage shows clips from several different characters. Elisa is watching from inside the house as Fred angrily speaks on the phone outside, the car is once again seen driving through the forest, and a woman is seen watching Elisa’s televised plea on a laptop as she rewatches her phrase “please don’t hurt our daughter" before cutting to black.

With all these new open leads and suspicions, we will have to wait until next week to find out more about who and why someone meticulously planned Lucia’s kidnapping. The Stolen Girl Episode 1 is streaming now, exclusively on Disney+.

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